Trading Into Daylight (The Magic Below Paris Book 6)

by C. M. Simpson

  In the meantime, the line had become a split, and one of each pair of mages had dropped to one knee and was preparing to fire on the kat.

  “Mordan!” Marsh shouted, but the kat had already changed course.

  The direct line of her charge had become a zig-zag flight across the atrium toward the cover of the bookcases. Marsh’s cry drew the attention of the closest crossbowman, and he swung the weapon toward her, his eyes widening as she charged.

  23

  Shadow Monsters and Salazar

  Marsh’s attack carried her into a hastily raised wall of shadow. She hit it hard and bounced off it, losing her shield and weapon as she went. The wall disappeared, and the mage fired.

  Roeglin slammed his shield down in front of her in time to stop the arrow from finding her chest and turned toward the enemy mage with a snarl. He grinned as the wall reappeared.

  “Sons of the Deep!”

  Roeglin hauled Marsh to her feet, dragging her back as he did so. When she was upright again, she pulled another sword and shield from the shadow and was distracted by movement at the center of the atrium. Henri ran forward, slapping the ex-raider guards to get their attention as he passed.

  The slap also served to break their horrified fascination at the portal opening before them.

  “Weapons up!” he roared as the first gibbering shriek cut the air. “They’re coming!”

  “What is coming?” one man quavered, peering at the portal.

  “Shadow monsters!” Zeb called, keeping a wary eye on the gate as he wiped his blade on the robes of his dead opponent.

  “What?”

  “Like remnant,” Jakob yelled, and the raiders looked at each other and formed a solid line behind Henri. They knew what remnant were.

  Zeb and Gerry trotted over to flank him, and Master Envermet glanced at the wall again.

  “Keep her safe,” he ordered, and Marsh knew he’d seen Tamlin and Aisha sneaking inside. They’d been followed by three slightly taller figures, all of whom had vanished behind the same row of bookcases, carefully avoiding the bodies as they went.

  None of them replied, and Marsh couldn’t spare them any more attention. The shadow wall had dissipated, and the mage with the crossbow fired again.

  Marsh blocked it with her buckler and started forward when the wall didn’t reappear. The mage hurled his weapon at them, dragging a shield and sword from the dark and stepping forward to block their path to his colleague.

  “They do have shadow mages...” one of the raiders murmured from behind Henri.

  “Where’d they get those from?” another responded.

  Marsh wanted to know the same thing. She hoped Roeglin and Master Envermet weren’t too busy to remember to look for the answers in their opponents’ heads.

  It’s not as easy as you think, Roeglin answered.

  Then get started. I can deal with these guys.

  I don’t think so, Roeglin replied and slid forward to engage the man before them. Deal with his partner.

  As if she needed to be told. Marsh tried to call the lightning, but it crackled just beyond her reach. Shadows slid between her demand and the energy she sought, denying her access.

  Someone’s blocking me, she snarled, glancing around for some clue as to where the interfering shadow mage was hiding.

  I’m a little busy right now, Roeglin answered.

  Marsh just bet he was. She tried to pull a javelin from the black but the shadows wouldn’t respond, so she threw her sword instead, only to have it dissipate before it reached her target. A rival power tugged at her shield.

  “I am going to find you and kill you,” Marsh declared as the first shadow monster charged out of the portal. The creature ignored the sound of her voice, its eyes fixed on the shadow mages and guards arrayed before it.

  To give them credit, none of the ex-raiders broke and ran, although their faces said they were having doubts about staying. Henri, Jakob, and Master Envermet had no such regrets, and neither did Obasi, Gerry, Zeb, Izmay, or Brigitte. They banged their swords against their shields, doing their best to keep the monsters’ attention.

  Marsh wondered where Mordan was. She’d lost sight of the kat when she’d had to refocus on the mages.

  Hunting. The answer was short, but Marsh caught a glimpse of the two mages securing the other end of the portal. One was totally focused on keeping the way open for the shadow monsters, but the other was warily scanning the dark, sword and shield at the ready.

