Marsh looked for the raider mage. When she found him, she’d end his lightning once and for all. She’d end him too if she could. Was that even possible from inside someone else’s head? There was only one way to find out.
Seeing it was impossible to reach Roeglin, she studied the storm. It had to be coming from somewhere. There had to be a connection linking the two mind mages. All she had to do was find it and slide from Roeglin’s mind into the other mage’s.
She snorted.
Yeah, right. That was all she had to do.
Don’t you da—
Hush, Ro. Momma’s busy.
Momma’s gonna get her butt kicked when I get out of here.
You couldn’t kick a kitten’s butt. Now, be quiet.
Well, hello, Mommy!
That wasn’t a voice she knew. Marsh looked for the source. She couldn’t find it, but the storm trying to beat its way through Roeglin’s shield diminished.
Can’t do more than two things at once, can you? Marsh teased. Why don’t you step over here and pick on someone your own size?
Roeglin groaned, but Marsh ignored him. He could roll all his eyes all he wanted, but he needed the break.
My own size? The strange mage sounded amused. How about this, then?
At his words, the storm coalesced into a single solid form, and Marsh realized that it had been the mage...or whatever passed for him inside someone else’s skull. The form grew, becoming a giant, and Roeglin screamed.
Kick him out! Kick him out!
Underlying his words was the idea that she had kicked him out of her own head so many times, she should be more than able to kick the foreign mage out of his. The man had a point.
Get out!
Marsh remembered what it was like to boot Roeglin out of her head and tried the same. The only problem was that she wasn’t in her own head, and she had no idea how to do it for someone else.
Work it out fast.
How could Roeglin sound like he was gritting his teeth?
There was no reply to that, so Marsh tried again. This time she decided she needed to be at least as big as the giant.
No!
The sheer panic in Roeglin’s voice stopped her.
Find another way.
Find another way?
Marsh stared at the foreign mage. He still needed a connection to do what he was doing. It was like when she found herself in Mordan’s head…
Dan!
The kat was beside her in seconds, inside Roeglin’s head.
Outside, Marsh was sure Henri was staring at a suddenly-collapsed kat and cursing a blue streak, but she didn’t bother looking out to be sure. They had more important things to do.
Under his dome, Roeglin stirred, lifting his head to study the giant standing above him. He didn’t look too good, or like he knew what he was going to do next. Marsh hoped the shadow wall was holding. She took a heartbeat to think about it, discovering she was kneeling with one hand on Roeglin’s back, the other outstretched to keep the shadows in place.
It was also enough to show that Henri was standing over them both. Mordan was lying at his feet, and she’d been right—Henri was cursing a blue streak. It might have been entertaining to listen to, but she had to deal with the menace in Roeglin’s head.
Apparently, Roeglin had something to say about that. Well, of course, he did.
Call for help.
What?
Call Gustav.
He wanted her to do what?
You heard.
Yeah, she heard all right, and what she heard and what she had to do were two different things.
Ask Henri.
“Henri?” She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Marsh sighed. Well, seeing as she was here...“Call Gustav.”
“And just how in the Deeps-misbegotten fornicating depths am I supposed to do that while you’re sleeping on the job?”
Marsh let that go unanswered, following the connection back to Roeglin. She found the other mage had been busy while she’d been gone...and that not everything was working the way he intended.
For one thing, he obviously hadn’t dealt with an angry hoshkat, before, and Mordan was busy bringing him down to size. The kat’s mental presence was clinging to the front of the enemy giant, her forepaws wrapped around its neck as she tore at its throat with her jaws and raked at its belly with her hind claws.
Dan! Marsh cried, and ran forward.
In the distance, she thought she heard a wolf howl, but there was no time to see. No time to check if her shadow wall was holding. She was sure Henri was shouting as well, but he wasn’t trying to shake her back into her body so she could only assume that he was holding his own. Drawing her sword, she slid around the giant’s feet, hacking at the back of his ankle as she did so.
It was an old soldier’s trick. Your enemy couldn’t chase you if he couldn’t walk. Of course, he couldn’t run away either, and Marsh had no idea what that meant for a mind mage trapped in someone else’s head.
Nothing, as it turned out.
As she pivoted and brought the blade across the tendon running down the back of his other leg, the giant screamed and vanished.
Get...out, Roeglin ordered, his voice weak.
Well, there was gratitude for you. Marsh might have argued, but Mordan grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and yanked her back into her own body. She had the brief impression of being dumped and pressed against the ground by an outsized paw, then the kat was gone, vanishing down the connection between them as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
Perhaps it was...like the dryness in her mouth and the rampaging headache threatening to split her skull in two. A groan leaked out before she could stop it and she forced her eyes open, then lifted her head.
19
Of Wolves, Kats, and Mind Mages
The first thing she saw was the back of Henri’s legs. He was standing in front of the kat, his hand outstretched as though that would stop the wolves from tearing him apart. Mordan was lying on the ground behind him and only just starting to stir.
The wolves saw the kat’s first twitch of movement and stalked one step forward.
