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

by C. M. Simpson

  Marsh responded by drawing a shield to her forearm and raising it in self-defense. Clarinay’s sword slammed against it with more power than finesse and Marsh staggered back, pulling a sword of her own from the air around them. Clarinay gave her a brief but fierce grin, looking for all the Dark like a ghost in the shadows.

  Marsh grinned back.

  This might not be how Roeglin would have had them spend their time waiting, but it was fun. She enjoyed sparring. Looking at the serious cast to Clarinay’s face, though, gave her second thoughts. It was sparring, wasn’t it?

  You’d better hope so, Roeglin said, because Clarinay knows his way around a blade.

  Hot damn! Marsh felt her grin grow wider and pretended to take a wide stroke toward Clarinay’s head. He didn’t buy it, swatting it away with a short blade he called to his other hand and reaching for her with a swift thrust.

  Marsh twisted to one side, turning to bring her shield between them, and Clarinay laughed. Warily, they circled each other, then Clarinay made a lightning-fast lunge toward her, forcing her to skip back and breaking her concentration. She wasn’t paying attention to where she put her feet or the fact that she had shifted out of the shadows and tripped on a thick clump of rosebud toadies. Stumbling, Marsh recovered her balance, only to go down when her other foot caught on a stone.

  What the… Her mind spun as she tried to make sense of what was happening, falling heavily and having to scramble out of the path of a swift follow-up stroke. Her shield hand landed in a patch of brown-noses, shattering their delicate caps and rewarding her with a spray of gray slime and a dusky cloud of spores. Clarinay’s sword vanished and he became solid in the blink of an eye, reaching out to grab her by the arm and pull her clear before she could breathe too many in.

  “Not bad,” he said when he’d set her on a boulder covered in nothing more than crusty lichen. “Tell me, what did you learn?”

  “That brown noses have gray snot?” Marsh asked, surveying her hand with regret.

  Clarinay rolled his eyes.

  “Be serious. What did you really learn?”

  So there had been more to the sparring than letting off steam? Marsh frowned, thinking back over the battle and settling on the one point she thought he might be looking for.

  “That we come out of shadow form when we fight?”

  “Close,” he said. “That we have to concentrate on staying in shadow form or we return to our natural selves.”

  “I was close.”

  “But not right. Now, what else did you learn?”

  “That we can hit each other with shadow weapons when we’re both in shadow form.”

  “Exactly.” Clarinay said, looking a little bit pleased.

  Given it was the happiest Marsh had seen him, she’d take that as a compliment.

  “Is there anything else I need to know?” she asked, and Clarinay shook his head.

  “Those were the two things I wanted you to work out,” he said. “Now you can help me dig the latrines.”

  Marsh stared at him, and he gave her a brief smile.

  “We’re here first. Least we can do is get that set up.”

  He made a fair point, even if Marsh didn’t like the idea that it meant she’d be doing a lot of digging when she was on point. Roeglin was unsympathetic.

  Quit your bitching.

  Marsh rolled her eyes even though she figured he wouldn’t be able to see her.

  And thank you very much.

  “We’ll put them in that alcove we passed just before the pool.”

  It made sense. The alcove was well away from the water, so there wouldn’t be any contamination. It was the ideal place for a latrine, and it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when they discovered they weren’t the first people to have thought so. Marsh and Clarinay stopped digging at the same time, their noses catching the unmistakable cue that this place had been used before.

  Without saying a word, they filled in the shallow trench they’d just dug and studied the ground around them. Whoever had been here had passed by a couple of days ago. Now that they knew there had been someone going through, they both surveyed the area more closely. It took them several minutes of casting about to realize that their previous visitors had camped on almost the exact site they’d chosen for their own camp.

  “Do we move?” Marsh asked, and Clarinay hesitated.

  After a moment’s thought, he nodded, surveying the cavern.

