Marsh blocked another flight of arrows and frowned at the remnant pressing around them. “I don’t see how we can stop them.”
“I’ll help!” came a small, determined voice, and Marsh had to fight to keep her focus on the sky and the incoming arrows.
Tamlin lost his concentration. “Aysh! You promised!”
“You did, too,” the child snarled back. “Bad Tams!”
“Get down, the pair of you!” Roeglin ordered and stepped in front of Tamlin. “Aisha, what are you going to do?”
A secretive smile touched the edge of her reply. “I called the wolves.”
Marsh’s face paled. “We don’t want the wolves to come,” she whispered, conjuring a shield farther back and trying to work out where the arrows were coming from.
“They come!” the child declared, as determined as ever, and Tamlin groaned.
“But, Aysh, what if they eat us?”
“Don’t be silly! Wolves help us, not eat us!”
“How do you know?”
“Scruffy said so.”
As if to prove her point, a frightened scream sounded from behind the remnant. The cry drew the attention of the remnant toward the back of the attack, and several turned away.
“They’re going after the injured,” Roeglin murmured, and Marsh almost felt sorry for the raider who had cried out.
Another scream followed the first, and more remnant peeled away. An arrow wobbled into the sky as if the man firing it had been distracted at the last moment. Marsh almost dropped her shield, but couldn’t be sure if the raiders had been close together or scattered.
Scattered, Roeglin confirmed.
As if to prove his point, another scream split the night, followed by the clatter of a dropped weapon and the snarls of wolves.
Jakob gutted another of the attacking remnant, and Henri and Izmay dropped two more. Gerry and Zeb rammed their spears into the closest remnant’s chests, and those behind them followed. Another scream rang out.
More remnant dropped away, and the team killed as many as they could. Marsh wanted to call the lightning down, but she was tired...and Scruffy and the kats were out there. While she knew she could direct the lightning in the caverns, she wasn’t as sure here.
And working it out was not something she wanted to do when she didn’t know how much control she had left.
No, Roeglin agreed, and it isn’t necessary.
“The wolves are chasing the monsters,” Aisha declared with childish satisfaction.
A roar and screams filled the night.
“And Dan. Dan chases the monsters, too,” the child added.
“And Perdy and Scruffy,” she amended moments later when more hunting calls followed. “All gone soon.”
The complacent acceptance of the remnant’s and raiders’ demises made Marsh shiver, and she wondered if the little girl would have nightmares. It seemed like a lot of death for her to be near.
It was your idea to bring her with you. Master Envermet’s reminder was an unwelcome interruption.
It was not my idea to bring her out here. They did that on their own, Marsh retorted, and he laughed.
“But you were going to before they left on their own.”
Marsh’s face burnt. That much was true. She had been going to bring them on the hunt for Gustav and Kearick, if only because she had promised not to leave them behind again.
With the remnant gone, the guards looked into the dark, their bodies tense as they waited for the next attack. Master Envermet turned to Roeglin.
“Are we clear?”
The shadow mage frowned and settled back to the ground. Aisha crowded close to him and laid her hand on his shoulder, while Tamlin stood on his other side and looked out into the night. What either of the children thought they could do if he was attacked, Marsh didn’t know...and she prayed she would never find out.
She waited for Roeglin to reply, but he didn’t. He knelt, head bowed, silent, and Marsh resisted the urge to slide along the link between them and see what he was doing
Master Envermet shot her a sharp glance but she ignored him, focusing instead on the shadows around them. Now that the screams and shouts had died away, there was more movement at the edge of the campsite.
Marsh looked at Aisha.
“Are you sure the wolves aren’t going to eat us?”
15
Lupine Liaisons
At Marsh’s words, the team backed away from the shadows, moving close to the campfire as the wolves stalked out of the rubble. None of the guards relinquished their swords, and Jakob kept his blade well and truly aflame.
“No!” Aisha shrieked and would have charged forward if her brother hadn’t grabbed her as she tried to go past. “Let me go.”
The lead wolf jerked its head up and growled.
Marsh felt the hairs stand up on her arms and hurried to reassure it. “She’s fine. We’re not hurting her.”
“Are so, too!” the little girl shouted, and Marsh rolled her eyes.
“Not helping, Aysh!”
“Don’t wanna help. Wanna say hello!”
Marsh turned on her, pushing her face close to Aisha’s and snarling, “Stop!”
Aisha flinched, and Tamlin stared at Marsh with wide eyes.
“Wow, that was—”
“Don’t say it,” Marsh growled. “Not another word.”
Roeglin snickered. “Your eyes look like emerald fire,” he told her, and his own eyes flashed white.
Marsh felt him slide into her head, a wave of calm spreading out from his presence, and her fur smoothed. Fur?
Roeglin started to laugh, and irritation spiked through her.
Who was this male who thought he could tell Marsh what to do?
Dan? Marsh asked, seeing the kat’s influence for what it was.
The cub was being unruly. Now that she’d recognized the big kat’s presence, Marsh realized Mordan’s annoyance had spilled into her reaction. She needed to understand.
Understand what? Marsh thought but did not say.
That there are ways to greet pride.
