“You are.”
Shea let her silence speak for her.
She knew she was acting childish. The scrapsof clothing would cover the pertinent pieces of her body, but shewas tired of being pushed around.
“You are.” He leaned forward, invading herspace. She stiffened but didn’t back up. “You will also have themon in the next five minutes so we can leave.”
She didn’t think so.
“You will not like it if I have to come backin here.”
With those ominous words, Trenton exited,leaving Shea fuming in his absence. After a long moment, she movedto comply, pulling the clothes on with angry movements.
Dressed, she took a deep breath and composedherself. It took a long moment and several deep breaths before someof the anger melted away and a bit of perspective to creep backin.
Only when she had control of herself again,did she exit.
Trenton led her out to the very edge of thecamp where a crackling fire waited. Meynard and Caden sat onsmoothly worn stumps on either side of the fire.
It seemed odd for a fire to be going fullblast in the middle of day, especially when it was this warmout.
Trenton prodded her forward when shehesitated.
He maneuvered her until she stood on theother side of the fire. She coughed as a gust of wind blew smoke inher face.
Meynard lifted his arms and proclaimed in avoice as ageless and old as the mountains, “Shea of the Highlandpeople, you come seeking to mingle your being with that of thegrassland people.”
Shea coughed again as a deep burning spreaddown her throat. Had she inhaled ash?
“The grassland people are fierce with rootsdating back to the beginning of time. You are either born of us orbecome one of us through fire.”
Shea didn’t know what he was talking about.Grassland people?
“Fire is the great catalyst. It can destroy,but it can also be an instrument of change and bring forth theseeds of a new beginning. It is life.”
The world around her rippled and then tilted.A burst of light flared behind Caden’s head and then Trenton’s. Shefell to a knee as she looked around in confusion.
The old man was droning on and on. “You mustsurvive the fire and be reborn to be fully accepted as one ofus.”
She didn’t want to be one of them. She likedherself just the way she was. Shea, a pathfinder of the Highlandguilds, a scout for the Dawn’s Riders.
The burning in her lungs intensified, and shecoughed hard, nearly choking. A sweet smell, like that of vanilla,invaded her nose. Its scent so strong she almost imagined she couldsee it carried along on the breeze in ever widening arcs.
The strength left her body, and she rolledonto her back. The blue, blue sky looked down at her. It smiled ather with a delicate slice of cloud right before a bunny hoppedacross, leaving trails of white tufts floating after it.
There must have been something in the smoke,she realized finally.
After that she didn’t do a lot of thinking,but simply experienced things with a wide-eyed wonder as images andthoughts raced by. Sometimes these things collided in a brilliantcascade of color and light.
The first warp took her back to herchildhood.
She was holding tight to a woman’s hand. InShea’s eyes, that woman was the most beautiful woman in the world.Shea paid close attention as the woman explained the differencebetween a thistle thorn paw print and that of a red tail’s.
“Understand, Shea?”
“Yes, Mommy.”
“Lainey, are you teaching that girl trackingagain?” a deep voice asked affectionately.
