By the Bone

5. Back Below the Ice

One Rise Prior

Sneaking to the closed door of her uncle's bedroom, Estrella highest in the black sky, Ira waited until she heard the soft shuffling of clothes and the gentle tip-toe of boots from behind the door.

Ira kept herself invisible in the dark shadows of the hall outside the room where her uncle and his wife should have been laying soundlessly asleep. But she watched silently as the man she new would emerge crept from his room, slipping breathlessly through the door, and began walking down the lightless hallway. Ira heard not a noise in the air but her own shallow breaths. Swallowing her fear she made herself as light on her toes as she knew how and followed her uncle down the dark halls as she had so done for the last three weeks.
Since her confrontation with the king over dinner, she knew she needed to make her move.

Ira continued floating down the halls in the shadow of her uncle, Uchakka. And, as she had witnessed him do so nearly every three rises, he paused at the end of the hall and folded open a crimson cloak. As he began to swing the cloak around his shoulders, Ira stepped silently from the shadows and placed her hand over his mouth so as not to let him yell.

"Don't struggle, uncle. It's Ira." She had whispered briskly, slowly releasing her hand and allowing the irritated man to turn around.

"What's the meaning of this, Ira?" He scolded her weakily but she could tell he had been startled from being caught unawares.

"Don't play coy, uncle. I've been watching. I know where you and your men travel in the late hours." She watched as Chakk's eyes went through phases of denial and acceptance in just moments, his mouth forming a tight line.

"If that were true... why are you here?" Chakk whispered angrily and picked up the cloak he had dropped to the floor.

"I'm going to come with you, don't try to argue." Uchakka's mouth tightened further. "I want to watch how they fight. To learn for the Bǐsài. Your sister was a good Vijeta but that does not make her a good teacher... you heard them all at dinner, my training has become stagnant and my own mother hides it from the king."

"I can't advise this, Ira. If your mother..." Chakk pinched his nose and sighed.

"You don't have to look after me. I'm going to go one way or another, you may as well show me the way." Ira shrugged. "I need this." She sighed, fluttering her lashes at him as she'd done since she were a child.

"I know you do..." He sighed again. "If this doesn't help you, Ira..."

"If this doesn't help me then there's no hope for any of us. There is no other option." Ira stared at him and watched as his shoulders dipped in defeat. She knew there was no fight for him here and he was wise enough to know the same.

"Fine. But Ira, you watch only... Learn new techniques by watching. You will go to the yieldings, not last breath." Her uncle groaned.

"What under Shāyán is yeildings?"

Chakk sighed again.

"There are two pits in Obscura, Ira. The ones you are watching are yeildings. They fight till someone... well, yields or falls unconscious...and well the other you can figure out on your own." His voice was stern. She didn't think she'd be able to sway him on that particular point, but as long as he'd show her the way, the rest was easy enough.
"And your mother can't know about this." Chakk grabbed his robe and flung it over his shoulders, donning his deep red hood and muttering under his breath in frustration.

Ira followed Chakk into the great central lift where a gathering of hooded men were already loomed in wait. The group of men (and one woman Ira suspected had been paid for) had bowed their heads respectfully to Ira as she entered the lifts, though they all eyed Chakk warily and remained mute.  The taciturn noblemen counted for eight heads, not including the curved belle that floated among them. If they were going for inconspicuous, their numbers failed them if their clothes would not.