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

  She wasn’t going to look any closer to make sure. Calling a sword from the shadows, Marsh stepped quickly through the dead, ready to defend herself if one should rise. Behind her, she could hear Roeglin following, as well as the boys.

  “Dan!” she called as if that would bring the kat to her any faster. “Dan!”

  A dark shape flashed past her, and another, and then a third.

  The wolves!

  Marsh ran harder. The wolves might have been content enough to lie with Mordan beside the fire, but this was still their territory, and she was still new. Who knew how they’d react if they found her outside?

  She’ll be fine.

  How would Roeglin know?

  Look.

  Marsh looked. Ahead of her, she could see the wolves slowing down, the largest of them lifting his head to howl.

  “I’m coming!” she shouted, weaving her way between bushes and pushing her way through tall clumps of grass.

  The wolf leaping out of the bushes ahead of her was a surprise, and Marsh barely resisted the impulse to defend herself with the sword. Banishing the blade to the dark, she felt teeth nipping at her hand as the wolf tried to pull her toward her friend.

  Marsh yanked her hand free, feeling teeth scrape over her skin even as the wolf let her go. It skidded to a halt a few feet short of the fallen kat and looked back at her. Marsh came to a halt too and hurried over to where the kat lay.

  Roeglin had been right. Mordan was perfectly safe. She was surrounded by the wolf pack, and every single one of its members seemed focused on keeping her safe. Dark lines scored the kat’s flank and hip, and her tail was a mess of red and black flesh.

  Marsh’s breath caught in her throat.

  “Oh, Dan,” she whispered, dropping to her knees beside the kat. “I’m sorry.”

  She might have crumbled right then and there, but Roeglin laid his hand on her shoulder.

  “You’re surrounded by energy,” he reminded her. “Just heal her.”

  Just heal her… He made it sound so easy. The big kat raised her head, catching Marsh’s eyes with her own and sending a feeling of trust and reassurance over their link. Mordan’s confidence that Marsh could make the pain go away helped steady her.

  She stretched out her hand, her fingers reaching for the mottled green and gray hide but hesitating to touch it.

  “You don’t need contact, do you?” Roeglin asked. “Aren’t you just guiding the energy where you need it?”

  So the man had been listening…and wasn’t she just glad he had been. Remembering it was the energy that was important and not the contact was a big help. Taking a deep breath, Marsh reached for the energy in the world around her.

  It was there, more than she’d been able to find in the courtyard with its cloak of cut stone. Much more. She wouldn’t need to borrow anything from the wolves or anyone else.

  Carefully drawing the energy in, Marsh made herself look at the kat’s injuries, inspecting the strength of the life force flowing through each area so that she could direct the energy she’d gathered from the world around them to where it would help the most.

  After a few heartbeats, she saw the life force grow stronger in the injured areas, and the kat gave a sigh of relief. Marsh moved her focus from the animal’s flanks and hips and out along the tail. The injuries were worse here, but not beyond what she could pull the energy to mend.

  “Don’t pull too much,” Roeglin warned, then added, “She’s looking a lot better now.”

  It was a strange way to tell her to stop, but Marsh paused, inspecting her handiwork before sending one last burst of healing toward the end of Mordan’s tail. It wasn’t perfect but it would do, and Roeglin actually had a point. She’d used a fair amount of power; maybe it was time to stop.

  Mordan seemed to agree because the kat rolled to her feet and shook herself. Marsh got to her feet as the kat stretched and looked around. Letting Mordan’s attention draw her gaze to their surroundings, Marsh gazed into the dark.

  6

  Post-Battle Shakedown

  Marsh was surprised to see how far they’d run from the waystation, but there it was, a dark square on the slope below them with the trade-route winding past. Beside her Mordan, huffed out a sigh and took a step down the slope. Marsh caught a sense of disgust from the kat as it surveyed the station.

  The cave would need cleaning or the stench of carrion would attract scavengers.