  He was looking in the wrong direction, but Mordan hesitated. She sensed a presence nearby. A trap? Marsh caught her breath, trying to see what Mordan could not.

  Hunt your own prey! The kat kicked her out of her head, and Marsh discovered she’d halted and Roeglin had engaged the mage.

  Get the other one! he ordered, trying to get his opponent to move out of the way.

  The pair had set themselves up well, with the one holding the portal open standing between two bookcases. Marsh noticed the bookcases were part of a row and that a walkway ran behind them. She scanned the length of them, looking for another way around.

  It was hard leaving Roeglin on his own as she backtracked along them, but she did. The longer the mage stayed, the more monsters he’d let through, and there were enough of those already. Marsh jogged to the end of the row and glanced quickly around the corner.

  Her caution paid off. A flicker of movement was all the warning she had as a blade lashed out, but she was able to pull her head back in time and reverse a few paces to come wide of the corner. This time, when she pulled her sword and shield from the shadows, there was no resistance.

  The mage who had been hiding at the end of the bookcases was waiting to strike again. He lifted his head and smiled grimly when he saw her coming around out of range.

  “Nicely played,” he told her, and stepped back into an alcove, where he vanished from sight.

  Marsh ran forward, lashing out at the empty space in the hope he was still there, but her blade met no resistance until it clanged against the wall. She struck again, and the weapon vibrated in her hand. A third strike confirmed that the alcove really was devoid of life.

  She wasted no more time, but turned the corner and sprinted to where the mage was drawing the portal wider while his partner kept Roeglin at bay. Seeing she had a clear shot, Marsh released her sword and drew a dart from the darkness at the wall’s edge.

  Her shot flew true, piercing the mage’s robes and meeting flesh. The mage gasped, and Marsh called a sword to her hand as she closed the distance between them.

  It wasn’t needed, but she finished the thrust she’d started, catching him in the chest as he fell. The sound of his body hitting the floor drew his partner’s attention, and Roeglin showed no mercy. His blade took the man in the side of the throat, and he joined his colleague in death.

  The portal shuddered, and there was a startled cry from the other side of it. A man screamed and hit the floor, his cry cut short in a gargle as another man cried out in shock. Outrage laced his shout, but it died, too.

  The portal snapped shut. Shadow monsters caught partway through were cut in half, their pieces forever separated by whatever distance lay between the Library and their home. The ones already in the building howled in consternation but continued their attack.

  Master Envermet and Henri fought back to back, while Gerry, Zeb, Izmay, and Brigitte had formed a cluster and were taking on all comers. Obasi had teamed up with Jakob, and the two of them were working around a ring of four raiders so that the men weren’t overwhelmed.

  “Go! Find Salazar!” Master Envermet called, signaling for Marsh and Roeglin to continue their pursuit.

  Marsh wondered how he knew but not for long. The shadow captain was a faint presence in her head, his link barely tangible until she thought about it. He’d seen her memory of the fleeing seeker.

  He cannot be allowed to escape.

  Marsh turned and ran, Roeglin at her side, and Mordan swift to catch up. She passed the end of the bookcas
es and raced into the corridor that led from the atrium to a large set of double doors. She was surprised when Aisha and Tamlin emerged from behind the bookcases running at right angles to it.

  Shouldn’t have been. Roeglin told her, and Marsh knew he was right. She’d seen the little rascals vanish at the other end of them. The only marvel was that they’d brought the teens with them as well, when Tamlin could have shadow-stepped ahead, taking his sister with him.

  That would be mean, Aisha told her, doing her best to keep up as Marsh ran past.

  Marsh thought about stopping for the child, then decided it would be better if the kids were behind them. It was safer that way.

  Shadow monsters screamed and roared in their wake, and Roeglin raised his eyebrows.

  Not one word, she warned him, noticing the face peering at them from between the doors.

