He settled himself a little way away from the fire and looked at Marsh.
“And you need to be sleeping.”
Marsh raised her hands in mock surrender, but she checked that both Tamlin and Aisha were asleep before settling a blanket over Roeglin and looking for her own bed. It was almost logical that the hoshkat would be curled beside her pack.
26
The Art of Being a Trainee
Marsh woke to the sound of cave crickets chirping and Scruffknuckle growling. When she looked, the pup had a corner of Aisha’s blanket in his mouth and was trying to pull it out of the child’s hands. At first, Marsh couldn’t work out what had gotten into the pup, but then she noticed the tufted end of a hoshkat’s tail sticking out from underneath the blanket and realized what was happening.
The kit had ousted the pup from his place at Aisha’s side.
Marsh unwrapped herself and hurried over before the blanket could tear.
“Aisha! Time to get up. Make sure Scruff and the kit are ready. You don’t want to make the master cross.”
She reached over and took the blanket out of Aisha’s hand, folding it quickly before handing it back.
“Put that in your pack before I decide you don’t need it.”
“You’re mean.”
“I can find you cookies.”
The blanket was stowed in double-quick time, and Marsh could sense when Aisha joined her. She ignored the child, tipping Tamlin out of his bed, much to his sister’s delight. The boy repeated one of Lennie’s more colorful curses from the night before, and Marsh poked him.
“That will be enough of that,” she said. “What’s your mother going to say if I bring her back and you’re using language like that?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Marsh knew she’d made a mistake. Until then, the guards and druids had been slowly packing up. Now they stopped. Looking into Tamlin’s face, Marsh knew she was in trouble. Across the camp, the hoshkat gave a rumbling growl and got to her feet.
Taking a long, slow breath, Marsh straightened up and turned around. It was exactly as bad as she’d thought it would be. Lennie, Henri, and Jakob were gazing at her. The rock mages, those in bronze as well as those in green, were staring in her direction, and the Masters of Stone and Beasts were stalking toward her looking angrier than she thought possible.
Marsh pretended she hadn’t seen them and headed for where Roeglin was pushing back his blankets and looking like he’d just recovered from being hit by a rockslide. His gaze sharpened when he saw Marsh coming toward him, the two masters moving purposefully in her wake.
“What’s my apprentice done this time?” he mumbled as Marsh stopped beside him.
“Didn’t you get the message?” Marsh demanded, tapping him with her foot. “I’m no one’s apprentice. I’m a trainee.”
“Whatever you are, you’re still mine, and I need to clean up your messes.”
“No one cleans up my messes but me,” Marsh told him, “and you can ask them yourself what beetle’s crawled into their britches. I just came to get your lazy ass out of bed.”
“That’s the most undisciplined trainee I’ve ever seen,” the Master of Stone snapped as Roeglin struggled to his feet.
Marsh didn’t offer to help him. Thought she belonged to him, did he? Well, that was one notion she was going to dispel. She’d add it to the list.
You have a list? Roeglin sounded mortified, although his face didn’t show it.
And I’m checking it twice.
He cleared his throat and took hold of her arm, turning her so she faced the two masters and four worried-looking guards. Marsh did a double-take when she saw Lennie’s face. Well, worried wasn’t quite the word she’d use for that look.
Angry, maybe. Furious, even. Kinda like the woman was thinking of another round of pounding on Marsh’s ribs, almost definitely. Not that Marsh could blame her. She’d be mad too if someone was going after missing folk and had left her soulmate out of it…not that she had a soulmate.
You want to focus?
Marsh blinked and did just that. The Masters of Stone and Beasts had stopped in front of them, Lennie advancing to stand beside them.
“You want to explain what you just said?”
It was a challenge, and Marsh looked at Lennie.
“I promised Tamlin I’d go looking for his parents once the trade routes were restored.”
It was difficult to keep her voice calm in the face of Lennie’s anger, but Marsh managed it. She watched the guard’s face and waited, but it wasn’t Lennie who spoke next.
