Eamon sighed. “Shane thinks he’s onto something.”
“Oh?” Buck leapt onto their rock and squatted next to Shea. “What do you have?”
“Something.”
She pulled out her little journal and flipped to several smaller maps at the back. They weren’t as detailed as what she held in her hand, but it was enough to give her a general idea of the land.
“Is that a map?” Buck asked. “You’re not supposed to be copying the maps, Shane. They could flog you for that.”
“I didn’t copy troop movements or anything sensitive, Buck. You know as well as I do half the time the maps they give us are crap. I wanted a way to keep track of where we’d been so we didn’t have to start from scratch every time we left camp.”
She went back to comparing the two maps.
Seeing the look on her face, Eamon asked, “What? What is it?”
They all regarded her anxiously.
“This map is wrong,” she stated the obvious. This next part might be a little tricky. She needed to convince them while not telling them everything.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean whoever worked on this fucked up. Big. Half the routes are wiped out, and it’s out of date. See here,” she pointed at a broken line that was to the right of their current position. “We went through this area last month with Lance’s boys.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, when we were done, I told Vincent that they shouldn’t send any more men that way unless they wanted them to end up dead.”
“Maybe they disregarded your advice. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
“That’s just it,” she said, touching the map lightly. “The next map they sent out had the updates on it. This one doesn’t. Not to mention there are some routes that aren’t even on here anymore. They’re not marked as either dangerous or safe. It’s like they don’t even exist.”
“I don’t see why this is important,” Eamon said.
Shea was silent a moment as she considered her options. She wasn’t Trateri and had only lingered so long because she liked Eamon and Buck. This was the point of no return. Either she acted on her knowledge or she let nature run its course. Did she really want to get more involved than she already was?
“Let’s consider the facts, then,” she said finally. It wasn’t in her to just walk away even if it was easier. “Every scout that was in or around the encampment was mobilized to locate someone. It’s someone important, which means enemies. Pretty well connected enemies if my hunch is right. What if those enemies gave him a map that was wrong? Kind of like this one.”
The dark prevented her from reading the men’s faces so she was unable to tell the effect her words were having on them.
“Maybe it steered this person toward some of the more dangerous routes, or maybe it was some mistake. All I know is we’re almost through our area and whatever it is we’re supposed to be looking for isn’t here.”
She didn’t want to make it seem too obvious that she knew it was on purpose.
“What do you suggest we do?” Phillip asked. He had been a silent presence until now, and she had almost forgotten he was there.
She shrugged. “We look through some of the routes that should be on here but aren’t.”
Silence met her statement. Not knowing how they were taking her idea, she kept quiet and waited. In the end, she didn’t know the person lost out there, and she wasn’t Trateri. She’d laid out their options and pointed at the inconsistencies in the information they’d been given. Whatever happened next was on them.
She told herself she didn’t care as she busied herself with studying the map, but that was a lie. She did care, and she hated the idea of leaving someone alone in the dark, especially since she felt slightly responsible for not speaking up sooner.
It was the same reason she worked with the people of Birdon Leaf despite the fact she was treated as the village pariah. She knew the fear of being out there in the great wild expanse knowing nobody was coming for you. Now, when faced with the thought of abandoning someone to that same fate, she couldn’t do it.
“That’s a lot of ground to cover,” Buck said uneasily.
“Yup.”
There were a number of trails that had been mismarked or left off the map. It would be impossible to cover all of the area with just the four of them in a time frame that could make a difference to the men who were lost.
“Is there a way to narrow it down a little?” Phillip crouched beside her and peered at the parchment in question.
Shea shut her eyes, allowing herself to feel a moment of relief. This was the reason she hadn’t left yet. Every time she steeled herself against their disdain or disbelief they did something completely incomprehensible like follow her down whatever rabbit hole she found.
“It would have to be a trail that had shown up on other maps but had recently been declared a danger zone,” Buck said, crouching on her other side. “That way if the intended target had any familiarity with previous maps it wouldn’t be too suspicious.”
“I’m guessing the route would have also been left off the maps given to the scouts so none of them got it into their heads to check it just in case.” Phillip picked up Shea’s journal and squinted at it, trying to decipher her scribbling’s in the dim light and compare them to the bigger map.
Shea looked up at Eamon, the only one of them who hadn’t said anything and also the one who would ultimately decide if they would investigate this theory or continue following their orders.
The torch cast harsh shadows on the sharp planes of his features, concealing his thoughts. He placed both hands on his waist and rocked back and forth, bending his head slightly. Shea knew from prior experience that it was the pose he used when he was thinking over his options.
The two at her side pretended to ignore Eamon’s internal struggle, but, like her, they held themselves tight in anticipation.
“It probably wouldn’t be too far off the area we’re searching so as to further allay suspicion,” Eamon finally added.
The three exhaled in relief before bending to compare notes and observations. The hunt was on, and if there was anything Shea had learned in her time with the Trateri, it was that they loved a hunt, whether of man or beast.
They decided their quarry had been coming from the north and a little to the east since most of the scouts had been sent north and slightly to the west. After discarding some of the more mountainous paths and the ones with little probability of beast activity, they were left with four strong possibilities and a remaining three that held an outside chance.
“That’s still too many,” Eamon said, looking at their work.
They all sat back, disappointed. Even if they were right, it wouldn’t help them unless they could narrow their search to a smaller area. While Eamon and the others were convinced of Shea’s theory, there was very little possibility other scouts would be.
Searching outside their designated area was dangerous. If they failed, it could be seen as a sign of insubordination, leaving them open for challenge. If Eamon lost a challenge then he’d be stripped of his rank, and they could all be punished. It wasn’t a happy thought.
“We could split up,” Phillip offered. “Each take a separate route.”