Trading Close To Light

by C. M. Simpson

  “If you believed that, why didn’t you give them Claudette? Why did you hide every time they came? Why did your husband risk his life to draw them away if they’re not so bad?”

  She stopped, letting the silence grow between them while Felicity put all the pieces together for herself. In the end, the woman sighed.

  “I know,” she finally said, “but it’s the killing. I don’t want her to…”

  “To kill so easily?”

  “Yes…or at all.”

  Marsh decided to let that one go. There really wasn’t anything she could say to make Felicity feel any better. The truth was, Claudette had killed a man who thoroughly needed it, but saying so wasn’t going to make her mother feel any better about it. The pair would just have to sort it out for themselves.

  She settled down to ride beside Felicity and stretched her senses out into the dark, feeling her way through the shadow threads to see what lay in the cavern. Mordan paced alongside them, separated from the mules by shrooms and rocks but content to follow. Marsh looked farther, trying to sense what shared this part of the cavern with them.

  The mules picked their way across the rough floor, avoiding tussocks of grass and the odd straggly bush as well as working their way through the knee-high brown noses and crushing clusters of blue buttons beneath their hooves. Marsh slowly became aware of the bright warmth sneaking into the cavern and turned in her saddle to find the source.

  “We’re coming close to the opening,” Felicity said, catching the look of puzzlement on her face. “It’s why the town’s called Mika’s Outlet. Mika discovered the opening into the surface world and thought he’d build a farm near it. The stories say he liked to watch the stars.”

  “The man must have had stones for eyes if he could stand a glare like this,” Gerry muttered, and Marsh turned back to look at him.

  The shadow guard was holding his hand up to shade his face and squinting against the light. Beside him, Zeb looked like he was in pain. He caught her looking at him.

  “Don’t tell me this isn’t painful for you.”

  Marsh shook her head.

  “No, never has been.”

  Beside her, Felicity tutted and pulled out two cloths made of dark gauze.

  “Here, tie these across your eyes. They’ll cut the glare, but you’ll still be able to see.” She caught Marsh staring at her. “My Claude used to complain something fierce, but these seemed to help.”

  She held one out to Marsh.

  “You sure you don’t need one?”

  Marsh smiled at her, pushing it back toward her.

  “I’m sure. I used to think I was the only one.”

  “Not by a long shot, girl,” Gustav told her. “Just one of a few, like Roeglin here.”

  Marsh looked and saw that what he was saying was true. Roeglin was staring around them as though he’d always seen the world this way. Ahead of them, Izmay had slowed her mule to a walk and was looking like she was in pain.

  To Marsh’s surprise, Claudette hadn’t ridden off and left her behind. Instead, the girl had turned her mule and come alongside the guard. She was holding out another of the gauzy black cloths.

  “Here. You’ll need one of these. Tie it around your eyes.”

  The girl waited while Izmay did as she was told and then she frowned.

  “You ready to go again?”

  “Sure” Izmay answered. “Just give me a minute to get it all back.”

  Claudette tutted and rolled her eyes.

  “This means I win,” she said. “I don’t need to find the path. They’re this way.”

  She didn’t wait, she just turned her mule around and guided it to where the light grew brighter.

  “Cheater!” Izmay protested.

  “I didn’t have to stop to help you,” the girl reminded her. “You’re just a sore loser.”

  “I…hey!”

  Claudette had kicked her mount into a faster walk and left the shadow guard behind.

  “Excuse me,” Marsh said to Felicity, “but I’d better…”

  “I’ll come with you,” Felicity answered. “She is my daughter, after all.”

  The words made Marsh feel just a little bit better. If Felicity was still claiming Claudette as her own, the two of them should be all right. They kicked their mules forward, getting them to go a little faster even if they still had to be careful as they traveled over the rough ground.

  21

  The Wolf Pack

  Even hurrying, Felicity and Marsh didn’t catch up with Claudette before a low growl rumbled through the cavern.

