Pathfinder's Way(16)

He examined the rest of them. He didn't seem impressed.

Shea ducked her head further into her horse.

"Sir," Dane said, drawing his attention back to him. Shea could have  kissed him for that. "I'm afraid my companions and I are at a bit of a  loss. We traveled here for trade. I don't know what deal they've made  with you, but they don't speak for us."

Darius listened. His lips curled into a broad smile as the skin around  his eyes crinkled. He was handsome, Shea realized. Even charming.         

     



 

If Dane was lucky, he'd have the same effect once he matured a little.

The elders held themselves stiffly as they waited in anticipation.

Darius arched an eyebrow at his companion. The blue shirted man shook  his head in disgust and leaned back in his saddle, turning to spit on  the ground at the elder's feet.

Darius folded his hands across his pummel and spoke to Dane, "They fucked you over but good."

"Sir?"

A rueful quirk tilted Darius' lips as he turned his face to the sky.  "Hate to say it, but they did. Smart bastards to find some poor fools to  fulfill their tithe." He looked back at Dane and shrugged. "Doesn't  matter how you came to be here, only that you are. Fallon Hawkvale,  Warlord over the Trateri Clans, owns your ass. He's your master now.  Forget wherever you came from. Maybe if you get lucky you'll become a  horseman or foot soldier, but whatever life you lived before is gone."

Dane's skin turned a sickly shade of white at this pronouncement.

Shea, for her part, felt like she'd been punched in the stomach at Fallon's name.

Looks like she'd been right about him. Fat lot of good that did her now.

Darius leaned forward and cuffed the side of Dane's head. "Don't worry,  you'll grow to like the clans soon enough. Now, let's see what kind of  recruits we have this time."

Dane made a strangled sound as Darius straightened. Witt sent Dane a look that said pull it together.

It dawned on the others the situation had turned bad. They shifted uneasily under the weight of Darius's regard.

Shea stared grimly at her saddle.

The men shifted away as the steady clop, clop, clop of a horse  approached. Her mare sidestepped as the other horse invaded her space.

Shea tried to hold the animal in place, but there wasn't much she could do against hundreds of pounds of determined horseflesh.

Abandoned by even her horse, Shea glared at the ground. Maybe he  wouldn't remember her. They'd only met briefly, and he'd been focused on  Fallon for most of that time.

"What do we have here? A girl?" an amused voice said above her. When she  didn't respond, he added, "Glaring at the ground won't make me go  away."

Fine then. She'd glare at him instead. Might as well get it over with  anyway. At least this way, she'd know; he either recognized her or he  didn't.

No comprehension registered in his eyes, just a mild interest.

Perhaps she was safe.

Recognition dawned. He gave a shout.

Shea frowned even harder at him as he threw his head back and roared with laughter.

Witt and Dane gave her equal looks of puzzlement. The wheels spun in  their brains as they looked at her, then at him and then back at her.

Witt lifted his hands slightly in question.

She'd told him about Fallon's men in the canyon, so he knew how she'd escaped.

Curious as to what had caught Darius's interest, his companion prodded  his horse forward. By the look on his face, he didn't understand why his  friend found her so amusing.

"Cale, you won't believe who this is," Darius finally said, his laughter winding down, though humor still glinted in his eyes.

"Especially if you don't stop laughing like a loon," Cale complained  acerbically, drawing his horse to a stop. "You're supposed to be  intimidating these dirt grubbers. I don't see how this is going to  instill fear in their hearts and terror in their minds."

"This is her." Darius tilted his head towards Shea.

"Her?" Cale frowned.

"Her."

Cale's eyes went sharply to Shea as he scanned her up and down, realization settling in. "You mean?"

Darius grinned and nodded.

"I'll be damned." Cale settled back in his saddle and looked at her with  amazement. "Guess this village has something to recommend it after  all."

