Pathfinder's Way by T.A. White

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