  “Over there,” he said, choosing a spot closer to the cavern’s edge and separated from the water source by several thick clusters of shrooms, as well as a few short stalagmites and clumps of boulders. “If we’re lucky, they stuck to the trail and the campsite and won’t be as familiar with that part of the cavern.

  “You’re thinking they might come back?”

  “Not going to risk it.”

  His answer was short, and Marsh gave herself a mental kick. She should have thought of the possibility, but it hadn’t crossed her mind. Clearly, she had a lot to learn.

  Clearly, Roeglin said, agreeing. Make sure you do.

  Marsh wanted to come back with something sarcastic, but she couldn’t think of anything. Roeglin had teamed her up with Clarinay for a reason, and it wasn’t his good looks.

  His what?

  The thought had not amused Roeglin at all, and Marsh snickered.

  “When you’ve quite finished.”

  Clarinay had noticed she wasn’t paying attention, and he wasn’t pleased. When Marsh looked toward him, he pointed to another niche in the cavern wall.

  “Put the latrines over there,” he instructed. “I’ll clear a space for sleeping here.”

  “Oui,” Marsh returned, and set to work.

  By the time Roeglin led the others into the cavern and along the trail, the latrines had been dug, and Mordanlenoowar was warming herself by a small fire built from dried shroom husks. Clarinay was instructing Marsh on the local flora and fauna and discussing the traces of whoever had come before.

  “They left nothing in the water,” he was saying, “so there is a fair chance they’ll be returning. The way they dug in their latrine points to that, too.”

  “How?”

  In response, Clarinay had her remember the depth and angle at which they’d discovered the previous trenches and how it set them up for future use. Marsh had to admit he had a point. If she’d been planning on returning and re-opening the toilet pits, that would be the way to do it.

  “We need to build a waystation here,” he said as the soft tramp of feet reached their ears.

  Marsh couldn’t agree more, but it reminded her of something else. “Where is the next waystation?” she asked.

  Clarinay gave her a shadowed look. “There isn’t one. Most caravans make the journey from Ruins Hall to the monastery without stopping.”

  Even the slow ones? Marsh wanted to ask, but she didn’t, because Roeglin and the six guards chose that moment to arrive. The rest of the evening was taken up by the routine of setting up camp and eating before watches were posted and sleep was ordered.

  7

  Shadow Monsters

  Roeglin listened to Clarinay’s report of the suspected raider campsite and nodded. The guards around the campfire exchanged glances and then stared warily into the darkness beyond the campfire’s subdued glow.

  “Be alert tonight,” Roeglin ordered when he spoke to Gustav and the guards.

  To give them credit, none of the guards rolled their eyes at his instruction. They all just nodded solemnly and turned toward Gustav to set the watches. When Roeglin realized none of the mages or scouts had been included, he tried to protest, but Gustav wasn’t having it.

  “With all due respect, Master Leger, keeping you safe is our responsibility. We’ll see you through the night.”

  It was as close to a dismissal as Marsh had ever heard the bodyguard give, but Roeglin didn’t take offense. He just nodded and turned away, pausing before he left.

  “If your people need relief, please let m
e know.”

  “Very good, Shadow Mage.”

  And that had been the end of that. Roeglin had returned to the fire and insisted Marsh debrief him on what she had learned that day, and then he had ordered her to rest. He’d turned to Clarinay next, and the two of them had huddled together in hushed conversation long after she closed her eyes. They were still talking when she finally drifted off to sleep.

  The shadow monsters struck during the night. They needed no latrines or paths, and they did not use either of the trails leading into the cavern. Marsh woke to a firm hand covering her mouth and nose. It released its grip as soon as she opened her eyes, and she saw Gustav crouching above her. He raised one finger to his lips. She nodded, and he pulled his hand away.

  He moved his hand from his mouth to his ear, indicating she should listen. The gibbering chatter of shadow monsters was unmistakable and Marsh rolled swiftly and silently out of bed, reaching for where she’d draped her armor over her pack.

