He cast a look at the shadow guards.
“That’s a lot easier now that so many can call on the shadows to protect them.”
“And the rocks,” Gustav reminded him.
“And fire,” Izmay added, looking far too pleased with herself.
They’d been surprised to find a half dozen who’d taken to creating fireballs, and pleasantly surprised to discover many of those could also draw life energy from their surroundings to heal—even if the latter did not necessarily parallel their ability with flame.
“You’ll be welcome to train with the Protectors too,” Gustav told them. “I’ll arrange a meeting with Master Envermet, and the two of you can discuss what that might look like.
Alois turned to Roeglin with a look of concern.
“I’m truly sorry for training those who came to me,” he said. “They had no one else, and I did not know when your people might come around again…and then there were the raiders, pressuring people to give up their children. It’s why I took them in. I knew your people would be coming and would never use such tactics. I should have told you before…”
Roeglin shrugged. He’d been caught off-guard when he’d discovered the druid had been helping some of those with shadow abilities, but not upset—and he’d already guessed why.
“You have nothing to apologize for. If you hadn’t helped them, there would have been no one else. And you saved them, and didn’t treat them as cursed or outcasts.” He paused. “Did you take the mules from the waystation?”
The druid nodded.
“Oh, yes. Couldn’t have the poor beasts starving. They’ve been a big help here.”
Marsh could only imagine they had, and she was glad, which left only one thing more.
“If you knew the raiders were on the trail, why didn’t you warn the caravan?”
The druid looked shocked.
“Oh, but I did. I told them there was something on their trail, but they were sure they could make it to the surface, and when I warned the waystation, they said their walls and gates would be enough. They didn’t count on someone impersonating a trader and opening the gate from the inside. I couldn’t save a single one.”
He looked so sad that Marsh laid her hand on his knee.
“You did your best,” she said and looked at Roeglin. “Someone told me once that I couldn’t save them all, and he was right.”
“It doesn’t make it any easier to live with,” the druid told her, but Marsh shook her head.
“It will. You just have to accept the truth of it—and acknowledge that you did all you could do short of drugging them and stuffing them in a sack…which I’m told is not allowed.”
Alois managed a smile at that.
“Yes,” he admitted. “There is that.”
“Were there any other travelers beyond the lone merchant, the raiders, and the wagon train?”
“No. Wait.” Alois’s brow furrowed. “Yes, there was one, and I couldn’t understand why the raiders didn’t attack him as well. They’d heard him coming and hidden on either side of the trail, and I was sure they’d take him just like they’d taken the others, but they didn’t lift a finger. Just watched him pass. It was very strange.”
“Can you describe him?”
“Oh, yes. Narrow-faced fellow with long, dark hair. Build as thin as a cane, with an expression that would have curdled milk. I didn’t like the look of him. No. Not at all.”
“Salazar,” Marsh growled, and Mordan echoed her from her place beside the fire.
Roeglin laid an arm across her shoulders and squeezed her.
“We’ll get him,” he said. “We’ll even manage it before he vanishes back into the Desolation or the Deeps.”
“Promise?” she asked, but he shook his head.
“No promises save that we’ll try.”
“I’ll take it.”
“And speaking of taking things,” Alois said. “What shall I tell my people with shadow ability?”
“Tell them they will have perhaps three choices: they can stay with you and train with the shadow guard when the Protectors set up in the waystation, they can join the Protectors, or they can wait for a changeover of personnel from the monastery and go with them to apprentice there.”
Alois looked relieved.
“I…thank you,” he said. “Now, is there anything else you want to know?”
“The glows…” Roeglin began. “How do you charge them? I mean, we take the light energy from the shadow and charge the crystals with it, but you… How do you manage it?”
For a moment the druid looked anxious, and Gustav sought to soothe him.
“We’re not worried about who does what. We just want to know how. Perhaps it is something we can share with the rock mages so that more glows can be charged and the trails returned to life more swiftly.”
Alois relaxed.
“It is simple,” he said. “I had not thought there might be light in the shadows but I know that there is light in the shrooms, because they have lit the caverns since before I was born—and I know the shadow monsters do not like it because they always stick to the darker parts of the caverns or find ways to destroy the shrooms before they enter. I just asked the shrooms to share their light energy, then put the energy into the glows. It doesn’t harm them since it’s like healing energy, something they can replenish.”
Marsh stared at him, and Roeglin nudged her in the ribs.
“You know you have to try this, right?”
“Already there,” Marsh said and looked around the cavern.
“Does it matter what kind of shrooms you ask?” she wanted to know, and Alois shook his head. “I don’t think so. I just prefer the lumins, since their light is closest to the color of the light the shadow mages use. Do you want me to help you?”
“Oh, Deeps yes!”
The druid’s smile was almost a reward in itself, but discovering that Roeglin had brought a dead glow was almost her undoing.
“You knew!” she accused, but he shook his head.
