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

  “He never did wake up well,” Marsh commented, the lump in her chest easing as the guard captain cracked an eyelid to look at them.

  “Kids?” Gustav mumbled, trying to speak through bruised and swollen lips.

  “Fine,” Marsh told him, and he tried to smile.

  “I’ll get you out of here,” Master Envermet told him and led him to the door.

  25

  Reunions

  Kearick died with Marsh’s blade through his chest after Roeglin had taken every skerrick of information he could ferret out of the man’s tiny mind.

  “That is not a nice man,” he commented when he was done, stepping aside so she had a clean shot.

  “I know,” she replied, releasing the blade and thanking the shadows for their service. She studied the corpse. “But even he did not deserve this.”

  Roeglin gave her a dark-eyed look. “He deserved all that and more. You are too merciful.”

  She remembered the slaughter in the atrium and other occasions and gave a bark of unhappy laughter. “Your idea of mercy leaves a lot to be desired.”

  He managed a tight-lipped smile at that and they exited the cell, leaving Kearick’s remains hanging on the wall and bolting the door behind them.

  “You know that won’t stop his ghost, don’t you?” Roeglin told her, and Marsh scowled.

  “Ghosts aren’t real.”

  “Don’t let Aisha hear you say that.”

  “If you tell her, bad things will happen while you sleep,” Marsh informed him.

  He smirked. “Promise?”

  Marsh changed the subject. “How did he end up in there?”

  Roeglin raised his eyebrows and all humor vanished. “Salazar told ‘the General’ that Kearick had some talent manipulating stone.”

  “He did?”

  “He’s just that kind of guy.”

  “No, I mean, Kearick had a talent for manipulating stone?”

  “A small amount. The interrogators thought he might have more.” Roeglin shuddered. “He had more than he thought, but nothing like Aisha. It was enough for them, though.”

  His eyes widened. “They will be coming for him. I don’t know when, but soon. Days, maybe? He was terrified. They were coming from Below.”

  “Where is that?” Marsh asked. “Everyone keeps talking about it. I was beginning to think this was it, but you make it sound like it isn’t.”

  “It’s not. There’s an entrance...” Roeglin stopped outside the interrogation chamber’s door, and he turned his back to it. Taking the two paces he needed to bring himself face to face with the opposite wall, he moved his hand over the stone.

  Marsh watched, calling another sword and shield to her hands just in case. They proved to not be needed. Roeglin’s fingers found two hollows, and he flexed them.

  A hollow click rewarded his efforts, and the section of wall slid toward him and then along the side of the corridor, revealing a short corridor and a large, hollow chamber beyond.

  “What in all the Deeps is that?”

  Roeglin replied, “That is the entrance to the Below.”

  “Where?”

  He led them through the door, ignoring the way the rest of the team followed them in, weapons drawn, faces alert.

  “There,” he said when they reached the chamber and found a pit covered by an iron grate some three yards across.

  Marsh peered over the edge. The pit was a man and a half deep if the man was Roeglin’s height. Three arches opened into it, each leading into a tunnel. If she’d had to bet, she would have said they were connected by a corridor that circumnavigated the pit proper.

  “Why all the precautions?” she asked.

  “An uneasy alliance?” Roeglin suggested, then shrugged. “For now, we need to make sure it’s secure and stays that way. There is no way I want anything coming up to say hello when we least expect it.”

  “Agreed.” Marsh followed him as he inspected the padlocks fastening the grate to the stone rim supporting it.

  She was impressed when he tested the hinges to see if they lifted apart and relieved when they didn’t. When they were both satisfied the pit was secure, they returned to the door into the corridor.

  “I wish Aysh was awake to seal this,” Roeglin muttered.

  “I can wedge it,” Jakob offered. He’d been standing quietly to one side, studying the door as they’d slid it closed.

  Roeglin turned to him. “Can you?”

  Jakob flashed him a tired grin. “Sure, I can. I just need Zeb’s help, and we’ll have it done.”

  Marsh glanced up and down the corridor. “Are there any others?”

