His snicker became a laugh as he realized his words could be taken two ways. He was still laughing when he walked out of the room, but he controlled it quickly enough. “Get your asses to the dining hall. We eat cold until we return.”
After he had disappeared, Marsh stood up. She looked at the open door, then glanced uncertainly back at Roeglin. “Is he gone?”
Roeglin stared at the door. “I can’t…”
Master Envermet’s head appeared back around the doorframe. “Oh, and it’s rude to try to read your commanding officer’s mind. Don’t do it again.”
His tone of voice was so mild that anyone overhearing him might have been forgiven for not recognizing the reprimand for what it was, but both Roeglin and Marsh could hear what else he said.
I worked out how to shield, he told them, and how to tell when my mind wasn’t alone, and Mistress Sulema is helping me with the rest. Roeglin, you and I will discuss this when the Grotto is secure.
His lips tightened into a thin smile, and he pulled his head back into the corridor. Both Marsh and Roeglin stared at the doorway, listening to his footsteps retreating down the corridor.
“I am going to put bells on that man,” Marsh murmured, cautiously approaching the corridor.
“I help,” Aisha told her and extended her hand.
Marsh accepted her grip, and they left Roeglin and Tamlin’s room. Tamlin’s words still reached them, though. “Did you really just sleep last night, Roeglin?”
Even to Marsh, the boy sounded slightly disappointed, and she didn’t wait to hear Roeglin’s answer. Aisha looked up at her, tugging on her hand. “I can come?”
At least that one was easy.
“What did Master Envermet say?”
Aisha pouted. “He’s not the boss of me.”
Marsh started to point out that Master Envermet was indeed the boss of her, but she didn’t want to fight with the child just before she headed out to infiltrate the heads of the raiders manning Ariella’s Grotto.
Instead, she took a different approach. “Well, he actually is the boss of me. You don’t really want to get me into trouble, do you?”
Aisha frowned, and Marsh wondered just how far out the jury was on that one. It was a relief when the little girl answered, even if her reply wasn’t comforting. “He no see me...”
Marsh laughed, remembering Master Envermet’s newly revealed abilities. “He’d know, Aisha.”
Her eyes widened. “Can he do mind magic?”
Marsh met her gaze and gave her a solemn nod. “And he’s very, very good,” she whispered.
“Better than Roeglin?” the little girl demanded, and Marsh nodded again.
“I think he might be.”
Aisha gasped. “Dat’s very, very bad.”
Marsh bit back the urge to laugh. She supposed it really was quite bad, but not in the way Aisha meant. She left the child in Sulema’s care and wondered why the elder wanted to bother herself with a task that could have been passed on to someone with less responsibility.
Because I can keep the little rascal busy, Sulema told her, reminding her that she and Roeglin weren’t the only ones who could walk through minds.
They moved out shortly after, with Master Envermet taking two dozen of them through the wall. As soon as they hit the trail outside, he led them at a run toward Shamka, stopping well before he got there.
“This is where we’ll return to if we get separated,” he told them. “I want each and every one of you to impress this area in your minds and mark it well. You will need to find it again.”
He turned and gestured for Marsh and Roeglin to come forward. “Shadow Mages Leclerc and Leger are your liaisons. Shadow Mage Leclerc has found a way to step from one shadow to another, and Shadow Mage Leger is also a mind walker. He will show you what she does, and then you will try to do the same.”
He looked at the gathered mages. “We will be traveling by shadow whenever we can. It will make us harder to trace and harder to catch. Am I understood?”
The question was met by a soft chorus of “sir, yes sirs,” and Master Envermet stepped back directing their attention to Marsh and Roeglin.
It took them an hour before the others had mastered the skill, and even then, there were some who needed the assistance of a more able colleague to succeed.
“Not all of us have the same abilities,” Master Envermet soothed when one mage apologized for not being to shadow-step on his own. “There is no need to be sorry if you have done your best but the ability evades you.”
When he was satisfied that they had come as far as they were able, Master Envermet turned to Marsh and Roeglin. “Have either of you ever been to the Grotto?”
When they shook their heads, he continued. “Then we’ll get closer the old-fashioned way. We need to get close enough that you can hear what they say and see what they do, but you must do this without being discovered.”
He scanned their faces to make sure his words had been understood. “I want no heroes today. No one dies. Do you hear me?”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
“Once Roeglin relays the path to the Grotto, you are to move out. Pay attention to the light on the sinkhole. When the vines reflect the sunset and the Surface light begins to dim, you are to return here. Understood?”
This time their affirmation was softer, and many of them looked toward the rim of the sinkhole. Marsh noticed the coppery gleam of the dawn light reflecting from the leaves and hoped the others would understand that this is what the sunset would look like. From the way they studied it, many of them had never seen a sunset in their lives. She wondered that Master Envermet hadn’t thought of it.
“Master Leclerc has a point.” Master Envermet’s voice surprised them all but he continued unperturbed. “When the leaves at the sinkhole edge next look like that, return here.”
