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Bundled up and walking along the front of the temple and the makeshift shelters along the side of the cirque’s frozen lake, Iryana scanned those milling around her. Then she noticed Major Tenar, heading toward the temple and looking uncharacteristically upset. She frowned. When his gaze landed on her, Tenar pivoted.

Soldiers stepped out of the way as the major stormed through them, cutting a path straight to Iryana. His usually jovial smile twisted down into a deep frown.

“What’s—”

“Your guardians never showed up,” he snapped, loud enough that everyone around them could hear.

She blinked, surprised by the anger directed at her. “What are you talking about?”

“Two clan members were supposed to join a scouting mission,” he snarled at full volume. “They didn’t show up and now one of my soldiers is dead!”

Her eyes widened. Gasps and whispers erupted from the crowd. Her gaze darted nervously between them. This was bad, but it made no sense. She’d assigned two of her cousins to that shift, why would they not show up?

“Let me figure out what happened,” she hurried to say, unsure how to undo the damage that was spiraling around them. “Just—give me a moment to talk to them.”

Major Tenar scoffed and charged off toward the camps around the temple.

She had to fix this. Iryana rushed off to find her cousins, worry and theories buzzing in her brain so wildly it was making her dizzy.

She found Kladara and Edvar outside the kitchen, working on making arrows.

“Can we step into my room?” Iryana asked through gritted teeth. They didn’t need to have this conversation where everyone could hear.

They looked at each other and nodded slowly, but there wasn’t a drop of worry or regret in their frames.

Once they were safely in her room, which was thankfully empty, Iryana shut the door behind them and faced her cousins. Gods, she hoped they had a good excuse.

“You didn’t show up to the pass this morning.” Iryana took a breath and tried to stay calm. “You disobeyed me. Why?”

Kladara tensed. “The captain in charge of that shift is an asshole.”

“He’s always extremely rude to us,” Edvar added, grimacing. “We thought it best to keep the peace and not go.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Iryana demanded. “I could have dealt with it.”

Kladara glanced over at Edvar, a bit of hesitation stilling her usual temper.

“You always take their side.” Edvar shrugged, twisting his jaw awkwardly. “We thought this was easiest.”

She just blinked at her cousins, her face crumpling. “A man died today—and if that shift hadn’t been understaffed, maybe he wouldn’t have.”

Kladara tensed, Edvar paling.

“If we could just trust that you were on our side…” Kladara muttered, looking anywhere but at Iryana.

Anger and hurt bubbled up before she could lock it away.

“Haven’t I done enough to prove that!” Iryana asked before she could think better of it.

“You’re always hanging around with those other soldiers, and talking with Pyetar.” Edvar crossed his arms defensively.

Could she not even be friends with the soldiers? Why did it have to be us or them? Her hands were shaking so hard she had to ball them into fists.

“Don’t abandon your assignments again.” She swallowed. “I will always choose the clan first, I wish you could see that. But if there’s an issue and you can’t bring your issues to me, talk to Uncle Dinhal or the First. We can’t let this happen again. You have no idea how much damage this has caused beyond another death.”

Her cousins at least had the decency to look shamed.

“There has to be a punishment for this. You disobeyed my orders and someone died. I’ll talk to the First—”