The question now was, what should she do about it? She wasn’t Trateri. Their politics didn’t affect her since she still had plans to escape. For all she knew, these plotters had a legitimate reason for their actions.
Shea frowned. No, that was unlikely since Vincent was involved. That guy had greedy, bottom feeder written all over him.
If she did tell someone, would they even believe her?
One thing was clear; the map Vincent had given her was absolutely worthless.
“Shane! Shane!” a voice called.
Shea turned to find Clark darting toward her waving, a hank of brown hair flopping over his eyes as he stopped in front of her.
“Thought that was you, but I wasn’t sure since you didn’t respond when I called.”
“Sorry, I was lost in thought.” That and occasionally she sometimes forgot people knew her as Shane as opposed to Shea.
“No problem.” He waved her apology away. “You just get back?”
“Yeah,” Shea’s voice was distracted as they stepped to the side of the dirt road to give others right of way. “Oh, last time we were out, we encountered something Lowlanders call frostlings. They look like shadows and seem to fear fire. Not sure how to kill them, though.”
His eyes lit up and he nodded as he made note of her information. “That reminds me. You need to see this.”
He grabbed her arm and pulled her in his wake, winding through the tents as they left the more commonly used paths and went down one of the smaller routes. She ducked under a line securing the tent to a stake as she followed him.
“Is this going to take long? Because I still need to gather some supplies and to talk to some people. Our team just got another mission.”
“You’re on that too?”
She nodded. “Wait a minute. You’re going?”
He looked back and grinned. “All the scouts are. Someone important didn’t show up as scheduled and now every scout in camp has orders to look for him. Don’t worry though, they’re still discussing how the manhunt will be conducted. It’ll probably be a couple hours before everything is settled.”
“Looks like we got back just in time,” Shea said. This had to be part of the plot she overheard. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Clark, but she held back. She didn’t want to get him involved in something that could be dangerous.
“Looks like.”
They zig zagged down another set of alleys and across a wider road.
“Here we are.”
“Where is here?” Shea asked, stepping over a saddle and apologizing as she bumped into one of the servant caste carrying an armful of laundry. She got a glare for her pains as the servant hurried off.
She looked around curiously, following Clark over to an awning. Several lines anchored the canvas in place, causing the edges to dip down with the tension. The only fabric present was the roof and back wall.
Under it, someone had set up a large wooden board and tacked small sheets of paper to it. They fluttered in a stray breeze.
Shea stepped closer to examine the paper. A rough sketch was drawn on each one and names were written under the sketch. She reached out and flattened one sheet to read it better.
Revenant: Compensates for poor eyesight with highly developed sense of smell and hearing. Pickleberry juice can be used to slip past its senses but fades fast and needs to be replenished or they will pick up your scent. Tactics that have worked in the past…
Shea removed her hand and bent to examine another flyer, and when she was done with that another one. Clark fidgeted anxiously next to her while she read one after another.
“I thought the book of beasts was a great idea, but then it occurred to me that other scouts could benefit from the information or even have information of their own to contribute.”
Shea’s face was unemotional and her thoughts shuttered as she glanced over at him.
Not seeing the reaction he expected, Clark continued with his explanation. “I asked a couple other scouts I knew if they had anything they wanted to add to any of the entries. Next thing I knew, they wanted books like mine. So we started this.” He nodded at the board. “Any scout can come and update an entry or add a new one. If they see information they need, they can copy it into their own book.”
Shea looked back at the board. There were over fifty flyers up there, each with its own list of observations. Some were nearly black with the amount of information while others only had one or two lines of description.
“Say something,” Clark burst out.
Shea stared at the board for a long moment. His shoulders drooped.
Shea, for her part, didn’t know how to respond. This was- It was unbelievable. Amazing and overwhelming. She never would have thought to do something like this, and yet it was exactly what she had always wanted. Better even, because anybody who had something to share about their experience could. They didn’t need a special rank or training. Instead, they relied on actual encounters as their proof of necessity. This had the potential to save lives.
Her voice slightly hoarse, she said, “I don’t see the creature I encountered last time. Should I start a new entry, or is there some way to check older ones?”
He looked up, his face hopeful as she smiled slightly at him. If she hadn’t been pretending to be a boy, she probably would be tearing up at this. Or perhaps not given how hard she worked to make people see her as a pathfinder rather than a woman.
“I’ll ask the board’s keeper and also get you a piece of paper,” he said eagerly.
Shea waited as he rushed over to a thin man with shoulder length, light brown hair tied back. He was Shea’s age, maybe a little older, and his face was all angles and planes. The man shot a glance at Shea and then picked up a thick leather bound book before placing a crisp white piece of paper on top of it.
He ambled over to Shea with a slight limp and observed her, a keen intelligence behind his eyes.
“Shane, this is Charles. He’s the one who manages all the entries. Otherwise, it would just be chaos.”
“So you’re the one who came up with this.” His voice was raspy and low as if he’d damaged it at some point in his life.
“This?” Shea looked at the paper board and shook her head. “No. I never would have thought to do this. That’s all Clark.”
Clark flushed at the praise. “But I never would have thought of this, if it hadn’t been for that original journal. This all started with you.”
Her eyes drifted back over the board. It may have started with her, but it hadn’t ended there.
“Let’s see if we can find your creature,” Charles said. “What did it look like?”
Shea described the frostling while he flipped through entries, shaking his head the entire time.
“Are you sure it was a shadow?” he asked. “Because that just doesn’t sound right.”
“I’m sure.”
“Maybe your mind just made this shadow creature up to explain what happened.”
“I know what I saw,” Shea said firmly. She wasn’t surprised he was having a hard time believing her. Even she couldn’t believe it. Needless to say, she left out the part where it had spoken to her. Well, she thought it had spoken to her. She still wasn’t sure about that. Sentience hadn’t been in any of the stories.