“It’s wilder root,” Fallon told her. “Mypeople refer to it as our venom. It’s used when a door needs to beopened between the present and the past. It’s supposed to stripaway the blinders and make everything clear again. It’s not withoutdanger, though. Some get lost in the dreams and never find theirway out.”
She’d never heard of such a thing. Part ofher knew she should be filing that little tidbit away to bedocumented later, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.
“You’re one of us now.” Fallon picked up herhand, his felt warm against her chilled skin.
“What does that mean?” Shea found herselfasking. “I’m one of you?”
“You have the same rights as a Trateri. Youcan claim war spoils as one of us, proclaim challenge. Any childrenyou bear will be raised Trateri. In essence, you have become asmuch a Trateri as if you’d been born of us.”
“Isn’t that nice.” A little of Shea’s normalpersonality began to peek through. “So in the end you’re just likethem.”
Fallon tilted his head and watched hercarefully.
“Let me ask you something. Once you’veconquered all of the Lowlands, what do you plan to do with thisland?”
“They will be integrated into my own peopleas we create a country under one ruler.”
“Ah. So you mean they’ll be your servants.Good enough to work in your army and die for you but not really beone of you.”
“That’s right.” Fallon had no hesitation inhis answer.
Shea snorted back a laugh. That’s a conquerorfor you.
“That’s how it works. The strong rule theweak. They had their chance, and they’ve squandered it. Without mymen, these people would be dead in another generation or two.”Fallon’s voice hardened, and Shea saw the ruthless intellect behindthe warrior’s mask. “Look around, my people never should have beenable to conquer this land. There hasn’t been a significant battlesince we invaded. The biggest threats aren’t from men but beasts.This land is fertile and capable of supporting a population threetimes its size whereas where we come from every drop of water hasto be measured so as not to be wasted. Every scrap of food thatpasses our lips has to be rationed carefully. Hunger isn’tsomething you feel; it’s a state of being.
And yet nothing has stopped us from sweepingacross this land. Your villages are laughably small and even yourcities are capable of sustaining many more. You have entire townsthat disappear in the night. These people have done nothing to savethemselves. It will be my people who brave the wilds to securetheir safety. They will reap the benefits.”
She agreed with everything he’d just said.The Lowlands and the Highlands were dying a long, slow death.Populations were declining and every year another village seemed todisappear. It’s why she’d helped Eamon and Buck for so long.
Despite the short term loss of life, Fallon’speople could save thousands if he was successful. The Trateri mighthave been brutal in their interactions with themselves and others,but they worshipped knowledge and continually strived to understandtheir surroundings. They fought to tame the world around them andadapted when they could not. Both of these were qualities thatLowlanders sorely lacked. It was the same for Highlanders aswell.
It was also the reason she could never takeFallon and his men across the mist. Her people were justdisorganized enough that he would have a real chance at conqueringthe Highlands, that and the weapons left over from the ancientsmade her cooperation with him impossible. Although it would makesense to unite the lands under one ruler, Shea could not see herpeople ever submitting to being the servants of another. It wouldnever work. They would fight to the last man, and she could notsubject them to that.
“You know I will never take you past themists,” she told Fallon. The steel resolve in her voice filteredthrough. Something about the wilder berry clarified things for her,if there had been any doubt about this fact in her before, it wasgone now.
She needed to get this over with. She neededhim to understand that no matter what he did, show her the world ortorture her, she was never going to help him.
Her loyalties weren’t divided anymore. Shefelt no regret for helping them in the Lowlands but she would nevertake them to the Highlands.
“I would rather die.”
She tightened her grip on her knees andwaited.
A light touch ran up and down her back, and apair of lips pressed against her head.
“I know that you believe that,” he told hersoftly. A finger turned her head towards him. “You’re Trateri now.The wilder root assured that. It would be best to forget pastloyalties. It’ll only make things more difficult on you the harderyou hang onto your previous life.”
She’d never been accused of taking the easyway.
After a moment of silence between them, hesaid, “Come. Rest by the fire. Tomorrow is early enough to startfighting.”
She smiled softly and let him pull her up. Inthis, he was right. The battle could begin again tomorrow.
Fallon placed her close to the fire and thensat behind her, pulling her back into his arms. They were alone.Sometime in their conversation Caden and Meynard had drifted out ofsight.
Fallon stroked the skin of her arms gentlyand pressed a soft kiss against her neck, nearly searing a brandinto her flesh for all the heat the soft touch generated. The feelof his lips lingered long after they left her neck. He rested hischin on top of her head. His arms tightened around her slightly,tucking her more firmly against him. The evidence of his arousalwas firm against her hip.
Shea’s breath shuttered in her lungs as hereyes drifted shut. She wanted this man. Even given the very realpossibility that he’d kill her when he realized she wouldn’t givehim what he wanted, she craved him. The wilder root had helpedclear the veil from her eyes on this subject too. She’d wanted himfor a long time. Before the glimpse of his naked body at the poolby the water fall. Perhaps since the first moment she’d caught hiseyes in Edgecomb.
