Trading Close To Light

by C. M. Simpson

  Again.

  Right when she didn’t want to be.

  Right when she felt like she was going to fall over…in nothing but a tunic…with mouton droppings and damp encrusted on her knees. Because, why not?

  She gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to collapse as she looked back to where Gustav was standing on the verandah.

  “I’m going to need another mouton,” Daniel said, and Marsh turned slowly to glare at him.

  “This time,” she told him, trying to stay upright despite the swooping dizziness threatening to take her down, “you can get your own damned mouton.”

  “No lunch for you.”

  “Matches breakfast, shit for brains.”

  She might have said more, except hurried boot steps signaled Roeglin’s arrival. He wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her close to his chest before turning her toward the stairs.

  “It’s not smart to piss off the cook, remember?” he whispered, giving Daniel a smile and a wave.

  “I’ll send someone,” Gustav told Daniel, but Nikolas had appeared at the door.

  “I’ll do it,” he said. “How many d’you need?”

  Marsh left them to it and let Roeglin guide her across the dining room toward the stairs.

  Gustav took one look at her as she passed and his lip curled in disgust.

  “Get cleaned up.”

  Marsh wanted to remind him that it had been his idea, but Roeglin hurried her past before she could say anything.

  “I can’t kick the kat off your bed, you know.”

  “No bed,” Marsh managed. “Dirty.”

  “Uh huh, and you stink like a mullock heap.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’ll take it from here.”

  Marsh looked up in time to move the two steps she needed for Izmay to grab hold of her.

  “By the Deeps, girl. You know better than to use your magic when you’re running on empty.” She looked at Roeglin. “What did she do this time?”

  The shadow mage shrugged, but the look on his face said it all.

  “Oh, you know, the usual. Charmed a herd of moutons into going into the barn after beast-speaking the pack leader of the wolves and getting it to let the tailor into the yard and make a kill for Daniel. Nothing particularly strenuous.” The tone of his voice said she’d pushed it way too far.

  Izmay was nowhere near as subtle. She slapped Marsh on the shoulder.

  “Idiot!”

  Marsh ignored them. There was no way known she wanted a piece of this conversation.

  “Bath,” she managed and tried to ease her way out of Izmay’s hands to get to one on her own.

  The floor came up pretty fast, but Izmay caught her before they connected.

  “Why don’t you use me to pull a little energy,” the shadow guard suggested. “We’ve got a long day ahead, and it’s better you don’t miss it.”

  Marsh’s initial reaction was to resist the idea, but Izmay stopped her three feet from the tub.

  “How badly do you want to get clean?”

  Marsh looked at her, trying to figure out two things: how likely Izmay was to carry through her threat…and if she could make it to the tub on her own and get clean without drowning. The truth was she couldn’t.

  “You,” she said, hearing the words slur, “are a Deeps-damned bitch.”

  Izmay smiled.

  “Aw, Marsh. You say the sweetest things.” The smile vanished, and the guard’s expression hardened. “Now get it done.”

  Marsh laid a hand on Izmay’s cheek and concentrated on the energy she felt moving beneath the shadow guard’s skin, then she drew the smallest amount of that to herself—just enough that a good meal would take her the rest of the way.

  It was hard to stop, but she managed, and then looked at Izmay’s face.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, and the guard managed a jerky nod.

  “Remind me never to volunteer like that again,” she said.

  Marsh sighed. “I’m sorry.”

  “You stink,” Izmay told her. “Now get in the Deeps-damned bath.”

  She turned abruptly and left Marsh in the cubicle on her own.

  With a sigh, Marsh stripped off her soiled tunic and climbed into the tub scrubbing the stink of mouton, wolf, and kat from her skin and worrying about Izmay. The sound of someone coming quietly into the cubicle had her on her feet and pulling a sword from the air as she opened her eyes.

