Page 49 of Heart of Defiance

Signy swipes her hand across her mouth. “I inspiredhundreds of them to their deaths. Just because I couldn’t stand to let the Darium empire keep lording it over us.”

Ah. It isn’t just grief but guilt tying her into knots.

I caress her hair again, summoning all the conviction and authority I can bring to bear. “The deaths today aren’t your fault. Signy, you’re surrounded by hundreds of trained soldiers, and not one of us caught on to the threat in time to prevent the attack. They used skills and tactics we didn’t anticipate, and that’s on us. How could you expect to be prepared when not even Major Arlo was?”

As she grimaces, Iko picks up my thread with a squeeze of her shoulder. “And you were the first to realize something was wrong. If you hadn’t said something to me, they might have gotten even closer before anyone sounded the alarm. Even more lives would have been lost.”

Landric shifts his position as if he wants to reach out to her too, but he holds himself back. “The Darium forces were killing Veldunian citizens long before you ever took up this rebellion. The only difference is that we’ve finally been making them pay. We finally have the chance to get rid of them completely.”

“How?” Signy demands. “There’s no lissweld or marlwood wasps here. We’re stuck up a mountain with an army at the foot.”

A crooked smile crosses my lips. “You haven’t given yourself the opportunity to believe there’s a way out of this. If you can find that faith again, I have total confidence that more strategies will come to you.”

Iko perks up. “You were starting to tell me an idea down by the lake when you noticed the illusionary magic. You’d already thought of another way to turn the tables on them, hadn’t you?”

A brief glimmer lights in Signy’s eyes. She opens her mouth and closes it again, the spark fading.

I lean forward, knowing that if I accomplish anything tonight, it has to be fanning that ember back into flame. “What? What were you picturing?”

“I—I don’t know. That was before we were stuck up here. Before we lost so many people. We’d need time… It’d have been a lot to pull off even before.”

“We’re not doing anything yet,” I say firmly. “You’re not insisting on anything. You’re just telling us what you imagined. Let us judge whether it’s worth pursuing. That part won’t be on you.”

Signy wets her lips. For a second, I think she’s going to refuse again.

Then she lifts her chin a little higher. “There are caves in the mountain, under the lake—maybe all around here. The terrain around Feldan is like that too. A layer of soil over lots of rock, with crevices and passages all through it…”

She glances at Landric, who’s watching her avidly. “Do you remember when we were little kids—when there was that cave-in by the old cistern? Rafe and his sister fell in.”

Landric’s gaze goes distant with the recollection. “The ceiling of a cave under the field collapsed. Rafe bashed his head and his leg—he never thought or walked the same after that. Maika nearly died from the bleeding.”

“A fall like that does a lot of damage.” Signy’s head turns so she can gaze through the thickening dusk toward the remnants of her former home. “Those caves ran all through Feldan and out into the nearby fields as well as the forest… If we could thin or crack the ceilings so they’d be on the verge of collapsing and then lure the Darium soldiers there to fall… But I don’t know if that would be possible even if we had days to work on it.”

Landric springs to his feet. “I’ve talked to at least a couple of people who have gifts that could help set it up. I’ll makesure they’re still with us and see who else I can find who’d be able to pitch in.”

Signy stiffens. “You don’t have to?—”

He fixes her with a look so intense it sets off every jealous impulse in my body. “I want to. It’s a fantastic plan.” His gaze lifts to me. “Isn’t it?”

“We don’t have enough of the pieces pulled together for me to evaluate with my gift,” I say. “But if we can pull it off, I think it’d be exactly what we need.”

As Landric hustles off, Signy’s gaze follows him. I think I see a faint flush in her cheeks.

I shove down the jealousy and focus on the part of me that wants to see this woman adored. The remark manages to come out in a casual tone. “He’s awfully devoted to you.”

Her attention jerks back to me with a twist of her mouth. “He’s just—he feels bad about not standing up for me sooner. He’s trying to make it up to me so he doesn’t have to feel guilty.”

Iko chuckles. “I think it’s more than that. It just took him much longer to recognize what an incredible woman you are than it did the two of us. His fault for being late to the party.”

Signy gives a soft snort at his phrasing, but the hint of a blush remains.

I pick my words carefully. “He has been a valuable and loyal member of our rebellion from the very start. The four of us worked well together.”

She stares at me for a moment. “What are you saying?”

I lift my shoulders in a slight shrug. “We obviously have more pressing concerns at the moment. But as far as I’m concerned, if you felt you could accept all the devotion three of us could offer you rather than two… I wouldn’t want to hold you back.”

Iko elbows me. “Hey, now I’ll look bad if I say I want her all for ourselves.”

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