  She meant prisoners, not doors. It was Gerry who replied.

  “We’ve got them all.” He eyed the cell doors and glanced at Roeglin. “We need to lock everything down, and find some way of setting an alert in case something comes through another way.”

  His expression dared anyone to make fun of him, but no one did.

  “Agreed,” Roeglin acknowledged. “Do you have any ideas about how that might be done?”

  “I’ve got a couple, but we’ll need to get everyone out of here first, and I’ll need to clear the way if we want to come back down.”

  “Do it,” Marsh told him. “What can I do to help?”

  They secured the lower floor, then did the same to the upper level before emerging to find there were still people waiting. When they saw only the guards, the crowd stirred restlessly. Roeglin lifted his head and met their eyes.

  His gaze turned briefly white and he sighed. “There’s no one else. I’m sorry.”

  Tiredness bled through his tones, and a sadness reflecting what Marsh saw on the faces before her. People laid gentle hands on their neighbors’ shoulders or arms, turning them toward the Library entrance.

  “I’ll fetch the children,” Marsh told Roeglin, saying it out loud because she knew he was tired. Several of the ex-prisoners turned toward her.

  “Our children,” she told them, her voice firm, and most turned away.

  Marsh looked at the remaining man. He had a hand on the back of boy somewhere between Aisha and Tams in age and carried the sleepy form of another boy a good bit younger. He took a few hesitant steps toward her.

  “You’re from the Caverns, aren’t you?” he asked, and Marsh nodded. The man sighed, hesitancy and sadness warring in his expression.

  “What is it?” she asked, the question coming out more harshly than she’d intended.

  “Did you ever travel between Kerrenin’s Ledge and Ruins Hall...” His voice petered out as he caught the look on her face. “I’m sorry. It’s just...” He waved an aimless hand. “We were attacked...”

  On the verge of revealing she’d found two children on that trail, Marsh hesitated. Instead, she asked, “Who did you lose?”

  “We were traveling with our children when we were taken.” He stumbled over his words in his hurry to explain. “A boy and a girl.”

  He gulped. “My son, Tamlin... He would have been about ten. Aisha, my second-youngest daughter, would have turned six just over a week ago.”

  Marsh’s heart dropped, and she fought back an unexpected onslaught of tears. She hadn’t thought... She’d known there was a chance they’d find their parents, but she’d forgotten how close they were.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, catching the look on her face and misinterpreting it. “I didn’t mean...”

  “I found them,” Marsh choked out, and his face fell.

  “Are...are you sure it was them?” he asked, and she realized he thought she was trying to tell him she’d found their bodies.

  The sound she made next sounded like a cross between a sob and a laugh. “Damn sure,” she told him. “They’re over there.”

  “They’re what?” Confusion and disbelief made his voice rise. “What do you mean?”

  Marsh ducked her head and took a breath, forcing her roiling emotions under control. Taking a second breath and letting it out slowly, she lifted her gaze to meet his eye
s.

  “I grabbed Tamlin and Aisha when the shadow monsters attacked and got them out of there. They’re safe.”

  She did not add that she’d adopted them in the absence of their parents. The emotions rolling across his face were turbulent enough. He didn’t need to worry about what this might mean for her. Roeglin’s warmth at her side had never been so welcome.

  “Vi’s parents are here, too,” he murmured. His using his words to tell her was a sure sign he was close to exhaustion.

  His voice must have carried because two more anxious adults pressed closer. “Did you say ‘Vi?’”

  Roeglin and Marsh gave them tired smiles.

  “They’re helping look after Aisha,” Marsh explained and turned to lead them around the bookcases.

  “They are?” Vi’s mother sounded surprised, then her brow furrowed with disapproval. “You brought them into a battlefield?”

  Marsh couldn’t help herself. She stopped and pivoted to face her.

  “Marsh...”

  She ignored Roeglin’s warning and glared at the woman.

  Poking her finger in the woman’s chest, she snapped, “What would you rather we did? We bring them with us and make sure they stay safe, or we leave them out there with the remnant and the wolves?”

