“You’re acting like I’ve spent my lifestudying these things,” Shea snapped. “The closest I’ve ever beento one was the one I just killed. Usually when I come across beastsign, I know enough to avoid the damn things. Not stroll into itsden and poke it with a stick. I’ve only seen this thing twice. Oncewhen it was feeding and had turned black. Judging by the fact thesesuckers are usually the color of a rock, I figured eating turnsthem black. But that’s still just a guess.”
She made sure to keep her voice to a lowmurmur. If you knew one thing about a beast, people always expectedyou to know everything.
Granted, she usually did know more than sheknew about the shadow beetles.
Eamon grabbed Shea by the shoulders, hislarger frame dwarfing hers. “You know more about these things thaneither of us. That means we’re going to be looking to you foranswers. It’s not fair, but that’s just the way it is. Now, youknow more than you think.”
Seeing the rebuttal on her face, he shook heronce.
“Neither of us would have known it had a softspot on the back of its neck just from seeing an eagle attack itonce. We would have simply assumed the eagle’s claws were sharperthan our weapons. We’re not expecting miracles from you. Just giveus what you know. Every piece of information is more than we hadbefore and could give us an advantage.”
Shea held his eyes, not sure if that had beena motivational speech or just the truth.
People always expected miracles. They mightsay they didn’t, but when the dead were lying on the ground, thefinger pointing began.
Always.
“We could leave them behind,” she suggestedwatching him carefully, painfully aware of the large paws still onher shoulders.
His chest expanded as he inhaled sharply, andhis hands clenched momentarily, before loosening to fall to hissides.
Buck’s lip curled in derision as he lookedher over, but Eamon watched her as carefully as she did him. “Ican’t do that, and unless I miss my guess, neither can you.”
Shea stayed leaning against the cool rock ather back even when he released her. She bent her head and grippedher forearms.
Might as well tell them her theories andobservations. It was a little late to pretend ignorance.
He was right in that she didn’t really haveit in her to turn her back and leave them to their fate. She didn’thave it in Edgecomb or outside of Goodwin of Ria, and she didn’thave it now.
“I don’t know how long they stay flushed withblood,” she told them. Before Eamon could get all disappointed, shesaid, “Tell me everything you remember from when you encounteredthe last shadow beetle.”
They took turns telling her about the attack.Buck held himself stiffly as he recounted his friend being torn intwo. The man had been laughing at a joke and then suddenly hewasn’t. Instead, he was in pieces on the ground, never to laughagain.
Lorn had shouted to retreat, and the beetlehad taken him next. After that, Eamon had grabbed Buck and squeezedthem into a crevasse between two rocks, stabbing at it with theirswords when it tried to root them out.
Shea asked them to repeat certain parts andexpand on others. When they were done, she crouched behind theboulder and peered into the canyon, checking for any movement. Hermind churned through the information they had given her.
She ducked back and sat on her heels.
“What do you think?” Eamon asked crouchingbeside her.
“I don’t think they hunt by sight orsmell.”
“Why?”
“Smell because it would have found us by now.Sight, well I didn’t see any eyes on that thing, did you?”
Buck tilted his head back, trying toremember. Shea hadn’t been in the state of mind to notice much ofanything when she was trying to hack its head off. Of the three,he’d been the one to look it over afterwards. Shea had still beentrying to wrap her head around the fact that it was over, and Eamonwas busy attending to the dead.
“There were, but they were very small.”
“Right, that leaves sound. Buck said thefirst person it attacked was the one making the most noise. Then itattacked Lorn next despite Buck being closer. Also, if it was whereI think it was a little bit ago, it would have had a direct line ofsight on us. My guess is it’s attracted to vibrations.”
Buck started looking over his shoulders andup above their heads. “If it’s attracted to sound, wouldn’t it beable to tell we’re here already.”
“Possibly, but given how big that other thingwas I don’t think it’d be able to fit in this tiny space. Besides,these cliffs act as amplifiers, which can make it difficult to tella sound’s direction. I don’t think it’ll be able to pin us downuntil we’re in an enclosed space with it. It might know we’recoming though.”
“So we’ll have to be as quiet as possiblegoing forward,” Eamon said.