  Roeglin froze, his jaw dropping as he saw her—and then his face turned scarlet, and he dumped the armful of clothes he’d been carrying onto the small bench in the corner.

  “Izmay! She needs to know you’re okay,” he called as he backpedaled out of the room as fast Marsh had ever seen him move.

  The shadow guard appeared shortly afterward, carrying two cups of chocolate and looking completely perplexed.

  “What did you do to…” She stopped, taking in Marsh, the sword, and the tub, and then she started to laugh. “Oh, my. Ohmyohmyohmy. Girl, you sure know how to make an impression on a man.”

  “I…” Marsh began, but Izmay thrust a hot chocolate into her hand and didn’t let her get any further.

  “I’m fine, by the way. No hard feelings and all that—and Gustav’s getting restless, just so you know. You should get dressed before he starts shouting your name again. Pretty sure the rest of the cavern’s sick of hearing it.”

  She left, not giving Marsh an opportunity to respond.

  Marsh took the hint and was soon trying on the outfit Master Calais had created in their absence.

  “There,” he said when he’d finished placing the final pin. “We’ll have everything ready in the next couple of days.”

  He turned to Gustav.

  “You said something about wanting a uniform designed for a mage school?”

  Marsh left them to it, glad to be able to get into the new tunic and breeches he’d somehow managed to conjure up in her absence. When she returned, Daniel was waiting with her breakfast, and looking a lot happier than he had been earlier.

  He wasn’t alone, though. Felicity and the three children had arrived, and Daniel steered her over to the table to join them.

  “Captain Brodeur should be with us soon,” he told them. “He needs to speak with Per. Breakfast?”

  When Felicity nodded, he left, leaving Marsh alone at the table with them. She didn’t feel comfortable eating while they had nothing, so she laid her knife and fork by the side of her plate and looked at them.

  “So,” she said, “what are you going to do now?”

  “Gustav says there’s a magic school the children can go to?”

  “There’s one near Ruins Deep,” Marsh told her, and saw her face fall, “but I hear the shadow mages will be setting one up in the Ledge as well. We’re just waiting for the rest of them to arrive.”

  “The rest of them?”

  “The ones clearing the cavern of raiders,” Marsh told her. She indicated Gustav and Roeglin and the guards breakfasting at another table. “We’re just the advance party. We had a message to deliver.”

  “Oh, I see. And have you delivered it?”

  Marsh thought about it.

  “Yes,” she said, “but I still have something I need to do.”

  She looked up as Daniel returned and received a stern glare for her trouble.

  “Eat your breakfast,” he ordered as he delivered the others their meals, and he turned abruptly and left. Felicity watched him go.

  “Older brother?” she asked, her voice full of sympathy, but Marsh shook her head.

  “Younger cousin,” she replied, “Something he forgets all the time.”

  She ate her breakfast all the same, ignoring Felicity’s knowing smile. She’d been more than truthful when she’d said she had some errands to run, and, now that she remembered it, she had a lot to get done before Master Envermet arrived with the rest of the Monsieur Gravine’s promised assistance.

  25

  The Pecking Order

  It didn�
�t take Marsh long to find an opportunity to slip away. When Captain Brodeur arrived and came straight over to see his sister and niece, taking time to make the other two children feel welcome as well, Marsh slipped away, taking her plate to the kitchen.

  “Took you long enough,” Daniel muttered, but Marsh ignored his grouchiness and hugged him just as soon as she’d dropped her dishes in the sink.

  “It was late,” she said by way of explaining why she hadn’t let him know as soon as she’d gotten back, “and you’re even grouchier if you’re woken than when you are in the kitchen.”

  “Get out,” he said, but he hugged her back and was smiling as she left.

  “Daniel okay?” her uncle asked when she emerged, and Marsh got the impression he’d been standing by in case she needed rescuing.

  “He’s fine,” Marsh told him, and raised her voice so it could be clearly heard in the kitchen, “Nothing a good girlfriend wouldn’t fix.”

