Shadow War: Book 3 of the Shadows Rising Trilogy (WIP Rough Draft)

37. Not Quite as Anticipated

27th of Thema

There was mud everywhere. In my hair, creeping into my jumpsuit, under my nails, on my face. Not all the mud was mud. I closed my eyes, stifling the urge to add vomit to the stench of the privy ditch. It figured that I would get my information out of the Paradazh, and then die of some horrid disease.

The searchlight swung by overhead, scything through the dark, picking out the boards of the wood pile above my head before gliding smoothly on out into the no-mans-land beyond the fence. With a sigh, I dragged myself forward a few more feet, then found the string and tugged on it.

A moment later, a soft sound announced movement in the pipe on the other side of the fence, and the string tugged back. A hoarse Illyrian whisper came with it, "We need patrols and troop numbers for the Southeast wall. Blueprints would be good. Anything you can get."

I took the vial of medicine out of the carrying tube and replaced it with the tightly wound strip of paper that contained the information I had gleaned from my visits to Headquarters. "I'll cross the branches when I've got something," I called under my breath.

Then I tucked the vial in the hidden pocket in my jumpsuit collar, waited for the searchlight to swing by again, and started crawling back toward the privy hut.

~~~

It was well after midnight by the time I stumbled to my bunk, and it felt like my eyes had only been shut for a second before the morning klaxon sounded. I had just shoved my aching, weary bones up off my matt when Rushidi sat herself down on the bunk across from mine. Meera sidled over to stand at the end of my bunk.

"So listen, I need you to do something for me," she said, casually.

I gave her a tired glare before bending to pull on my shoes.

"Meera needs to be on fence repair tomorrow."

Frowning, I looked up at her. "The Kreighvalden is the one who makes the schedule. How am I supposed to—"

"You have to get ahold of the daily assignment sheet and change it." Her lips curled up at the corners in a chilly smirk. "Gillidhe did it all the time. And let's be clear. Karalli might need you in the head office, but I'm the one who arranged to get you there. All it would take would be a little word in the wrong ear, and I'd have someone else in there in a heartbeat." She leaned forward, her smirk disappearing. "When I say I want to have Meera put on fence duty, you find a way to put her on fence duty. Got it?"

I held her gaze for a second, reading the threat plain on her face. I had been anticipating this exact thing for weeks but had been hoping to avoid it a while longer. It was one more brick on a teetering load, one more way to get caught, and I hesitated.

At the lack of instant submission, Rushidi raised an eyebrow and tilted her head, her eyes widening slightly. "Got it?" she repeated. Slowly.

"Yes, Chain Leader," I made myself say.

Rushidi smirked again. "That's what I like to hear."

~~~

The autumn sky was flawless outside, and bright morning sunlight was beaming in through the front door of the Agriculture Sector Headquarters.

It was giving me a headache. I whispered one of Arramy's choice words under my breath and closed my eyelids tight, trying to force moisture back into my aching, gritty eyeballs.

There was no easy way to get ahold of the daily assignment sheet.

The Kreighvaldens submitted them weekly to the Stadhepheravalden, and he insisted on dividing things up himself. The original was kept in his desk before he put each day's assignments up on the tattle board out in front of the building. There was no in-between stage I could intercept.