Pathfinder's Way by T.A. White Page A

firm.
    Shea shot him a look from the corner of her
eye. She hadn’t really been asking for his permission.
    She shrugged. It didn’t hurt to let him think
he had a say.
     
    “Over here,” Shea said, making her way to a
large rock pile.
    She darted around its edge, climbing onto a
large outcropping before turning to pull Cam up while James pushed
from below. Finding this nice little hiding place had taken a lot
longer than she would have liked.
    Their pace had fallen nearly to a crawl as
the day progressed. Cam struggled to keep up, relying more and more
on James for support until James nearly had to carry him.
    Knowing their pursuers would catch them if
they continued at the rate they were going, Shea had handed her
pack off to Witt before running ahead in search of a hidey
hole.
    She’d found one not far away.
    A person looking directly at the pile of
boulders would assume they butted right up against the canyon wall.
It wasn’t until you walked to the far right side that you could see
a narrow gap where a small group of people could remain unseen by
others passing by.
    Best of all, the rock slide had created
enough of a hill that a really determined person could probably use
the resulting debris to climb to the top of the ridge.
    Shea jumped back down and ordered Dane and
Witt to join the other two. For once, they obeyed without
arguing.
    “Wait here until I come back. I’ll try to
draw them off.” She pointed at the two strangers. “You’re coming
with me.”
    She started wiping away the tracks leading to
the hiding place. There were two thuds as the strangers hopped down
beside her. In seconds, they had done a hasty but reasonably
thorough job of wiping the dirt clean of all traces of passage.
    Just in time too as the noise of pursuit
began to rise.
    She really hoped this worked, that she wasn’t
leaving her people cornered.
    Shea and the other two darted down the path,
turning the corner just as the first villager burst into sight. The
strangers kept pace as Shea hurtled away from the others.
    A knot in her chest loosened slightly as the
villagers poured after them, leaving the others undisturbed in the
hiding place.
    Shea followed the twists and turns of the
canyon, hastily scanning the area for a break in the rock walls or
a weak spot she and the others could use to scramble to safety. If
they didn’t get out of this confining space, they were dead.
    Shea rounded a corner and slid to a sharp
stop, nearly falling on her ass as she lost her balance.
    A horse pawed idly at the ground while
another shook his head, ruffling his mane as riders watched her
impassively.
    “Crap,” Shea whispered, backing away slowly
as a rider’s horse broke from the group to take several steps
forward.
    She bumped into a large body and jumped. She
turned with a warning to run on her lips when a pair of hands
steadied her before tugging her to the side.
    “Behind us,” Whiskey barked.
    Shea tilted her head to look up at him. His
eyes were hard, and his voice held a steely thread of command.
    Shea flinched back as the men unsheathed
their weapons. The riders thundered past, leaving the trio
untouched.
    Shea exhaled shakily. May the mist take her,
but she’d thought that was the end.
    She nearly swallowed her tongue when she
noticed a man had remained behind.
    He kicked his horse forward into a slow trot.
Stopping next to Shea and Whiskey, he unbuckled the sword attached
to the pommel of his saddle.
    “You took your sweet time, Fallon.”
    “One of our party was injured. It slowed us
down,” Whiskey rumbled from behind Shea.
    The man on the horse tossed the sword to
Fallon, the whiskey-eyed man, who caught it easily. He released
Shea to buckle the sword onto his belt.
    “We’d almost given you up for dead.” The
rider’s lips twisted into a sardonic smile. “I could practically
hear the clan heads fighting over your successor.”
    “They’ll just have to wait a little longer.
I’m sure they have many plans for my