When they gave him their affirmative, he led them out. The light from the surface world shone directly overhead, and the shrooms gave way to straggly vegetation. As it grew brighter, Zeb, Gerry, and Izmay pulled thin bands of dark cloth from their waistbands and tied them over their eyes.
Izmay sniffed, wiping tears away as she tied the band in place. Marsh looked at Henri and almost laughed at the look of concern on his face. It hadn’t taken long for the man to forget that some of his colleagues couldn’t adjust their vision so they could see by daylight.
He moved his hand to catch her attention and pointed to his head.
Marsh frowned and then shrugged. The man wanted her to look inside his head?
She wasn’t sure that was a good invitation to accept but did it anyway. At least he hadn’t shouted his concerns out where the whole grotto could hear it. His mind was in turmoil when she reached it, but she caught what he wanted her to notice.
Not many shadows out there, shadow mage.
No, Henri, there aren’t.
So how are you going to shadow step out in that?
Marsh had to admit that the man had a point. She was going to nudge Roeglin when she realized he’d been in her head already. From the way he was looking at Master Envermet, the pair of them were already deep in conversation.
Roeglin turned and sighed. “Marsh.”
The captain has a plan.
Given the look on Henri’s face, the big man had his doubts. Marsh ignored him, following Roeglin’s invitation into the captain’s head. For a moment she felt guilty, but she pushed the thought away.
If the man had invited her presence, she was okay.
Captain.
There is a mind mage inside the walls. Master Envermet came straight to the point. Here is where he suggests we go to discover what they plan.
They studied it, and then Roeglin voiced the question Marsh was thinking. Are you sure he’s on our side?
As sure as I can be. Either way, this is the only place he can be sure of having enough shadow for us to step to. It is also close to the wall between where they are keeping the captives and their headquarters. If we want to mind-wal
k the plans they have for Ariella’s Grotto, that would be the place to start.
Marsh looked at the other mages crouched in the shadows at the edge of the sunlit space beneath the sinkhole’s maw. What about them?
Roeglin...
Marsh might have guessed what Envermet was ordering, but she was sure of it from the look of denial on Henri’s face. He shook his head, and Marsh ignored the demand he made by tapping his head with his finger. There was no way she was going in there to be shouted at.
She pretended to misunderstand him, tapping her own forehead with her forefinger and raising it in salute.
He is furious, Roeglin told her. Apparently, he promised Aisha he would keep you out of trouble. She promised him a tea party in return—and you were catering, by the way.
Marsh smiled. That little devil.
That opportunistic Deeps-spawned son, Roeglin corrected, and Marsh poked him.
Not jealous, are you?
Master Envermet cleared his throat. As entertaining as this is, shall we?
Marsh and Roeglin nodded, accepting the location his contact gave them. This time, they stayed close together and stepped into the deep shade cast by a long-solidified rockfall. They came out together and immediately pulled more shadow around them.
This is not... Master Envermet began as a half-dozen lanterns lit the space they’d crossed into.
You don’t say? Roeglin snapped as Marsh pulled a shield and sword from the shadows.
Only it wasn’t made of shadow. Like the time she’d called weapon and defense on the Surface, the shield and blade were translucent. It didn’t worry Marsh, though. They might be hard to see, but they were still just as effective.
She proved it as soon as the nearest raider stepped in with a short metal bar. He swung. She blocked, and the bar bounced off her shield. Her sword’s point sliced through the leather armor covering his midriff and he fell screaming.
How are you doing that? Master Envermet demanded, not at all daunted by the rule of not intruding without permission. I’m the captain.
Marsh didn’t think that applied, but she didn’t argue. She just showed him what she knew.
Our shadow blades and shields are made of the air in the shadow?
Oui.
Roeglin laughed, pulling a spear from the light and driving it through the man that turned his attention from him to deal with Marsh. He left it to dissipate on its own and pulled another, spotting the mage on the other side of the room.
”You’re next,” he said, driving the spear into the next raider.
“Shag the shrooms,” Master Envermet cursed, drawing several darts from thin air. I wanted him alive.
He threw the first dart and followed it with a second and third.
Us alive is better, Roeglin snapped back.
Marsh, in the meantime, had stopped the screaming and taken out a second of the waiting raiders. Roeglin took down a fourth, and Master Envermet blocked an attack from the fifth. Before he could switch from darts to something more effective, Marsh had stepped over the bodies of her opponents and taken him out.
He growled in frustration, but it did him no good. Roeglin took out the sixth. When the raiders lay dead at their feet, they picked up the dropped lanterns and covered their light.
That was unpleasant, Roeglin told him, and Master Envermet shrugged.
He’s obviously had more practice at shielding.
Do you think he had time to tell them about our people outside? Marsh asked.
Both men cursed, but quietly.
Can you check?
At first, Marsh didn’t get what Roeglin was driving at, and then she did. I am ten times the fool.
Roeglin raised his hand. I didn’t say it.
Marsh took a deep breath and closed her eyes, first seeking out the life forces in the area. Once she had, she frowned. “Where is everyone?” she asked, and the two men were inside her head in an instant.
“Oh, Sons of the Deep.” Roeglin groaned, and Master Envermet reverted to some of Gustav’s favorite phrases.
