“There will be time for that later,” Daere said. Her smile was awkward. She clasped Shea’s elbow and steered her away from the group, reaching down with her other hand to tug on Mist’s arm.
“What was that about?” Shea asked.
“Nothing.”
Shea snorted. She wasn’t that dumb. “Nothing, my ass. Why did I sense a vague threat behind his words?”
“Because you did,” Daere said.
“Is he a danger to you?” Shea asked, her eyes locked on Daere’s face. If he was, Shea didn’t care who he was or how much Fallon needed him. She’d put a stop to him herself, even if she had to lead the man into a beast’s nest to do it.
“Not in the way you mean.” Daere didn’t look at Shea, her gaze turned forward.
“What do you mean?”
“Gawain is mostly harmless. He’s always been jealous of the attention Henry gives Fallon. It’s one of the reasons he broke off to form his own clan.”
Shea shot a look at Trenton and Wilhelm who kept pace with them. Their attention was directed to the area surrounding them, but Shea would have bet anything that they were listening to every word.
“And how is he not harmless?”
“He’s very good at manipulating people. His ambition has a way of blinding him to everything but what he needs to get what he wants. That ambition has hurt many people along the way.”
Shea took her words to mean that Daere was one of those who fell victim to Gawain’s ambitions.
“So, I shouldn’t trust him.”
Daere huffed out a laugh. “You shouldn’t trust anyone but Fallon and your guards. Haven’t you learned anything in the weeks with me?”
“I don’t remember that being one of the lessons.”
Daere gave Shea a sideways glance. “It was in the subtext.”
“Ah, well. There’s your problem. You’re relying on me to catch the subtext. I’m a straightforward kind of person.”
“I’m beginning to understand that.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
SHEA LOOKED up at the grey cliffs that towered over them, the Trateri warband Fallon had gathered stretched for half a mile behind her. It had taken two weeks to get to this point. Saying goodbye to Mist had been difficult. The little girl had seemed so alone and small when Shea had told her she would be staying behind with Daere. It was one of the few times Shea had regretted leaving.
Now, they stood at the base of Bearan’s Fault looking up at cliffs that would be impossible to climb unless they left the mounts behind. Even if they did, it would be a difficult and time-consuming journey since the cliffs towered over them by several hundred feet.
She took a deep breath as she stared up at all that separated her from home. When she’d first thought of coming back here, she hadn’t realized how nostalgic she would be or how much she’d missed the Highlands. It was like an old, crotchety friend that probably hadn’t even noticed she was gone. Still, it felt like a piece of her that had been missing was suddenly back in its rightful place.
“You came down that?” Clark asked, his voice hushed and shocked.
Shea nodded.
“I always knew you were crazy,” Buck said, his mount coming up on the other side of Shea’s horse. “No wonder you have no problem jumping off things.” He had a look of consternation as he looked up at the cliffs.
“I’d like to say it’s not as high as it looks, but it really is,” Shea told them. “On the Highland side, approaching the fault is like walking off the edge of the world—scary, and exhilarating, and oh so fun.”
Buck gave her a look that said she was proving his point.
“Since meeting you, I feel my life has gotten increasingly more interesting,” Eamon said from the other side of Buck. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.”
“Have any of our people ever been up there?” Clark asked. “I don’t remember anyone claiming raider’s rights.”
“I’ve never heard of any stories,” Buck said, still staring at the cliffs like they were something that had been put there to purposely thwart him. “All of our tales deal with the Lowlands and the Badlands. I don’t think our oral history even acknowledges this place.”
Shea wasn’t really surprised. Highlanders kept to themselves. Their home’s inherent isolation made that easy. The only time they came down the fault was when they were trading, which wasn’t often. The trading expedition where Shea had gotten caught by the Trateri was one of the few.
“How are we going to get up there?” Clark asked the question everyone was thinking. “How are we going to get the horses and our supplies up that?”
“There’s a way.” Shea spurred her horse on, steering it toward where Fallon and Caden had stopped.
She pulled on her reins, bringing the horse up beside them. Both men spared her a glance before turning to observe the cliffs blocking their way.
“It looks bigger than I imagined,” Caden said, his face set in a frown.
Fallon grunted. He’d faced the cliffs before when he’d calculated the chances of a successful campaign in the Highlands. Edgecomb, the town where he’d first met Shea, wasn’t far from here either.
“What’s the plan?” Caden asked.
Fallon held up his hand and gestured. From the ranks behind them, two Anateri rode forward shadowing the figure that walked between their two horses. Reece looked up at the three of them.
“How do we get up it?” Fallon asked, authority ringing in his voice.
Reece smirked at Shea. “What’s the matter, Shea? Don’t you remember the way?”
Shea took a deep breath. “It’s been over eight months since I left. I assumed your superiors would have changed the code in that time.”
There was also the small fact that she couldn’t exactly remember the location of the entrance. It would take days, if not weeks, for her to locate it. Then she would have to figure out the key to get inside. Somehow, she didn’t think Fallon’s army would wait around patiently for her to take the time to do that.
If she’d still had her maps, she might have been able to cut that time in half. The pathfinders had them coded for a reason. It would have had a hint on how to decipher the code should it have been changed.
“What happened to your map?” Reece asked with a sardonic expression. “Everything you need to know is in there.”
Shea gritted her teeth as she looked away. “They’re gone. I burned them.”
In part because Fallon’s brother had very nearly been successful in decoding them and she didn’t want their secrets falling into the wrong hands. The other reason, the main reason if she was being perfectly honest, was because she didn’t want the temptation of an easy escape from the Trateri and the warlord she called her own. It also took care of ever allowing love to cloud her judgment.
Reece let out a low whistle. “That takes some guts. I’m surprised he let you.”
Shea’s brows snapped together as she leveled Reece with a glare. “Answer his question. How do we access the cavern shortcut?”
Reece looked like he was going to continue needling Shea but a slight shift from the man at Shea’s side changed his mind. Fallon looked like he’d expended all the patience he was willing to give. Shea thought he might try to strangle her cousin if he didn’t get to talking, and fast.