“And you promised the hoshkat you’d help her find her kits.”
That was the Master of Beasts. The Master of Stone just watched the exchange with raised eyebrows, then she added her piece.
“Who else have you said you’ll do this for?” she asked.
Marsh was aware of the mage moving in closer, of the children coming to stand beside her, and of the hoshkat moving in from the campsite’s edge.
Marsh closed her eyes and took a long, slow breath.
“Fabrice.”
She heard movement both in front of and beside her and opened her eyes, taking a step back and calling a shield of shadow to her arm. She stopped just short of drawing her sword, both relieved and annoyed when Roeglin moved between her and Lennie.
“Stop!”
The Master of Stone’s voice rang clear around them and they all froze. Marsh flicked the woman a fast glance, but made sure to keep an eye on Lennie. The guard’s hands were balled into fists and her face was contorted with fury, but she had stopped her advance. Henri made to lay a hand on her shoulder and she turned her head, her lip lifting in a warning snarl. It was Gustav who wrapped his hand around the guard’s bicep and pulled her away.
With the immediate threat gone, Marsh relaxed a little.
“Tell me how you’re going to do that,” the Master of Stone ordered, and Marsh felt her face redden.
“I’m still working it out,” she replied, then decided she wouldn’t be intimidated.
She lifted her chin and looked the Master of Stone straight in the eye.
“I will find them through the shadow. It is why I am here—to learn what I can do with my magic so I can use it to help me in my search.”
She caught movement beyond the master and recognized the face of one of the mages she’d helped rescue. A memory sparked, and she took a breath.
“I have seen portals made through the shadows. When I find where the raiders go, we can go to them and take back those they took from us.”
“I’m coming.” Lennie’s voice carried clearly across the camp. “And you’re going to promise to find Jorj for me.”
“Done,” Marsh said, “but your child comes first. I’m not facing him if either of you is harmed when I could have stopped it.”
She had no desire to be explaining that one to a man fierce enough to have won Lennie’s heart. Lennie did not hesitate.
“Witnessed and sealed.”
The Master of Stone rolled her eyes.
“Oh, wonderful. Now I have two of you whose minds won’t be on the job. You can both take up your little side trip with the Master of Shadows when we get there. We leave in half a turn.”
She tapped the hourglass hanging at her waist and the mages scattered. Marsh grabbed her arm when she went to walk away.
The master stopped mid-stride and looked pointedly down at the hand on her arm. Marsh ignored it and spoke her piece.
“It’s not a side trip,” Marsh told her, “and we won’t be distracted. None of us can leave until we’ve secured the Four Settlements. If we do, there won’t be a place to bring our families back to.”
The master’s eyes were cold as she looked Marsh up and down.
“You have no family.” She tried to shake Marsh’s hand loose, but Marsh wouldn’t let go.
“My parents disappeared when I was four,” Marsh said. “I thought they were long dead, but they might not be. I intend to find the tru
th.”
She let the master go, but the woman didn’t break eye contact.
“Your duty comes first,” was all the master said before turning to Roeglin. “Your trainee needs some discipline. Good luck with that.”
“Yes, Master.”
Roeglin bobbed his head in agreement, his cheeks coloring as she left them. When she was several steps away, he turned to face Marsh.
“Do you—”He was interrupted before he got further.
“I’m certain she does not,” the Master of Beasts said, “and since she is to be my trainee as well as yours, we need to talk.”
As he drew Roeglin away, the shadow mage shook his finger at Marsh, his lips set in an angry straight line. Marsh hung her head and sighed. That hadn’t gone at all well. She’d planned to take a minute to gather her thoughts, but a small hand wound its way around one leg and a heavy weight leaned against the other.
“You okay?” Tamlin wanted to know, and Marsh drew a shaky breath.
“Yeah, sure, kid. I’m fine.”
She was not undisciplined, but as she thought it, Marsh caught sight of the shadow shield still strapped to her arm. She sighed.
