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

  “Let’s go,” she said, “before the others eat your meal.”

  “Do that one more time, child, and I’ll put you over my knee,” the captain rumbled.

  “And I’ll let him,” the girl’s father responded. “You’ve been quite rude enough!”

  With the situation under control, Marsh reached out and wrapped her hand around Roeglin’s wrist. He started and glanced at her.

  I can hear them, he said, and laughter rolled through them.

  They both looked up to see the father of the group smiling at them.

  “You weren’t meant to,” he said. “We were just trying to get Mina to go somewhere safe.”

  “And you?” Roeglin asked. “Where were you going?”

  The man’s face darkened, and Gustav interrupted before he could reply.

  “We can discuss it inside,” he said. “Our dinner’s getting cold.”

  “It’s probably getting eaten,” Henri added darkly. “I’ll have some scrubbing to do.”

  26

  Travel Plans

  It turned out that the Defenders were smarter than Henri gave them credit for. Not only was his dinner still untouched, but all their meals were being guarded by a handful of the men he’d fought beside. He glared at them suspiciously.

  “What did you do to it?” he demanded of the man standing beside his seat.

  “Nothing!” The mercenary looked horrified by Henri’s suggestion, then his face took on a crafty look. “Why? Did you want me to?”

  Henri didn’t reply but took his seat, still scowling, and Marsh saw the others do the same. Gustav led the little girl and her family over to Master Envermet. Seeing they were being taken care of, Marsh crossed to where the server was standing beside their places. The relief on his face was almost comical.

  “Sorry about that,” she said and surveyed their plates. “Anything we should know about?”

  His surprise was comical.

  “N-no!” he stammered, looking shocked.

  Marsh brushed past him and sat.

  “Thank you,” she said, not complaining when her first bite was cold. That was Roeglin’s fault.

  Hey!

  If the boot fits.

  What have I told you about thinking with your mouth full?

  You and whose army?

  I don’t need an army.

  Lucky you, because you don’t have one.

  Is this conversation private or can anyone join in?

  They both started, but Marsh recognized the voice of the father. Turning in her seat, she saw the family being shown to a table and tapped Roeglin on the shoulder.

  “Come on,” she told him. “You dragged them into this. We’d better not abandon them now.”

  She picked up her plate and led him over to their table.

  “Mind if we join you?”

  The woman gestured at the spare places beside them, and Marsh and Roeglin sat. Mordan had followed them and wormed her way under the table, making the family gasp as she bumped against their legs before stretching along the floor at everyone’s feet. For a moment they all sat tense and stiff, then Mordan started to purr.

  The little girl’s eyes flashed green, and she stuck her head under the table. Marsh heard the kat grumble a moment later. It was a happy grumble and the purring resumed, continuing when the little girl emerged from beneath the table, her eyes alight with joy.

  “She says we can travel with them to Auntie Lemma’s!”

  The father raised his eyebrows and tilted his head in surprise.

  “Oh, she does, does she?”

  He looked at Marsh.

  “You’re going to Ariella’s?”

  “How did you know?”

  “It’s where Lemma lives, and your Master Envermet suggested we approach you and Captain Moldrane to see if we could accompany you.”

  Marsh studied his face and saw no hint of guile. Only hope.

  “We’ve been stranded here ever since raiders took the last caravan. We were hoping another one would come through here on the way to the grotto or the Deeps Monastery.” He gestured toward his daughter. “Mina has the gift. We figured if the druids at Ariella’s couldn’t help us, the shadow mages might.”

  “What about the mages here?” Marsh asked and the man looked away, his eyes evading her gaze.

  “We have family in the Grotto. The mages have been very kind, and we appreciate that, but they are not family.”

  “They could be,” Roeglin told him, “if you wanted.”

  The man sighed.

  “I know, but if I have any chance of making a home, I would rather make it with family.”

  Marsh frowned.

  “Why did you run then?”

  The man ducked his head, his skin darkening with embarrassment.

  “We were afraid of being forced into service,” he said, and his wife nodded.

  “We know our gifts are rare, and how useful they could be in a war...” She paused with a faraway look on her face, then blinked it away. “We didn’t want to risk that.”

  It made sense in a weird kind of way, but it made Marsh wonder why the woman would even be aware of it.

  “You ran into shadow mages in the caravan, didn’t you?”

  It was a wild guess, but it hit the mark. Both adults drew a sharp breath, but the little girl just sat straighter and gave her a very solemn nod.

  “They said they wanted me to go to a special school, and they looked a lot like the shadow mages that lived here. I thought they felt bad and I told Mama and Papa, and we made sure they couldn’t find us. It was hard. There was one who could sense us. We had to hide in a basement and sleep for two whole days!”

  They’d what?

  “I bought a sleeping draught from one of the local druids. Said I had nightmares from the tunnels or something. They warned against us taking too much unless we wanted to sleep through a full cycle. I made sure I bought enough to make that happen.”

  Marsh shot an alarmed look at Mina and the woman favored her with a small, sad smile.

