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

  “Deeps be damned, just how many siblings did the man have?”

  Marsh shrugged. “I never bothered finding out. The good thing is we know he wasn’t sent by the raiders. They’re after me because I killed their brother.”

  “You say that as if it’s a good thing,” Roeglin said, studying her face. “Tell me you don’t really think that.”

  Marsh shook her head. “It isn’t.” Worry crashed through her, and she curled her fists in Roeglin’s shirtfront. “We have to find them. Who knows where they’ve gone?”

  She gestured toward the assassin. “What if one of these has got them.”

  Roeglin took her by the shoulders and shook her gently. He bent his head to look her in the eyes. “You know where they’ve gone,” he told her, his voice saying he was willing her to admit it.

  “Yes.” But before she could tell him, Master Envermet interrupted.

  “Heads up,” he murmured, and Roeglin released her.

  They turned away from each other, each drawing a weapon from the shadows as they went. Master Envermet watched them and then looked toward the approaching riders. Tabia and Kwame rode ahead of what looked to be every warrior left in Bisambe.

  Marsh looked beyond them, half-expecting to see refugees or pursuit. When she saw neither, she scanned their surroundings, but that returned nothing either. “Are they saying what happened?” Marsh asked.

  “I think they’re going to tell us when they get here,” Roeglin said, and Marsh realized what news Tabia and Kwame were bringing.

  “They don’t know we know the children are missing.”

  “And it’s not the news decent people give mind to mind,” Master Envermet added, glancing at the kat.

  She looked up at him and then stood and stretched, flicking her hind feet at him as she wandered under a clump of callas.

  “Wow,” Roeglin muttered. “As Aisha would say, dat rude.”

  Marsh replayed the image of the kat’s retreat and had to agree. If anything, Mordan had given them the perfect kat’s ass. She wondered what Tabia had made of it.

  The shield leader wasn’t impressed.

  “I take it you know then?” she asked, indicating the kat sitting under the shrooms grooming her chest fur.

  Marsh nodded. “I’m sorry, but yes.”

  “And you’re still here?”

  Marsh jerked a thumb at Master Envermet. “I have orders.”

  Tabia raised her eyebrows. “And you followed them?”

  “Well, yes?”

  “At the expense of your children?”

  And Marsh remembered what Master Envermet had said about her parental worth hanging in the balance.

  “There is no point in going after them until I know as much as I can,” she said, rounding on the other woman and poking her finger into the center of her chest. “If I assume they’ve gone after Gustav, I still need to know which direction they took. I still need some supplies, and permission to leave, and to know I’ve kept my promise here.”

  “They’ve been gone since shortly after you left today,” Tabia finally confessed, and Marsh nodded.

  “That’s because they both knew we’d be out for the day, and they were hoping we’d keep the raiders occupied so they could traverse the cavern safely.”

  “They’re not that devious,” Tabia protested, but her tone said she was now considering the possibility.

  Neither Roeglin nor Marsh decided to enlighten her and Master Envermet directed her toward the village. “We’ll be along shortly.”

  He let her get a mule’s length beyond him, then called to her again.

  “Isn’t there going to be an attack on that cavern soon?”

  “We repelled it this morning. Sulema has two other impi working their way back to the cavern and one more guarding the sick. We’re all right. Shamka is standing by for any who try to escape this way.”

  When she had ridden on ahead, Master Envermet turned to Marsh. “It is too late in the day to follow them. Tamlin is clever; he will have stopped to camp. He knows how dangerous the caverns can be at night. He’ll keep his sister safe.”

  Marsh wanted to argue that he and Aisha were only children and that they were out there alone, but she didn’t. Master Envermet was right.

  “And you need to sleep,” Roeglin added. “After that trick with the lightning, you’re tired, and you’ll need food.”

  Again, Marsh wanted to argue that she was neither, but she knew she couldn’t.

  “And even if you’re not tired, I have thirteen other shadow mages to think about.”

  Thirteen?

  “Yes, Marsh. Today’s team will go with you. Captain Moldrane is one of our own. We’re not leaving him out there alone.”

  “But we’ll never catch up,” Marsh whispered, sadness and despair mingling with frustration. Master Envermet had an answer for that too. He motioned at Mordan.

  “We have the kat. Those things are the deadliest hunters in the cavern. You think she can’t track her own kit?”

  Mordan looked toward him and blinked, and Master Envermet gave Marsh a happy smile.

  “I’m leaving Sergeant Seward in charge of the rest of the troops and the liaison operations. It’s about time I gave her a chance to do something meaningful.”

  From the way he said it, someone had raised the point to him, and he’d remembered. Marsh guessed that he’d probably been avoiding doing what he’d just decided to do and wondered why.

  The look he gave her was pure disbelief.

  “She’s my daughter, too.”

  Until then, Marsh hadn’t realized the impact Aisha had had on those around her, but Captain Envermet met her eye and dared her to deny him. Instead, she shrugged, pretending nonchalance. “Sure,” she told him. “Why not? The more, the merrier.”

  “Good, because Tabia says we need to return to Bisambe and speak to Sulema ourselves—and we’d need to do that anyway because that’s where all our gear is.” He raised his voice. “Let’s move it on out.”

