“Like tonight?”
Toya nodded. “Like tonight.”
She gestured toward the stables. “You are welcome to stay the night. We will not be opening the gates until dawn.”
Marsh frowned, and Master Envermet frowned at her. Don’t say it.
Marsh shook her head, and the world wavered. Roeglin walked over to stand beside her mule.
“Here, let me help,” he ordered, reaching up to steady her as she slid from her mount.
They were shown to rooms in the ground-floor dwellings, while Toya’s family moved to the third floor. Marsh couldn’t help wondering who—or what—dwelt in the second-floor apartments.
No one, Roeglin informed her, and we do not want to venture up there. They treat it as an extra layer of security for them.
They ate trail rations, their hosts having offered only a safe place to sleep, and nothing more.
Marsh thought it a strange way of showing hospitality until Roeglin showed her the jumble of thoughts in the five-year-old’s head.
So much for not being bothered when they forage, and the raiders leaving them alone. she said when he was done.
We are lucky they let us in at all.
Marsh agreed and stood. I need to sleep.
Roeglin indicated the bed. They assumed we were together.
Marsh blushed, and Mordan gave a disgusted sigh. You should allow him to couple, the cat observed, and Marsh blushed harder.
The kat did not understand. He would be a good mate for you.
Not the time, Dan, Marsh told her. I need to sleep.
Sleep after, the kat suggested, and Marsh rolled her eyes.
I do not want cubs yet.
Why? They would be good for you. The kat’s absolute certainty wrapped around her and Marsh stifled a groan.
Goodnight, Mordan.
3
The Search Begins
Marsh woke wrapped in Roeglin’s arms, with her face pressed against Mordan’s back. She struggled upright, surprised to feel as good as she did.
“You slept,” Roeglin told her. “How did you expect to feel?”
They ate a cold breakfast, then Marsh pulled a day’s worth of rations from her pack.
“Will it be enough?” she asked, setting the rations at the foot of the bed.
“It will be if we all leave some,” he told her and cocked his head. “Yes. We are all leaving a day’s worth of rations. It will not cripple us, and it will make the difference for them. We can inform Tabia and Kwame when we have left.”
“Tabia and Kwame already know.” Master Envermet’s voice intruded from the doorway. He’d arrived, stepping into their room and pulling the door closed behind him. “I informed them when I rose this morning. They are horrified and relieved, and will find a way to offer assistance.”
“Is that what you wished to speak to us about?” Marsh asked, wondering if the trading post sold bells she could tie to his ankles.
His lips curled with amusement. “I do not think bells would be appropriate, Shadow Mistress.”
Marsh blushed. She had not even felt the captain’s mind touch. Roeglin snickered. Captain Envermet raised an eyebrow and studied them both, and Roeglin’s merriment died.
“I am here because it is time to leave, and I wanted to make sure you were ready and not...otherwise distracted.”
Otherwise distracted? Marsh wondered, and couldn’t stop a swift glance toward Roeglin. To her surprise, the mage’s face was crimson.
He cleared his throat. “No, not distracted.” He indicated the room. “As you can see, we’re almost ready to leave.”
Master Envermet studied them and nodded. Turning back to the door, he said, “I will see you both in the courtyard. Do not be long.”
He took a step, then stopped and glanced at Marsh. “You owe Henri and Izmay another dinner. They have prepared your mules.”
“Merde,” Marsh muttered, lifting her pack from the ground. “Come on, Dan, before Henri decides he needs you to hunt him something special.”
“He hasn’t thought of that yet,” Master Envermet told them. “Give him time. His ambition grows.”
“I just bet it does,” Marsh told him wryly. “We’re coming.”
They were in the courtyard and mounted shortly afterward.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” Master Envermet told Toya. “We look forward to trading with you.”
The woman beamed, and Marsh caught the faint hope that stirred in her mind. Perhaps they would be saved after all.
She resisted the urge to send assurances that they would be. Master Envermet sent them instead and then wheeled his mule away, ignoring the look of surprise on the druid trader’s face.
The Shadow Guard captain rode over to where Tabia and Kwame sat at the head of their troops.
“We must go,” he said. “Thank you for your companionship.”
“Thank you for saving our homes and families,” Kwame replied. “It is a debt we might never be able to repay.”
Marsh couldn’t help thinking that if anything happened to the children because of their delay, he’d be absolutely right. She didn’t say it, although both Roeglin and Master Envermet gave her a sharp glance.
“You have not checked our defenses,” Kwame told him. He would have said more, but Master Envermet cut him off.
“I will inspect them on our return. It would be unfair of me to judge them when you’ve had no time to judge them for yourselves, and we must go.”
Some of his shielding slipped, and Marsh saw there was something else underlying his sudden fixation on leaving—that worry about her and Roeglin’s morning activities was not the only reason he had come to see them.
Just as quickly, the shields returned, and she lost her insight into his mind. What had that been about?
None of your business, Master Envermet told her. At least, not yet.
The way he said it made her worry, but she kept a firm grip on her tongue and followed him into the outer courtyard.
“Scanning, if you please,” he ordered as the inner doors closed behind them and the outer doors started to move.
