Marsh wanted to scream at the pair of them, but she turned around and returned to the fire, settling beside Roeglin. She didn’t move when she heard the shuffle of feet as they moved out of the entrance.
When she heard them walking around the edge of the children’s campsite, she lifted her head—and that was when Mordan struck. The big kat came and stood beside her. Marsh tilted her head to look at her, and Mordan slapped a paw against her chest and pushed her over before grabbing her by the front of her tunic and dragging her back from the fire.
“Hey!” Marsh protested, and Mordan plonked her down.
Marsh breathed a sigh of relief and went to sit up, only to have Mordan lie across her chest, pinning her to the ground. “Dan!”
She pushed against the kat’s shoulder, trying to twist out from under her, but the kat was too heavy.
“Dan! You’re squashing me.”
The kat dipped her muzzle and licked Marsh’s cheek.
Marsh pushed her away. “No! I don’t want your love. I want you to let me up.”
Startled laughter came from the entry, and she twisted her head. Tamlin tipped his head to the side to meet her gaze. “Hi, Marsh.”
He held up the basket in his hand. “I think I brought enough back for all of us. It was meant to last Aysh and me a week, but you guys have enough rations to spare, don’t you?”
Marsh sighed and pushed at Mordan again. “Come on, Dan. I don’t need to go anywhere now.”
The big kat stayed exactly where she was.
Marsh shoved her again. “Dan!”
The kat gave a grumbling growl and stood up, returning to her place beside the rocky wall. Marsh took a few deep breaths to restore the air in her lungs, then pushed herself upright. Tamlin gave another chuckle and looked around the fire.
His smile faded when he saw Master Envermet and Brigitte. “Wow. You brought everyone.”
Master Envermet snorted. “No, everyone was worried about you and your sister, so they invited themselves. We figured you’d need some help rescuing Captain Moldrane.”
Tams’ shoulders sagged. “Phew.”
“What?”
“For a moment, I thought you were going to try to drag us back without going after the captain.” He cast the shadow guard a defiant stare. “Because that wouldn’t have worked.”
Master Envermet looked momentarily shocked, then he raised his eyebrows and fixed the boy with a curious stare. “Care to tell me why?”
“Well, you can’t watch us all the time,” he said, “and I can be just as stubborn as Aisha...and we’re not leaving Gustav where he is. No way. Not in a million years.”
That was said with such certainty that Master Envermet’s eyebrows lifted another notch.
“Tell me you didn’t steal that,” Master Envermet said, indicating the basket, and Tams rolled his eyes.
“I didn’t steal it. I left some trade tokens for it. I probably left too many, but I didn’t want to underpay. That’s not the way to make friends.”
“Did you find Gustav?” Roeglin asked.
Tamlin ignored the question and stepped closer to the fire. He passed the basket to Brigitte. “Does this help?”
She peeked inside and smiled. “That’s wonderful, Tams. Thank you.”
He smiled, then turned back to Roeglin.
“There’s a large campground on the other side under the cliffs. I think the only people who use it for camping are the raiders because there are cages all along the fence line and the main camp is in the center. It’s like they’re using the prisoners as a living wall.”
He shivered. “They’ve got a big set of kitchens close to the town and a roster for the townsfolk to follow. I don’t think they give people much choice. No one seems to want to give them any trouble, but I didn’t get a chance to find out what they thought of them. It might be like it was in the caverns, you know?”
Marsh nodded. “We know. What else did you notice?”
“Well, there were the storerooms...” He was about to go on when Roeglin raised his hand, his voice echoing in their heads. We are not alone.
Master Envermet’s response was immediate. How many?
Two...no, three. They followed Tamlin.
Not assassins? Marsh recalled that Idris had siblings and that while they’d killed two, they didn’t know how many more there were.
Roeglin shook his head. No. These I can feel clearly, and their thoughts aren’t shielded.
Do you know what they want?
To see where the boy camps, Roeglin told him, fading into the shadows, but we can ask them why ourselves.
7
New Friends
Marsh stood, drew a sword from the shadows, and stepped into the nearest patch of shadow. Footsteps scuffed in the darkness beyond the fire, and Master Envermet came to his feet, drawing his sword as he stood.
“Show yourselves,” he commanded.
For a moment, there was no reply, then three men stepped cautiously into view. Two carried crossbows but dangled them carefully by their sides. The third stepped in front of them, dropping his hand to the hilt of his sword.
“We mean you no harm,” he said, stumbling over his words in his hurry to explain. “None. See?”
He indicated the men on either side of them. “We could have shot you without you knowing we were there, but we didn’t. We only came to check on the boy.”
He looked at the two figures near the fire and the hoshkat crouched to one side. “I thought there were more of you.”
“There are,” Marsh said from behind them and one of the men started, dropping his crossbow to the ground and raising his hands.
“No harm,” he gabbled. “We mean you no harm!”
Panic caused his voice to rise, and he paled. Beside him, the other crossbowman lowered his bow to the ground and very slowly straightened, raising his hands as he did so.