“Go back to where you came from—and thank you for your aid.”
For a minute nothing happened, then the shield drifted apart, its component shadows floating away to join the others in the cavern. Watching them, Marsh breathed a sigh of relief and dropped a hand to the kat beside her. In response, she pulled her weight off Marsh’s leg and swiped her face against it before wandering off to join her kits.
When she was gone, Marsh looked down at Aisha. The little girl’s eyes were dark with distress, and she had the hand not wrapped around Marsh’s thigh buried in the soft fur of Scruffknuckle’s neck.
“You want breakfast?”
“She’s mean.”
The little girl could only be talking about one person, so Marsh ignored the comment.
“Breakfast?”
“Cookie.”
“Let’s find Brigitte.”
“Mum’s gonna kill you,” Tamlin interrupted.
“She doesn’t have to know.”
“She’ll find out.” Tamlin lowered his voice to a menacing whisper. “She always does…”
It made Marsh smile.
“Kaffee or chocolate?” she asked, her gaze drifting to where the Master of Beasts and Roeglin were sitting to one side of the camp, their heads close together.
As she watched, Roeglin lifted his head and glanced in her direction. His lips moved, and the Master of Beasts also looked toward her.
“What I wouldn’t give to know what they were saying,” Marsh murmured, and felt threads of shadow stir around her.
Before she could do anything to investigate them, Tamlin poked her in the ribs.
“Breakfast,” he said. “Whatever they’re planning, you probably don’t want to know. It’s not like you can do anything about it anyway.”
The boy was right, and Marsh set about making sure he and Aisha were looked after. Brigitte rolled her eyes when Marsh gave her a cup of kaffee and asked her for a cookie.
“You do know that I’m not made of cookies, right?” The woman huffed, but she pulled one out of a bag hanging from her waist and handed it to Aisha.
She handed another to Tamlin before he could ask, and he took it with a sheepish grin. Marsh got the impression he’d been going for grown up and hadn’t been about to ask, even though he’d clearly wanted one.
“Thanks,” she said and was about to head back to the fire when Brigitte caught at her tunic.
“I want to come,” the apprentice-journeyman said when she turned back, and she clarified, “When you go to try to get the families back, I want to come.”
Marsh cast a glance in Roeglin’s direction.
“I’ll ask,” she promised, then frowned. “Although it would be easier if you were his apprentice journeyman.”
She blushed as soon as she’d said it, stumbling over her words as she tried to mend it.
“Not that that would even be possible, but if it was...”
Brigitte frowned.
“I can ask.” She caught Marsh’s second glance at the mage. “Not him. The Master of Shadows. I can ask the Master of Shadows. It’s not common, but if the circumstances demand…”
Marsh caught what she was saying.
“And your master is cut off from here, isn’t he?”
“She, and yes, she is.”
There was a wealth of story behind Brigitte’s tone and words, but she didn’t look like she was going to share any of it. Marsh figured the woman was a little higher in the pecking order than a new trainee and decided not to pry. She turned back to the fire.
“Apprentices are usually tasked with looking after their master’s gear and making sure their masters are fed,” Brigitte said, her voice just loud enough to reach Marsh. “He probably wouldn’t insist on it, but you need to know.”
She gestured to the mages working around the camp.
“There are others watching.”
Yes, there were—and Roeglin had already been reprimanded on his trainee’s lack of discipline. This, at least, was easy to fix.
“Thank you,” she said, shooting Brigitte a grateful smile. “That’s good to know.”
27
New Masters and Isolation
Roeglin and the Master of Beasts were still deep in discussion when Marsh came to a halt in front of them.
“I brought you kaffee,” she said when they stopped talking long enough to look up at her.
Roeglin raised his eyebrows but took the mug she offered. Marsh blushed at his look but decided she wasn’t going to explain. He could work things out for himself.
Or I could just look for the answers inside your head, came his quiet comment where only she could hear it.
“Merde!” Marsh muttered as the Master of Beasts took his cup.
“I’m sorry?”
