Shea didn’t really trust anyone, except for a very select few. Fallon, of course. Buck, and Eamon too, were among that number.
“I’ll watch my back,” Buck said, his expression serious for once. “I have the maps you gave me. At the first sign she’s drawing us off course, I’ll act.”
It was the best they could hope for, given the circumstances.
Shea offered her hand, giving him a small smile as he stepped up to grasp her forearm in a warrior’s farewell. His grip was firm and his gaze steady.
“See you soon,” Shea told him.
He nodded, before turning and loping away, his voice already raised as he called his team.
“Do you wish you were going with him?” Fallon asked.
“Not this time,” Shea said after thinking over the question. She turned back to the mist. “I have a feeling the more difficult path is still in front of us.
He made a sound of agreement as he stared at the mist with an aggravated expression. “Somehow, I think you’re right.”
CHAPTER FOUR
It didn’t take long for the Trateri to arrange themselves into groups. Eamon’s group went first, the mist swallowing them as if they’d never existed. One by one the groups went through until it was Shea’s turn.
It wasn’t really a surprise Trenton and Wilhelm had been lumped in with her. As her guards, they typically ended up wherever she did.
Wilhelm was a good foil to Trenton, quiet and observant where the other man was chatty and at times attention grabbing. He was handsome, enough so that he was never in want of company if he so desired. He was also easy-going, his lips quick to smile and his face earnest. That didn’t mean he wasn’t as dangerous as the other Anateri. He was just more subtle about it. He was the stalking great cat in the grass. His beauty might strike you dumb and make you want to pet his furry coat, but his teeth and claws were just as capable of tearing out your throat.
Witt was the fourth in their party. Captured alongside Shea when Birdon Leaf and Goodwin of Ria had betrayed them into servitude to the Trateri, Witt had assimilated rather easily into their ranks. His face was a well-worn map that gave testament to the kind of life he’d lived. In his middle years, he was a quiet man who weighed every word to leave his mouth as if it was gold.
He, like her, had made a home with his former captors and had given them his undying loyalty. His struggle between the two had been briefer than hers, partly because he’d never had any love lost for the pathfinders to begin with.
“If you had told my younger self that I would ever think about passing through the pathfinder’s little mist to get to their stronghold, I would have called you a fool,” Witt said in a dry voice next to Shea.
They stood on the edge that marked the world of the mist from the normal land, close enough that Shea could reach out and touch its cool embrace if she’d wanted to.
“Back then, I would have beat the shit out of anybody who made such a claim,” Witt said. He blamed the pathfinders for his family’s death. They’d excised his village from the maps, which had, in a roundabout way, led to their destruction.
“If you’d told me I would be returning home as the black sheep while accused of treason, I might have done the same,” Shea said with a slight smile.
“What funny paths life takes,” Witt said, still looking up at the mist.
She made a noncommittal sound as they were joined by the pathfinder who would be leading them through.
Fallon strode up to them then, his face irritated as Caden dogged his steps.
“I do not like this,” Caden said, a fierce frown on his face. He glared Shea’s way, as if he placed the blame for whatever was going on squarely on her shoulders.
“We’ve already had this discussion. The decision has been made,” Fallon said with forced patience.
“I do not like you going into this cursed place without sufficient protection,” Caden said, aiming a scathing glance at the mist in front of them.
“No, you don’t like the fact that you won’t be at my back,” Fallon corrected. He had that tone of voice that usually made Shea grind her teeth. It said that he was being imminently reasonable and arguing with him was irrational and illogical. “There will be two Anateri in my group—both just as highly-trained as you.”
Caden scowled. “Both of whom will be more focused on your telroi’s protection than yours.”
Ah, so that was what this was about. Fallon planned to join her group. She couldn’t say she was too surprised. In fact, she was more than satisfied with this outcome. It meant she could keep an eye on him. There was no one she trusted more to get him through unharmed.
“You underestimate me, old friend,” Fallon said in a mild voice. “Becoming warlord has not softened my skills. Perhaps I should demonstrate during our next practice.”
Shea winced at the rebuke hidden in his words. The milder Fallon’s voice tended to get, the more dangerous the footing underneath you.
