The last morning before the evacuation, we crowd around the tea table in Riszev's suite. The Captain kneels at the table's head. On the couch beside, Aster sucks on his lip. Riszev sits cross-legged in the floor with me settled behind her and Shava to her right. Outside, the Retran guards block any prying ears.
And reclined cockeyed in an armchair is Idyne, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. "Well, are we going to get this started or what?"
Aster's jaw clenches. "We weren't the ones who were late."
She shrugs.
The Captain clears his throat and leans over the table. A sketched out map fit together from several pieces of paper lies on its surface. "Here's the castle." He plonks a tea saucer down in the middle. "Between tower observations and Aster's wizards, we have a general layout of the Kadranian troops." He gestures to the markings on the map. Then he looks up dubiously at Idyne. "And supposedly you know where in the camp their leaders are?"
She rights herself with a flourish. "At your service." She grins and leans forward. "Look. You're not fighting one army; you're fighting four." Her grin broadens as she takes in everyone's shocked faces. "They're not Morineause and put all their important people on one hallway for a single assassin. Four armies, four lords, each in the middle of their people. And a king over them all. The shamans made them sort out order of inheritance before they came—something they don't normally do by decree."
"And this matters because?" The Captain's glare looks like a fuse ready to ignite.
"Because you can't just kill the king, silly. And you can't just kill the next lord in line; you have to get them all." She draws two beads out of her pocket and sets them in the center of a mass of soldiers. "Two of the lords will be here, the armies to their east and west." She drops two more beads close to the castle's gate. Still, they all seem impossibly far from each other. "Same situation here. The king will be near one of the four lords, but there's no telling which."
"There is if my diviners scry him," Aster says. "Is there anything about the person he's with that you could identify him by?"
She looks up at him. "Every leader earns his tribe's emblem on his temple."
"There we go, then. We'll consult Averí before we go so we know where he'll be."
Riszev's fingers trace the map. "No one person is going to be able to go all this distance."
"We'll send one to each camp then," the Captain says.
"Who?" She looks around at our small group. "And how will they make it past so many?"
Aster's arms cross. "Because they won't see me."
My hands fist my dress, and Riszev stiffens beside me. Shava's voice cuts the air. "You are not going."
He looks at her sharply. "I am. This is my country and my people, and I will not abide handing this to anyone less-equipped for the task."
"But how are you the best equipped?" Riszev demands.
"That's not pertinent information for you."
She draws back, but the priestess leans in, eyes narrowed in quiet interest. Aster holds her gaze.
The Captain clears his throat. "If he's willing, he goes."
Over her veil, the priestess's eyes slide to him. "He's not your property."
"Until he leaves Morineause soil, he's his own property," he growls. "If you have a problem with that, I can escort you elsewhere."
Aster looks at him with surprise. The Captain stares her down, and she settles back like a dissatisfied cat. "If Retra loses what they came for, there will be a price to pay."
No one bothers answering her. If Aster doesn't succeed in his mission, Morineaux won't have anything left to pay with.
Idyne reclaims her armchair. "Glad we settled that. Now, who else is going? You need one more."
Aster nods at her. "You are."
She blinks. "Excuse me?"
"You know where you're headed." He leans forward on his knees. "And what you're doing." She frowns. "And if you succeed, life here will continue as normal." There's something barbed underneath those words, like the hook beneath the bait.
"This isn't my war."
"But it is your plan. And if it is as good a one as you seem to think, then you should have no problem participating."
The Captain swipes his hand toward Idyne. "Aster, we can't send a Lady to infiltrate the Kadranian army." His eyes narrow at her. "No matter how much information she seems to have gotten her hands on."
"She'll do fine." His gaze never strays from Idyne. "Won't you?"
Her lips tighten. "Of course I'll go."
Riszev points at the map. "No matter who goes, there is not any way they will make it in and out without being spotted. There is strength in stealth, but once you lose that—"
"The Kadranians will be all over them," the Captain says.
Riszev nods. "We need some way to pull their attention."
"Chaos," Idyne says.
The Captain looks to Aster. "Couldn't your illusionists..."
"Distract a massive army? No."
"You would need a group," Shava says.
"You would need people left alive who could do more than paltry parlor tricks." Aster's eyes turn dark.
"A group of soldiers—" Riszev starts to suggest, but the Captain cuts her off.
"Any group of soldiers large enough to distract them would be just about all the men we have left."
"And we need them," Aster says. "When their leaders are taken care of, when they're distracted, and confused, and demoralized, we need those men to charge and chase the brutes off."
"So we're it, then? This group—minus me and Aster—are the distraction?" Idyne looks around, then tips her head back and laughs. "Never mind. I'm not diving headfirst into a suicide mission."
"Wait." The gears of my mind churn, trying to power an idea.
"Remind me again what the servant girl is doing here, Aster?" the Captain says.
Riszev answers sharply, "Because I asked her to be."
Few people, big bang. That's what we need. But magic can't help.
Riszev turns to me. "What is it, Leavi?"
"I know what we can do." They all watch me, and I push to my knees. "But I'm going to need alcohol and a lot of glass bottles."