Pathfinder's Way(11)

She turned back to the canyon. People were waiting for her. They counted  on her to do her job. That meant putting her unease and trepidation  about being back here into a box and then burying it to be dealt with  later.

True, the last time she'd visited the Badlands she'd nearly died. A lot  of people HAD died. This trip was different. They weren't going into the  heart but rather skirting along its edges.

Her feet turned towards Dane, Witt and the others. She settled into a  slow jog, dodging around sparse brush and uneven rocks. Time to get to  work and lead her group home.





Fallon stared after the woman long after she was gone. Shea, he thought  he'd heard one of her friends call her. It was a pretty name. Kind of  sharp but feminine at the same time. Like her.

She was a unique existence to him. Calm in the face of danger with an  air of command that demanded obedience from men who clearly didn't enjoy  listening. Two of the men she'd had with her didn't look like the type  to easily follow orders. Yet when she spoke, they listened. The way she  had disrupted the execution spoke of strategic and creative thinking  while under pressure. A rare talent. She'd made the most out of the  tools she had and then executed her mission flawlessly. If she were a  Trateri, she would have made a fine general with a little training and  guidance.

He found that fascinating.

When he'd first seen the hood yanked back to reveal her disheveled hair  and wide eyes that were equal parts scared and annoyed, he'd felt his  entire attention zero in on her. This tiny figure had darted past  several huge men to take the execution platform like one of the warrior  goddesses his grandmother had spoken of when he was a boy.

She should have been the last thing he noticed, and yet she'd been the only thing he could see.

"I have to say, I've never seen anyone scale a cliff quite that way,"  Darius said, walking up to steady the horse as Fallon dismounted.

A tall man with high cheekbones and a broad nose, Darius always seemed  to find amusement in life. Even in battle with enemies attacking from  all sides, his eyes would crinkle at the corners while a fierce grin  stretched across his face. His blue eyes were very noticeable with his  dark skin that was tanned even darker by the sun. It was his horse  Fallon had appropriated to race after the woman.

"I told you she was tricky." Wilhelm ambled up to them with his head  tilted back to eye the cliff face with mild bemusement. He'd seen many  flee before the Trateri, but never up a cliff.

"That's what makes it interesting," Darius returned. He patted his  horse's neck and fed him a slice of an apple before checking over the  saddle and reins.

"Indeed," Fallon said softly. It had been a long time since he'd found  anything besides battle interesting. Especially a woman. His gaze  sharpened on Wilhelm. "Take several men to her friends' hiding place and  retrieve them. She'll go back for them. Catch her if you can, but I  don't want her harmed."

Wilhelm gave a slight smile and spun on his heel gesturing for five men  to follow him. Without another word, he swung onto a horse and rode down  the canyon, leaving the others to trail behind.

"Did you get what you needed?" Darius asked, changing the subject and clapping Fallon on the back.

Fallon glanced at his friend "Yes, but it wasn't the answer I wanted."

"Oh?"

"The Trateri will be able to take the Lowlands easy enough, but from the  information we gathered, there is no easy way to breach the Highlands.  Every route we found involved a climb. It'd be near impossible to get  the horses up there, and there's no easy way to get a large army,  equipped with supplies and weapons into position without destroying the  element of surprise."

Silence fell between the two, broken only by the sound of a horse's  whinny. Fallon stared off into the distance, lost in thought as Darius  studied him.         

     



 

"We'll have to limit our plans to the Lowlands. For now." Fallon's head  turned slowly to Darius, anticipation burning in his eyes. "Prepare your  men. Our army marches on the Lowlands shortly."

A loud whoop escaped Darius as he lunged forward to clasp Fallon in a  tight hug. For nearly twenty years, they had planned for this day. They  had sworn the moment they became friends at the age of ten they would  lead the clans to create an empire spanning across the continent.

"I'm at your side every step of the way," Darius declared, clasping Fallon on the shoulder.

"I never doubted it," Fallon told him. "Come. Let's find Wilhelm, and  you can tell me what the Clan Heads have been plotting in my absence."