  “We weren’t that desperate. I made sure we had the dosage right for her to sleep lightly and wake early. Hers is not so much a gift of the mind but one for things that grow.” Her eyes shifted to the spot where Mordan lay and her smile broadened, “and things that walk, as much as we try to deter her. The other mind mage was not looking for her. She watched over us.”

  That had to have been a big responsibility for a small child.

  “We didn’t sleep for longer than she could bear, did we, Min?”

  “No, Papa, but you did sleep a long, long time.”

  From the child’s tones, it was clear that what her father thought of as “no longer than she could bear” and how long he’d slept were a fairly close match. Marsh kept that thought to herself, though. She thought of the mind-walker she and the wolves had cornered and wondered if they were one and the same.

  Before she could ask, however, the man answered.

  “Yes. Is he...”

  “Gustav put a crossbow bolt through his heart,” Marsh told him, and both adults breathed a sigh of relief.

  She didn’t know what they had to be relieved about. For all any of them knew, he’d already sent word back that Mina’s family existed. Maybe his encounter with her, Roeglin, Henri, and Gustav had put an end to all that. If they were lucky, he’d been the last raider alive to know the family existed.

  In the end, she shrugged the thought aside. Even if he had gotten word back, the last place the raiders knew the family had been was Dimanche—and she was sure the Keepers and Defenders could secure it between them. No raider was going to get into the cavern to find out where this family had gone—especially now that they had to worry about getting more than one cavern back.

  She doubted they had a force large enough to take care of Ruins Hall, Kerrenin’s Ledge, Downslopes, and Dimanche all at once. Any one of these settlements could now hold its own against a force like the one that had taken down the Piermont’s stud...and now t
hey could call for help.

  That idea stopped her cold.

  They could call for help a whole lot better if they had mind-walkers in every town. She sighed. It would be nice, but there just weren’t enough. Of all the magic she had seen, the ability to get into someone else’s head or even just speak with them was the one she’d seen the least—and that included fire magic.

  Once the Protectors had seen it, most had acquired it to some degree. The same wasn’t true for those who’d seen Roeglin at work. Besides the possibility that Master Envermet might be starting to develop the ability. She just couldn’t be sure.

  She didn’t say anything to the parents, though. It wouldn’t be fair to pressure them to act as relays when it would mean they would have to be separated from each other. She thought of Tamlin and Aisha asleep upstairs, and how she wasn’t going to let her duties keep them apart anymore. If she wasn’t willing to let that happen, then she had no right to ask that of anyone else.

  Thank you.

  The woman’s voice made Marsh jump, and she kicked herself for not being more careful. She was so used to Roeglin being the only one able to step into her head that she hadn’t even thought of the others. Her face heated with embarrassment but the couple only smiled.

  “It’s okay,” they said, and the woman added. “My name’s Elise, by the way.”

  Marsh’s blush deepened. It wasn’t the first time she’d forgotten to ask for names or to properly introduce herself.

  “Marsh,” she said, and indicated the shadow mage. “Roeglin.”

  “Felix,” the man answered, “and Mina you’ve already met.”

  “And you really are willing to take us to Ariella’s Grotto?” the woman pressed.

  “Yes,” Marsh told her, and Roeglin nodded his agreement.

  “And will you be setting up a force of Defenders there too?”

  Marsh frowned.

  “We’ll be asking them to set up their own force, but we’ll help them if we can. Master Envermet usually helps with the training if they need it, and I believe he’s leaving a liaison team in each cavern.”

  “But how do they communicate?” Elise asked. “If you don’t have mind mages, how can they call for help if they need it?”

  Roeglin smiled.

  “We do it the old-fashioned way; we send runners.”

  “Through the tunnels on their own?”

  “Usually with a small escort. It’s better now we’ve secured the main tunnels.”

  “Speaking of which,” Felix began, “the tunnel to Ariella’s. Has it...”

  “No,” Roeglin told him. “We’ll be scouting it for Master Envermet’s force, and he’ll secure and clear it. Our priority is reaching the Grotto and making sure the settlement holds until the Protectors can reach it.”

  “We can help with that,” Felix said and tried to stifle a cavernous yawn. “In the morning...”

  “Which is far too close,” Roeglin told them, pushing back his chair. “Do you know where you’ll be sleeping?”

  Marsh had mirrored his movement and stopped. She didn’t know where she was sleeping either. She looked at Roeglin, but he answered her before she could speak.

  No, I haven’t a clue.

  He’d just started to scan the room when Master Envermet cleared his throat.

  Marsh gasped. The sound had come from directly behind her. Pivoting quickly, she caught the faint remains of a smirk curving his lips, and he spoke.

  “The five of you need to speak to Hugh. He has your room assignments.”

  Marsh followed the direction indicated by his hand and saw Shameless’ former owner waiting at the bar, a large ledger open in front of him. Shortly afterward, she was standing in front of the open door to her room and biting her tongue. It would have been rude to ask what they’d done with all the rooms.

  Mordan looked up at her and back at the room. The single bed took up two-thirds of the space, and the kat wanted to know what Marsh was unhappy about. The small cave was perfectly defensible.

  She twitched her tail and leapt up onto the bed, stretching out along the wall and leaving barely any space for Marsh. Marsh decided the kat had a point. A bed was a bed, and she was tired...and her pack would fit quite well at the end of the room.