Master Envermet watched as Roeglin and Marsh swept the weapons away with their feet, then pulled the men’s swords from their scabbards and dropped them with the bows. Their leader just raised his hands and waited while Marsh took his sword, the axe strapped to his back, and the dagger that hung over his other hip.
“You don’t carry a bow?” she asked, and he shook his head.
“Can’t shoot straight, Miss,” he answered. “More of a menace with one than without. I look after the hunters.”
“Not doing a very good job of it,” she noted, and he swallowed.
“They’re still alive,” he told her, “and that’s because I told them to keep their bows down and not loaded.”
The man had a point, and Marsh conceded it. “You did well.”
“Why don’t you come join us?” Master Envermet suggested, and they crossed unsteadily to settle by the fire.
Mordan watched their every step, her body tense and still, her gaze unwavering. They didn’t take their eyes off her.
“She won’t eat you,” Marsh assured them, “unless you try to harm us.”
“No harm intended,” the leader hastily assured them. “Name’s Rocko. I’m the town’s blacksmith...or I was until the raiders came.”
Brigitte handed them each a sandwich containing cheese and slices of apple. “I trust Tamlin left enough to cover the cost.”
Rocko nodded, his weathered gaze going to the boy. “He did.”
He reached for his pouch and Marsh and Roeglin tensed, but the man didn’t notice. He fished around in his pouch and pulled two tokens clear. “That’s the other reason we came. He paid too much. Only right he should get his change.”
He held out the coins, and Tams cast a nervous glance at Master Envermet. The shadow captain nodded, and the boy stepped forward to accept the tokens before stepping back out of reach. Mordan licked the man’s ear, and he jumped.
None of them had noticed the kat approach.
“Dan!” Marsh scolded and the kat returned to her resting place, flopping back down with a huffing laugh.
“Did she... Did she just laugh a
t me?” Rocko stammered.
“She has terrible manners,” Marsh told him, then drew her brows together in a scowl.
“Why did you really come?” Master Envermet asked, his tone mild.
Rocko made an abortive gesture toward Tams, then caught the gaze of the taller of the archers. The man sighed and nodded. “Tell them.”
Marsh heard a world of authority in those tones and studied the man more closely. Until he’d spoken, she’d thought Rocko was the trio’s leader. She realized she’d made a mistake.
The speaker had dirty-blond hair pulled back in a rough ponytail. His hands were as rough as the blacksmith’s, but his face was younger and smoother under the dirt. He studied her briefly before moving on to Roeglin.
He might be saying very little, but his eyes gave him away. He was assessing them as closely as they were assessing him, his gray-green gaze shrewd and intelligent. Master Envermet looked at him, and he stiffened.
“I...I’m sorry. It was necessary.”
Marsh crouched, glancing out into the dark, but the shadow captain calmed her.
“Stand down, Leclerc. He was only apologizing for hiding his identity. I will explain later. In the meantime...” he turned back to the man, “Liam has a lot to explain.”
The blond man sighed. “We came because we were afraid you were raiders, and we are not expecting the next expedition for another week. If you had been them, we would have needed to send for more supplies to be able to meet our obligations for freedom.”
“Explain.” Even to her own ears, Marsh’s voice sounded brittle.
“We exist because we feed them and give them shelter,” Liam told them, and his face burned with shame. He ducked his head to avoid their eyes. “It’s not something we are proud of.”
“So, why do it?”
“Because it is preferable to the alternative,” he admitted, “although not by much.”
He raised his head. “If it were only us, most of us would have fought, but we don’t have a right to send our families into slavery or to certain death. That is not our choice to make.”
“So you let them take other people’s families to certain death instead?” Marsh’s voice rose in disbelief. “Because that’s okay.”
He shook his head, his voice soft with regret and grief. “No, it’s not, and we will someday be held accountable.”
“That’s not fair, Liam,” Rocko protested. “We do what we can.”
“Do tell,” Brigitte challenged, her soft voice full of threat, and they all looked at her.
“Sometimes we can get the prisoners medicine or extra food and water. It’s not much, but it gives them more of a chance than they’d have if they try to make a break for it further down the road.”
“And do they?”
Liam nodded. “Some do. If they make it back to us, we try to keep them free.”
“And then there are the children,” Rocko added. “We sometimes get them free.”
“Not all of them, though.” The third man spoke for the first time, his expression haunted. His voice quiet. “We don’t get them all.”
“We know it’s not enough to make up for all the others we don’t save,” Liam told them, “but we’d save no one if we weren’t here.”
“What do you do with them?” Marsh asked, and he gave her a puzzled look.
“What do you mean?”
“The ones you rescue or help. What do you do with them?”
“We get them away from the raiders,” Liam told her, and his eyes shifted.
“Where do you send them?”
“We don’t send them. We make sure they get to safety ourselves.”
“Where?”
Liam ducked his head. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t tell you that.”
Marsh pulled a sword from the shadows and leveled the tip of its blade at his throat. “No. We won’t.”
He shifted his eyes to his men. Following his gaze, Marsh saw that Rocko had gone pale, and their guilt-ridden friend had closed his eyes.
“They don’t trust us,” Master Envermet said, and they all stared at him. He shrugged. “It’s understandable, really. We’ve only just met.”