  The return journey was a lot shorter because they bounded in and out of the shadows all the way back, spooking the rock mages on lookout duty by appearing suddenly out from under the shrooms and hailing them.

  “You must teach us that trick,” Sulema told them once their discussions of the terms of their liaison with the Protectors and the Monastery had been finalized.

  “Gustav will be back to finalize the terms for the Ruins Deep Alliance, should you wish it,” Captain Envermet added, and Sulema nodded.

  “I look forward to it.” She rose from her seat. “Now, if that is all?”

  Captain Envermet nodded. “It is.”

  “The dining hall is crowded, but we would be honored if you would join us for dinner.”

  They went. Tomorrow they would be eating cold until they got Gustav back. Besides which, they were hungry. During the day, they’d forgotten to stop and eat. They followed Sulema over to the hall and collected their food from the servery.

  Marsh had just sat down to dinner when a man approached her table. He wasn’t from the Grotto, and at first, it took Marsh some time to recognize who he was. When she did recognize the raider who’d intervened for the prisoners, she rose from her seat and stepped away from the table, wariness cloaking her face.

  He saw her move and stopped. “I’m sorry. I mean you no harm. I just have to know. Is it true?”

  Marsh frowned, forcing herself not to draw a blade from the shadow. “Is what true?”

  “Is it true that…that you’ll save my family?”

  “I’m going to save all the families.” The reply was out before Marsh could censor it. She did her best to make amends. “All the families that have survived and done their best to not become the raiders’ creatures. Why?”

  “Because that is why I’m still here,” he told her, then expanded, “Because they told me you would bring my family back.”

  He gulped. “And no matter what I’ve done, I could never...” He squeezed his eyes shut, his mouth twist
ing with emotion.

  Marsh waited, wishing she could be anywhere but where she was and knowing she couldn’t look away.

  Seeing he had her attention, he continued, “I promised I wouldn’t leave her.”

  His voice broke. “But she’s there.”

  After a momentary pause, he said, his voice barely a whisper, “and I’m not.”

  He gave her a helpless shrug. “So, are you?”

  “Going to get your family?”

  “Yes.”

  “If I can find them, mais oui.”

  He took a short sharp breath and rushed the next words out as if afraid to speak them. “Look into my mind.”

  “What?”

  “Please. Just look, and then you will know who you are looking for.”

  Marsh did as he asked, letting him know when she had seen what he needed her to see.

  When she had, he didn’t ask for more but walked quickly away, leaving his meal at the table and hurrying out of the hall, the mind-walkers assigned as his keepers abandoning their own meals to keep him company. Marsh watched him go and then pushed her plate away, only to have Roeglin push it back and Henri come over and stand behind her.

  “You need to eat,” Henri told her. “If you don’t, you’ll never be in any condition to cook me dinner when we get back.”

  After that conversation, Marsh didn’t feel like eating, but the looks on her team members’ faces said they wouldn’t let her go until she did.

  “Fine!” she said and ate in spite of herself, urgency gnawing at her insides as she chafed at the delay. When she’d finished her meal, she curled up in Roeglin’s bed hoping that sleep came quickly and dawn even faster.

  It was good to have someone to hold in the darkness. It would have been better if she’d known the rest of her family was tucked in the beds nearby, but that wasn’t to be. Tomorrow she would go and find them.

  And once they’d been reunited, they could see what needed to be done to reunite the other families the raiders had split apart.

  Author Notes - CM Simpson

  July 28, 2019

  Again, thank you for reading this far, and for loving these stories and characters as much as I love writing them.

  It’s been a fortnight since I finished writing the latest installment to Marsh and Roeglin’s battle to secure the four caverns. Thank you for coming on that journey with me.

  It was good to spend time with these characters, again, and to get to take them through to Ariella’s Grotto...although looking back, I think I forgot to explain exactly how the coffee and cocoa beans came to be there. I was having far too much fun exploring the people.

  I’ll make a note to tell that part of the story in Book 6 or 7—I wrote the scene for it some time ago, but there was no real room for it in this book...and if I don’t get to include it, I’ll put it in the author notes. Not every idea makes it into the sight of a reader.

  Maybe I should start doing out-takes.

  This book finalizes the securing of the caverns, at least for now. Book 6 will see Marsh heading in hot pursuit of the raiders who took her people into the Devastation. In a land where the sun still shines, she is going to bring the shadow—and lightning like they’ve never seen...or, at least, that’s the plan.

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  July 30, 2019

  THANK YOU for not only reading this story but these Author Notes as well.

  (I think I’ve been good with always opening with “thank you.” If not, I need to edit the other Author Notes!)

  RANDOM (sometimes) THOUGHTS?

  How do you make a post-apocalyptic world safe with magic?

  I was speaking with the same gentleman who helped on the Kurtherian Gambit books (back-pack nuke fiasco) about this, and he helped me understand protons neutrons and ‘physics and chemistry’.

  Two subjects I did NOT work hard on at all.