“Sorry, Master. I… I forgot something. Here’s breakfast,” Marsh managed, and, passed over the two compact shroom loaves that she’d been juggling with the kaffee.
She tried to ignore Roeglin’s half-suppressed smirk at her discomfort. If the Master of Beasts didn’t buy her comment, he was at least polite enough not to say so.
He took his mug.
“Thank you.”
He turned back to Roeglin.
Marsh left them to their plotting and made for Roeglin’s blankets. She wasn’t on her own for long.
“I found a grackle vine,” Tamlin whispered, coming alongside her as she rolled Roeglin’s blanket and slid it into the shadow mage’s pack.
He held up a handful of long reddish stems studded with the sharp, round spurs of the grackle vine’s prickly seeds.
“We could add these to his bedding…”
Marsh glared at him.
“Are you trying to get me into trouble?”
Tamlin looked offended.
“No, but it would be pretty funny.”
“Right up until he had us both mucking out the stables or lifting rocks,” Marsh retorted, snatching the grackle stems from his hand and pitching them to one side. “Now, go and do something useful—like watching your sister.”
“Grouchy.”
“And make sure you’re both packed before the Stone Master wants to leave. You know, useful."
"Sure, sure. Have it your way.”
Watching him walk away, Marsh made a note to check her own bedding for the foreseeable future. She didn’t want grackle scratches when she was trying to sleep. Securing Roeglin’s pack, she looked for the one belonging to the Master of Beasts.
It didn’t take her long to find it. The man had slept on the edge of the camp hard up against one of the walls, and his bedding was still untouched. With a sigh, Marsh stuffed it into the pack waiting nearby and then hauled both packs over to the two mages.
The Master of Beasts grunted an acknowledgment, looking over to where he’d slept. For a second, Marsh felt her heart p
lummet. What had she forgotten? She followed his gaze, scouring the area with her eyes but not seeing anything amiss.
“Thank you,” Roeglin said, drawing her attention back to them. “Don’t forget your own gear. It looks like we’ll be leaving soon.”
Marsh followed his glance and saw the Master of Stone reaching for her pack. She looked at the fire as one of the rock mages lifted the kettle clear and covered the coals and ashes with a slab of stone. Glancing around the camp, she saw that her blanket was the only one not packed.
“Merde.”
She was pretty sure she could hear Roeglin laughing as she rushed away. Another time. She could deal with him another time, master or not, she was starting to regret not keeping the grackle vines. Marsh had rolled her blanket and was just stowing it into her pack when the Master of Stone called them together.
“We’ll make the monastery by mid-morning,” she announced, and Marsh assumed the woman knew that because she’d made the journey before. Personally, she remembered this leg of the trip as being longer.
The reason for the Master of Stone’s announcement became clear the minute they stepped through the gates to the waystation. The woman broke into a slow jog, and the rock mages matched her step for step. The caravan guards caught on fast and were soon trotting with the rest of them.
Marsh swore softly under her breath.
How Aisha was supposed to keep up the pace, she didn’t know. Tamlin was going to find it hard enough. Marsh moved over to where the little girl had broken into a trot.
“I can do it,” the child assured her, ducking Marsh’s first attempt to pick her up.
Marsh decided not to argue with her but ran alongside her until the girl began to flag. This time when she reached down, Aisha didn’t shy away. Marsh hauled the little girl into her arms and lifted her onto her pack. Of course, she had to stop to do it and the rest of the group did not, although Gustav and Lennie circled back to keep her company.
“We’ll take turns,” the founder’s guards said as they fast-trotted to catch up.
Marsh snuck a look over at Lennie, wondering how the woman was taking it. If Lennie saw her checking, she didn’t show it. They jogged on, Gustav taking Aisha as the first hourglass was flipped. Roeglin came alongside.
Magic Below Paris Complete Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 8): Trading Into Shadow, Trading Into Darkness, Trading Close to Light, Trading By Firelight, Trading by Shroomlight, plus 3 more Page 25