Henri kept one hand outstretched but dropped his other hand to the hilt of the sword.
“Don’t make me,” he said. “I don’t want to have to hurt you, but I will.”
The wolf took another step forward, its ears pricked, its tail stiff and straight behind it.
Marsh found she’d folded over her knees, one arm draped over Roeglin’s shoulders, her free hand on the dirt beside her. She pushed to her feet...or she tried to, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate. She couldn’t even get her feet under her.
“Henri...”
“Not now, Marsh.”
At the sound of her voice, the wolf stepped two more paces forward and stopped, one paw raised. A snarl rippled out of its throat as Mordan rolled onto her feet to stand beside Henri. The kat lowered her head and flattened her ears, her tail lashing the air as she growled in reply.
Mine, came clearly through her connection to Marsh.
“Did you call for help?”
“I yelled.”
Marsh guessed she couldn’t ask for more than that.
Henri took his hand off his sword and reached back for her. She noticed he kept his other hand stretched toward the wolves.
“You know that’s not going to stop them, right?”
“You know that’s not helpful, right?”
He had a point.
“Why’d you stop?”
“Stop what?”
“Yelling.”
“Are you kidding me? Have you seen what came the last time I called? And they don’t like me shouting. They stopped when I did.”
They had? Well, at least she knew the reason for that.
“The mind mage isn’t controlling them anymore. They’re probably wondering why they were attacking us.”
“Wolves don’t need an excuse.”
“You met many?”
Marsh remembered what she’d been told about Henri preferring the surface and why he’d still been guarding caravans underground. Lennie. Right. And Jorge.
“You gonna take my hand or what?” Henri sounded impatient.
The answer turned out to be “or what,” because, when Marsh reached for Henri’s hand, the wolf pack growled. Not just the leader, but the whole pack as one. Even Mordan flinched.
Marsh studied the wolves. Standing would put her above them and possibly make her a threat. She needed to make them see she wasn’t before the wolves decided to make sure the four of them weren’t a threat anymore.
“Crouch down,” she said.
“You are out of what’s left of your tiny little mind!”
The lead wolf barked two short, sharp yaps and Henri raised his hand in placation.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked.
Marsh wanted to tell him she wasn’t sure about anything, but she really needed him to do what she asked.
“Just do it.”
Henri hesitated, but the wolves didn’t move.
“Please, Henri. They don’t know why they were attacking us, and you’re the only one standing.”
“No, I’m not.”
Well, merde.
Dan, you need to lie down again.
I am not beneath them.
Please, Dan. I need Henri to live.
The kat tilted her head as though assessing how Henri was standing, then, before Marsh could say anything to warn him, Mordan backed up two steps and swept her paw across the back of his ankles. He came down hard, landing on his back on the ground beside her. Before he could do any more than draw a breath to shout, Mordan pivoted, circling swiftly around them so she could stand with one forepaw on Marsh’s back and the other on Henri’s chest.
Her roar echoed through the cavern, and its message was clear.
These humans were her humans, and she would shred the fur of any wolf who tried to harm them.
Looking at the pack, Marsh thought the kat might have made a mistake, but she didn’t say a word. She didn’t dare move. The leader of the wolves took a step toward them, and the pack followed.
Marsh felt the kat’s weight shift, but Mordan didn’t move. The wolf took another step forward, his eyes never leaving the kat. He came close enough to sniff Marsh’s head, and she held her breath. When he turned his attention to Roeglin, Marsh tensed, but Mordan’s presence was strong in her head.
Be still.
The wolf looked from the mage to the kat, and the kat growled. The wolf backed away, circling around until it could sniff the toe of Henri’s boot. This time when Mordan’s weight shifted, it was because she looked down into the guard’s face and growled.
“Deeps-be-damned-and-dusted bossy bitch,” he muttered, then gasped.
Marsh tensed, but Henri was still alive. She could hear him swearing under his breath, too softly for her to make out the words. She figured the kat would be insulted if she actually gave a damn. The cursing became a shout of outrage, followed by every filthy word she’d ever heard uttered, and she didn’t have to ask why.
She could see.
The wolf had lifted his leg and was drenching Henri’s boots with a thoroughness that could only be admired—like his accuracy. It stank, but he didn’t hit her or Mordan or Roeglin with a single drop. The spreading puddle was another matter, but one they could deal with later. As a sign of utter contempt for the kat’s posing and Henri’s defiance, the wolf had just said it all.
When he was done, he turned his back on them, making a show of flicking dirt behind him before taking a few more steps and stretching. It was a view Marsh could have done without, but she was grateful when he trotted into the shrooms, taking the pack with him.
Mordan stayed where she was until all sound of the wolves’ passing had faded, then took her paw from Marsh’s back and nudged her away from moisture seeping out of Henri’s boots. Marsh tried to move but failed, and the kat nudged her again, this time sliding her head under Marsh’s hand.
Did her pride need energy?
Marsh scratched the kat’s head.
“Deeps, yes, I need the energy.”