  Gustav helped her check that it was clear of creepy-crawlies and then stayed to make sure she put it on right, checking her straps and weapons before he stooped to lift her blanket from the ground. He shook it out and shoved it into her hands.

  Across the campfire, Henri was doing the same for Roeglin, and Gerry’s hands were being swatted away from Clarinay’s buckles. Mordanlenoowar stood at the edge of the camp. When the big kat saw Marsh stuffing her blanket into her pack, their eyes met, and then Mordan slipped quietly into the surrounding dark.

  Happy hunting, Marsh thought and felt a snarl curl through her mind.

  Mordanlenoowar was hunting but was not happy. The prey was not what she preferred. The shadow monsters tasted…wrong, even though they needed to die. Marsh sent the kat her sympathy, along with a curt order to kill them all—and overlaid those thoughts with the hope that the kat returned safely.

  The kat was more pragmatic, touching Marsh’s mind with the urgent need to protect her kits should Mordan fall.

  It will be done, Marsh assured her, pulling her pack on as the link between them went quiet.

  Marsh didn’t wait for orders but hurried to follow the hoshkat into the night, determined to protect her partner no matter how firmly Roeglin demanded she remain behind.

  When this is over, you and I are going to discuss the matter of pets, he growled, and Marsh flipped him a mental finger.

  Mordan was more than a pet.

  I ought to freeze your mind and stuff you into a box, he muttered, and Marsh wondered if he could.

  As tempting as it would be to prove the point, now is not the time, he told her, then left her head.

  The shadow monsters had not waited. They came sliding through the darkness, homing in on the campfire and the human movement around it. Marsh was tempted to stand in their path, interposing herself between them and her traveling companions, but Mordanlenoowar had other plans. She’d caught a different scent—human, belonging to the one thing that could open a gateway in the shadows to let the monsters through.

  Without the raider’s mage, the shadow monsters would not have had a way into the cavern. If he were gone, there would be a limit to how many reinforcements they could call. The mage was going to pay for his intrusion into the cavern. He was going to pay for letting the monsters loose.

  Mordanlenoowar would ensure he opened no more gates.

  Marsh caught herself smiling as the hoshkat crept closer to the gate. The mage had stepped clear, moving from the other side of the portal into the cavern through which the shadow monsters leapt. Marsh heard shouts from the direction of the campsite but did not let herself be distracted. The mages did not work alone, so there would be another one close by. She circled in the opposite direction from the one the hoshkat had taken.

  That way, even if the mage saw her, it would not foil the big kat’s attack; Marsh would not risk that. She took a moment to become one with the shadows so she could move through them without fear of making a sound. She’d counted half a dozen shadow monsters slipping through the shrooms. She could not tell how many were in battle but knew the guards would make a good accounting.

  All she and Mordanlenoowar had to do was stop the flow. Even as she thought it, another half-dozen or so shadow monsters howled out of the gate. Marsh noticed something else slipping through the gate as well, and fixed her attention on it.

  As she watched, the figure of a second shadow mage became clear. This one was more interested in what lay through the gate behind him than anything that might be waiting for him in the cavern. He kept looking over his shoulder as though that would save him from whatever was coming.

  At one point, he angled his head around the edge of the gate, catching the eye of his fellow mage. As soon as he did, he waved his flattened fingertips across the front of his throat, signaling for an end to something.

  The gate?

  Marsh glided closer, catching the darker bulk of Mordanlenoowar creeping across the cavern floor. The big kat was positioning herself for an attack. She didn’t even look toward Marsh, who was getting ready to take out the second mage. The way the guy kept looking back at the gate, this was going to be easy.

  Let them close it first! Roeglin’s voice was desperate in her mind, and Marsh passed it along her link to the kat. Mordanlenoowar’s growl filled the air, and the mage nearest the kat looked desperately around. As his gaze swept the cavern, it fell across the gate and turned from concern to near-panic.

