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“Lidishta. Your major took her!” Vaneshta seethed. Iryana reared back in confusion.
Everyone was sitting up now, Anara crying in Tonhald’s arms.
“Tenar?” Confusion laced Pyetar’s voice.
Vaneshta talked so fast and frantically that Iryana couldn’t understand a word of it.
“Slow down,” Pyetar urged. “You need to tell us exactly what happened.”
Vaneshta growled, shifting anxiously like it pained her to slow down. “I couldn’t find Lidi earlier, started looking for her. Finally found some soldiers who saw Tenar carrying her toward the entrance to the caves. Said she had just fallen asleep, but that’s ridiculous—”
“Focus, Vani,” Iryana urged, stepping up to her friend. She recognized that fear on Vaneshta’s face.
“He must have drugged her! And that was hours ago. He’s had her for hours.”
“Oh no...” Hadima winced, stumbling to her feet. “I gave him a sleeping tonic.”
Iryana felt like her mind was sluggish, but she tried to connect the pieces. Why would Tenar have drugged Lidishta and taken her somewhere?
“The caves aren’t that big, we can spread out and find them,” Pyetar assured her.
“They’re not in the caves!” Vaneshta snapped. “I already searched them all. One of the entrances has been breached, the rocks barely put back into place. He took her out there.”
They all followed where she was pointing—to the winding hole about the fire and the storm raging beyond.
Dread wormed its way through Iryana’s grief.
“Why would he take her?” Misha asked.
No one had an answer to that.
Iryana paced. Perhaps someone wanted something from her or Pyetar, but Lidishta wouldn’t be the obvious person to take. The only thing that made her stand out was that she was dual-forged. The Steelsworn had been interested in Lidishta… but Tenar couldn’t be one of them. She’d seen his forging. It was pure metal. Plus, they’d defeated the Steelsworn, took out too many for them to repeat their ritual. But the pulls on the mark from Thelbiz… could it be connected? Perhaps she shouldn’t have ignored it.
“What is it?” Vaneshta demanded, leaning in with desperation. “I see you thinking.”
She hesitated to explain her line of thinking. “Could it have to do with her dual-forging? With the war?”
“I’m going to kill him,” Vaneshta growled.
“We have to find him first.” But a plan was coming to her. “Vani, you need to get something of Lidishta’s. Hadima and Misha, find an earth-forged tracker.” She turned to Pyetar.
“I’ll get the rest of the team.” He already knew what she was thinking.
“We’ll meet at the entrance.”
“You’re leaving?” Kladara asked, mouth dropping open. “Grandmother is dead, you can’t just leave.”
She gave Kladara a tired glance. “Lidishta is the one who distracted Karvek and her brother so I could escape the fortress when all of you were captured. She risked herself so I could find help. That was the only reason I got out. The only reason I was able to get forged again and return to challenge Karvek. The reason our clan survived at all.”
Iryana sucked in a breath. “And she’s my friend.” She grabbed the earth staff, placing it in her uncle’s hands. “Keep them safe.”
He frowned. “First…”
Her whole body flinched like she’d been struck. “Don’t call me that. I—I’m not ready.” She doubted she ever would be.
Iryana couldn’t be trusted to lead her people. To be responsible for anyone. But rescuing Lidishta and unleashing all of her rage and pain onto Tenar? That she could do.
Chapter Forty-Eight
