Mist's Edge (The Broken Lands #2) - T.A. White Page 0,32

her and Fallon with his next words. “Your plan worked. The soul tree kept us anchored to this world. After the mist swallowed you, the shades, as you called them, spent several hours trying to tempt us away from its safety.”

“There was something else in the mist?” Braden sat forward in interest, his blue eyes pinning Eamon in place.

Eamon looked at Shea before turning to address Braden. “Yes. Shea called them shades. They spoke with the voice of our loved ones who had gone before. Even with Shea’s warning, we nearly lost two of our number.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t something your imagination dreamed up? Maybe something influenced by the superstitions of others?” Braden carefully didn’t look in Shea’s direction as he said that last bit. She got the message though. He didn’t really believe. Even after his own experience, he doubted.

She didn’t waste any of her breath trying to convince him otherwise. To do so would be pointless, and she loathed wasting her time on useless endeavors.

“I heard Daniel’s voice,” Daere said without looking in their direction. “As clear as on the day he died. Do you think I too imagined it, Braden?”

Braden stared at Daere, who didn’t acknowledge his attention. He had an expression on his face, sadness with a hint of longing in it. There was history there. The kind that ended in tears and heartbreak.

A different person would have been tempted to poke and prod until they knew all the details. Shea made a mental note to avoid any mention of the name Daniel and to keep away when the other two were near each other. She didn’t want to get sucked into whatever was going on between them.

“I heard him as well,” Trenton said into the tense quiet. “I also heard my mother. It was harder to resist their words than it should have been.”

“The shades know your innermost fears, those thoughts and dark urges that we like to pretend don’t exist,” Shea said, setting her ale down. “Their voices can be mesmerizing and are difficult to resist even for seasoned pathfinders.”

“You said there were other things hidden there,” Eamon said.

All eyes found Shea as she gazed unseeing at the table. She came back to herself when Fallon spoke, “Have any others gone in and been able to come back?”

Darius shook his head. “None that we know of so far, but we haven’t re-established communication with a small group that was supposed to head south last week. I’m still waiting to hear back from my scouts.”

“What are the chances that we would have come out of that without your help?” Fallon asked Shea.

She frowned in thought. “It’s doubtful you or your men would have made it out. Quite frankly, it’s a miracle I found you. Everything I’ve ever been taught says you and your men should be lost. Eamon’s team is a little more difficult to gauge. They weren’t as deep in as you. One or two of them might have wandered back out by sheer luck. Unlikely, but still possible.”

Shea stiffened as she realized what she’d just admitted. Fallon’s expression was a cold tundra as his hands clenched around the goblet he’d been holding. After a long, tense moment where the rest of the people at the table found places to turn their eyes, Fallon took a deep breath and released it very slowly.

“How do we make it so that their chances are higher?” Fallon asked, his tone measured, with a false sense of calm.

Shea rubbed her thumb against the smooth wood of the table. She didn’t want to answer that, knowing before she spoke that he wouldn’t like her reply.

“It’s not possible.”

Braden made a derisive sound that Shea ignored.

“There’s a reason pathfinders play such a significant role in the Highlands. If there was a way to cut them out and learn the mist’s secrets, the villagers there would have done so by now,” Shea said.

“You know these secrets though,” Braden said, his eyes hard.

Shea turned to face him, her expression outwardly calm while inwardly she took exception to his tone. It made her want to take her fork and stick it in his neck.

“Some, but not what enables us to travel the mist.”

“That is convenient.” There was a pause before the word convenient as Braden made it clear what he thought of her excuse.

“Now see here,” Buck started, his voice angry. Eamon touched him on the shoulder and gave a minute shake of his head. Eamon’s face was hard as he turned back