  From the feeling over the connection, the idea of scavengers so close to the den worried the kat. Marsh studied the slope below them and wondered where the mage Mordan had been chasing had gone. The thought had barely crossed her mind when Roeglin dropped to his knees, dragging at her arm as he did so.

  Mordan slunk into the cover of some nearby bushes and the wolves scattered. Geralt and Jean copied Roeglin, and this time Marsh felt the lightest brush of contact as Geralt peered into her mind. She bounced him out again, smirking at his gasp of surprise.

  Bet you didn’t know I could do that, did you? she thought, then wished she hadn’t. It would have been useful to ask him to scan the hillside for the mage in the same way he’d been able to find him before.

  Beside her, Roeglin gave a snort.

  Make up your mind, he suggested. The poor kid is still trying to figure out how to tell you.

  Well, it was nice to know that Roeglin still didn’t have any boundaries when it came to sticking his mind where it wasn’t wanted.

  Got to keep my hand in.

  And people complain about the examples I set.

  Point.

  But it didn’t stop him from linking her to the boy and showing her where the kid thought the mage was hiding.

  Mordan, Marsh said, and the kat brushed past her and away.

  Well, she seems to be feeling better, Roeglin observed, but he scanned the ground around them.

  “Did the portal close?” Marsh asked, then rephrased it in a way they could check. “Geralt, can you sense any more of the other monsters? The ones you hadn’t seen before?”

  “Who says I hadn’t seen them before?” the boy asked, and Marsh stilled

  The boy continued, oblivious to her sudden stillness.

  “This was the first time I’d seen them here, but I saw them attack a caravan after we’d left…” His breath caught, then steadied, “after we left the farm.”

  There was a roar, then a sudden scream from farther up the slope, and the boy winced.

  “She got him.”

  He sounded shaky, but Roeglin gave him no time to dwell on it.

  “Anyone else?”

  The boy’s eyes gleamed, then dulled.

  “Nope. All gone.” He gulped and looked at Marsh. “You got them all.”

  “Pretty sure I wasn’t the only one,” Marsh said as she started walking back down the hill.

  She was trying not to think of what might be waiting for them outside the waystation walls. Picking their way through the dead remnant had been bad enough.

  “We’ll go back in via the postern,” Roeglin said, looking back at her. “Make sure the back trail is clear.”

  As he spoke, his foot caught on something in the grass and he tripped.

  “Are you okay?”

  There was a wet, sticky sound as Roeglin regained his feet.

  “Su…oh…wow. We might want to find another way back.”

  He stared at the ground and began delicately picking his way across the slope. Marsh followed his progress and paralleled it, aware of the boys moving in her footsteps and the wolves taking a wide detour around the area Roeglin had been crossing. In the end, they followed the path they’d taken across the hill to get to Mordan.

  The big kat joined them at the gate, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the corpses. Marsh counted them. Just in case…

  “There’s no one,” Geralt said. “Just us and Ursula and the others meant to be here.”

  He led the way around the side of the waystation proper and onto the porch to where Gustav and Gabe were waitin
g with the rest. Gustav looked at Marsh.

  “How are you feeling?”

  It was an interesting question, and Marsh stopped to think about it. She was tired, she realized. Not collapse-in-the-dirt tired, but pretty close. Until Gustav had mentioned it, she hadn’t registered. Now she did, but she wasn’t going to admit it to him.

  “Fine.”

  Gustav scowled.

  “You shouldn’t be.”

  It made her angry.

  “And why the Deeps not?”

  “This,” Roeglin said, and Marsh found herself looking at a storm that boiled out of nothing and encircled the waystation walls. Cries and screams reached her from the men below, with at least one of them sobbing to be let in and others begging for mercy. These were tempered, however, by those who promised death and vengeance.

  When the image and sounds faded, Marsh found herself sitting on the edge of the porch with her head in her hands.

  “What was that?”

  Gustav gave her a grimace that he’d probably intended to be a smile.

  “You.”

  “No… I… Really?”