“Of all the goat-sucking, shroom-shagging, Deeps-be-damned misbegotten sons.” He glared at Marsh as though it was all her fault. “Where did they go?”
Marsh thought about it and studied the results her life scans had brought back. “What about him?” she asked, highlighting one in their minds.
Master Envermet looked at Roeglin. “What do you think?”
“It’s up to you.”
Marsh poked Roeglin. “Will one of you just do it?” She paused. “Unless you want me to...”
The response was instantaneous. “No, no, no,” from Master Envermet, and “I’ll do it,” from Roeglin.
Marsh smirked. It had to be one of them. If she went in, he might not have a mind left to answer the questions they needed him to. She might be able to bend the shadows to her will, but the mind was another matter.
She studied the movement of the life forces both inside the Grotto’s waystation and the town proper and outside it. It was a relief to see no great concentration of life moving toward the scattered lives of the other shadow mages waiting at the edge of the light.
“Where did they go?” she whispered, and Roeglin came back with the answer.
“They’re moving on Shamka, bringing in a larger force through the caverns behind it.”
“But they said there wasn’t a link to the surface world,” Marsh protested.
“They didn’t find it, but it’s there. The raiders probed until they found it...and then they offered the cavern clan rulership of the Grotto in return for their silence.”
“Sons of the...” Marsh began, but Roeglin lifted his hand.
“It gets better.”
“Well, it could hardly get any worse.”
“Exactly what I meant by better,” Roeglin told her, but he wasn’t smiling, and there wasn’t a thing he found funny about what he said next. “They’ve found a tunnel that takes them close to Bisambe.”
“How close?” Master Envermet’s voice was very calm.
“Rock-mage close.”
“I will let Sulema know. Where is the force you saw arrive?”
“Almost at Shamka. We crossed paths but didn’t know it.”
“Do you have a contact there?”
“Yes.”
“Warn them. Marsh, stand watch.”
“Sir,” she replied, but he was gone before she responded, and he and Roeglin stayed silent for several heartbeats as they warned their respective targets.
“Done,” Roeglin said, emerging, and Master Envermet opened his eyes.
“We’re to go to Shamka and try to hold them long enough for reinforcements to reach them.”
“What about the raiders in the tunnels?”
“We save Shamka, we can come at them from two directions. Sulema has enough rock mages to hold them.”
“And she has Aisha,” Marsh added and felt Master Envermet dip shamelessly into her skull.
Rather than resist, she showed the memory of what Aisha had done to keep the shadow monsters from pursuing another batch of escaped prisoners. He was both impressed and horrified. “How old is she?”
“Five, but she will tell you she’s six.”
“I think you’ll find she’s right,” Master Envermet told her, and then added, “as of four days ago.”
“How do you know that?”
“I found their birth records.”
Marsh’s heart plummeted. “But I’ve missed her birthday!”
She managed to stifle that last to a strangled whisper, and Roeglin laid a hand on her knee. “We all missed her birthday, and we will all make it up to her. Even Tamlin forgot.”
“It’s not like we have a calendar,” Marsh reminded him, to which Master Envermet had only one reply.
“No, but we do have a rendezvous. Let’s get back to the others.”
21
Cubs, Kits and Kids
The others had already started heading for Shamka when they reached the spot whe
re they’d left them. Roeglin, Marsh, and Captain Envermet slid from shadow to shadow until they caught up.
“Why are you running?” the captain shouted. “Shadow-step. Grab your partners, and make sure they get there with you.”
He turned to Roeglin as he leapt for the next patch of shadow. “You told them?”
Roeglin shrugged. “The sooner they got moving, the sooner we could remind them to use the shadows like the shadow mages they are.”
“It’s new for them,” Marsh reminded them, and they both grinned.
“It’s new for us, too.”
“What’s the plan?” Henri asked when they all emerged at one spot.
“We take them on any way we can,” Captain Envermet told them. “Hit-and-run tactics. We whittle them down and keep them distracted from their objective as best we can.”
“And then we go get Gustav, yeah?”
Marsh would have stared if she hadn’t been so busy concentrating on the life forces around them. Roeglin, we’ve almost reached the rear.
I’ll let everyone know—and the battle plan, too, he added, glancing at Captain Envermet.
“Yes. Hit them hard, but don’t stand there for them to hit you back. There are more of them than us, and we only have one healer. Don’t lose her.”
He tapped Marsh on the shoulder. “Don’t put yourself in a position to get killed.”
As if he could stop her, Marsh thought.
“I’m sure Mistress Sulema could find a task that makes latrine duty look like a very good time,” Master Envermet told her, and she subsided.
He raised his voice. “Stay with your partners. Kill them all. We can’t afford mercy.”
Marsh tried not to think of the raiders ahead of her as men and women. That part would come later, and she would deal with it then. Right now, there was a little girl learning to wield the shadow of her mother’s sword and a father who had lost too much already.
Those were the people she had to worry about, not the ones attacking them. She thought of Aisha and Tamlin. She had to kill these guys fast, and then she remembered.
Roeglin?
He saw what was in her mind. Merde. Captain!
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