Marsh closed her eyes, keeping a firm grip on her reins as she did so. Master Envermet’s sigh was accompanied by the snick of a lead rope being attached to the mule’s bridle.
It will stop you from falling, he explained.
Marsh ignored him, blending mental and druidic magic and sending it out into the cavern. Things stirred on the edges of her consciousness—dark desire and hunger as life energy flared brightly.
She almost called a halt but summoned the shadows instead. Around her, harness jingled and weapons rattled as the guards and mages came alert. Marsh ignored them.
Show me what moves here, she demanded, waiting for the right tendrils to answer.
Several threads thrummed and she drew the images they touched, her gasp echoed by Roeglin and Master Envermet. Swords slid clear of their scabbards and the creatures at the end of the strands fled deeper.
Marsh had never seen anything like them. They were like wolves or hunds, but their muzzles were shorter and legs longer. With shaggy hides and horizontal stripes on their legs, they kept their heads and tails low as they slunk hurriedly away.
Marsh observed them as they wound their way through the shrooms, avoiding the glow surrounding stands of calla and the brevilar. The creatures kept their heads low and their brushy tails tucked close to their hindquarters as they went, casting many furtive glances toward the riders.
Marsh breathed a sigh of relief as the last of them disappeared, and Master Envermet stirred restlessly beside her, kicking his mule into motion.
“They’ve gone, but stay alert,” he ordered. “We don’t know what else is out there.”
The mule moved forward and Marsh switched most of her focus to the ground that lay ahead, although she still kept some attention on the bone-eaters as they headed for their den. Before long, they had moved out of range of her druidic senses, but the shadows showed her all she
needed to know.
“They don’t look that dangerous,” she murmured, remembering what Toya had said about the traders having to forage in numbers.
“Neither do wolves,” Roeglin told her, and sent her the image of a wolf observing them from a distance, rapidly followed by one of a pack coming in for the kill.
Marsh shuddered. “Well, there is that.”
She kept half an eye on the shadows following the bone-eaters and concentrated on scanning ahead. To one side of the cavern’s broad expanse, there was a tunnel leading up. Yellow light gleamed along its walls, showing where ancient building materials had crumbled, leaving space for fungi and grass to take root.
Vines sent snaking tendrils into the cavern, their branches growing thicker the further into the light they grew. Henri and Izmay rode forward, but Master Envermet called a halt.
“If you need eye coverings, now’s the time,” he told them, and Marsh listened to the rustle of gauze strips being pulled out of pouches and fastened.
“Tighter, Henri,” Izmay griped. “I’m not made of glass!”
The comment made Marsh smile. If anything, Henri was the one more likely to shatter of the pair. She forced herself to focus on the world ahead and around them, and relaxed just a fraction.
The only lives she could sense were the small ones—the insects and small mammals that moved among the shrooms. Closer to the surface, there were more. Some were unfamiliar, but others reminded her of the animals she’d encountered in Kerrenin’s Ledge—the small long-eared ones the wolves found so hard to catch.
“It’s clear ahead,” she said, and the others stilled.
“How do you know?” Henri challenged, and Marsh opened her eyes.
She knew they blazed green.
“Can you sense the remnant?” Master Envermet asked, and Marsh let the real world fade.
She stared at the entrance, seeing nothing more than light and shadow as she tried to find the dark and twisted life force that would mean remnant.
“No,” she told them. “There is nothing.”
Henri and Izmay came back into focus as she blinked. Henri curled his lip. “I hope you’re right.”
He pulled his mule’s head around and kicked it into a walk. Izmay followed. Both of them were watchful and alert as they moved up the tunnel. Master Envermet turned to the rest.
“I want you to pair up, one sun-sensitive and one who can see in daylight. Roeglin and Marsh, you’re a team. Marsh, I want you to scan. Roeglin, don’t let her fall off.”
Roeglin gave a short huff of laughter. “Yes, Shadow Captain.”
Marsh nodded, and Master Envermet signaled they should follow Henri and Izmay. “Get moving. They’ll need advance notice if there’s anything you’ve missed.”
“Yes, Shadow Captain.”
He handed the lead rope to Roeglin, and Marsh closed her eyes. “Ready,” she said.
The mule jerked forward but settled into a steady walk as Roeglin led the way. The ground ahead was littered with fallen blocks of building material and stone as well as tangled undergrowth, but a path wound through it.
It was too well-trodden for Marsh’s liking, and she paid close attention to her search for life forms and hidden minds. The shadows became less available as they ascended, and Marsh’s mind drifted.
She could pull swords and shields from the air. Why not information? Surely, if her weapons weren’t truly shadows, then the shadows that connected her to the distant places they touched were merely darkened air?
Even when there was light, the shadows were still there. They were just invisible. Invisible air... Could she see where it touched?
If Henri and Izmay had reached the sunlight, could she ask the air to show her where they were? Were there tendrils of invisible shadow that connected them?
She tried it and was rewarded by the sight of the pair riding clear of the tunnel entrance. They came out at the base of what must have once been a tower.