  “Someone told her she had all the darkness in the night, and she wasn’t much of a mage if she couldn’t use it,” Geralt explained, and all eyes turned to Roeglin.

  “You didn’t.”

  Marsh twisted slightly so she could watch as the shadow mage blushed.

  “Well, I…” He looked at her, but Jean’s quiet voice intervened before he’d worked out what to say.

  “She had trouble with the open skies,” he said. “If he hadn’t said it, they’d have broken through.”

  He paused, then added, “I need a cookie…and maybe a kaffee.”

  That got Gabe’s attention.

  “Since when do you have kaffee?”

  But the boy didn’t answer, just turned on his heel and went inside. Gabe went to follow, only to be stopped when Geralt grabbed his arm.

  “Give him a heartbeat,” the boy said, “and let him have the kaffee. It’s the only way he’ll sleep.”

  It was the first time Marsh had heard of kaffee having that effect, but Gabe didn’t argue, just gave the boy a moment before following him inside. Marsh watched them go, hearing Roeglin’s plaintive request for a bath and Gustav and Izmay threatening to scrub him down in the yard, but she didn’t move.

  She just sat, staring at the night and not wanting to close her eyes. Every time she did, she saw bodies and what might have been bits of bodies, and a storm rolling beneath a star-laden sky. She hadn’t realized Mordan had come to sit beside her until the kat’s warmth threatened to knock her over. Another presence came and leaned on her other side, and the musky scent of wolf blended with the smell of hoshkat.

  Another wolf leaned against her back, and two more came to sit against her legs. Marsh let their warmth creep through her, banishing the chill of Gustav’s memories even if they couldn’t banish the memories themselves. How long she would have just sat there staring into the night, she didn’t know, but the sound of boots on the porch behind her made her start.

  “You okay, Leclerc?”

  Gustav. Well, at least he’d thought to check.

  She nodded, not trusting her voice and not wanting to admit to being tired in case he sent her to bed. There was no way she wanted to sleep with that nightmare running around in her head. She watched his boots moved past her, bringing the Protector captain into view as he descended the steps to the courtyard.

  “Good. Go fetch a wheelbarrow from the stables. There’s a mess that needs cleaning up.”

  Marsh went to stand, and Mordan growled. A second growl rippled out from her other side, and more snarls joined them. Gustav stopped.

  “I beg your pardon?” he said, turning around and fixing the creatures around her with a stare.

  Looking at the kat and the wolves, Marsh wondered if he might not be biting off more than he could chew, but the man was unfazed. He returned their stares, letting his gaze travel from one to the next, before returning to glare at Mordan.

  “I think I’ve commanded enough men to know what she needs next, so get your furry asses off her before I come over and kick them off her.”

  At his words, the wolves and hoshkat came to their feet, and Marsh became aware of whispers coming from behind the door.

  “Do you think we should…” Gabe began, but one of the soldiers shushed him, and another chuckled.

  “Oh, no. This I have to see.”

  Gustav seemed oblivious to all of them. He was eyeing the animals and curled his lip into a snarl of his own.

  “Bring it,” he said, his voice quiet with challenge, and the pack surged forward, Mordan running neck and neck with the lead wolf.

  Gustav extended the arm and hand carrying the shield and ducked under the kat’s first leap, catching the wolf across the chest and knocking it to one side as Mordan sailed over his head. Alarmed as the rest of the pack closed in, Marsh got to her feet, surprised to find herself unsteady enough to need the railing for support. She watched as the pack darted around Gustav, nipping at his feet, and saw him use the staff to sweep another two from their feet. A few feet away, the pack leader recovered enough to regain his feet and Mordan circled back, slinking low for another try.

  She opened her mouth to call the kat back but Gustav spun, taking two bounding strides before diving for the kat. Mordan gave a snarl of surprise when he caught her off-guard, twisting to meet him even as he hit her side on, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and chest and taking her off her feet.

  The kat rolled, letting Gustav’s momentum carry them into a rolling tumble where both battled for supremacy.