  She flung her arm in the vague direction of the wall and didn’t mention that the wolves would probably have guarded the children with their lives. Vi’s mother looked shocked, and Tamlin’s father started.

  It was an improvement on disappointed or disapproving.

  Mouton-headed, Deeps-be-damned—

  “Shadow-Mage Leclerc!” Master Envermet’s shout of disapproval stopped her before the words could reach her lips.

  She pivoted toward him and pulled herself to a posture resembling attention. “Yes, Captain?”

  Her tone of quiet innocence brought a snort of laughter from Tamlin’s father. When she looked at him, Marsh saw he was smiling.

  “Now I know you’ve found my daughter,” he told her. “I have missed that particular tone these last few months.”

  Roeglin chuckled and hugged her close. “You did sound a lot like Aisha just then.”

  “Did not,” Marsh grumbled and didn’t bother disputing the laughter that followed.

  She shot Master Envermet a rebellious look and took them to the table the children had chosen as their hiding place, ignoring the smirk on their father’s face. She didn’t want to hear that he’d seen that look before.

  She definitely didn’t want to hear Master Envermet’s confirmation. So have I.

  “Me, too,” Roeglin murmured, and she leaned into him, strangely comforted.

  She leaned down to peer under the table, only to be defeated by the think blanket of shadow cloaking its depths. “Tams?”

  “Tams?” she tried again when she got no reply and was rewarded when cloth rustled and the extra layers of darkness faded.

  To her surprise, Brigitte looked up at her.

  “You’re lucky I was awake,” the shadow mistress told her, then peered past Marsh to take in the other adults standing behind her. Her face lit up in a relieved smile. “Oh, you found Vi’s and Basil’s parents! They’ll be so relieved.”

  Again, Vi’s mother looked worried. “Is Jens there too?”

  Brigitte gave her a reassuring smile. “Yes. They’re all asleep, but I don’t think they’ll mind being woken for this.”

  Roeglin looked alarmed, obviously recalling what Vi was like in the morning. “Do we have to?” he asked. He gave her parents an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry, but she has a terrible temper in the morning.”

  “Do fu...” The girl must have caught sight of Master Envermet’s face looking under the table, “Deeps-be-damned not!”

  Her father chuckled and nudged his wife. “She certainly has your way with words, dear.”

  The look he received in return would have melted stone and he stifled his smile, waiting until she turned away before mouthing “She does,” and nodding vigorously. His wife ignored him.

  “That’s not the kind of language I want to hear my daughter using,” she scolded, and Vi scowled back in a mirror image of her mother’s expression.

  “Shouldn’t have taught me so well,” she snarked from the safety of her shelter.

  Her mother sniffed. “I didn’t teach you ‘Deeps-be-damned.’”

  It was a thin argument at best, and Vi ignored it. “You want to hear some of my other new ones?” she asked, her voice as sweet as pie.

  Her mother pursed her lips. “Not right now, dear.”

  Vi gave her a sly grin. “But later, right?”

  The teasing in her voice brought a smile to her mother’s face. “Maybe.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “When there’s no one else around to hear us.”

  The father rolled his eyes. “See? They’re plotting already.” He turned to Master Envermet. “Are you sure you don’t want to keep her?”

  “Hey! I heard that!”

  Master Envermet gave him a bland smile. “Quite sure, although you could send her to the Monastery if she shows an aptitude for magic.”

  “What does that look like?” the father mused.

  His wife sighed and stuck her head under the table. “Do you want to come home?”

  “Are you kidding? After all the trouble we went to to get out of this place?” Vi must have caught the flash of hurt on her mother’s face because her own face softened. “Of course, I want to come home. Just promise me you’ll go with these guys if they want to take us somewhere safe.”

  “Done!” her father said before her mother had a chance to respond. “I’ve been dying to get out of here myself.”

  “Stop exaggerating, dear,” the mother scolded, but she was smiling as she turned back to her daughter. “That’s a promise. Can we go now?”

