Shea stepped off her perch to slide to hernext target.
“This is the path we’re taking,” she informedthem once she had stopped.
“Even uphill would be better,” Dane muttered.With a vexed groan, he leapt, then slid, to his next tree. Hecrashed into it and nearly bounced off before grabbing hold.
“If you have time to gripe, you have time tomove faster,” Shea returned.
Internally, she echoed their frustration andagreed, the only thing worse than having to climb up a mountain washaving to find the way down it.
It would be all too easy to break somethingtumbling down the steep terrain, and none of them needed the addedchallenge of an injured companion.
She just hoped the mist held off until theywere safely back in Birdon Leaf.
The mist was a bedtime story parents toldtheir children to discourage them from wandering off into theuntamed expanse. Only, as any person who’d spent time outside thewell-crafted towns could tell you, it wasn’t a story. It was realand very dangerous.
Even Shea’s parents had told her stories whenshe was young, though for her, they’d been less of a tale and moreof a cautionary warning of what waited for her out here. Herparents had told her of brave pathfinders and their charges whowere swallowed by the mist, never to be seen again. No one knewwhere they went or how it happened. One moment it would be thesunniest of days and the next, the mist would have swept everyliving thing from the area, wiping it clean.
Oh, the villagers dismissed such stories assuperstition or a gambit to squeeze more money out of them. They’donly ever felt the very edge of its power. You could onlyexperience the true horror of it in the depths of the wilds.
Shea felt a slight shiver, thinking of themist she’d experienced only a handful of times. That had been morethan enough.
The other danger they faced were beasts,which were thick on the ground up here. The Highlanders originallyused the term to describe predatory animals, but over time it hadcome to mean anything that didn’t fit with society’s notion ofnatural.
There were many types, so many that it wouldbe impossible to list them all. The secondary part of Shea’sposition was to catalogue beast habits, territory and huntingpatterns and give settlers advice on the safest ways to deal withthem.
Too often people didn’t listen.
That’s when they died.
Shea looked at the sun, judging it to be nearmidafternoon. Time to call a halt. She’d timed it so their journeyput them next to a small mountain spring. Since they weren’tcarrying a lot of water, they needed to replenish at everyopportunity. And, they could use a short break.
Witt nodded willingly enough and dropped hispack. Dane looked like he might argue, but in the end kept hisopinion to himself. He must have been more ready for a break thanshe’d thought.
As the others caught their breath andrefilled their canteens, she pulled out her map, comparing thescribbles on it to the surrounding land.
She gazed out at the landscape sprawled belowher. No matter how many times she saw it, the lonely beauty of thewild back-country always managed to rip her breath away. It madeher pause for a moment, secure in the knowledge that she was just atiny piece of a greater whole.
It was the sort of view that gripped the souland said ‘see? This is what it’s all about.’ Moments like thesemade dealing with the land’s hardheaded inhabitants bearable. Mostof the time.
“We’re making good time.”
They were, in fact. Much better than she hadanticipated. For all that Dane was a peacock, he had stamina.Though the question remained: could the group hold this pace?Should she start looking for a place to make camp or push on andsee if they could make it to Bearan’s Fault by nightfall?
Continuing after dark increased the chance ofsomeone falling and breaking something, further slowing them down,or they could disturb one of the red backs. Shea wouldn’t be ableto see well enough to know if they were straying too close to theirden.
It was tempting to push hard to make theLowlands by nightfall and Edgecomb within the next two days.
Shea worried about James and Cam’s condition.Lowland villages could be very insular. They didn’t take kindly tostrangers. That was especially the case for villages bordering theHighlands. Too many strange things crawled down from those cliffsto make any on the border friendly.
Expending all of their energy reaching thevillage might mean they’d be too exhausted to rescue James and Camshould they need it. On the other hand, James and Cam might be deadbefore they even made it to Edgecomb if they didn’t push hardenough.
“How are you holding up?” Shea asked over hershoulder.
“I can hold any pace you set, woman.” Danetook a bite from one of his loaves of bread. “I’m just waiting onyou two.”
Sweat dripped down Dane’s temple, and hisblue chambray shirt was about two shades darker than it had beenthat morning.
Shea dismissed his comment. His pridewouldn’t allow him to show that a woman had more endurance thanhim. It was unlikely he’d be truthful about his condition.