“I hoped,” he corrected. “Now, are you going to stand there waving that thing in my face, or are you going to go with Alois and see if you can learn something new?”
For a moment Marsh was tempted to swat him with the glow stick, but she didn’t want to break it on his armor, so she hurried to where Alois was waiting beside a cluster of several different types of light-producing shrooms.
“Right,” she said, examining them. “How do we do this?”
“You mean how do you do this?” Alois corrected but continued before Marsh could answer, “It’s like healing or scanning for life energy. You just reach out with the part of you that’s connected to your magic, and you can feel the energy that is shroom light. After that, it’s like healing: you take some from the shroom and guide it into the glow.”
He made it sound easy, but Marsh couldn’t quite grasp it. She stared at the dead glow in her hand and looked up at the shrooms. What made it harder was the fact the others had gathered a short distance away to see how it worked…at least, that was what she kept telling herself.
They weren’t there to judge. They were just there to see how it was done. She could do this. What had Geralt said? She was thinking about it the wrong way. She was…Marsh closed her eyes. It was hard to process what Geralt had tried to show her.
Like the poison, Marsh, Roeglin murmured, breaking through some of the confusion. Remember?
“The poison…” Marsh echoed, and the druid’s voice was sharp in query.
“What poison?”
Marsh opened her eyes.
“Shadow-monster poison,” she replied. “I draw it out of the wound and catch it in a cloth or something that can absorb it. Roeglin was just reminding me.”
She tilted her head and scowled at the mage.
“But I can’t work out what that has to do with recharging the glows. I—”
“The poison is a natural substance, and you call it like you would call healing energy,” Alois interr
upted. “It’s the same way you can call the shadows, and even summon a little fire.”
Marsh blushed as his voice took on a teasing note. He’d watched them call fire and seen her used as an example to soothe recruits disappointed by their apparent lack of ability. He knew she struggled with fire. Alois didn’t give her time to dwell on it for long.
“And yet healing energy comes easily when you ask.” He looked up at the purple glow of the calla shrooms. “Their light is more like that than fire. Find the part of you connected to your magic and reach out with that.”
With a sigh, Marsh knelt.
“I don’t want to fall over,” she explained. “It wrecks the concentration.”
“Fair enough.”
Alois knelt beside her.
“Now try to feel the light.”
Marsh closed her eyes and did what she did when she was focusing on finding the life forces of those around her or when she was sensing the natural energy flowing through the environment. First, she found the calla shroom and concentrated on its energy. As she did, she felt its life—its energy—beating strong in its trunk.
She followed it as it flowed from earth to stem and up into the caps. At first, she didn’t notice any difference, but as she approached the calla’s gills, she felt the change. Some of the energy flowed back through the underside of the cap and back into the shroom stem, returning to the earth. The rest…
“Oh…” The word came out on a breath.
Keeping the energy fixed firmly in her mind, Marsh drove the glow into the earth so that it stood just as it would beside a trail. Stepping away from it, she wove her hands through the air, gathering the calla’s light into a glowing ball. When she had it balanced on one palm, she used the fingers of her other hand to draw it down toward the glow.
The motion was similar to what the spinners of mouton wool used to draw the fleece into a thread, only this time she poured the thread of light into the glow. From the gasps she heard from the slowly gathering crowd, it was working more effectively than anyone had expected…Including Alois.
“Remember to leave some for the shroom.”
His soft voice interrupted her, and she realized she’d been so fascinated by the way the light moved through her hands that she’d taken most of what the calla had to offer.
“Oh.”
Thinking about it, she lofted the ball back to the underside of the calla’s cap, feeling the warmth of its energy bathing her as its soft light lit the air around her. Near her feet, the glow blazed like a captive sun. Marsh made sure she separated the thread between the calla and the glow and looked down at what she’d done.
The glow was bright enough to make her eyes water, and she felt her jaw drop. A slow clapping rose from the shadow guards, and they came closer to admire her handiwork.
I knew you could do it, Roeglin said, and she heard enough pride in his voice to wonder how lighting a glow could have earned it.
He didn’t answer that, but wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug.
Even Gustav was impressed.
“Nicely done.”
Even though she’d done something she hadn’t done before, Marsh felt strangely energized instead of exhausted. When they’d returned to the hall, she turned to Alois.
“There’s so much I don’t know…”
“Where would you like to start?”
“I…don’t know. Where should I start?”
“You don’t have a lot of time,” Gustav reminded her, stopping by their table. “We leave early.”
Marsh sighed, but Gustav had already turned away. Roeglin slipped into a seat beside her.
“He didn’t say you couldn’t start…”
The man had a point and Marsh was glad he’d made it, even if she couldn’t work out why he stayed as she turned back to the druid. Alois took that as a signal to begin.
“You could start with the names of the living things you see,” Alois told her. “That is something you can do on the road. You can also ask those around you what they know about each one, and perhaps get one of the rock mages to guide you when you return.”
He glanced at Roeglin.
“That is possible, isn’t it?”