  “Hey…” she tried, taking a couple of steps toward them. She was shocked to discover her voice was nothing more than a thread.

  Clearing her throat, Marsh tried again.

  “Hey!”

  That came out with more strength, but did nothing to cut through the growls and snarls coming from man and beast. Marsh hurried toward them, stopping when she reached them. She stood still for a long moment, staring down at the twisting knot of kat and man, and did the only thing she could think of—she dived onto them.

  It occurred to her that she might be making a mistake, but she was mid-leap, and it was too late. Mordan saw her coming, and Gustav must have caught a glimpse because they rolled apart and out of the way, leaving her to hit the cobbles on her own. The force of it jarred through her arms and knocked the wind from her lungs.

  “Well, merde,” she said, and rested her head on her arms.

  She heard boots and paws shift.

  “Don’t make me come up there,” she warned, not bothering to lift her head, “or I’ll kick both your asses.”

  Gustav gave a bark of disbelieving laughter.

  “I’d like to see you try.”

  But Mordan had a much better reply. Marsh groaned as the big kat lay down across her, pinning her to the ground. More footsteps moved past her; Izmay and the rest of the guards, if Marsh was to take a guess.

  “Don’t worry about the wheelbarrow, Marsh,” the female shadow guard taunted. “We’ll clean your mess up for you.”

  Henri’s comment was almost bitter.

  “It’s not like we have anything else to do.”

  Marsh tried to move, and Mordan shifted to rest her chin against the top of Marsh’s head.

  “Thanks a lot, kat.”

  More footsteps approached and stopped. A boot tapped on the cobbles, and Mordan got up. Marsh lifted her head, recognized Gustav’s boots, and pushed up to her feet. When she was halfway there, he reached out to steady her.

  “Wheelbarrow,” he said, and looked down at the kat. “You, too.”

  What Mordan was going to do with a wheelbarrow, Marsh couldn’t think, but she didn’t ask, just followed the direction the other guards had taken. The wolves circled, and Gustav glared at them.

  “Go see what the stationmaster wants,” he told them. “Playtime’s over.”

  By the t
ime they’d cleared the corpses into one of the deeper craters she’d dug with the shadow lightning and repaired the postern gate, Marsh had to agree—although she was wondering why he’d picked a fight with the kat.

  “Someone’s got to be in charge,” he said, coming to sit beside her, “and she needs to understand it’s not her.”

  The kat hissed softly and stalked into the waystation proper. The lead wolf growled. Gustav caught its eye and growled right back, and the wolf hesitated, then pointedly turned its back on the man.

  Marsh laughed.

  “Well, you sure made yourself popular.”

  Gustav shrugged.

  “Had to be done. You needed to get back on the horse.”

  An image of the storm flashed through Marsh’s mind, and she shivered.

  “How about those cookies Geralt was looking for?” she asked, changing the subject. “D’you think the kid left any for the rest of us?”

  “If he didn’t, Ursula has cake,” Gabe told them, having come over without either of them seeing him approach. He gave Gustav a hard look. “And you. Leave my wolves alone.”

  Marsh caught the look on Gustav’s face and relaxed when the captain shrugged.

  “Anytime they’re not disrupting the discipline in my pack, not a problem,” he replied, “but when they’re working against me like they did tonight, I’ll kick their furry tails.”

  Gabe held Gustav’s gaze a moment longer and nodded.

  “Fair enough.”

  For a long moment, Marsh thought her cousin would throw a punch or try to throw Gustav into the makeshift pit with the corpses, but he didn’t. He just turned and stalked back through the gate…or he tried to. Gustav’s next words stopped him cold.

  “I need the boy to light the pit.”

  At first, Marsh thought her cousin would refuse, but Gabe merely sighed.

  “I’ll speak to his brother. If Geralt says it’s okay, I’ll send them out.”

  The boys must have been eavesdropping beside the gate because they appeared as if summoned and walked to the edge of the pit. Geralt looked up at Gabe as he passed.