  She stepped inside and pulled the door closed behind her, taking just enough time to take off her boots before stretching out beside the kat.

  “You’re too big for this,” she complained, and the kat replied by showing her that there was plenty of room on the floor.

  Marsh wriggled under the covers and curled onto her side. She was too tired to argue.

  27

  Of Families and Family Secrets

  The next morning came far too soon. Marsh was woken by the sound of bells ringing loudly...inside her head...where only she could hear them. Her startled shout drew a snarl from Mordan, who was on her feet and facing the door before Marsh had cleared the covers.

  From outside the door came the sound of a triumphant little voice.

  “In dere!”

  You got it, kiddo. I am “in dere,” Marsh thought, pulling on her boots and scooping up her pack before opening the door.

  “Good morning,” she said, trying for cheerful.

  It wasn’t hard. She could feel the grin lighting her face as soon as she saw them. Aisha leapt forward and wrapped her small arms around Marsh’s waist and Tamlin stood beside Brigitte, looking very much like he was trying not to do the same.

  Marsh picked Aisha up and walked over to the boy.

  “Morning hug,” she told him, and did exactly that.

  Judging by the look on Brigitte’s face, she’d done the right thing.

  “We getting breakfast?” she demanded, letting go of the boy.

  “You bet the Deeps we are,” he said and led the way along the hall.

  As Marsh followed him, she saw Roeglin and Gustav emerging from a room two doors down. Gustav gave her a brief wave and wrapped his hand around Roeglin’s arm.

  “We’ll save you a table,” he called over his shoulder, and Brigitte hurried after him.

  “I’ll make sure they don’t forget.”

  Watching them move swiftly down the hall, Marsh wondered what the two of them knew that she and Roeglin didn’t. She looked at Tamlin, but the boy seemed relieved to see them go, and Marsh had a sinking feeling that something was up and she wasn’t going to like it.

  Her fears seemed well founded when Tamlin stopped her just before they entered the common room.

  “We don’t need to go to my Uncle’s place,” he said. “There won’t be anything there, just emptiness. It wouldn’t feel right. We’d feel like we were spying.”

  Marsh looked from him to Aisha and caught the girl’s solemn nod.

  “Not good,” the child told her.

  “Okaaaay...” Marsh told her as Roeglin slipped back into the corridor. “The kids don’t want to go to their uncle’s place.”

  He shrugged.

  “It would mean we could head straight for the Grotto. There’s no need to check on the abandoned farms on the way out. The Keepers have that under control.” He caught Tamlin’s eye. “Are you sure? You don’t need to see for yourselves?”

  Tamlin stood straighter.

  “I’m sure. The Keepers wouldn’t lie, and we don’t need to be reminded of what my uncle was like. Going there would just... It would remind us of things that were said. My father...” His breath caught, and he took another before continuing. “My father refused to back down, and my uncle said a lot of things.”

  This time when his breath caught, he closed his eyes and tried a different approach.

  “Why don’t you take a look for yourself?”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Marsh, too.”

  Marsh didn’t want to see the memory. She could recall the hatred in Davide’s eyes when he spoke of children—children!—with magical gifts, the crisscross of stripes on Nettie’s back because she’d been able to manipulate shadow, an
d the prejudices she’d encountered in Mika’s Outlet. She didn’t want any more memories of that kind.

  That wasn’t enough to stop her from taking Roeglin’s hand on one side and Aisha’s on the other.

  “You don’t have to come,” Tamlin told his sister. “Someone has to keep guard.”

  “Dan, Scruffy, and Perda will watch. I come too.”

  Tamlin sighed but took his sister’s other hand.

  “Ready?” he asked but didn’t bother waiting for their reply, which was a good thing since Marsh didn’t think she’d ever be ready.

  A new voice, the uncle’s, met her as she followed Roeglin into Tamlin’s mind.

  “You’d be better off putting them both out in the Desolation and leaving them there!”

  “I’ll pretend you didn’t say that.”

  “No need to pretend. It’s what we’d do if any of ours showed signs.”

  Seeing the look on Tamlin’s father’s face made Marsh feel both better and worse. It was one thing to lose a brother, but to lose him while he still lived and breathed? That had to be hard.

  “You can’t mean that.”

  “I know a good place. There’s a canyon. You could just put them over. They wouldn’t be coming back from that.”

  Marsh wanted to say she’d seen enough, that there was no need for Tamlin to share anymore, but the memory continued.

  “No.” The reply was soft, but it echoed like a shout.

  “He was shouting in his mind,” Aisha said. “It was loud. I made it so I couldn’t hear. See?”

  She was right. Their father had been shouting, his inner voice a single wordless scream even as he tried to reason with a brother he had loved like life itself.

  The children’s mother had picked Aisha up and carried the little girl away, but it hadn’t blocked her father’s pain. Only she had been able to do that. At least she hadn’t heard what the uncle had said next.

  “I can do it for you if you like.”

  Only Tamlin’s presence had stopped his father from attacking his uncle. The man had noticed his son and taken Tamlin’s hand.