Hettie’s attempted theft of Iddawc

Hettie’s attempted theft of Iddawc is a failed bid to fulfill Kiranrao’s command and secure the freedom she has scarcely been allowed to imagine. In her recollection, the plan turns on a painful reversal: after gaining Annon and Paedrin’s trust, she is unable to take the blade before Tyrus arrives and claims it. Her account exposes the purpose behind her deceptions, but also the limits of the power they give her; she can manipulate what others believe, yet remains caught between her uncle’s demands and the fear of what defying the Romani would bring.

The Assignment Behind the Betrayal

Hettie’s role in the effort to obtain Iddawc began well before the journey toward Havenrook. Kiranrao had arranged for her to be purchased by Evritt when she was eight, and her life afterward was shaped by an assignment: become someone Tyrus would trust and lead him to disclose where the blade was hidden. Kiranrao coached her in what to say and what to withhold, urging her to use partial truths rather than a blunt demand for money. Evritt’s safety was also bound up in her compliance: Kiranrao never directly threatened the old man, but Hettie understood that his life could be at stake if she failed.

The preparation extended to Hettie’s appearance. Kiranrao had told her to remain healthy and attractive, since Romani girls were expected to be beautiful and their perceived value to prospective buyers rose with their allure. Hettie dyed her naturally red hair brown, disguising a trait that might have revealed her fireblood, and wore tight clothing deliberately. Other Finders visited Evritt not only for his experience but to see her. Yet, for Hettie, these details were not merely personal choices: they belonged to the part she had been trained to play in Kiranrao’s design against Tyrus.

A False Alliance and a Failed Opportunity

Hettie did not expect to be sent to Havenrook to search for Drosta’s treasure, and she dreaded being among the Romani and Preachán. When Kiranrao summoned her to his table, their hands conveyed information beneath the cover of a conversation whose spoken words also carried multiple meanings. The exchange let Hettie warn him about deaths on the road and the trouble likely to follow, while concealing their communication from Annon and Paedrin. Her outward hostility toward the Romani helped sustain the deception; she had told her companions that the men in the trees were Romani, though she knew they were Preachán and says she would not willingly have killed a Romani man.

Hettie’s trust in the two men she was deceiving was not entirely feigned. Tyrus had presented Annon as her brother, and despite their differences she felt the blood connection between them. That recognition mattered even as she continued to play her assigned role. She describes herself as having earned Annon and Paedrin’s trust too well, calling them naïve and blind to the layered deceptions around them; she even suspected she might have fooled Tyrus, though Kiranrao had warned her not to underestimate him.

The immediate chance to take Iddawc came after a Druidecht spell carried the group from the Alkire to the lowland plains. The spell took time to wear off, disrupting Hettie’s plan to steal the dagger from Annon and flee. Before she could recover the opportunity, Tyrus arrived and claimed the blade. Hettie identifies this as the moment her scheme failed: the man she had been meant to ensnare had taken Iddawc beyond her reach, and the uncle she resented had spoiled her chance to satisfy Kiranrao.

The Blade and the Price of Freedom

Iddawc mattered to Kiranrao not simply as valuable property. Hettie understood it as the most powerful weapon forged by a Paracelsus, one that would retain its power for a thousand years. Kiranrao did not want it in the hands of a Kishion; he wanted it for himself. Hettie, in turn, saw obedience to him as the only route by which she might gain freedom. The attempted theft therefore joins two aims that are not equal: Kiranrao seeks possession of a weapon, while Hettie hopes that helping him might loosen the hold her community has over her life.

That hope is shadowed by what Hettie knows about resistance. She had told Paedrin that she did not know how the Romani controlled their women, a half-truth: nobody had explained the system to her, but she had witnessed it when she was five. Her recollection of monkshood and the possibility of poison in food makes her fear concrete without making escape seem simple. She expects that defiance would leave her in constant fear for her own safety and for anyone eating with her. Paedrin’s suggestion that she could simply walk away cannot overcome that expectation.

Deception, Guilt, and the Unresolved Outcome

The episode is presented through Hettie’s retrospective thoughts as she hurries north across the plains toward Kenatos. Her memory of the Romani saying about the piper who pays for the tune frames her predicament: Kiranrao has financed and directed her life, and now expects her to deliver Iddawc. She imagines his response not as an outburst but as a deadly calm, and believes he will seek her out again to demand that she betray Tyrus and steal the blade. The attempt’s failure thus does not end the assignment; it leaves Hettie anticipating renewed pressure.

Hettie’s guilt arises not only from losing the chance to capture Iddawc, but from the trust she has accepted from Annon and Paedrin. She recognizes that her lies have become a way of life, learned in childhood and refined into a means of surviving and manipulating others. At the same time, she hates herself for caring about Tyrus, Annon, and Paedrin when her training demands that she deceive them. The failed theft gives this conflict its sharpest form: Hettie can name freedom as what she wants, but the evidence ends with her still bound to the plan, still fearing Kiranrao, and without Iddawc.