Shea didn’t know that, not really. The woman was a stranger except for one encounter in the Forest of the Giants, but she’d impressed Shea with her strength of character and the way she cared for the horses. She doubted the woman would intentionally bring ill down on the Trateri.
Caden gave Eva another warning look before sighing. “Do you have a plan or were you just going to pick a direction to walk in?”
Shea shrugged. “I’ve got the beginnings of a plan.”
Caden shook his head. “Figures. Get on with you then. You need to be gone before either of the generals learn of this scheme.”
Shea let out a breath of relief.
“Shea,” he said, pausing. “Don’t die.”
“I won’t.”
“I’ll make sure she comes out of this alive,” Trenton said, stepping up to offer Caden a warrior’s farewell. The two men clasped each other’s forearm.
“You’d better, or I’ll make sure you’re remembered as the Anateri whose failure resulted in the death of a battle queen. No one will dare use your name for their future children after that,” Caden declared.
“I’ll be dead before I let something happened to her,” Trenton promised.
Caden released his arm. “Safe journey, old friend. I’ll see you soon.”
“Guard our warlord well,” Trenton said over his shoulder as he walked toward Shea.
Caden watched them go, lingering as their small group disappeared into the night.
*
“Do we really have to climb that?” Trenton asked, looking up at the last stretch of cliff, the faint moonlight making the ascent no less daunting than it would be in daylight.
They’d spent the last few hours making their way partially up the hill in the dark. Now they faced the final stretch of rock, one that would be tedious even at the best of times.
“Yes,” Shea said, staring up at it.
“Figures.” Trenton’s voice was sour as he put his hands on his hips. He was no doubt remembering the last time he’d followed her up a cliff. The experience had left him with several broken ribs.
Shea turned to Eva. For reasons known only to the other woman, she had trailed after them, even climbing the path up the hill, her horse a faithful companion at her side. Her presence suited Shea’s needs.
“This is as far as you should come,” Shea told her. “Wait here until sunrise. If we haven’t returned by then, it means my plan has worked. You can return to camp then and let Caden know.”
“What if it doesn’t work?” Eva asked.
“Then we’ll probably be dead and nothing will matter anymore,” Shea said. She didn’t wait for a response to that, starting for the cliff.
There was a small suggestion of a path that meandered up its side, but it was quickly lost over the rock. It forced Shea and her group to climb carefully as the way got rougher, until eventually they were clinging to its side as they edged up, inch by careful inch.
The others followed without complaint—or if there were grumblings, they were careful to keep them to themselves. A wise choice given the gravity of the situation.
It took them most of the remaining night to reach the summit. Dawn was just around the corner, the dark turning that peculiar blue-black indicating the sun was preparing to make its ascent.
Shea crawled up between a crack in two boulders, pausing to check on the rest of the group’s progress. Assured they hadn’t lost anyone, she stood up and dusted her hands off before looking down into the valley. The campfires of the Trateri flickered warmly. In the distance, the Keep and the cliff at its back were a dark shadow against the night sky.
This was it, the place from her dream.
Shea looked around. Except for her friends just below, she was alone on the top of the cliff, no sign of any mythological. Could she have been wrong about the dream? She’d taken this location as a message, a request for a physical meeting, but perhaps in her need to act, she’d misinterpreted her dream.
The other possibility was that her companions’ presence had made the mythological change his mind. He might have preferred this meeting occur alone.
Too late to do anything about that now.