Darius gestured for one of his warriors to dismount and give his horse  to Fallon. They mounted and headed in the direction Wilhelm had taken.  It wasn't long before they pulled their horses to a stop as Wilhelm and  his men met them coming from the opposite direction

"My lord, they're gone," Wilhelm said without preamble. "We found no track. It looks like they just disappeared."

There was a moment of stunned silence at this news, and then Darius gave a bark of laughter.

"It appears you've found an entire clan of ghosts," he told Fallon.

"I'm beginning to think you're right," Fallon said, shaking his head and  spurring his horse in the direction Wilhelm had come. He wanted to see  this for himself.

Wilhelm hadn't lied. The other four were gone. The hidey hole hid nothing but dirt and a few small rocks.

Darius' men spread out to see if there were any other places for the  four to hide but had so far turned up nothing. The strangers had  disappeared into thin air.

Fallon gave a considering look at the canyon walls, wondering if they  had done as the woman had and simply scaled them. He shook his head. No.  One had been too injured to make that climb, and since he wasn't there,  they would have taken him with them.

It was a mystery that teased at his brain. Besides thinking up new  strategies for battle, life had gotten slightly boring of late. If the  woman, Shea, had wanted to make him lose interest in her, she should  have simply surrendered. Now, she presented a challenge. Prey to be  hunted.

He turned his horse and kicked it into a trot, trusting the others to follow.

"Should we keep searching?" Wilhelm asked.

After giving Fallon a long considering look, Darius answered, "No. She's his to find now."

Darius clicked to his horse, breaking into a canter and quickly catching  up to Fallon. He pulled lightly on the reins to slow his horse to a  walk.

"What do you want to do about the village?"

"We don't have time to deal with them now."

"And later?" Darius asked already knowing the answer.

"Burn it."





From her hiding place atop the cliff, Shea watched Fallon and his men  ride away. When they were gone, she found a path down to the canyon and  ran to the hiding place. Like Fallon and his men, she found nothing.  Unlike them, she was prepared for that.

Witt would have moved the group as soon as the last villager passed.  That had been the plan all along. It was why she had drawn the strangers  along with her rather than leaving them behind.

She didn't need help distracting the villagers, but the strangers had  set off every instinct she had. She hadn't wanted to chance revealing  the way into the Highlands.

Witt would have known this and acted accordingly in case something had  gone wrong on her end. Now, she just had to get back to the rendezvous  point.

Worry niggled at her at the thought of them trying to make their way  through the Badlands without a guide. Firmly, she pushed it down. Witt  was a smart man with experience out in the wilds. He would know to stick  to the edge and work his way back to the Highlands from there.

Either way, there was nothing she could do about it. The others were  long gone. All she could do now was follow them and hope she didn't run  into any trouble along the way.





Chapter Four





Seven Months Later





"We've already told you our terms," Dane argued. "If you're unwilling to  meet them, we have nothing left to discuss. We're done here."

Shea fought a yawn as an old man voiced sharp disagreement. Propping her  head on her hand, she attempted to feign some interest in the  proceedings. It wasn't easy. Her jaw cracked as the yawn she'd been  containing escaped.

Would this meeting never end?

"Let's not be hasty," the white-haired man's voice cut through the chatter.

His face had an agelessness to it, making it impossible for Shea to  guess exactly how old he was. Although the hair suggested age, his skin  was smooth and free of wrinkles. His eyes hinted at a sharp mind. "I'm  sure we can come to an agreement. There's no need to go home empty  handed."         

     



 

Zrakovi would have a shit fit if they came back without securing the  trade route with Goodwin of Ria. It had taken their group nearly two  months to reach the Lowland town.

They'd been here ten days already and had accomplished exactly nothing.  It was frustrating and made zero sense. Goodwin of Ria was the one to  initiate the talks in the first place. They'd sent an emissary to Birdon  Leaf with the clear goal of establishing trade between the two  villages. Only now, it seemed Goodwin of Ria no longer had any interest  in the deal.