Shea fought against sighing and held herselfstill. Expressing frustration would only prolong the encounter.
Silence filled the room as she waited for theelder to get to the point.
“My son.” He stopped and cleared his throat,shifting so he could look at her. “James and one other weresupposed to return this morning from a run. I need you to find himand make sure they’re alright.”
Shea crossed her arms in front of her. “If Irecall correctly, they were heading for the north reaches to gatherlumpyrite for trade. That area should be safe. The beasts avoid itbecause of the mineral’s smell. They probably just got delayed. Ifthey’re not back by nightfall, I’ll head out to look for themtomorrow morning.”
Shea had turned to go when Elder Zrakovi’svoice pulled her back. “They didn’t go to the north reaches.”
She stopped dead. Of course they hadn’t.
The villagers were supposed to check with herwhen they left the village so she could make sure the areas theytraveled were safe. She dropped her head slightly while sheschooled her expression back to neutrality. Only when her faceshowed a placid blankness did she face the men.
“Where did they go?”
“Below the Bearan Fault,” Zrakovi saidgruffly.
“You mean the Lowlands,” Shea said, each wordpronounced very precisely.
More than one man found themselves avoidingher eyes.
She shook her head slightly. Fools. TheBearan Fault was a line of cliffs nearly two hundred miles long. Itwas the gateway to the Lowlands.
Lowlanders were dangerous. Crazy too. Sheahad dealings with them in the past, but it was always with one eyeon the exit and a hand on her weapons. You just never knew whatthey were going to do.
One time, they had set fire to her clothes.While she was still in them.
She hated Lowlanders almost more thanHighlanders.
“I told you not to send anybody into theLowlands without me there to act as guide,” Shea said, her voice aspolite as she could make it given the pulse pounding at hertemple.
Zrakovi slammed his hand down on the table.“I won’t have my judgment questioned by a slip of a girl barelypast her majority.”
“Then how about a Pathfinder with fifteenyears’ experience who told you that heading to the Lowlands at thistime without proper preparation and without a guide was toodangerous.”
Slip of a girl, her ass. Shea was twenty fiveand had been guiding folks since she was ten years old and couldfinally keep up with the adults.
“You were on assignment,” a thin man withstringy hair and a beak nose on the other side of the tablecomplained. “We didn’t know when you would be back, and theopportunity was too good to pass up. This wouldn’t have happened ifwe had more than one pathfinder.”
Shea’s shoulders tightened and her backbecame even more rigid. “You’ve been told in the past thatpathfinders are rare and in high demand. Your village is too smalland too new to warrant more than one.”
“Too new? We’ve lived here for more thaneighty years. More like we’re being punished,” one of the menmuttered.
Shea took a deep breath and bit her tongue.She had to do that a lot while she was in Birdon Leaf. Sometimesshe was amazed there wasn’t a hole in it.
The simplest explanation was that there justweren’t enough pathfinders to go round and none who wanted todestroy a promising career by coming to this backcountryvillage.
No. Shea was the one to receive thatprivilege.
“What village did they go to?”
If Shea was lucky they had chosen one of themore stable villages. Though just as dangerous as the rest, theyusually had a reason before they went bat shit crazy.
“Edgecomb.”
She sucked in a breath. Well, then.
Edgecomb was crazier than most. They did notlike outsiders and were very easy to insult.