  However, from that discussion I talked with Marc Stiegler who helped me plan on not transmuting U-235 to lead, but rather perhaps ADDING protons and stuff to create a safe ‘thing’ that I could use later against the Terlorans…

  But, that’s another series.

  The cool thing here is that by having amazing friends, they can help you science the @#@# out of something and allow magic to follow the laws of science to save the world.

  One more time.

  AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

  One of the interesting (at least to me) aspects of my life is the ability to work from anywhere and at any time. In the future, I hope to re-read my own Author Notes and remember my life as a diary entry.

  In the downstairs meeting / resting area Salisbury Greens Bistro / Mansion Edinburgh, Scotland

  I’m sitting across from author Jonathan Brazee and typing up these author notes. We have just finished the 7th day of 20Books Edinburgh and I’m tired.

  However, with all of the smiling faces, I have to tell you it was well worth the expense and time to come to Scotland and help fellow authors grasp the opportunity in front of them and provide a little bit of knowledge from some of us who have gone before.

  To those who helped share, my appreciation. To those who came, I hope we provided that little extra bit so that your stories and opportunities arrive.

  Then, you will write the stories our readers need and we all benefit.

  As a passing note, I’m looking up at the ceiling of this mansion (at least 400 years old) And noticing the gold all over it.

  Here, it looks very nice. In America, it would look horribly gaudy.

  FAN PRICING

  $0.99 Saturdays (new LMBPN stuff) and $0.99 Wednesday (both LMBPN books and friends of LMBPN books.) Get great stuff from us and others at tantalizing prices.

  Go ahead, I bet you can’t read just one.

  Sign up here: http://lmbpn.com/email/.

  HOW TO MARKET FOR BOOKS YOU LOVE

  Review them so others have your thoughts, tell friends and the dogs of your enemies (because who wants to talk with enemies?)… Enough said ;-)

  Ad Aeternitatem,

  Michael Anderle

  Trading Into Daylight

  The Magic Below Paris™ Book Six

  1

  Justice Wrought

  Some fought and some tried to run, but the impi warriors were relentless. They pursued them into the tunnel they’d claimed they’d sealed, running them down in the dark—and running them through if they did not surrender.

  Marsh gave Mordan the image the Grotto’s leader had given her. “We need to find him.”

  The big kat sniffed tentatively, but Sulema had no recollection of a scent to give her. Mordan twitched her tail in irritation, and Marsh got the impression the kat did not find human limitation amusing.

  “Please, Dan...”

  The kat laid her ears back and curled her lips in an angry hiss. She did not understand why they delayed going after their kits. They should not be here. The cavern was secure. The raiders were gone. Marsh should be gone, too.

  There was one more threat, Marsh told her, and bounced back to avoid the sword that tried to gut her. It was attached to a man, but not for long. Marsh called a single bolt of lightning from the ceiling and blew him apart.

  “Who’s next?” she snarled.

  Mordan echoed her snarl, and there was a brief scream. Gibbering moans followed it but were soon silenced.

  Did you find him?

  The cat emerged from the shadows, dragging the body of one of her victims. Marsh gagged.

  “By the Deeps, Dan. Did you have to?”

  The kat cocked her head. What did Marsh mean? Sulema said the man must be stopped. She looked at the corpse. Dead is stopped, isn’t it?

  Marsh sighed. Roeglin, we got him.

  Okay, hold him there. Sulema wants to talk to him.

  Pity she didn’t tell Mordan and me.

  Roeglin caught sight of the corpse through her eyes. Marsh heard him gagging a street away.

  Oh, Deeps. Did she have to?

  Th
at’s what I asked her. She said Sulema wanted him stopped, and dead was stopped.

  Marsh favored the kat with a glare and the kat flicked her tail, looking totally unrepentant and very smug.

  Ro, we really need to leave.

  “So I see.” Sulema appeared from around a corner, looking displeased.

  Mordan cocked her head and yawned, showing all her fangs.

  Sulema gave her a disgusted look. “Don’t you threaten me, kat. I have an entire cavern to care for, and this needed to be done.”

  Mordan stood up and stretched, extending her forepaws and arching her back. When she was done, she remained standing and looked from Sulema to Marsh.

  Can we go now? Her request was clear even to the cavern leader, who did not share the link.

  Sulema nudged the corpse with the toe of her boot. “I had Tabia’s and Kwame’s impis bring your mounts and supplies. They’ll be going to the surface with you.”

  “We’re not going to need any extras,” Marsh told her, and Roeglin sighed at her abruptness.

  Sulema’s lips tightened. “Then it is a good thing we are only sending them to escort our druids so they can fortify the sinkhole approaches, isn’t it?”

  Marsh colored and apologized. “I’m sorry.” She glanced at Mordan. “We just need to be away.”

  Sulema’s face softened. “I understand. I am sorry we had to delay your departure, but this...” she gestured to the settlement around them, “had to be dealt with while we had the strength to do so.”

  Marsh wanted to point out that the forces from the Deeps Monastery were still there and the dozen she was taking wouldn’t make much of a difference. Sulema tilted her head.

  “It was your firepower I needed,” the Grotto leader told her. “Just in case there were more raiders or more came.” She kicked the corpse again. “He lied about sealing it.”