“A challenge,” Fallon’s friend said, comingup to stand beside him. “Careful, lady. You’ve thrown the gauntletdown, and Fallon has never backed down from a challenge.”
Shea smiled to herself. In this case, he wasjust going to have to accustom himself to losing. There were fewpeople in this world able to find Shea when she didn’t want to befound, and all of them were pathfinders like her.
No, this would be the last Fallon would seeof her.
There was a sharp twang. An arrow embeddeditself in the rock less than an inch from the hand reaching for hernext handhold. Her body jerked back, upsetting her balance. Onlythe fact that she’d wedged her other hand into a crack and thenformed a fist to lock herself in place, prevented her from falling.She dangled high above the ground, her weight supported only by onehand.
“Hold your fire,” Fallon shouted. “Do notfire again.”
“Who shot that?” Fallon’s friend yelled. Hestrode to his men and pulled the offending party off his horse.“What were you thinking? You could have caused her to fall.”
He didn’t wait for the man to defend himself,instead jerking the bow out of his hands and shoving him.
Shea placed her feet against the rock faceand hugged the wall, taking deep breaths. A fine tremble invadedher limbs.
That had been close.
She shifted slightly, and her heart shot intoher throat. She really did not want to move. Not to go up. Anddefinitely not to go down.
Perhaps she could just stay here. It seemedlike a nice cliff. The view wasn’t great, just ugly brown rocks anddirt, but nice scenery was overrated when compared to life andlimb.
She was frozen. Stuck. And being over twentyfeet off the ground with half the cliff left to scale was not agood place to be.
She shut her eyes and took a few calmingbreaths. “You can do this. Quit thinking and just climb. Put onehand over the other and keep going.”
Staying put was the worst thing to do rightnow. It took strength to cling to the side of a cliff, and everysecond she wasted a little bit more of her strength drained away.She chanced a glance back down. Fallon watched her carefully fromthe horse, his mouth pressed into a tight line. She looked back upat the distance she had left, took a deep breath and startedclimbing.
She focused on the task before her, ignoringall other distractions as she edged ever closer to the top.Finally, she rolled onto her back to stare up at the sky. Her armsached. Her legs ached. Every muscle ached. After the long journeyof the past two days, the headlong rush of escape and now thestrength needed to make that climb, Shea was tired. She needed anap.
She poked her head over the side of the cliffand glanced straight at Fallon. He gave her a respectful nod.
Carefully, she backed away from the edge andstood before glancing at the sharp hills and buttes before her.Fallon and the danger he represented fell from her thoughts as shewas confronted with the reality in front of her. The Badlands. Aplace she thought she’d never see again.
She turned back to the canyon. People werewaiting for her. They counted on her to do her job. That meantputting her unease and trepidation about being back here into a boxand then burying it to be dealt with later.
True, the last time she’d visited theBadlands she’d nearly died. A lot of people HAD died. This trip wasdifferent. They weren’t going into the heart but rather skirtingalong its edges.
Her feet turned towards Dane, Witt and theothers. She settled into a slow jog, dodging around sparse brushand uneven rocks. Time to get to work and lead her group home.
Fallon stared after the woman long after shewas gone. Shea, he thought he’d heard one of her friends call her.It was a pretty name. Kind of sharp but feminine at the same time.Like her.
She was a unique existence to him. Calm inthe face of danger with an air of command that demanded obediencefrom men who clearly didn’t enjoy listening. Two of the men she’dhad with her didn’t look like the type to easily follow orders. Yetwhen she spoke, they listened. The way she had disrupted theexecution spoke of strategic and creative thinking while underpressure. A rare talent. She’d made the most out of the tools shehad and then executed her mission flawlessly. If she were aTrateri, she would have made a fine general with a little trainingand guidance.
He found that fascinating.
When he’d first seen the hood yanked back toreveal her disheveled hair and wide eyes that were equal partsscared and annoyed, he’d felt his entire attention zero in on her.This tiny figure had darted past several huge men to take theexecution platform like one of the warrior goddesses hisgrandmother had spoken of when he was a boy.
She should have been the last thing henoticed, and yet she’d been the only thing he could see.
“I have to say, I’ve never seen anyone scalea cliff quite that way,” Darius said, walking up to steady thehorse as Fallon dismounted.
A tall man with high cheekbones and a broadnose, Darius always seemed to find amusement in life. Even inbattle with enemies attacking from all sides, his eyes wouldcrinkle at the corners while a fierce grin stretched across hisface. His blue eyes were very noticeable with his dark skin thatwas tanned even darker by the sun. It was his horse Fallon hadappropriated to race after the woman.
“I told you she was tricky.” Wilhelm ambledup to them with his head tilted back to eye the cliff face withmild bemusement. He’d seen many flee before the Trateri, but neverup a cliff.
“That’s what makes it interesting,” Dariusreturned. He patted his horse’s neck and fed him a slice of anapple before checking over the saddle and reins.
“Indeed,” Fallon said softly. It had been along time since he’d found anything besides battle interesting.Especially a woman. His gaze sharpened on Wilhelm. “Take severalmen to her friends’ hiding place and retrieve them. She’ll go backfor them. Catch her if you can, but I don’t want her harmed.”