The mage smiled and laid a hand over Marsh’s.
“Yes,” he said, and the discussion continued until the fire had burned low, and Marsh gave a jaw-cracking yawn.
Alois stood and brushed aside her apology.
“One of the lessons you must learn is to listen to your body. It is easier to learn what others need for healing when you are in tune with what you need for yourself.”
He was right. She knew that, but it didn’t make saying goodbye any easier.
“I will see you in the morning,” he assured her. “How else are you going to be able to leave the cavern?”
Marsh hadn’t thought of that, and she went to sleep more easily because of it, frowning as Roeglin laid his bedroll next to hers.
“What?” he asked. “I’m just sleeping, is all.”
Marsh said nothing, but when she stood there for more than a few heartbeats, he bent to pick it up.
“I can always go sleep near Henri…”
The thought made her laugh, and she discovered that she did not want him sleeping near the other caravan guard.
“No. You can stay,” she told him. “That way, if anything attacks, it’s got a good chance of eating you first.”
She turned away before Roeglin could think of a suitable response, sliding into her bedroll and turning her back on where he’d chosen to sleep. It was hard not to smile when Mordan settled her great bulk between the two rolls.
13
Shroom Fire
Gustav was true to his word.
They left early the next morning, eating a quick breakfast before collecting their mules and following Alois out onto the trail. To Marsh’s surprise, Vara and Lucille were there to bid them goodbye.
“I just wanted to thank you,” Vara said, coming alongside Marsh. “I’d have never learned of my gifts if you hadn’t insisted.”
“You’re welcome,” Marsh said. “You never know when you’ll need them.”
Vara cast a sly look at her daughter, followed by an evil smile.
“No, you never do.”
The girl blushed as red as a beet and glowered at Marsh.
“Oui,” she said. “Thanks a lot.”
They left the cavern the same way they’d entered and were soon back on the trail, Marsh riding beside Gustav and using her nature and shadow magic to scan the tunnel ahead. It didn’t leave her any time to ask about the fungi and insects she saw along the way, but she got the impression that none of the guards knew much more than she did. It was something she planned to ask when they set up camp.
A good idea, Roeglin told her. Now focus.
Marsh wanted to tell him that she wasn’t the only one that should be focusing, but she didn’t need to. He’d already turned to the front, his eyes flashing white before he closed them, trusting the mule to follow the trail without his guidance.
They’d traveled a half-day when she sensed the first ambush.
“We have—”
Raiders.
Roeglin’s voice inside her head reminded her that she didn’t need to speak aloud. His next communication confirmed it.
Ten each side. First cluster of four will let us pass and block the trail behind us when the six ahead of them spring the trap.
There was a pause before he spoke again, and Marsh knew he was speaking for Gustav.
We ride on. Marsh, have Mordan deal with the four at the back. Engage those closest as soon as you see them.
His words gave Marsh an idea and she scanned the trail ahead, pinpointing the location of each of the ten men and women waiting in the shadows at the base of the calla and rock formations.
See them, huh? She might actually be able to do something about that.
Deciding that if she could see the callas’ glow and sense the life forces
of the raiders crouching beneath them, she should be able to sense the energy of the shroom’s light, Marsh focused on the six who would spring the trap.
First, she needed some light…
It was difficult to draw the shrooms’ light energy while she rode but not impossible. Behind her, Marsh heard a sharp intake of breath and a muffled hushing, but she refused to let it distract her. When she was sure she’d gathered enough, she draped her reins over the pommel of her saddle and held up one hand as though she held the ball of light in its palm, then began drawing down a thread of light, connecting it to the first man’s head.
Once she’d gotten it flowing, she drew a second thread of light, tweaking the first to keep it flowing while she directed the second thread to wind itself around the second raider’s head. She started directing the third thread onto the third man as they passed the first pair of raiders.
It was as they passed the second set that the raiders opposite those she was wrapping in light noticed what was happening.
Get ready, Roeglin warned. Ours are unlit. Speak to Mordan.
It was good of him to realize she’d forgotten and remind her while she still had time to do it. Marsh separated the threads from the ball of light and sent what remained back to the underside of the calla shrooms from which she’d taken it.
Ahead of them, someone gave a sharp exclamation of surprise, but that wasn’t what caught Marsh’s eye. The raiders hadn’t let their suddenly highly visible companions distract them for long.
“Bows!” she shouted as the flaming outline of life showed those on her side preparing to fire into them.
Without waiting for Gustav’s instruction, she slid from her mule’s back, drawing a buckler and sword from the dark and sliding into shadow before her feet had touched the ground. Roeglin followed in more tangible form as she headed for the closest raider.
His aim wavered between the two of them, and Marsh caught his crossbow bolt on her buckler.
“Yours,” she said, stepping past him to attack the next one along, knowing Roeglin could see what she saw because he had the cheek to be looking through her eyes to catch the outline of their life forces and pin their location in his mind.
Trading by Firelight Page 12
