have, had you bothered to consult me before taking off.” “My father’s been after you to put together an expedition to Edgecomb for months.” “And I’ve been telling him it’s too dangerous for months. Now you know why.” Shea jumped down and turned back to catch Cam if he fell. James supported him as Cam sat and then slid the rest of the way. “You should have explained this to my father.” Shea put her hands on her hips and caught her breath, before looking up at James as he made his own descent. “Whether your father and you like it or not, I’m a pathfinder,” she told him as she caught him when he started to slide. “I’m not required to justify my decisions to you.” Shea checked on Cam. He didn’t look so good. His face was pale, and he was panting from exertion while she and James’ were barely winded. “What set the Edgecombers off?” “I don’t know.” Shea gave James a look that said exactly what she thought of that response. “I really don’t,” he said defensively. “One moment they seemed amenable to establishing a trade partnership, and then the next they were dragging us out of our beds in the middle of the night.” Hmm. Cam spoke for the first time. “I think it had something to do with the strangers.” “How so?” “They kept us apart after we nearly escaped. It’s why they beat me. They’d been keeping us in one of their sheds. The wood at the back was rotted. I managed to break it and crawl through. Before James could follow, they spotted me. After that, they kept us in separate areas. I heard talk through my window, and they kept calling us spies.” That made no sense. “Spies? Why would they think you were spies?” “I think the other two were discovered outside the village stealing horses. The villagers assumed we were there to spot weaknesses our supposed companions could exploit later.” That could definitely have convinced Edgecomb that James and Cam were spies. That village took paranoid to a whole new level. That didn’t give her much information on their new friends though. It left her with nearly the same amount of questions she had started with. James peeked to make sure the strangers weren’t in hearing range. “Do you think they’re bandits?” Shea thought about it. The description didn’t quite fit. “I doubt it.” “Why do you say that?” Cam had to labor to get the words out. “They move like they’ve been trained to fight. I’m not talking about one of the village militias either.” “You think they could be from one of the city armies down south?” James sounded skeptical. Shea couldn’t blame him. The armies in the south had firm allegiances to their cities and almost never came as far north as the Lowland and Highland border. They were needed to defend against the barbarian hordes who lived in the Outlands. That was the only plausible explanation Shea could think of. Their new friends just didn’t move like normal people. They weren’t farmers or herders. With the speed they moved and Whiskey’s clear grasp of strategy, she couldn’t believe they were simple villagers. The other possibility, she threw out almost before it could fully form. “You think they could be part of a Trateri raiding party?” Cam asked quietly. “Impossible,” James scoffed. “They never come this far north.” The Trateri were the dominant barbarian tribe in the Outlands. Their people led numerous raids against the southern Lowlands. Mostly they were a story northern Lowlanders told their young people to discourage them from moving to the bigger southern cities, where beast attacks were fewer and life easier. Shea had never seen a Trateri or met any who had. Not in any of her journeys in the Highlands or the Lowlands. “Either way, it’s clear our new friends are more than they seem,” Shea finally said. “We’ll have to make sure we’re careful in how we deal with them.” “Agreed.” James voice was