  “Hey!”

  Marsh ducked as a ladle came flying through the kitchen door, and Per grabbed it before it could hit anything that mattered, like Gustav. The Protector captain stopped short of the flying utensil and stared at Per and Marsh, then focused on Marsh.

  “Stay out of the kitchen.”

  “Oui.”

  Marsh took a step away from the kitchen door and, satisfied his order had been heard and would be obeyed, Gustav looked at Per.

  “Ines will be here shortly to help you and Brodeur draw up the submission for the Kerrenin’s Ledge Protectors.”

  “Thank you,” Per said, and Gustav pushed his way into the kitchen.

  “Daniel,” he said, “I need to ask you about lunch…”

  Marsh looked at Per.

  “I’ll go find something useful to do,” she told him, and her uncle nodded.

  “It’s good to have you back, Marsh,” he said and hugged her. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you too, Papa,” Marsh told him, surprised to find it true. She cleared the tears threatening to clog her throat and hurried toward the dining room door.

  She half-expected to have Roeglin or Brodeur or even Gustav call her back and was surprised to reach the courtyard with no such summons. Not wanting to push her luck, she half-jogged, half-sprinted to the waystation’s entrance and let herself out into the street beyond. She was still surprised to discover that she hadn’t been followed when she reached the corner leading to Kearick’s Emporium.

  It was no surprise, however, to find the place still closed and boarded up, although Marsh would have sworn that the shelves looked emptier than the last time she’d been here. She peered through the clearrock windows, looking for any sign of movement, and jumped when someone cleared their throat behind her.

  “You looking for Kearick?”

  Startled, Marsh spun to face the speaker and then relaxed. The man lived across the street and was probably just curious as to who was peering through his neighbor’s windows. She nodded, aware that his eyes searched her face for answers.

  “Went seeking,” she said as though that explained it all, and the man relaxed.

  Part of Marsh relaxed too. So far he hadn’t called her on being away too long or the fact her last mission had been to Ruins Hall. If she was very, very lucky, he might not even recognize her.

  “Thought so,” he said. “Well, you’re out of luck. Kearick left weeks ago, heading for Downslopes and then maybe Dimanche. Said he’d be back but wasn’t sure when.”

  “Oh.” Marsh did her best to look crestfallen. “I was hoping… I found something.”

  She stopped, watching the play of expression on the man’s face. In the end, he just shrugged.

  “Well, it’s the same as I told that other feller. He’s been gone a couple of weeks, but you might catch him. He never said how long he was stopping at Downslopes.” He leaned in closer, lowering his voice as he did so. “I got the impression he was hoping to meet someone, and might even wait a bit to give them a chance to arrive. No one’s saying that someone can’t be you, are they?”

  “Got a point,” Marsh told him and forced a smile. “Downslopes, you said?”

  The man nodded.

  “Just like I told that other seeker, and he headed for the surface the same day. I don’t think he even bothered stopping at the Hawks.”

  He looked Marsh over.

  “Although he had a lot more to offer than you seem to; his mule was loaded down like I’ve never seen.”

  Marsh laid her finger alongside her nose and gave him a conspiratorial smile.

  “Never judge the value of a load by its size,” she murmured and pulled one of the Founder’s gemstones from her pouch.

  Taking the man’s hand, she pressed the stone into his palm and curled his fingers around it.

  “I was never here.”

  She didn’t give him time to respond to that but released his hand and sauntered back down the street to the alley that ran parallel to the Emporium, turning into it as though she had every right to be there. The glance she cast his way showed him still standing on the boardwalk, his gaze alternating between the gem in his palm and her departing figure.

  So there’s a surface route to Dimanche, she thought, and wished she could risk breaking into the Emporium one more time. She could really do with seeing the maps if Kearick had left them. Figuring that was probably a bad idea, she turned the corner at the end of the alley and headed back to the waystation. If Ines was still there, maybe she could convince the councilor to let her see the council’s records.

