“Cast out?”
“They do that sometimes when you’re no longera productive member of the clan.” He gave her a gap toothed grinwhen he saw the horrified look on her face. “They don’t do that somuch anymore, not since Hawkvale took charge. Now, they just sendyou to units like these where you can help but not be a burden toanyone.” A distant look came over his face. “I don’t know which isworse.”
He shook himself and turned to examine thestuck wagon. It had veered off the path and wedged itself against acouple of rocks. One wheel was wedged deep into the mud while theother was spinning idly in the air.
“Do you need some help? I can push,” Sheaoffered.
He snorted. “Your scrawny body would just getin the way, scout. You just concentrate on finding the best pathout of here.”
She smiled shyly at him. “I’ll do mybest.”
Turning to the men staring at the stuckwagon, he roared, “Alright you slack abouts, I want this wheel dugout in the next thirty minutes, and then you’d better be preparedto push this back onto the road. Next time you veer off the path,you’ll answer to me.”
A deep war cry filled the air inresponse.
Shea rode down the line to Phillip andinformed him of the holdup. He squinted at the sky, the sun sinkinglower and lower by the minute, and sighed.
“We’ll probably be making camp here.”
Shea protested. “Once it’s on the road, wecan make several more miles before dark.”
“If you say so.” The expression on his facesaid he didn’t hold out a lot of hope and was just humoring her.Phillip dismounted. “We might as well stretch our legs while wewait.”
Seeing the sense in those words, she swungher leg over and hopped down, letting the reins dangle to theground. Trateri horses were well trained, and it wouldn’t run offunless she called for it. She stepped away, twisting this way andthat to stretch out her back. Down the line, others dismounted aswell with the same purpose. It seemed no one held much hope thatthis would be a short delay.
Two hours later Shea had just won her thirdgame of Bones.
“Looks like it’s time to move,” Phillipobserved as men began heading towards their horses.
Her current opponent groaned. “I was justabout to beat him.”
“Ha,” his friend snorted. “He’s trounced youevery time you’ve played. You’d think you were tired of losing bynow.”
“I was just about to unleash my secretstrategy.”
“I’ll look forward to this ‘secret’ strategynext time,” Shea teased. “In the meantime be sure to do my choreswhen we stop for the night. Oh, and I’ll make sure to get thatpiece of jerky from you when we make camp.”
“We won’t be traveling long,” Phillip said ashe prepared his horse for travel. “Just far enough to find adecently defensible campsite.”
“Fine with me. Every little bit of distancemeans we’re that much closer to camp.”
“Not a fan of the warlord’s brother, areyou?”
Shea was silent as she waited for the caravanto move. It could take a while yet. They probably should havewaited a few minutes before getting back on line because it was thesame old story every time. Everybody rushed to mount and thenwaited and waited for the person in front of them to go.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Shea finally said.“Just prefer to be on missions that have fewer people is all.”
“Oh?” It was a clear invitation tocontinue.
The caravan began moving again, and Shea wassaved from answering. Phillip was always poking and prodding,trying to get people to say more than they should. For someone likeShea, who preferred to keep her own council, it was anuncomfortable experience every time he started askingquestions.
When it was clear she had no intention ofanswering, he said, “Is it the people you don’t like or is itcollecting tithes from the villages?”
Shea shot him a glance. So that was what hewas after. He gave every semblance of being uninterested in heranswer as he kept his attention on examining the hills.
“Is that what you think?” she finally asked.“That I care about the villagers? That maybe I’ll lead everybodyinto a trap as revenge.”
He shrugged. “It does seem odd that you haveno qualms about working with the people responsible for conqueringyour land.”