"I take it Fallon will be pleased with this tribute," another man said,  joining the two. He was brown. Everything about him was some variation  of the color. He had brown hair, brown eyes and his skin had been tanned  a deep walnut by the sun. With his addition, there were now three men  on horseback surrounding Shea.

She kept her attention trained on them, acutely aware of the unrest behind her as Paul and Sid began muttering in discontent.

All of the men in front of her had scars on various parts of their  bodies and carried swords in scabbards at their sides. They were  muscled, but it was the kind that came from lifting a sword and riding a  horse everyday rather than the kind developed from plowing fields and  harvesting its bounty. Given the air of danger each man exuded, even  Darius who seemed to find humor in everything, it was obvious these  weren't the sort of men you could piss off and expect to walk away  unscathed.         

     



 

She hoped Paul and the others took that into consideration.

Darius smothered a grin when she lifted her chin and glared at all three of them. She'd never liked people talking about her.

"You made quite an impression last time, little spider. Fallon doesn't like it when his toys go missing."

Confusion must have shown on Shea's face because Darius gave her a long  look before continuing. "Entire army has orders to bring you in if they  come across someone meeting your description. It just so happens I was  there that day and know exactly what you look like."

Cale's slight smile made a shiver rush down Shea's back as he eyed her  with hooded eyes. "I imagine Fallon will reward us well for this."

"So our tribute meets with your approval?"

The white-haired elder had approached while the three men had been  preoccupied with Shea. There was hope in his eyes as he clasped his  hands in front of him.

"You've outdone yourself." The elder's face relaxed and he started to smile, when Darius added, "We'll expect double the wheat."

The man's eyes widened as he physically drew back in horror. "But we've  given you what you asked. Both in wheat and people. More than that if  you include her."

The amusement drained from Darius' face as his eyes chilled and his  expression turned hard. Menace rolled off his body as he leaned down  slightly. "Yes, and you tricked others into taking your men's place."

"We'll starve if we give you double the amount. What does it matter how  we fill the quota as long as we fill it?" the elder interrupted.

Darius pulled sharply on the reins, spinning the horse and kicking it in  the sides. The elder backed away as Darius and the horse bore down on  him.

"The quota is meant to affect you. We want to keep you hungry and take  your men from you. We want your boys in our army because you'll be so  worried about them that you won't have time to resist. If they're in the  army, they're not sowing the seeds of a rebellion they can't hope to  win. Which means we don't have to come back here and wipe your village  from the map." The elder tripped and scrambled back in a tangle of limbs  as Darius continued his advance. "You can either sacrifice your people  or starve. This time you've chosen to starve. Now, I've been generous in  not punishing you further. If this deal is no longer to your taste, say  the word and my men and I will ride through your village. I warn you,  though, that once we ride, we will not stop, no matter how you beg and  plead, until everything you know and love is ash upon the ground."

Darius drew his horse to a sharp stop as he lifted his gaze from the  terror stricken form in front of him. The other two flinched from his  wrath.

"We'll up the amount of wheat to be transported," the hawk-nosed one agreed.

Darius's gaze didn't waver for a long minute. Tension built as he held  them trapped. There was no laughter, no hint of the handsome man. He  looked like death, come to collect his due.

After a drawn out moment where Shea thought he'd call his men to ride on  the town anyway, Darius jerked his head down once. The menace filling  the air drained away as he made his way back to the two gathered by  Shea.

"Bring her," he ordered. "Have the others follow behind on foot and put their horses on a leader."

Before Shea could protest, she found herself grabbed under the arms and  hoisted into the air. For balance, she grabbed the horse's neck as she  was placed in front of the rider. She blinked back at the brown haired  man regarding her impassively before turning forward.

She felt impossibly high off the ground since the horse was much taller than her former one. It was not a pleasant feeling.

Dane looked angry, like he wanted do something impulsive and stupid.  Shea breathed a sigh of relief when Witt stepped in front of him and  shoved him back.