He glanced at Roeglin and Roeglin raised his head, letting the men see his sheet-white eyes.
“They are afraid we will betray them,” he added, staring at Liam. His gaze shifted to Rocko. “That we might have already done so.”
Rocko paled and glanced in terror at the kat. Roeglin looked at the last man. “And Marius, here, desperately wishes he could ask us to see if his sister has survived being taken.”
He paused, his face sympathetic. “He could not stop Joanna from fighting them when they first arrived.”
“There was a child.” The man’s voice was hoarse. “She would not let them have it.”
“But they took it anyway,” Roeglin finished for him and Marius nodded, a tear escaping from the corner of his eye.
He looked up at the mage. “Can you?”
“Can we what?” Marsh asked.
“Get her back for me?”
“We can try,” she told him, then asked again. “Where do you take them?”
“There is a village...” Liam began, but Master Envermet held up his hand.
“Enough,” he said. “We know where. It was clear in your mind, and I will not risk your words carrying. However, let me offer you an alternative for the future.”
The three men leaned toward him and he smiled, his eyes flaring white as he dropped the directions to the surface cavern into their minds.
“It is closer,” Liam noted.
“They were saying they were getting overly full when last we checked.”
Liam met Master Envermet’s eyes. “Thank you. We are sorry for the attacks that passed through us.”
“You weren’t to kno—”
Liam held up his hand, cutting him short. “Yes, we were. We know their business. They go out with empty chains and come back with them full. We’re compromised, not stupid.”
“But you do more good as you are than by not being here at all,” Master Envermet told him. “I will plead for you when the time comes.”
“And I pray it comes soon,” Liam replied, “no matter the price.”
He got cautiously to his feet. “There were deer a little to the east of here. If we can bring one back, no one will ask questions as to where we went.”
Marsh glanced at Mordan, and the big kat rose to her feet. A hunt would be good. “Dan will help you,” Marsh told them as the kat slipped through the entryway.
“You can retrieve your weapons on the way out. Shoot the kat or any one of us, and I will level the town and every living thing within it.”
Marsh gave him a shocked look, but the expression on Master Envermet’s face said he meant every word. She wondered what else he’d read in their minds.
As they were about to leave, Tamlin spoke up. “The cages were empty, Marsh. I expected to see him, to see prisoners, but they weren’t there.”
His voice took on a desperate note. “I don’t know how far behind him we are.”
Marsh turned back to where the men had halted by the gate. “Perhaps you’d better sit,” she told them. “Mordan can catch your deer.”
The kat gave her a filthy look and an unhappy growl as she left the fireside. I shall return with two.
The men exchanged uncertain glances but returned to their places.
“The last group of raiders,” Master Envermet began. “Tell us about them.”
8
Compromise
Liam crossed his legs and put his hands on his knees. “There’s not a lot to tell,” he said, “but I’ll give you what I know.”
Master Envermet gestured for him to continue, and Roeglin sat behind them, his eyes glowing white. Marsh and Brigitte watched them, ready to act at the first sign of betrayal.
“They arrived the day before last, and they weren’t happy,” he began, and Rocko and Marius nodded. “It looked like they had a good ha
ul of prisoners, but they were complaining of the ones they’d lost. What I heard from them sounded like they’d caught double what they had and lost half.”
He gave them a speculative look. “Some resistance in the tunnels. We didn’t know what tunnels they meant until just before. Now we do.”
He frowned. “I don’t remember seeing anyone wearing clothes like yours among the slaves, but I can ask around.”
“No. Don’t,” Master Envermet ordered. “You don’t know who you can trust, and we don’t want the raiders alerted as to who we’re interested in. We’ll go after them ourselves. Better you don’t know where or when.”
Liam nodded, and Marius breathed a sigh of relief.
He caught Marsh’s look of curiosity and shrugged. “What I don’t know I can’t be made to tell,” he explained. “It’s better that way. It’s bad enough we know about you at all, even with the alternatives we’ve been given.”
Marsh glanced past him, and Roeglin nodded.
“Do you know where they’re going next?”
“Three days’ march from here, there’s this castle on a hill. It used to be a place of learning, some kind of religious site, but that isn’t what it’s become.” He shivered.
His words reminded Marsh of what she’d seen when Kearick had made his escape: a room with high-vaulted ceilings and bookcase-lined walls. The walls had been solid stone, as had the floors, and the furniture was built from sturdy, well-worn timber.
She focused on what Liam had to say next, sure she had found Kearick’s refuge.
“If it helps,” Liam said, regarding her with curiosity, “we think there’s another village between here and there.”
“Like you?”
The man shrugged. “Who knows what they’re like? They might be completely on the raiders’ side for all we know, or they might be like us and help where they can. I don’t know. The last of us who asked if the raiders knew of any other trading points ended up being an example of why not to ask.”
He paled, and Master Envermet winced. “I am truly sorry,” he said, and Liam shook his head.
“Nolan was a greedy bastard who’da sold his mother for a profit.” He swallowed hard and shook his head. “He didn’t deserve that, though.”
Trading Into Daylight (The Magic Below Paris Book 6) Page 5