  Vi frowned but started to worm her way out from under the table. “Maybe we should wait until the mages are ready to go. I don’t think they’re up to it tonight.”

  Marsh caught the look on Master Envermet’s face and smirked. His eyebrows had hit his hairline again, and his eyes were wide with disbelief.

  “I don’t know if I want to take you,” he muttered as Vi went past.

  Basil followed and patted him on the shoulder. “Pretty sure you don’t get a say,” he advised. “Ask Pa; he’ll explain it.”

  “We’ll be mustering in the morning,” Master Envermet told them, helping Jens out from under the study table and pushing him into his mother’s arms.

  At his words, they all froze.

  “It is morning,” Vi’s mother informed him. “Everyone’s waiting in the town square.”

  “For us?” Master Envermet managed after a moment of startled silence.

  “Who else?”

  Master Envermet groaned. “Can you make sure everyone is fed? We’ll be along shortly.”

  Her gaze flicked from him to Marsh to Brigitte and over to Tamlin’s and Aisha’s father and siblings. “I’ll let them know you’re on your way.”

  She didn’t ask any questions but guided her family toward the front door. Marsh smiled to see the woman wrap her arm around her daughter’s shoulders and take her youngest by the hand. It was good to see them safely reunited.

  Which didn’t mean the next reunion was going to be any easier. She glanced at Tamlin’s and Aisha’s father.

  “Why don’t you take a seat?” she suggested. “They’ll be out in a minute.”

  She’d caught the telltale movements as the children had woken, but they had stopped while Vi and her siblings emerged. Now that the older teens had gone, they started again. Brigitte tucked herself into one corner, and Marsh figured the shadow mistress was getting ready to provide support if either of them got a sudden case of cold feet.

  To her surprise, Aisha was the first to emerge. The little girl clawed her way out from under the table, hesitating as she reached the edge and glancing from Brigitte to Marsh.

  “You gonna say hello to your papa?” Marsh aske
d, and the little girl gave her wide eyes before screwing up her face and turning to face her father.

  On seeing him, she gave him a fierce scowl. “I have a puppy,” she announced, and his eyebrows rose.

  They rose farther when Aisha added, “And a kitty.”

  That last was said with such defiance that Marsh didn’t know what to do. Her father only had one reply. “And do you have a hug?”

  Aisha’s scowl grew deeper. “No.”

  The man’s voice grew softer and he held out his arms. “Do you want one?”

  There was a moment’s hesitation, then the child threw herself into his embrace. “Yes!” she cried, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest.

  She clung tightly to him for a long moment, then Marsh caught the sound of movement from under the table and glanced down. Tamlin had shuffled forward, clinging to both Scruffknuckle and Perdemor. Neither animal looked impressed.

  Their father wasn’t deaf or totally oblivious. Marsh watched as he snuck a glance toward the edge of the table before looking down at his daughter. “Did you say you had a puppy?”

  She lifted her head, her face lighting up. “Yes. His name Scruffy!”

  At the mention of his name, the pup surged forward, pulling Tamlin halfway out from under the table before the boy managed to let go of his collar. His father pretended not to notice, just focused on the pup.

  Watching his face, Marsh saw what the effort cost him. Her heart eased a little when she saw his decision to play along, and the surprise when he took a good look at the pup was genuine.

  “What is that?” he demanded, and Aisha laughed.

  “That’s Scruffy!”

  He nodded sagely and asked, “And where is the kitty?”

  Perdemor had kept himself mostly under the table, and waited for Tamlin to scramble back to him. When Tamlin gave him a gentle nudge, the kit gave the boy a cool look.

  “Please, Perdy, be nice,” Tamlin whispered. “Aysh needs you.”

  That caught the cub’s attention, and he gave Tamlin a long, thoughtful stare before rising slowly to his feet and stalking into the open.

  “By the Deeps!” Shock made the words come out more strongly than the man expected and Perdemor froze. He flattened his ears to his skull and hissed at the strange man holding his mistress.