Pride?
Mordan rumbled her discontent and leapt from the top of the wall to land in front of the team. Captain Envermet’s quick parry knocked Henri’s blade aside before it struck the kat and she looked over her shoulder, wrinkling her lips in a silent snarl.
Henri’s cheeks reddened and he ducked his head. “Sorry, kat.”
She flicked her tail at him and looked past Master Envermet to Marsh. You are needed.
Marsh raised her eyebrows. She was?
Rolling her shoulders in a shrug, she gave Master Envermet an apologetic look. He made a small gesture, indicating she should go forward.
“No faaii—” Aisha wailed, her cry abruptly cut off as Tamlin put his hand over her mouth.
The wolf leader had been joined by four more members of its pack, and Marsh swallowed a frisson of fear as she noted their size. They were larger than she remembered the wolves of Downslopes being.
Despite this, she made herself step up beside Mordan. The wolf’s head came up to her waist, but Marsh didn’t have much time to think about it. Mordan gave her a mental nudge.
Marsh started. What?
You are standing above him. It is not polite.
Marsh sighed and lowered herself to her knees. There was a hiss of indrawn breath behind her, and Master Envermet’s disapproving presence was in her head.
Marsh could see why. Kneeling, her head was at Mordan’s shoulder, and just below the wolf leader’s jaws. There was no way she would avoid him if he chose to attack.
That’s a good way to lose your face, Roeglin murmured, and Marsh scowled.
The wolf cocked its head.
Marsh lifted her gaze enough to catch the edge of his eyes, and he focused abruptly. It was an effort for her not to look away. The kat approved.
We are his equals, she told Marsh, her claim almost arrogant in itself.
If it weren’t true, it might have been.
The wolf’s mind welcomed her. Wolf scent surrounded her, accompanied by images of the large iron-gray wolf who led the Downslopes pack.
“Ironshades,” Marsh murmured, and the wolfpack leader yipped agreement.
Ironshades was the name the humans had given his brother. Their territories ran cheek by jowl and they shared the responsibility of keeping the remnant and other threats low.
Other threats? Marsh wondered, and the wolf showed images of...creatures, some large, some small, all with skin or carapaces a burnished red. What are they?
The wolf gave a mental shrug. He did not know where the monsters came from. He and the pack merely hunted them from existence when they found them. They destroyed the herds and made the humans look for retribution or flee in fear.
They were not good for his territory, and the pack would not tolerate them.
Marsh could understand. She sent feelings of acceptance to the pack leader, and he returned them.
She was pack. He lifted his head, taking in the guards and mages arrayed before him. They were all pack.
Master Envermet relaxed, and the wolf surveyed him with benign amusement.
Of course, he had known the shadow captain was there.
It was news to Master Envermet, and Marsh stifled a smirk as he stiffened with surprise. The wolf turned back to her, sending images of the pack curled around the fire and the humans that slept.
We will keep watch, he told her, and the shadow captain nodded.
Thank you, Marsh replied and sent a wave of gratitude toward him.
The wolf reflected happiness and broke the connection between them, leaving Marsh aware of his size and proximity as she came back to herself. Mordan leaned on her, indicating she should stay where she was as the other wolves advanced.
They need your scent, the big kat explained, and to feel your presence inside.
At first, Marsh didn’t know what Mordan meant, but as she met the eyes of each wolf when it came to stand before her, she understood. They wished to hunt with her and hear her howl if she called for them.
It was strange the way she spoke to them. This was not the way of the humans they knew.
Marsh regarded the last wolf with surprise, and it licked her face before turning away. That one had been more...coherent...than the others. Was there a druid nearby?
The wolf did not answer, but it ducked its head, breaking the connection as it turned away.
So much for wanting to hear Marsh’s howl as she hunted.
We are never far, the wolf assured her, and was gone.
Fine, Marsh thought. Keep your secrets.
Seeing that had been the last, she pushed to her feet and turned back to the team.
“They want to...” Marsh let her words roll to a stop.
Either Master Envermet had already relayed the message, or the team had figured it out on their own.
It wasn’t hard, Roeglin told her, and she could see why.
The wolves wove in and around the guards’ legs, sniffing each one as they went and allowing the guards to ruffle what parts of their fur weren’t soaked with blood and gore.
Mordan caught her sense of distaste. They will be clean when they return.
When they return? Marsh had barely formed the thought when the pack disappeared back into the shadows.
Master Envermet looked at her. “Where are they going?”
“To clean up,” Marsh told him.
“Good.” He looked around at the team. “We’re camping here tonight. The wolves will keep watch. We’ll find the mules in the morning.”
“Want to find them now!” Aisha argued, and Master Envermet turned to her.
“No. They will be fine until morning, and it’s too dark.”
“Not too dark for wolves.”
“Mules are scared of wolves.”
“Oh.” Aisha fell silent and then yawned.
Tamlin hugged her close. “See? You need to sleep.”
“Do not.”
“Do too.”
“Hungry.”
Tamlin sighed. He glanced at Master Envermet. “Are we sleeping here?”
The shadow captain looked around the blood-spattered camping space and sighed. “Roeglin, how secure is the space behind this wall?”
