Read Online Pathfinder's Way by T.A. White - Free Book Online Page B

weapons into position without destroying the element
of surprise.”
    Silence fell between the two, broken only by
the sound of a horse’s whinny. Fallon stared off into the distance,
lost in thought as Darius studied him.
    “We’ll have to limit our plans to the
Lowlands. For now.” Fallon’s head turned slowly to Darius,
anticipation burning in his eyes. “Prepare your men. Our army
marches on the Lowlands shortly.”
    A loud whoop escaped Darius as he lunged
forward to clasp Fallon in a tight hug. For nearly twenty years,
they had planned for this day. They had sworn the moment they
became friends at the age of ten they would lead the clans to
create an empire spanning across the continent.
    “I’m at your side every step of the way,”
Darius declared, clasping Fallon on the shoulder.
    “I never doubted it,” Fallon told him. “Come.
Let’s find Wilhelm, and you can tell me what the Clan Heads have
been plotting in my absence.”
    Darius gestured for one of his warriors to
dismount and give his horse to Fallon. They mounted and headed in
the direction Wilhelm had taken. It wasn’t long before they pulled
their horses to a stop as Wilhelm and his men met them coming from
the opposite direction
    “My lord, they’re gone,” Wilhelm said without
preamble. “We found no track. It looks like they just
disappeared.”
    There was a moment of stunned silence at this
news, and then Darius gave a bark of laughter.
    “It appears you’ve found an entire clan of
ghosts,” he told Fallon.
    “I’m beginning to think you’re right,” Fallon
said, shaking his head and spurring his horse in the direction
Wilhelm had come. He wanted to see this for himself.
    Wilhelm hadn’t lied. The other four were
gone. The hidey hole hid nothing but dirt and a few small
rocks.
    Darius’ men spread out to see if there were
any other places for the four to hide but had so far turned up
nothing. The strangers had disappeared into thin air.
    Fallon gave a considering look at the canyon
walls, wondering if they had done as the woman had and simply
scaled them. He shook his head. No. One had been too injured to
make that climb, and since he wasn’t there, they would have taken
him with them.
    It was a mystery that teased at his brain.
Besides thinking up new strategies for battle, life had gotten
slightly boring of late. If the woman, Shea, had wanted to make him
lose interest in her, she should have simply surrendered. Now, she
presented a challenge. Prey to be hunted.
    He turned his horse and kicked it into a
trot, trusting the others to follow.
    “Should we keep searching?” Wilhelm
asked.
    After giving Fallon a long considering look,
Darius answered, “No. She’s his to find now.”
    Darius clicked to his horse, breaking into a
canter and quickly catching up to Fallon. He pulled lightly on the
reins to slow his horse to a walk.
    “What do you want to do about the
village?”
    “We don’t have time to deal with them
now.”
    “And later?” Darius asked already knowing the
answer.
    “Burn it.”
     
    From her hiding place atop the cliff, Shea
watched Fallon and his men ride away. When they were gone, she
found a path down to the canyon and ran to the hiding place. Like
Fallon and his men, she found nothing. Unlike them, she was
prepared for that.
    Witt would have moved the group as soon as
the last villager passed. That had been the plan all along. It was
why she had drawn the strangers along with her rather than leaving
them behind.
    She didn’t need help distracting the
villagers, but the strangers had set off every instinct she had.
She hadn’t wanted to chance revealing the way into the
Highlands.
    Witt would have known this and acted
accordingly in case something had gone wrong on her end. Now, she
just had to get back to the rendezvous point.
    Worry niggled at her at the thought of them
trying to make their way through the Badlands without a guide.
Firmly, she pushed it down. Witt was a smart man with experience
out