  “Mordan!” Marsh exclaimed and the kat growled again, sending Marsh a warning through the link that lay between them. “What is it, girl?”

  Images of half a dozen large gray dogs facing off against the kat reached her. They looked for all the Deeps like krypthunds, save that they were larger and rangier, with long gray fur and vivid amber or green eyes. Their lips were curled to reveal long yellow fangs, and their answering growls rolled through the cavern.

  Marsh kicked her mule into a trot, ignoring the rocky ground as she hurried to reach the kat. It was almost a relief when Izmay got there first, sliding from her nervous mount to kneel beside Mordan, crossbow at the ready. Marsh followed Izmay’s example by dismounting from the mule before she reached the wolves.

  The mule snorted and backed up, stopping when Gustav reached out and snagged its reins. Marsh hesitated long enough to see it secured and then turned back to the six creatures ranged before them.

  Mordan growled again, and Marsh reached out and laid a hand on the big kat’s neck.

  “Easy, girl,” she said. “Let’s see what they want.”

  “They want to eat us, is what,” Claudette snapped. “It’s not like it’s hard to work out.”

  “I say we ask them first,” Marsh told the girl, and didn’t give her time to argue.

  She also didn’t give Gustav or Roeglin time to stop her from walking out to stand right in front of the most central wolf of the pack.

  “We need to talk,” she told it, staring into its eyes and seeing the green flare of her own in their depths as she sought to make a connection.

  The first impression she had when the connection went through was that she had just done something incredibly stupid. The wolf’s presence was huge, towering over her like the tallest of shrooms, its eyes blazing with hunger and resentment. She had disturbed the pack’s hunt.

  Now they would go hungry for another day unless they found something else.

  Marsh wondered why they couldn’t hunt in the surface world and got the impression of something large and vaguely humanoid striding through the trees and twisted ruins.

  “What is that?” she murmured, pushing against the wolf’s memory to get a closer look.

  For a moment, the wolf resisted. It was as though it was trying not to remember what it had seen, trying to hide from the terror of it. Marsh pushed again.

  “I can’t help you if I can’t see what it is,” she told it. “Please let me see…”

  The wolf hesitated, and Marsh tried to reassure it by promising to help the pack.

  “Show me. We can keep you safe.”

  For some reason, it found that funny, but it agreed to let her see what had forced them from their usual hunting grounds. As the image became clearer, Marsh recoiled. The thing was a wolf and not a wolf, a man and not a man, and it was beyond reason.

  The eyes it turned toward her were red-rimmed and full of hate. Its pelt, wolf-like in texture and color, was unkempt and matted with brambles and blood. It took her in in one scornful glance, and snarled, bounding toward her with unseemly speed, one of its claws reaching out to slash at her until her world went black.

  Marsh yelped and rolled away, clawing her way out of the wolf’s mind to find herself scrambling away from it. Finding herself back in the daylit cavern, Marsh stopped. She was breathing fast as the wolf bounded forward to close the distance between them.

  This time the wolf was
the one to demand she come back to its mind.

  She heard people moving uneasily behind her and held up her hand.

  “Wait!” she told them, pulling the wolf’s name from its head. Blizzard. “Wait. They’re… He’s bonded!”

  Sadness washed across her, and she knew it wasn’t hers. She caught a glimpse of the body the beast had left behind, and knew it would run with the pack no more.

  “Was,” Marsh corrected herself. “Was bonded. Some kind of wolf-man shadow monster killed the rock mage it was with.”

  Druid. Lycanthrope.

  The words dropped into her mind unbidden, and Marsh raised her eyes to meet those of the pack leader.

  “More than one” was not a phrase she wanted to hear in reference to the thing it had called a lycanthrope.

  “How many?” she asked and raised her gaze to meet the wolf’s.