  Apparently, Salazar had seen all he needed to, though, because he slammed the doors closed, the thump of a locking bar dropping across them echoing down the corridor.

  “Merde!”

  “I’ll do it,” Aisha told her, and Marsh was forced to slow down. She really didn’t see an alternative.

  They slid to a stop in front of the doors, and Marsh and Roeglin tried to force them just to be sure. As they did, Basil and Vi moved a heavy potted plant away from the wall.

  “Aysh...” Tamlin began, but the little girl shook her head.

  “Have to,” she told him, and he sighed.

  “Fine.”

  She smiled sweetly and patted his leg as she slipped past him to kneel at the base of the wall.

  “I’ll do it,” she repeated, laying her palms flat against it and resting her forehead on the stone.

  Moments later, the wall parted, pulling away from the door’s edge, and the little girl slid to the floor.

  “I’ve got her,” Tamlin said as the three teens crowded around. Marsh fixed them with a stern glare.

  “Keep them safe,” she ordered and they nodded, their faces pale but determined.

  There was no more time than that. Salazar was not alone.

  Marsh heard familiar chanting and felt the magical wash from another portal being opened. She glanced back enough to see Vi and Basil ushering Jens and Tamlin out of the room and around the corner, then charged forward.

  Mordan roared and bounded past her, and Salazar smiled.

  The portal stretched to the size of a garden arch, showing a well-traveled cavern path beyond.

  He reached behind the desk and picked up an overloaded backpack. “You’re too late.”

  Marsh hurled her sword at him but it fell short, hitting the floor and sliding forward as it vanished to where she’d called it from. Salazar glanced at her, then at Mordan, and then at the slowly widening portal. He slung the pack over his shoulders and ran through the narrow gate into the dark of the caverns beyond.

  Marsh charged after him, determined to catch him no matter what it took, and Roeglin ran with her. One of the raider mages slipped through just as the first shadow monster shriek echoed into the room.

  24

  The Hunt for Gustav

  The mage on the office side of the portal glanced through the gate, his eyes widening in alarm. The face of the mage that returned was sheet-white. Marsh and Roeglin exchanged glances.

  Salazar had slowed to a walk.

  Mordan, wait. The kat had been preparing to spring when Marsh’s command reached her. The kat cocked her head, her tail flicking once and then going still.

  Salazar started to run—not farther down the trail, but back toward the Library.

  “Hold it open!” he shouted, and more shadow monsters called out from around him.

  Marsh caught the flicker of black moving on black, and then the amber reflection of the office lamps reflecting from blood-red eyes. The enemy mages stared at Salazar as he strove to reach the gate ahead of the oncoming mass.

  “Drop the pack!” one of them yelled, but the seeker held the pack tight.

  “Whatever he’s got in there, I doubt it’s worth dying for,” Roeglin mused.

  “He seems to think it is,” Marsh observed as Salazar glanced over his shoulder and strove to move faster.”

  “Now he gets it,” Roeglin added as the seeker shrugged his arms clear of the straps and dropped the pack behind him.

  Without the load, he was able to make it to the door and slide through. The second he was clear, Mordan pounced, knocking the closest mage to the floor and crunching down on his head. Marsh heard his neck snap as the kat twisted.

  She shook him clear of her bloodied jaws and went after the second mage as the portal collapsed between them. He shrieked as she swiped a paw across his legs, shredding the cloth of his robes and pulling him to the ground. His fearful cries were silenced seconds later as she closed her jaws on his throat and shook him like a rag doll.

  The sound of the shadow monsters died as the portal closed, and Salazar died as Roeglin and Marsh sank twin blades into his gut. Yanking her blade free, Marsh prepared to strike again. He dropped, eyes wide with confusion, and she realized she didn’t need to.

  “Merde! I didn’t get to ask him where he was hiding Gustav!”

  Roeglin looked down at the dead man and rested a hand on her arm. “The guards will know.”

  Marsh regarded him darkly. “Don’t bet on it.”

