around her, bringing with it the faintest sounds of voices, indistinct and indecipherable. She frowned. There should be no way for air to flow in this place. Any air that might have made it through the cracks in the rock above would never have reached this far down.
The voices carried by the wind grew more distinct. A murmuring, fueled by a thousand individual voices, rose. It was difficult but Shea though she heard one phrase being repeated over and over.
Enemy of my enemy, you are betrayed.
Betrayed?
Her eyes shot to the building. Some of the men had not come back last night. Perhaps the ones responsible for the collapse of the buildings before?
Her eyes went to the base of two buildings, but she didn’t see anything amiss. Still, that feeling was there in the pit of her stomach. The one that said something bad was coming.
Fallon looked like he felt it too as he stepped closer to the alley that would lead him to the square and the jacket.
“No, stay back,” Shea shouted. Her horse responded to the urgency of her voice by prancing in place. It was the only thing that saved her. An arrow flew by, piercing the air where she had just been. Shea ducked in her seat, hanging off the side of her horse as she tried to shield her vital points.
Almost at the exact same moment, an explosion rent the air and the buildings they would have been riding through, had Shea not gotten distracted by the jacket, began to fall, collapsing in a great wave of dust and rubble.
The commotion proved too much for her mount. It reared, dumping her to the ground before taking off in the opposite direction of the collapse. Shea stayed low to the ground, not knowing if the bowmen in the building planned another shot at her or had already disappeared.
“Shea!” Fallon roared.
Shea coughed and lifted her head. The cloud of debris from the explosion and collapse had not yet dissipated. She couldn’t see him through the alley, nor he her.
She could hear him though. She could also hear Caden ordering his Anateri to keep him back.
“Stay there. We don’t know if they’ve set up secondary traps,” Shea shouted, or tried to shout, since the air made it hard to speak without coughing.
She sat up cautiously, hoping the poor visibility would keep her from being shot.
“There are archers in the buildings. Find cover,” she ordered.
There was a low murmur as Caden ordered his men into the buildings to search for their ambushers.
The world had turned a dusky gray. Shea climbed to her feet and limped forward. The jacket and post rose out of the gray, the only familiar landmark.
She grabbed the jacket and pulled it from the post, figuring that since she was here already she might as well get what she came for.
“Clear,” one of the Anateri yelled. It sounded like his voice was coming from high up in the building she suspected the archer had been in when she’d been shot at.
“Here as well,” another called.
Shea was glad because the dust was clearing from the air. She could see Fallon now, Caden at his side.
His eyes sparked with relief at the sight of her. She waved letting him know she was alright. His shoulders relaxed and he took a step toward her. She put up a hand and shook her head. No, she didn’t want him between those two buildings. Chances were they weren’t posed to collapse, but it never hurt to be careful.
He nodded, understanding her concern. Impatience drew his brows together. He turned on his heel, disappearing from view. Shea figured she had only a few moments as he took the same route she did to this square.
She turned the jacket over in her hands, noting the rips in the arm and one on the back. A few dark spots down the front had her stomach clenching with worry. It could be blood, but there was a chance it was something harmless. Though her mind was having a hard time coming up with an alternative.
There didn’t look to be enough of it to indicate a severe injury, but it was hard to tell. Shea couldn’t imagine Clark abandoning this jacket lightly. He took great pride in being a scout, and this jacket declared his status to other Trateri.
She bent and examined the cobblestones around the post. The cool climate of the cavern had preserved much of this place, even wood that should have long rotted away.