  There were four, and they had hounded the pack mercilessly, coming out of the buildings at the foot of the hill. They had not found the waystation, even though the wolves knew of its existence. If the humans inside that cavern were lucky, they would not be discovered. Blizzard did not think the human cave would stand against them.

  What he feared most, though, was that the beasts were tracking the pack and they were not safe.

  They needed food.

  They had hoped the abandoned young were permissible.

  “No!” Marsh snapped, and the wolf recoiled.

  Mordan’s snarl echoed around them, and the wolf whimpered an apology, even as it prepared to defend its pack. It unceremoniously dropped Marsh into her own head as it backed away, and she reached out and laid her hand on the kat’s head.

  “Friends, Dan. They’re friends.”

  She reached for the wolf, but it avoided the connection even as it watched her warily from two body-lengths away. Stretching her hand toward it, she patted the kat on the head, willing her to stay where she was. The kat continued to hold her place, but Marsh felt her tension and knew her tail was twitching even without looking.

  “The children are not permissible,” she told it, “but we will find you meat. Will you help us?”

  The wolf gave a sharp yap and looked along the line of its pack, its amber eyes meeting each one’s gaze. One by one, they lowered their heads in reply, and then they sat, waiting.

  “Thank you,” Marsh said, and the wolf yapped again.

  The pack rose as one, fanning out and circling back in the direction Claudette had been traveling. The girl was mortified. She turned to Marsh.

  “What have you done?” she demanded.

  Marsh met her angry gaze and indicated the wolves.

  “Got them to help us find your friend.”

  “But they’ll eat her.”

  “Nope. They’ll help us find them, and then we’ll help them find food. I made a deal; they’re hungry.” She turned to Roeglin. “What’s a lycanthrope?”

  Her question drew sharp breaths from the guards and they all cast wary glances around the cavern.

  “Why? Is there one nearby?”

  “There are four on the surface. Their leader killed the wiz...druid traveling with the wolves. The wolves are hiding here and hoping the lycanthropes don’t find them.”

  Gustav snorted.

  “Some hope.” He looked at the other guards. “They’ll be coming.”

  Marsh watched him, not sure what to do, but he hadn’t finished.

  “They’ll hunt until they’ve killed every living thing in the area, but they’ll hunt the wolves and humans first. It’s like they take our existence as some sort of insult. They’ll be tracking the pack whether the wolves are aware of it or not, and once they make it into the cavern, they’ll kill every human they can find. If it was just the raiders, I’d leave them to it, but I doubt the people of Mika’s Outlet deserve to be slaughtered.”

  Thinking of the attitudes on the farm, Marsh had her doubts. After all, the Outlet had so far survived the raiders. What if its people had already sided with the outsiders and were betraying the cavern to ensure their own survival?

  You are such a trusting soul, Roeglin said, interrupting her thoughts and bringing her back to the present, but I think you need to hurry in order to catch up with our new friends…and the girl.

  The girl?

  “What’s she done now?”

  Roeglin just pointed, and Marsh was in time to see Claudette running after the wolves. The child wasn’t saying anything, but she wasn’t waiting for anybody either. Marsh was torn. On the one hand, they needed to find the children, and, on the other, they had four lycanthropes to worry about and a wolf pack to feed.

  “We’ll take care of it,” Roeglin said. “You just catch up with Claudie and the pack. We’ll be along.”

  Marsh wanted to ask him how he thought he was going to take care of it, but she didn’t have time. She’d already lost sight of the wolf leader, and Mordan was trotting along behind Claudette, and they were almost out of sight.

  “Merde,” she grumbled and took out after them.

  Honestly! What was it with her and children? She always seemed to get stuck with them.

  You shouldn’t be such a motherly type, Roeglin teased, and she flipped him a mental finger as she raced after the kat and the child.

  “Where are they going?” she heard Felicity ask.

  Yeah, Marsh thought. Where in all the fornicating Deeps are they going?

  Couldn’t Ninetta have chosen somewhere safer as a refuge?

