She went back to comparing the two maps.
Seeing the look on her face, Eamon asked,“What? What is it?”
They all regarded her anxiously.
“This map is wrong,” she stated the obvious.This next part might be a little tricky. She needed to convincethem while not telling them everything.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean whoever worked on this fucked up.Big. Half the routes are wiped out, and it’s out of date. Seehere,” she pointed at a broken line that was to the right of theircurrent position. “We went through this area last month withLance’s boys.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, when we were done, I told Vincent thatthey shouldn’t send any more men that way unless they wanted themto end up dead.”
“Maybe they disregarded your advice. Itwouldn’t be the first time.”
“That’s just it,” she said, touching the maplightly. “The next map they sent out had the updates on it. Thisone doesn’t. Not to mention there are some routes that aren’t evenon here anymore. They’re not marked as either dangerous or safe.It’s like they don’t even exist.”
“I don’t see why this is important,” Eamonsaid.
Shea was silent a moment as she consideredher options. She wasn’t Trateri and had only lingered so longbecause she liked Eamon and Buck. This was the point of no return.Either she acted on her knowledge or she let nature run its course.Did she really want to get more involved than she already was?
“Let’s consider the facts, then,” she saidfinally. It wasn’t in her to just walk away even if it was easier.“Every scout that was in or around the encampment was mobilized tolocate someone. It’s someone important, which means enemies. Prettywell connected enemies if my hunch is right. What if those enemiesgave him a map that was wrong? Kind of like this one.”
The dark prevented her from reading the men’sfaces so she was unable to tell the effect her words were having onthem.
“Maybe it steered this person toward some ofthe more dangerous routes, or maybe it was some mistake. All I knowis we’re almost through our area and whatever it is we’re supposedto be looking for isn’t here.”
She didn’t want to make it seem too obviousthat she knew it was on purpose.
“What do you suggest we do?” Phillip asked.He had been a silent presence until now, and she had almostforgotten he was there.
She shrugged. “We look through some of theroutes that should be on here but aren’t.”
Silence met her statement. Not knowing howthey were taking her idea, she kept quiet and waited. In the end,she didn’t know the person lost out there, and she wasn’t Trateri.She’d laid out their options and pointed at the inconsistencies inthe information they’d been given. Whatever happened next was onthem.
She told herself she didn’t care as shebusied herself with studying the map, but that was a lie. She didcare, and she hated the idea of leaving someone alone in the dark,especially since she felt slightly responsible for not speaking upsooner.
It was the same reason she worked with thepeople of Birdon Leaf despite the fact she was treated as thevillage pariah. She knew the fear of being out there in the greatwild expanse knowing nobody was coming for you. Now, when facedwith the thought of abandoning someone to that same fate, shecouldn’t do it.
“That’s a lot of ground to cover,” Buck saiduneasily.
“Yup.”
There were a number of trails that had beenmismarked or left off the map. It would be impossible to cover allof the area with just the four of them in a time frame that couldmake a difference to the men who were lost.
“Is there a way to narrow it down a little?”Phillip crouched beside her and peered at the parchment inquestion.
Shea shut her eyes, allowing herself to feela moment of relief. This was the reason she hadn’t left yet. Everytime she steeled herself against their disdain or disbelief theydid something completely incomprehensible like follow her downwhatever rabbit hole she found.
“It would have to be a trail that had shownup on other maps but had recently been declared a danger zone,”Buck said, crouching on her other side. “That way if the intendedtarget had any familiarity with previous maps it wouldn’t be toosuspicious.”
“I’m guessing the route would have also beenleft off the maps given to the scouts so none of them got it intotheir heads to check it just in case.” Phillip picked up Shea’sjournal and squinted at it, trying to decipher her scribbling’s inthe dim light and compare them to the bigger map.
Shea looked up at Eamon, the only one of themwho hadn’t said anything and also the one who would ultimatelydecide if they would investigate this theory or continue followingtheir orders.
The torch cast harsh shadows on the sharpplanes of his features, concealing his thoughts. He placed bothhands on his waist and rocked back and forth, bending his headslightly. Shea knew from prior experience that it was the pose heused when he was thinking over his options.
