Braden looked like he had come to the same conclusion and looked over at Clark with renewed interest.
“The best part is that they’ll have no choice but to teach him,” Shea said.
“What do you mean?” Trenton asked.
“It’s part of our oath,” Reece answered for her. “We train any with the potential who asks for it. The masters will have no choice.”
Braden and Trenton stared at her as if they had never seen her before as she basked in the warm rays of sun. Shea felt a smug pleasure at surprising the other two men. That’s what they got for thinking they had her figured out.
“Yeah, she has her moments of genius, rare though they may be,” Reece said, guessing at the other two’s thoughts as he gave her a sour look. “I’d expect a maneuvering of this nature from your mother, not you.”
Shea shrugged. “I am her daughter. I would have been very stubborn and obtuse indeed not to have picked up at least something from her.”
Reece’s snort contained some humor as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he looked out at the glen.
Dane and Peyton patrolled the perimeter as the students meandered.
“Why aren’t either of you covered in the white fuzz?” Trenton asked.
Shea let Reece answer.
“It’s the water,” Reece said, jerking his head at the fountain behind him. “Something about it repels the fuzz. That’s why we’re here and the ducklings are out there.”
He didn’t bother mentioning how the fuzz tended to cling long after you were home, sticking around for several days. The stuff irritated your skin after a while. Something the students would figure out very shortly. It was considered a badge of honor among the new recruits to judge each other by the size and severity of the rash that resulted.
Shea and Reece had already gone through that once. They had no desire to suffer from it again.
Suddenly, every sense Shea had screeched in warning. She stood, unable to pinpoint where the threat was coming from.
“Shea?” Reece asked, gaining his feet and looking around them with suspicion.
“I don’t know,” she said. She couldn’t say what had pricked her senses, giving her that gut feeling that something was happening.
The ability to sense a threat wasn’t anything supernatural or magical as the villagers would claim. At least not that she’d been able to discover. It was a feeling born of years of study and experience spent wandering the lost places of this world. That’s what told her something was wrong.
All good pathfinders had it. Reece included. Sometimes it was a tiny smell or sound that didn’t register except on a subconscious level. An alert that said danger approaching, get out now.
The Trateri had something similar. An instinct in battle honed over years of training and fighting.
Shea had learned the hard way to pay attention to those instincts.
“Close in,” Reece shouted. He’d been on some of those excursions with her and knew how fine-tuned her instincts were.
The students’ heads lifted. Some began ambling their way. Clark and his friend were near running as they headed back towards the fountain. Reece’s order had spurred them to action even as their cohorts missed the urgency.
“Stop lollygagging,” Reece roared. “Get your asses over here before I put you on latrine duty for the next month.”
That seemed to prod the rest to action and they picked up their pace.
Dane and Peyton, alert from Reece’s warning, had turned to examine their surroundings with increased suspicion. They unslung their whompers, facing away from the students and fountain as they looked for what had caused the alarm.
Trenton had already unsheathed his sword and held it ready at his side, his face the mask of a warrior—fierce and intent, and ready for blood.
Clark and his friend reached their side. Clark looked at the sword in Trenton’s hand and correctly came to the inclusion that they were under attack, spinning on his foot to face away from them as he drew two blades from some hidden spot on his person.
His friend gave him a startled look but didn’t ask questions, doing the same next to him. She only had one small blade, no longer than Shea’s hand, but she held it like she knew what she was doing.
Before the rest of the students could reach them, the mist spat out several creatures followed by three human forms. All wore hooded cloaks similar to that of the man Shea’d seen directing the ballyhoo under the Keep.
