Mist's Edge (The Broken Lands #2) - T.A. White Page 0,171

doors that would give them entry to the Highlands. On each door, a set of runes was carved. Shea didn’t need to know the language to know that it was probably the reason why the denizens of the caverns remained where they were.

They were just in time. The sky had darkened to a deep midnight as the stars and the moon shuttered their faces in preparation of day. Soon, threads of color would begin eating away at the darkness as the sun rose.

Clark stared at the doors with a slightly lost expression on his face. He’d been silent on the way out. None of his normal chipper personality showed. The only time Shea saw a glimpse of the old Clark was when Buck and Eamon had tackled him when they’d appeared.

After the reunion, he’d withdrawn again.

Shea approached him, not knowing what to say. His friend had betrayed him in one of the worst ways imaginable. That tended to leave a mark on a person. No platitude she gave him would make that better.

She settled for standing beside him as the sun began to rise, letting him know without words that she was there for him. That he wasn’t alone. Sometimes, that’s all you could do for a person.

When his head bowed and his shoulders shook from silent tears, Shea took a step closer and wrapped her arm around him. She kept a grip on him even after Eamon came up on his other side. His eyes met hers in understanding. She’d told him what had happened with Charles on the journey out.

Long after the dark had ceded dominion to the light, Clark straightened and gave them each a small, hesitant smile.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Shea said. She withdrew a green jacket from her pack. “We found this while in the city. I believe it belongs to you.”

“My jacket.” Clark reached out to touch it. Shea handed it to him. “How did you find it?”

“It was just hanging from a post in the city. Actually, stopping to retrieve it probably saved Fallon’s and my lives. How’d you lose it?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” Clark’s face was perplexed. “I woke up to find it gone after the first time Fiona and I stopped to rest. I’d lain it on top of me to keep warm as I slept.”

His eyes were sad as he looked at it. He fell silent, his thoughts turning inward. Shea didn’t push.

“We’re here for you when you want to talk,” Eamon told him.

Clark gave him a nod before walking away.

“He’ll get over this,” Eamon said.

Shea hoped so, even as she doubted it would be for a very long time.

“Looks like your Warlord has need of you,” Eamon observed. He took his leave, saying, “I’m glad you’re alright and were able to find Clark.”

“I’ll catch up with you later.”

Fallon stepped close and wrapped his arms around Shea. She allowed herself a moment to be supported by his strength. Then she straightened and forced back her tears. “The men should take a brief break and then we need to move on. I want this place far in our shadow before we stop for the night,” she said.

Fallon watched her for a long moment, assessing her mental state. She avoided his eyes. Sometimes she thought he saw too much with that oddly penetrating gaze of his, and right now she didn’t know if she could bear having her inner self on display.

He gave her a nod and let her walk away, before he gestured for Caden and Braden to relay her orders.

*

“This isn’t the path to the Wayfarer’s Keep,” Shea said, staring up at the mountain ridge in front of her. They had stopped halfway up the mountain, just below the tree line. If her memory was correct, this would take them west of the keep by several week’s ride.

Reece took a swig of his water before capping it and putting it back in the saddle bags. Fallon had ordered a horse for him when it became clear his continued walking would only slow them down. Unlike when Shea was his captive, he had ordered a proper horse for the pathfinder, not some stunted growth mule that couldn’t match a horse’s longer strides.

“You’re getting rusty, Shea. I expected you to figure that out several days ago.”

Shea watched him with a calculating expression. It was true that she should have picked up on the divergent path earlier, but grief had made her slower than normal. “That’s the Dragon’s Tail. You would never