A vein pulsed in his forehead as he tried tostare her down. He took a deep breath and the tension in his bodyjust fell away.
“You knew what I meant.” He jerked a thumbover his shoulder. “Why were you over there?”
She shrugged.
“Why?”
She sighed loudly. “Saying goodbye.”
“What makes you think you won’t see themagain?”
She snorted. “I don’t know where we’re going,but from your talk it sounds like there’ll be a lot of people. Asit’s unlikely you’ll keep us together, I thought I’d say mygoodbyes while I still could.”
“Uh huh,” Damon said skeptically, raisingboth eyebrows.
She met his eyes steadfastly, not wanting himto assume deception if she avoided his gaze.
“Did you know people are twice as likely tohold your eyes if they’re lying? Otherwise they tend to avoiddirect eye contact.”
She frowned. Wasn’t avoiding a person’s eyesa sign of deception?
He gave an abrupt laugh. He didn’t believeher story at all. “Guess Fallon and Darius were telling the truth.You have a little bit of fire in you after all.” He took the rope,wrapped it around the tree and then looped it around her chest. Herepeated this several times before tying it off. “I’ll have to keepa closer eye on you for the rest of our journey. Wouldn’t want youto slip away before you meet Fallon again.”
Great. She could hardly wait.
Chapter Six
Shea’s breath caught as they crested a ridgeand a sprawling encampment came into view.
A vast number of tents clustered together,concealing the land with their mixed shades of tan, gray and white.The less frequent vibrant red, blue and greens stood out in starkcontrast.
There weren’t hundreds of warriors downthere. There were thousands. This wasn’t the small number of menshe had assumed they would find.
No way was this a raiding party that wouldeventually make their way back to their own lands. This was a fullscale invasion force.
The Lowlands were lost. It was just a matterof time.
The encampment was set in a small valleysurrounded on two sides by steep hills. It wasn’t where she wouldhave chosen to bed down for the night with an element of this size.For one thing, there were only two easy exits. That wasn’tnecessarily bad as it limited the direction an enemy could attackfrom. But the camp was located a bit too far up river, which wouldmake getting drinkable water difficult once thousands of men gotdone polluting it with their waste. They should have made camp atthe opposite end of the valley, that way their waste would traveldown river, and they could walk up the valley for clean water.
Shea grabbed for the horse’s neck as it movedunder her. The beast followed the stallion in front of it,beginning the journey down into the valley.
Nine days had passed since Goodwin of Riabetrayed Shea’s group to the Trateri. That first night had set thetone for the ones to follow. Every night, once they made camp,Damon tied Shea to a tree while he attended to his own matters.When meal time came around, he untied her, let her eat and takecare of personal business and then retied her to the tree, leavinga blanket over her for warmth against the cool nights. In themorning, he’d come for her, and they’d ride together until it wastime to make camp again.
She was beginning to hate sleeping sittingup.
A chance to speak with Witt and Dane nevercame again and neither did an opportunity to escape.
Now they were about to join the main army andbutterflies were swarming in Shea’s stomach. She hadn’t counted onsuch a big force. Perhaps she shouldn’t have waited to escape.
Too late now.
As they made their way into the transientcity, it became obvious there was order to the chaos. The Traterihad spaced their tents far enough apart to create pathways. Bannerscontaining images of animals, plants and objects flapped from polesat the entrance of each tent.
Most of the bigger tents had hitching postshammered into the ground off to the side. The ones that didn’t hadyoung boys or girls waiting to hold the horse of any visitingwarriors. It was an efficient way to take care of the animals andkeep the young ones out of mischief.
Nightfall was still hours away, but campfiresalready flickered in the cleared areas. Men and women lounged orstood around them, not paying attention to the group riding in.
Several fires had pots suspended above them.The tantalizing smell of food made Shea’s stomach grumble,reminding her she hadn’t eaten since lunch. It was past time fordinner, but they’d been so close to their destination that theTrateri had refused to stop for a break.