  “Pessimist.”

  They left the bodies in the office, Mordan stalking in their wake. By the time they returned, the ex-raiders were searching the book stacks and alcoves for any survivors. Marsh remembered to look in on Aisha as they passed.

  They found the children holed up under a large study table, eating rations.

  “We were hungry,” Tamlin told them, sounding defensive, then added, “Did you get him?”

  Marsh nodded.

  “And Gustav?”

  Marsh shook her head. “Not yet.”

  He shifted. “We’ll help you...” Registering Aisha’s dead weight on his lap, he made a helpless gesture with his hand.

  “It’s okay. You guys stay here. Call the shadows to hide you. We’ll go find Gustav.”

  “What if he needs healing?” Now Tamlin did look worried.

  “We’ll do what we can until Aisha wakes up.” Marsh frowned. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s still alive. If Kearick had wanted him dead, they wouldn’t have put the spear through his foot or bothered taking him to a more secure cell. They have something else planned for him.”

  “What if they’ve done it already?” Tamlin asked.

  “Pretty sure they’re waiting for something,” Marsh reassured him, “and I’m pretty sure that whatever it is, it wasn’t meant to happen until morning.”

  Tamlin glanced toward the end of the bookshelf closest to the door. “Morning’s almost here.”

  Marsh pushed her way out from under the desk. “We’ll hurry,” she promised and led Roeglin and Mordan back to where Master Envermet was marshaling a larger group of people than there’d been when he left.

  He looked up as they arrived. “They want to help,” he explained.

  Marsh nodded. “We’ll want the Library kept intact,” she instructed, “and the town. The raiders who were forced to guard or bring others back in order to protect their families are not to be harmed.”

  An unfriendly rumble met her statement, but Marsh held up her hand.

  “Let their future actions judge them. If they harm others, then they should be punished for that and this. If they do their best to atone, then think of what you would risk for your loved ones.”

  She borrowed one of Master Envermet’s lines. “We cannot all be heroes.”

  This last was met with silence, but Roeglin sent her a wave of approval. That worked, he informed her.

  Marsh looked at Master Envermet, who motioned for her to continue. “I need to know where they keep the ones they bring to the Library. Can anyone tell me?”

  The silence continued a little longer, then one of the ex-raider guards stepped forward. “The
y take them Below,” he began, but one of his colleagues cut him off.

  “Not right away, though,” he argued and hurried to answer the first guard’s puzzled stare. “They had me bring meals. I brought the same number for the first two or three nights. It was only after that the kitchens had me bring fewer.”

  When more silence met his explanation, he continued, “When I wasn’t punished for not bringing enough, I guessed it was because there were fewer prisoners to feed.”

  The freed prisoners murmured amongst themselves, but many nodded. “It makes sense.”

  The guard relaxed slightly but eyed them warily. He knew he would not be forgiven so easily or so soon. “I can take you to where I delivered the meals,” he offered, “but what’s past that door, I don’t know.”

  Marsh looked at the rest of the guards. “Anyone else who delivered meals?”

  They exchanged glances and two more stepped forward, shoulders hunched and heads bowed. She nodded at them. “And was the same true for you?”

  This time, they kept their eyes firmly on the floor as they nodded.

  “Good,” Marsh told them. “You can all lead the way.”

  Master Envermet stepped forward when the prisoners went to follow. “Stay here. We don’t know what’s waiting for us behind the door.”

  “No one in the Library is innocent,” one man asserted. He gestured at the guards moving to do as Marsh had ordered, and then at the others standing with the shadow guards. “These might have been coerced, but the ones here did not have family in the village.”

  “Their family might have been elsewhere—” Master Envermet began, but the man cut him off.

  “If they were, they were probably glad to be free of them for a short time, given what they were like.”

  Master Envermet’s eyes flared briefly white and he swallowed, nodding in understanding. “If there are more, they will be executed.”

  “How will you know?” a woman challenged.