  As she thought it, she heard a howl echo through the cavern, but not from the wolves ahead. This howl came from the direction of the brighter light and the surface. Marsh froze in her tracks and then raced forward. She had to catch up with Mordan and Claudette!

  “Marsh!”

  She heard Gustav’s voice ring out behind her, but didn’t stop. If the children were going to be facing lycanthropes, they weren’t going to face them alone. A small voice tried to remind her that the wolf pack would be with them, but she couldn’t be sure the wolves would stay. After all, they’d run from the lycanthropes before. Why would they stay this time?

  Because they made you a promise?

  That might be almost true, but Marsh thought it had been her who had made the wolves a promise and not the other way around.

  Doesn’t matter; they had a bargain to fulfill if they wanted to eat. They’re hungry, Marsh, and used to working with a druid. They’ll stay.

  Marsh wished she had his confidence, but she didn’t. She scrambled after Mordan, knowing that the kat would be doing her best to keep all the kits safe. Knowing also that the kat expected her to be there to fight alongside her by the time the lycanthrope arrived.

  “A la putain!”

  And didn’t Roeglin sound like he was only just starting to understand what she intended to do?

  She caught sight of Mordan’s tail disappearing behind a clump of rocks just as a flash of movement caught her attention. Not stopping for a closer look, Marsh followed the kat and discovered a narrow crevice leading deeper into the hillside. She’d have missed it if she hadn’t been behind them.

  The space beyond it was crowded and very noisy.

  A slender blonde girl was standing with her back to the wall of a squared-off cavern, her eyes as black as pitch. She had extended one hand in front of herself and was using her other hand to push a small brown-haired boy behind her.

  The wolves had arrayed themselves around the cave, ignoring the children as they faced toward the door. Their lips raised in six identical snarls as Marsh appeared and were just as quickly lowered.

  “I am here,” she told them, sending them feelings of reassurance that help was coming; her pack was coming. She surveyed them, willing them to have the courage to stand their ground, promising them refuge and food at the end of the fight.

  Claudette dodged around her, racing across the room to where Ninetta and the boy were waiting.

  “You came!”

  “I promised! I’m sorry it took so long.” There wa
s a moment’s quiet before Claudette continued. “That’s Marsh, and the big kat is her friend…and ours. The wolves are new, but they seem to be on our side.”

  “And that?” Ninetta asked as another howl tore through the cavern.

  Claudette shook her head.

  “That’s not so good,” she said. “I think that’s the thing the wolves are afraid of, and I think Marsh said she was going to help them with it.”

  A second howl ripped the air outside their hiding place, and the children gasped.

  “There’s more than one of them?”

  Marsh turned away from the entrance long enough to take in their three young faces.

  “There are four,” she told them, “but Gustav and the others will help us.”

  She looked around the cavern.

  “We can’t fight in here,” she said. “There’s not enough room.”

  “We’re going to have to fight to protect the door. You kids stay here. We’ve got this.”

  She glanced around at the wolves, catching the leader’s eye and showing it what she wanted them to do.

  He flattened his ears against his skull and then looked right and left, selecting three others from its pack. Marsh gave the children one more stern look before going back through the crevice.

  “Stay here!” she said and led the wolves out.

  She wasn’t entirely surprised when the leader and only three of the pack emerged, Mordan following them.

  “Where are the rest of you?” she asked, sending a question to the leader. He answered by sending an image of pups and the need to protect the mother and the coming cubs, as well as the children.

  Well, that explained a lot.

  “We can do this,” Marsh reassured him. “See? My pack stands ready to help you.”

  Your pack is going to kick your ass, Roeglin told her. Get your tail back in the cave.

  You and what army? Marsh wanted to know.

  Roeglin rolled his eyes.

  “We have incoming.” Zeb’s voice was soft but firm. “They’re trying a pincer.”

  “They’re not smart enough for that…surely…” Felicity murmured, and Gustav and Zeb shot her an incredulous look.