The twisted metal of its skeleton reached darkened fingers to the sky, protruding through the overgrowth of vines. Much of the building had come down ages ago, but the lower levels were mostly intact.
Marsh shivered. It was an ideal place for any remnant or shadow monsters who wished to stage an attack. She asked the light to show her what was hidden but discovered nothing.
She frowned. Surely there had to be something.
There wasn’t, and they traveled into the early morning light unmolested. Sensing for life only revealed Henri and Izmay traveling ahead of them, the team traveling behind them, and Mordan ranging through the rubble to one side.
The kat was enjoying the scents and the warmth of the sun. She looked longingly at a broad, flat rock and thought about how nice it would be to stretch full-length across it.
Don’t you dare! Marsh sent, and the kat cocked her head.
Why not? You travel slowly. It would not be hard to catch up.
I need you to see what I miss.
The kat gave an unhappy sigh and cast one more look at the rock. She kept moving, though, and Marsh breathed a sigh of relief.
Checking the surrounding countryside revealed that she’d missed nothing during the brief interlude, and she began to wonder about the children. Were they in range?
Could the sunlight find them? She asked, but the threads of daylight stayed silent. She looked for their life forces but came up blank.
Dammit!
Take it easy. We will find them, Roeglin reassured her.
Yes, but will we find them in time?
They will be okay. We are not that far behind them.
We shouldn’t be behind them at all!
Agreed, but you need to focus. We’ll be no good to them if we are captured or dead.
That helped. Marsh took a deep breath and scanned the area around them again. There was nothing, nothing but the team and the two impi emerging behind them...and Mordan.
The kat had stopped to watch Kwame and Tabia’s people come to the surface. Once she was sure who it was, she slipped back into the undergrowth and kept moving. Marsh followed their life forces as they moved toward the sinkhole’s edge.
She saw nothing there to alarm her and refocused on the terrain ahead. How could she even be sure they were heading in the right direction if she couldn’t sense the children?
How did Aisha do it?
She wracked her brains, trying to remember. The little scamp had discovered her twice, and her ability to sense life was as limited as Marsh’s.
As far as Marsh could tell, the child had no way of talking to the shadows, either, so that didn’t explain it, but the kid had found a way. She tried to remember what Aisha had said but couldn’t remember.
Fine, she thought. I’ll just try to find her the same way I find Dan.
The kat’s presence grew stronger, as if Mordan had pricked up her ears at the idea.
Keep watch for me, Marsh told her and looked for the connection she shared with the kat.
When she found it, she took careful note of how it appeared in her head. Now for Aisha.
Now, why didn’t I think of that? Roeglin asked, peering into her mind.
Because you’ve been busy?
Shut up and concentrate, before—
I thought you were supposed to be scanning for danger. Master’s Envermet’s mind broke into their conversation.
Marsh snapped her head around to stare at him. Bells, she thought, and a small, hard smile curved his lips.
You can’t attach those inside my head.
There has to be a way.
I’ll teach you how to discover an intruder in your mind. You sorely need the skill.
Hey!
You scan. I will see if I can find the child through a link. He glanced at Mordan. The kat should be finding any physical trail they’ve left.
Mordan flattened her ears against her skull, but she lowered her head, and her tail twitched. The pride leader had a point, male though he was. She darted into the undergrowth and raced to g
et ahead of Henri and Izmay.
At the same time, though, Marsh sensed the kat trying what Master Envermet had forbidden Marsh to do—trying to link to her missing kit. Marsh wondered why the kat hadn’t tried it before, and the kat replied, Last time, they disappeared into a stone wall, and there was no link to follow.
She hadn’t thought to try again until now.
4
Aisha Found
They moved through a deserted ruin. Old paths and roads had cracked and deteriorated until the only ways through the rubble were those used by the raiders or the animals that had set up home there.
“It’s too quiet,” Henri muttered when they stopped for a late lunch of shroom bread and mouton cheese.
Mordan lashed her tail and paced angrily at the edge of the trail. We are close, she told Marsh, emphasizing her impatience with a growl.
“We need to eat,” Master Envermet told her, fixing her with a glare. “Your kits aren’t going anywhere.”
“How do you know?” Marsh asked, and he favored her with the smile he usually reserved for Aisha.
“Aisha’s presence hasn’t moved for the last hour, and it is anxious. My guess is she’s waiting for her brother.”
Marsh was instantly on her feet. “We need to catch up with them,” she told him. “What if something has happened?”
Master Envermet continued eating, regarding her with dark eyes. “Then her mind would feel different.”
“She might not know.” Marsh flipped the mule’s reins over its head and the animal snorted.
“I could order you to wait,” Master Envermet told her in mild reproof.
Marsh snapped a glance toward him. “And are you?”
He finished his sandwich and dusted his hands.
“No,” he managed around a mouthful of bread and cheese. “I’m coming with you.”
The rest of the team followed and Mordan bounced to her feet, padding swiftly to the trail she had found.
They passed not long ago.
By “not long ago,” Marsh had the impression the kat meant a single cycle, and part of her relaxed. A single cycle. The mules were making all the difference. That, and she didn’t know how long the children had spent in the tunnels, or where they’d come out onto the surface.
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 121
