The strength left her body, and she rolled onto her back. The blue, blue sky looked down at her. It smiled at her with a delicate slice of cloud right before a bunny hopped across, leaving trails of white tufts floating after it.
There must have been something in the smoke, she realized finally.
After that she didn’t do a lot of thinking, but simply experienced things with a wide-eyed wonder as images and thoughts raced by. Sometimes these things collided in a brilliant cascade of color and light.
The first warp took her back to her childhood.
She was holding tight to a woman’s hand. In Shea’s eyes, that woman was the most beautiful woman in the world. Shea paid close attention as the woman explained the difference between a thistle thorn paw print and that of a red tail’s.
“Understand, Shea?”
“Yes, Mommy.”
“Lainey, are you teaching that girl tracking again?” a deep voice asked affectionately.
Shea’s mother gave the man a crooked grin. “It’s never too early to start. Huh, sweet pea?”
Shea was engrossed in studying the paw print her mother had pointed out and her little forehead puckered as she concentrated.
The man slung an arm around Lainey’s chest, pulling her firmly against him as he settled his chin on her head.
“I see you’re determined to have her follow in your footsteps.”
Shea’s head shot up, and she frowned at him. “I’m not going to be like Mommy. I’m going to be a gatherer and go on many adventures where I learn things nobody else knows.”
“Are you now?” Shea’s mother asked.
Shea nodded once, firmly.
Both her mother and father laughed. Her father leaned down and scooped her small body up.
“I guess you’d better soak up everything your mom has to teach you, then. It’s even harder to become a gatherer than it is a pathfinder.”
The world froze before twisting and bursting into a starburst of bright light.
“Pick up the pace,” Shea barked, looking back at the rear. “We need to find cover before nightfall.”
A chorus of weary groans answered. She allowed herself a brief moment as she looked over her group of twenty travelers. They, like her, were exhausted.
The journey’s stress and the constant worry of being in the Badlands were taking their toll.
Already, ten in their party had fallen. Mostly to beasts, three to the mist that fell while they’d navigated the border between the Highlands and Badlands.
A small part of her was beginning to think the elders had been right. Highlanders were simply not meant to explore this desolate land of dust and death.
“Eagle!” shouted through the ranks, as each man on the line repeated it until the shout resounded over the plateau.
Terror struck deep as a large shadow fell over them.
A draft of wind passed right over her and she tripped and fell. Brown wings trimmed in white spread wide, blocking out the sun as its owner brushed past. Screams pierced the quiet and the eagle dipped and then rose again, two men clutched in its claws.
Something inside Shea shriveled as the beast winged its way higher and higher. That same something withered further when two more eagles dropped out of the sky to claim more of her men. She’d never seen so many of them. Shea watched, motionless and helpless, as her dreams died all around her.
Her arrogance had gotten them killed.
She could do nothing but wait for her turn.
Light burst all around her and then the world went dark.
Shea opened her eyes slowly to stare up at a night sky marred by the warm glow of the fire next to her. The low murmur of voices was accompanied by the crackle and snap of the burning logs.
Her body felt as if it had been wrung dry. She swallowed, feeling like sand had been poured in her mouth.
“I see you’re finally back.” Fallon’s voice came from the dark on her left.
She turned her head, slowly, so slowly. It felt like it weighed three times what it did normally. “Did I go somewhere?”
That rough, scratchy noise didn’t sound like her voice. A cool cup of water was passed to her and a large hand on her back helped her sit. She gulped the water down gratefully, not even minding when some of it missed her lips and spilled down her front.
Fallon tilted the cup away from her. “Easy.”
When he let her drink again, she forced herself to go slow even though it felt like the water evaporated as soon as it touched her parched tongue. She was numb, as if all the emotion had been stripped from her and the only thing left was a pervasive nothingness.
“What was in the fire?” Shea asked. She didn’t really care if he answered, it was just that questions had been a part of her life for so long they rose without thought.
“It’s wilder root,” Fallon told her. “My people refer to it as our venom. It’s used when a door needs to be opened between the present and the past. It’s supposed to strip away the blinders and make everything clear again. It’s not without danger, though. Some get lost in the dreams and never find their way out.”
She’d never heard of such a thing. Part of her knew she should be filing that little tidbit away to be documented later, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.
“You’re one of us now.” Fallon picked up her hand, his felt warm against her chilled skin.
“What does that mean?” Shea found herself asking. “I’m one of you?”
“You have the same rights as a Trateri. You can claim war spoils as one of us, proclaim challenge. Any children you bear will be raised Trateri. In essence, you have become as much a Trateri as if you’d been born of us.”
“Isn’t that nice.” A little of Shea’s normal personality began to peek through. “So in the end you’re just like them.”
Fallon tilted his head and watched her carefully.
“Let me ask you something. Once you’ve conquered all of the Lowlands, what do you plan to do with this land?”
“They will be integrated into my own people as we create a country under one ruler.”
“Ah. So you mean they’ll be your servants. Good enough to work in your army and die for you but not really be one of you.”
“That’s right.” Fallon had no hesitation in his answer.
Shea snorted back a laugh. That’s a conqueror for you.
“That’s how it works. The strong rule the weak. They had their chance, and they’ve squandered it. Without my men, these people would be dead in another generation or two.” Fallon’s voice hardened, and Shea saw the ruthless intellect behind the warrior’s mask. “Look around, my people never should have been able to conquer this land. There hasn’t been a significant battle since we invaded. The biggest threats aren’t from men but beasts. This land is fertile and capable of supporting a population three times its size whereas where we come from every drop of water has to be measured so as not to be wasted. Every scrap of food that passes our lips has to be rationed carefully. Hunger isn’t something you feel; it’s a state of being.
And yet nothing has stopped us from sweeping across this land. Your villages are laughably small and even your cities are capable of sustaining many more. You have entire towns that disappear in the night. These people have done nothing to save themselves. It will be my people who brave the wilds to secure their safety. They will reap the benefits.”