“And me.” Roeglin’s voice was barely a whisper.
Marsh wanted to say he was first but knew she couldn’t. If she tried to use her magic for anything but replenishing her reserves, she’d sleep where she knelt. She sniffed. That would be unthinkable.
Focusing carefully, she accepted what Mordan was offering and took just enough to allow her to focus on the broader spread of natural energy around them.
“Thanks, Dan. I can do it from here.”
“Oui. Thanks, Dan,” Henri mimicked. “Can you get your claws out of my chest now and let me up out of this puddle of piss?”
The sarcastic resentment in his voice made Marsh laugh and lose her concentration. The kat moved and Henri scrambled up off the floor, taking several steps away from them to shake out his boots and fuss with his trouser legs.
“Unbelievable,” he complained, stomping his feet. “Un-shroom-shaggingly-believable!”
He glared at Mordan.
“Next time, don’t help.”
Mordan stared at him, then walked over to stand in front of him, looking up.
“What?” he demanded, and the kat rose up on her hind legs and slammed both forepaws into his chest, pushing him backward.
He stumbled, tripped over the rock behind him, and went down into a cluster of brown noses.
“What in all the shroom-shagged shadows was that about?” he shouted, hauling himself out of the oozing mass of crushed fungus.
Marsh looked away and tried not to burst into howling laughter. She managed to choke it down to a muffled snort, which Henri was too busy swearing to notice. Taking a deep breath, Marsh tried again. The energy was still there, the cavern more alive than any of the tunnels they had passed through.
Careful not to draw too much from any one source, Marsh took what she needed and focused on Roeglin.
“Tell me when you think you can walk enough to make it back to the shadow mages.”
He managed the barest of nods and Marsh cautiously directed the energy into him, using her ability to read life to direct the flow to the parts of him that glowed dullest.
“Enough,” he managed a few moments later and rolled slowly to his feet.
Marsh rose too, and Henry pushed off the rock he’d been sitting on.
“Tell me we’re going back to somewhere I can get a hot bath, a warm towel, and a clean change of clothes.”
Roeglin shook his head.
“We’ve still got a mind-walker to catch.”
Henri rolled his eyes and made a helpless gesture with his hands that took in his wet clothes and boots, but he didn’t argue.
“Which way?”
Roeglin frowned, his face going blank.
“He’s heading toward the mines. They had a camp between here and there.”
“What about the wolves?” Marsh asked. “Won’t they be hunting him too?”
“They will once they figure out he’s alive.”
A howl split the air.
Henri cocked his head to one side and stared at Roeglin.
“You want to try to beat them?”
“I’d like to, but none of us are in any condition to outrun them.”
“We going to try?” Marsh asked, walking in the direction of the howl.
Roeglin followed her.
“Oui.”
“For the Deeps’ sake!”
Henri followed them, his boots making squelching sounds at every step.
Marsh almost felt sorry for him.
He was protecting us, Roeglin reminded her in her head, where Henri couldn’t hear it.
True.
One man facing down a pack, and he didn’t draw steel, Roeglin added. That shows more courage than I’d have thought.
Or a spectacular lack of sense.
Roeglin sno
rted, and Henri reached over and clipped Marsh over the back of the head.
“I don’t have to hear you to know you’re talking about me.”
Marsh’s face warmed, and Henri laughed.
“Gotcha. Now you owe me two dinners.”
Marsh pretended not to hear him, instead tweaking the shadows to show her what was hiding among them and calling on nature to show her the life around and ahead of them. To her surprise, the mage wasn’t far ahead—and neither was the pack. He had scrambled up onto a rocky pillar, and the wolves couldn’t reach him.
“You!” he said when Marsh and Roeglin emerged behind the pack.
Uh oh.
That was all Roeglin had time to say before he collapsed.
“Ro!”
The mind-walker laughed.
“And now I have his name.”
Mordan growled and leapt for the rock, but the mage scrambled higher, and the kat’s claws missed him.
Roeglin gasped and Marsh knelt beside him, getting ready to slide inside his head.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Henri grabbed her by her collar and hauled her to her feet. “I’m not doing this alone. Next time you can get pissed on too.”
Marsh wanted to argue that there were more important things, but Henri was right, if a little off the mark as to what they were and why. Half the pack had turned to face them. The other half was dividing its attention between the mage and Mordan. As the pack leader approached Henri went to draw his sword. Marsh reached out and slapped her hand over his.
“Don’t.”
“Whatever you’re going to do, do it fast.”
“I’ve got this,” she told him and stepped forward.
The wolf laid its ears back and snarled at her. Behind her, Marsh heard Henri shift, and she held a hand behind her signaling him to stop whatever he was about to do. The wolf caught her gesture and snapped at the air in front of her. Marsh turned her head making sure she wasn’t looking it directly in the eye but watching in case it attacked.
It was hard.
These wolves were bigger than the ones near her cousin’s home, but they were still animals like the kat, and the krypthund...and the moutons.
Trading by Firelight Page 18