  Now he could see what had his partner so worried. Now he looked as frightened as the second mage. For a whole second, Marsh wanted to know what could terrify two mages hardened to working with the shadow monsters and all the risk that entailed, and then she didn’t care. She just wanted them to close the portal before whatever was beyond it got through.

  The shrieks of the shadow monsters paled in comparison to the sounds following them. These screeched through the air and the shadows between, sending shudders along Marsh’s fingernails before grating up and down her spine. They made her want to curl up in a ball on the floor of the cavern and rock herself in the comfort of the dark. They made her want to flee.

  Marsh took a deep breath and divided her attention between the portal and the shadow mages. If they didn’t get the gate closed before whatever was coming made it into the cavern, she was going to have a fight on her hands—and if they did, she was going to gut them both to make sure they never opened another gate. Ever.

  It was the least she could do if there were things like that in the lands beyond. She didn’t realize her attention had closed almost solely on the gate until the high-pitched keening coming from beyond it stopped, and she saw that the portal no longer hung at the edge of the trail. It took her another two heartbeats to comprehend that the two mages were moving, and not in the direction of the shadow monsters and the camp.

  No, the misbegotten sons were making for the junction her team had passed earlier that day, and they were moving just as fast as they could get their legs to take them. Time she put an end to it.

  But the hoshkat was faster. Even as Marsh started to move, Mordan leapt into the air, slamming her forepaws between the shoulder blades of the closest mage. He hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud, and the kat launched herself from his back, digging deep with her hind claws and leaving furrows as she sprang toward the second mage.

  The first man momentarily lay silent as she leapt away, then let out a deep groan. Marchant changed course, reaching him as he pulled himself up onto all fours. Marsh did not hesitate, putting everything she had into the downward stroke that drove her blade into his back. Bone grated against her sword, and he screamed before going limp and forever silent.

  Marsh paused for a moment to catch her breath and registered the unearthly sound of the shadow monsters’ screams coming from the camp. How many had she seen go that way?

  “Merde!”

  All she wanted to do was flee, but she couldn’t. Roeglin was her trainer, and—

  Master! wheezed through her skull and Marsh snorted,
but she ran toward the fight all the same.

  Roeglin sounded like he actually needed her help, and that meant he was still alive and still holding his ground with the others.

  Move your ass!

  Ingrate! Then Marsh thought about how much faster she’d moved when she was one with the shadows, so she tried to do it again, surprised when her body blended effortlessly with the cavern dark and the shadows instantly took her where she needed to go.

  Well, that was new—but it was a new she was going to have to investigate later. Maybe Clarinay could explain it. She arrived at the battle between one thought and the next, focusing on remaining in shadow form even as she dropped her metal blade and pulled one from the shadows.

  She wondered whether it would work any better than her usual sword, and decided it was worth trying, in any case. None of the guards seemed to be having much luck. A shadow monster screamed as she swung her new sword across its side, and ink flowed out of it, floating like shadow but as sticky and damp as blood.

  “Shadow blades!” she cried, swinging again and summoning a shield to the arm she’d raised against the creature’s retaliation.

  For a moment, she thought her voice hadn’t carried. Then she heard Roeglin in her head.

  Shadow blades! he repeated, and the tempo of the battle changed.

  Marsh heard weapons hit the ground, and then the sounds of injured shadow monsters as the monastery’s guards used the darkness against them. In spite of this, they were still struggling when Mordanlenoowar joined the fray.

  She pounced into the center of the battle and swiped at the closest shadow monster, her eyes glowing as brightly blue as the monsters’ eyes glowed red. The creature she’d attacked howled a challenge, and the kat leapt away, drawing it after her. To Marsh’s surprise, the shadow monster turned to go after Mordan, leaving its chest exposed to Clarinay’s blade. The scout didn’t waste the opportunity.