“With the wolves, it will be safer, but there is a site a half-hour’s walk from here.” He paused, frowning. “The other groups of raiders were heading for it when they heard the shadow...remnant...attack.”
He gave Master Envermet an apologetic look. “The second group was a lot closer than I thought. They’d have met with the runners either tonight or in the morning.”
Henri stared at him in shock. “You had time to read a man’s mind?”
Roeglin met his look and shrugged. “Master Envermet asked me to scan for the minds around us. It seemed a waste not to at least look inside.”
Master Envermet gave him an appraising stare and then nodded. “We’ll move camp.”
He turned to Mordan. “Tell the wolves.”
Mordan gave him a long green stare, and Master Envermet raised his eyebrow. “I am pack leader here.”
The kat glanced at Marsh, and Marsh sighed. “You know it, Dan.”
Mordan lashed her tail with irritation and glared at Master Envermet.
The shadow captain sighed. “All the women in my life. All of them.”
Dan did not dignify that with an answer but stalked into the night. Is the pack leader going to stack the bodies? she sent to Marsh, knowing full well the shadow captain was linked.
“That is what I have pack for,” Master Envermet replied, and the guards stared at him. He looked at them and smiled. “Mordan has just reminded me that we have bodies to clear up.”
Henri groaned but grabbed the nearest remnant, wrinkling his nose. “These are putrid,” he complained, dragging it into the dark.
“I don’t think they bother bathing,” Gerry replied, following him.
Henri’s cry of horror and surprise jolted through them moments later, and they rushed to see what had caused it, Izmay in the lead. They found him hacking wildly at one of the remnant corpses, the blade making odd crunching noises each time it struck.
It sounded more like he was crushing cockroaches than hacking at near-human flesh. His face was white and his eyes wild as he shattered the creature attached to the remnant’s spine. Master Envermet’s face hardened.
“Search for more. The raiders, too.”
They found the bugs on every second or third remnant body but none on the raiders.
“Search wider,” the shadow captain ordered. “I don’t know what these are, and I don’t know how long they stay attached after death, but I won’t risk them roaming loose.”
Marsh refrained from pointing out that there were probably more attached to the remnant that had fled, and it didn’t matter what he risked.
“I mean bugs without hosts,” he snapped. “Like ticks looking for a new source of food.”
The idea made Marsh shudder, but she said nothing more as they worked to move the bodies to a bowl formed by the remains of another building.
Walking through the night was just like walking through the caverns but without a roof overhead, and the team moved with easy surety as they cleared the battle site.
“I still don’t know if it’s ever going to be okay for camping,” Izmay observed, indicating the gore spattered over the ground and rubble.
“Maybe it will make travelers move to a safer site,” Master Envermet said. He smiled at Marsh. “If we’re to re-open the trade routes, we’ll need another waystation here.”
Marsh blushed. As much as she wanted to see the trade routes opened, she wanted something else more. The ruins around her held the secrets of the ancients, and she had so many questions.
What had they been like? What had they done to create the remnant? What treasures lay hidden in the rubble?
Master Envermet laughed. “You’ll still need a safe base of operations to explore from,�
�� he told her, reminding her also that he had no morals when it came to what others were thinking.
She scowled and went to help move the remaining bodies.
“Make sure you search those,” Master Envermet ordered when she lifted a dead raider by the shoulders.
Marsh did as she was asked, taking the man’s pack and weapons before going through his pockets.
“It seems a shame to leave his boots,” Henri commented when she was almost done, and she jumped.
She’d been so focused on what she was doing that she hadn’t noticed him come over. She’d thought he’d been coming back for another body.
“There are going to be folk who need them,” Henri explained. “I’m pretty sure the raiders don’t let their slaves keep their footwear.”
Marsh gave him a puzzled look. Henri sighed.
“First rule of prisoners,” he explained. “Take their footwear. They can’t run away as fast.”
“I’m not even going to ask how you know that,” Marsh told him, but she did as he suggested and took the boots. “I’m not stripping him.”
“No,” Master Envermet agreed. “We don’t have time for that, but take the boots. Henri makes a good point.”
Again, Marsh wondered how people knew this.
“I wasn’t always a shadow mage, Leclerc.”
She followed their connection, wondering what he meant, only to find the way into his skull completely blocked.
“Now is not the time.” His voice was mild, but the words came through gritted teeth.
Marsh left him alone.
They finished the grisly task of moving the bodies and pushed what rubble they could over them, but there were too many to bury, and Master Envermet curled his lip in frustration. “That’s going to bring every scavenger for miles.”
Roeglin studied his face. “We don’t have time.”
“Even raiders deserve better.”
“True. Maybe when we’re done.”
They returned to where Tamlin and Aisha were waiting. They hadn’t been idle, and Marsh eyed the neatly tied bundles of sticks with surprise. Tamlin nudged one with his toe. “Have to do our part,” he told her.
Henri nodded in approval. “Good thinking.”
“Very,” Master Envermet agreed. “Roeglin, the other campsite, if you would.”
Trading Into Daylight (The Magic Below Paris Book 6) Page 11
