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“The brigades will have trouble getting here if they don’t beat that storm,” he added.

If the storm kept the brigades from making it, would the clans be able to wait for them? Or would the whole meeting be called off? She had hoped everyone would arrive earlier in the day, but of course nothing could be easy.

Iryana walked to the edge of the parapet again, gripping the inner corner of one stone. She wrestled with the panic and worry growing inside her. Dinhal stood silently behind her, only offering his presence for comfort.

She had worked through nearly a dozen backup plans when she heard a metallic grating noise and looked down the wall. Iryana nearly laughed in relief.

The pulley system was lifting a basket from the valley below, with the obvious shapes of people inside.

“That must be the brigades!” Iryana rushed along the ramparts in that direction.

She could hear her uncle following close behind, though notably slower. They made their way to a lower portion of the ramparts that stretched away from the castle and along the entrance to the rest of the valley. From their vantage, they could see the brigade representatives arriving. There was a ledge just outside the wall where a group of people were huddled next to the lift. The next group stepped off and then the basket lowered into the valley again.

She could just make out Nenad and Jesha, majors of the River Brigades, but it was too hard to make out the others. All she knew for sure was that Pyetar wasn’t one of them.

“Do you recognize them?” Her uncle’s deep voice came from her side. He was probably less nervous now that the ramparts were shorter and there was a ledge to catch them if they fell. “Is your general down there?”

Iryana’s stomach flipped. “He’s not my general. I renounced my oaths to the 18th, remember? But no, I don’t see him. I do recognize a few of the others, though.” She clearly made out Vaneshta, and that was a huge comfort.

Of all the Kleesolds, her uncle was perhaps the least hostile toward mentions of Pyetar. He had fought at his side after all, prepared to work together to bring down Karvek. She had hoped it would count for more, and perhaps it did. But Dinhal seemed to think that while they had been aligned in their goals before, things could change now.

Iryana wasn’t sure how to get down to them from where she was, so all she could do was watch helplessly and hope Pyetar would be there.

The prospect of having to face tomorrow without him was too daunting to truly consider. She could rely on him, knew he understood these people better than her, and had built relationships with many of them over the last few years. He was her partner in all this.

And she missed him.

Iryana leaned over farther, trying to see the figures coming up in the next basket. Then she looked over and realized her uncle was watching her closely, a curious look on his face.

“The 18th’s general will be our greatest ally in this meeting,” she said defensively, pretending he would believe her interest was merely practical. “It is important that he be here.”

She watched him carefully, wondering if he would ask. She wasn’t sure how he would take it. If he would tell the others. But Dinhal eventually just nodded, and they went back to watching.

Where was Pyetar?

“I should have known you’d be up here,” came a familiar deep voice.

Chapter Thirteen

Iryana turned, nearly bashing her shoulder into the edge of a parapet, to find Pyetar walking toward them. She grinned in relief. It was disconcerting how much better she immediately felt. Calmer, less worried, and even excited.

“We were worried you wouldn’t make it,” she said, slightly breathy.

“Nothing could have kept me away.”

She swallowed. The way he was watching her nearly made her squirm. He shouldn’t look at her like that in front of her uncle, and she should say something to get that heat in his gaze to cool, but she was too shocked to see him and too relieved. Iryana just soaked it up.

He looked so similar to when they had parted ways. The same hat and jacket, the same intensity. It had only been a couple of weeks, so she wasn’t sure why it surprised her. It had felt longer.

Eventually he tore his eyes away from her. “Gyen Dinhal, good to see you again,” Pyetar said.

“General.”

His eyes were drawn right back to hers, a heaviness in his pale blue gaze.

After a bloated silence, Dinhal mumbled something about going to see when dinner would be in the hall, and headed off, leaving her alone with Pyetar on the ramparts. She would probably have to talk to Dinhal about Pyetar later, but she was too relieved to be alone with Pyetar to worry about it yet. That was a problem for another day.

“I missed you,” Pyetar said bluntly.