Jasimir pointed his charcoal stick over her shoulder. She turned. Pa sat at a table inside the barrack, gesturing to the seat across from him.

Fie unbuckled the chief’s blade as she walked over and set it down on the lacquered red table before she sat.

Pa did not take it.

“The prince told me the Hawks are balking at the oath,” he said. Fie’s gut twisted, half-relieved she didn’t have to break the news, half-miserable for failing him so. “Don’t fret, Fie. It’ll come. Maybe it takes longer than we hoped, but it’ll come.”

“Your end’s kept, at least,” she whispered, ragged.

“Aye. Remember what I told you about earning your string?” Pa hefted a cooking pot by the handle. Without a little finger to grip tight, it wobbled bad. “I can’t deal mercy proper now. Could try with my left hand, but I won’t be fast or sure.”

“And that’s no mercy at all.” Fie swallowed, eyes on the broken sword. We both didn’t want who we were. “Pa, I’m too young to be chief.”

“You’re too young for near all you did the last moon and a half.”

I don’t want to be chief.

Fie stared at the table’s thick red lacquer.

“I didn’t want it, either,” Pa said, too quiet for the others to hear.

She looked up, startled. The confession burst free. “Pa, I—I carried steel, I learned to read, I left the roads. I liked it. I don’t want to be chief. I don’t know if I want to be a Crow.”

He reached over and took her hand. “No chief I’ve ever met looked down the road and wanted what they saw waiting for them. Hangdog never saw a way out for Crows. He gave up on us. But you, Fie … you changed that road. You made it one you could want. Learning your letters, carrying steel … Those don’t make you less of a Crow. They open ways for the rest of us. And when any of us look at your road, we see you’re bound to be one of the greatest chiefs the Crows will ever witness.”

“Tell that to Swain.” Fie’s voice cracked.

“He said it himself the night we cut the oath.” Pa gingerly tested his scarred, Hawk-healed knuckle. “Your ma said you were born vexed with the world, aye. And Swain said you were born vexed enough to turn it on its head.”

She had no answer, only eyes that burned wet. Pa gripped her hand tighter.