Pathfinder's Way Read Free

you not to send anybody into the
Lowlands without me there to act as guide,” Shea said, her voice as
polite as she could make it given the pulse pounding at her
temple.
    Zrakovi slammed his hand down on the table.
“I won’t have my judgment questioned by a slip of a girl barely
past her majority.”
    “Then how about a Pathfinder with fifteen
years’ experience who told you that heading to the Lowlands at this
time without proper preparation and without a guide was too
dangerous.”
    Slip of a girl, her ass. Shea was twenty five
and had been guiding folks since she was ten years old and could
finally keep up with the adults.
    “You were on assignment,” a thin man with
stringy hair and a beak nose on the other side of the table
complained. “We didn’t know when you would be back, and the
opportunity was too good to pass up. This wouldn’t have happened if
we had more than one pathfinder.”
    Shea’s shoulders tightened and her back
became even more rigid. “You’ve been told in the past that
pathfinders are rare and in high demand. Your village is too small
and too new to warrant more than one.”
    “Too new? We’ve lived here for more than
eighty years. More like we’re being punished,” one of the men
muttered.
    Shea took a deep breath and bit her tongue.
She had to do that a lot while she was in Birdon Leaf. Sometimes
she was amazed there wasn’t a hole in it.
    The simplest explanation was that there just
weren’t enough pathfinders to go round and none who wanted to
destroy a promising career by coming to this backcountry
village.
    No. Shea was the one to receive that
privilege.
    “What village did they go to?”
    If Shea was lucky they had chosen one of the
more stable villages. Though just as dangerous as the rest, they
usually had a reason before they went bat shit crazy.
    “Edgecomb.”
    She sucked in a breath. Well, then.
    Edgecomb was crazier than most. They did not
like outsiders and were very easy to insult.
    “We had reports earlier,” another elder said
gruffly. “Mist is rolling down from the eastern border. It’ll cover
this place in less than two days. They’ll be cut off.”
    Mist. Damn. That complicated things.
    She’d had a feeling it was coming. It was one
of the reasons she pushed the men so hard going up Garylow’s pass.
They were overdue.
    Pointing out just how foolish these people
were would be a waste of breath and cover the same ground as
previous arguments. Shea decided not to address the issue. But she
wanted to. Boy, did she ever.
    “I’ll need four men if we hope to recover
them.”
    “Can’t you do it by yourself?” a man sitting
next to Zrakovi asked.
    “No.”
    “You’re a pathfinder. Isn’t that your
job?”
    The rest of the men spoke over each other to
voice their agreement about how this was impossible.
    Shea didn’t bother listening, instead tuning
them out while she went over her packing list. She’d need at least
five days rations for five people, best-case scenario. Her field
pack was still packed, but she’d have to replenish some of the
items used on her last journey. Hopefully, she had clean underwear
and socks in her cottage. Hmm. When did she last do laundry? A week
ago? Two? She could live in the same clothes if she had clean socks
and undergarments.
    “Are you even paying attention, girl?” Elder
Zrakovi asked.
    Shea brought her attention back to the matter
at hand. “My contract stipulates that I may request help from the
local population if I think it’s necessary.” She looked each man in
the eye as she continued, “If your men are still alive, I will have
to rescue them, and I can’t do that alone. You will give me four
able-bodied men accustomed to trail work and able to keep up on the
distances we will be required to travel.”
    “We may not be able to spare that many men,”
Zrakovi said. “The tali will be flowering in a few days and if the
mist holds off long enough, we’ll need all the people we can get to
bring in