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.
“Fine. You’ve turned into such a spoilsport, you know that?”
Shea fixed him with a gaze that said she was not amused. She had always been the spoilsport among the two of them—the voice of reason in whatever insane plan that struck him.
Reece turned to walk towards the cliffs. Caden stiffened and let out a sharp whistle. The Anateri guards Fallon had posted reacted immediately. They kicked their horses into a gallop and circled Reece, weapons drawn as they herded him back towards Fallon.
“What the hell are you doing?” Reece asked, his face flushed as he glared at the guards as they used their horses to force Reece closer to where the three of them waited. It was move or be crushed, the horses snorting and bobbing their heads any time Reece looked like he planned to stand his ground.
“Shea, will you ask that musclebound idiot at your side to call off his lackeys? I don’t know how you expect me to find a way into the caverns, if his men keep acting like a bunch of newbies jumping at the least provocation.”
“You can tell us the location of the entrance. We will do the rest,” Fallon said. He eyed Reece like he was a bug he wanted to squash.
“That won’t work,” Reece said, finally addressing Fallon directly.
Shea could have told him earlier that pushing Fallon was the best way to not get what you want, but she figured she’d let him dig his own grave. He was her least favorite cousin, after all.
“As your lovely friend over there could tell you, if she planned on being the least bit helpful, these entrances can be a bit tricky. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could walk right past it, best-case scenario. Worst-case, you trigger something that leaves a lot of people dead, including yourself.”
Caden scoffed. “You want us to believe your people have some sorcery to enable you, and you alone, to access this place. Next, you’ll want us to believe that the sky might fall unless you’re there to hold it up.”
Reece looked at Shea. “How did you allow yourself to be caught by these dunderfucks? And why have you stayed this long?”
The guard behind Reece kicked him in the back of the head. Reece fell to his knees. He glared over his shoulder at the guard.
Shea regarded the Anateri with a wry look before addressing Reece, “That’s how.”
Amusement crossed Caden’s face, tugging at his lips, and was gone before Shea could do more than blink at him.
“The Trateri can be very persuasive as you’ve just experienced,” Shea said before turning to Fallon. “He does have a point though. The caverns aren’t entirely natural and have been rigged with traps should they be breached by the enemy.”