  She still had two children she was supposed to be finding relatives for. Fortunately, Brodeur, Gustav, and Ines had decided it was time to hand Kearick’s records to the council.

  “It should keep them busy for a while,” Ines said, “and what they choose to hide will reveal more than they would hope for. I’ll let Gustav send word that he’s found the records and then remind folk they said you could have access to the population records so that you could find the children’s family. It shouldn’t take them too long to get back to you after that.”

  It took them another week, but when Marsh thought about it, that really wasn’t very long for a council. Unfortunately, it took her only two days to work out that there really were no relatives for Aisha and Tamlin in the Kerrenin’s Ledge cavern. In fact, it looked like the records supported the boy’s anecdotal report that there was a brother in Dimanche.

  “But Tamlin said his father and uncle didn’t get along,” she reported to Gustav and Roeglin, “and I don’t want to deliver the children somewhere where they’re not wanted.”

  “We couldn’t let that happen,” Gustav told her, his voice gruff. “Not to those two. They’re too valuable to the Founder’s plans.”

  “And the mages’,” Roeglin added with a sharp look at the emissary and the Protector captain. “Let’s not forget where their apprenticeships are held.”

  Gustav gave him a crooked smile.

  “We could never forget that,” he said. “Your Shadow Master is charging too much for their services for that little detail to be lost in the paperwork.”

  Marsh sighed, and their good-natured bureaucratic bickering stopped as they both turned their heads to look at her.

  “What?” she asked, noting the curiosity in their gazes.

  “You know they arrive today, right?” Roeglin said, and Marsh froze.

  “They do?”

  Gustav started to grin as he looked over at Roeglin and held out his hand.

  “Told you she’d lost track of the time.”

  Roeglin rolled his eyes and handed over two of the gems that had made up his pay. He glared at Marsh.

  “And I said that was a detail you’d never forget,” he grumbled. “Just goes to show that you think you know a person…”

  Marsh wanted to argue that he did know her but the sound of footsteps echoed up from the floor below, accompanied by the sounds of mules snorting and men and women coming from the courtyard outside. Marsh grabbed Gustav by the arm
as the captain turned for the door.

  “We need to go to Dimanche,” she said. “The raiders—”

  “Oui,” he replied, cutting her off. “The raiders and the relatives, and don’t tell the children or the little monsters will want to come along.”

  He glowered at her.

  “And who, Shadow Mage Leclerc, is the one giving the orders around here?”

  “You, sir,” Marsh managed, and he shook his arm free as he headed out the door.

  “By the Deep’s dark ass it is…”

  Author Notes - CM Simpson

  March 12, 2019

  Thank you, once again, for joining me in another story. I trust you are enjoying Marsh’s journey as much as I am. Every time I take a break, I look forward to finding out exactly what she does next. That’s the thing about stories: it doesn’t matter how carefully you outline, there’s still space in between what you plan, for the characters to surprise you.

  I live for those surprises, even when they make my life... interesting.

  As I write these notes, I’m planning for a house inspection, which means I have to pay attention to those small spaces I don’t get to very often. So, in addition to researching things made from mushrooms, I’ve also been looking up how to clean the oven using bicarb and vinegar – since it does a better job than anything else I’ve tried, and smells a whole lot better than any of the chemical cleaners I’ve come across so far.

  I mean, vinegar, right? When you use the oven for the first time after cleaning it down, the whole house smells like fish and chips. It’s not a bad deal, plus the oven actually shines, which makes the agent happy, so it’s kind of a win-win situation.

  On top of that, I’m also coming to the end of Book 4 in this series, which makes me kind of sad, because I’ll have to leave these characters for a while, and I don’t think I’m ready to. I also think they’re a bit like some of the pets I’ve had; they can sense something is up, and they’re being downright crotchety. It’s like they don’t want this series to end, either.