She smiled as Henri joined her. “You know we’re not alone, don’t you?” she murmured as his lips brushed her hair.
He laughed softly and held her close. “I just wanted to wash your back.”
Izmay rested her head against his chest and hugged him back before pushing him away and turning him around. “A likely story,” she told him, running soapweed between his shoulder blades.
Around them, kats, pup, and people got clean and dry, then Jakob interrupted them.
“Water’s not going to stay hot forever,” he warned, and Izmay looked up to see him and Gustav step away from the cistern.
“We’re nearly done,” she called back, hastily rinsing the last of the soapweed from her skin.
“We are?” Henri grumbled, and she slapped his chest with the flat of her hand.
“Yes, sweetheart, we are.”
He gave a disappointed sigh and followed her over to where Roeglin and Marsh were almost dressed.
“Took you long enough,” Marsh quipped.
“Do I need to remind you how many meals you owe me?” Henri retorted, and Marsh chuckled.
Roeglin laughed too and Henri got dressed, watching as the pair of them straightened each other’s clothing.
“Dinner’s on,” Master Envermet announced, returning from wherever he’d disappeared to once he’d delivered their clothes.
He didn’t stay long this time either. Henri and Izmay arrived at the mess hall as the rest of them were sitting down. The room was redolent with the smell of well-seasoned meat and vegetables, underpinned by the odor of drying kat and dog, but no one seemed to care.
Roeglin was filling in the township’s leaders on the threat Below.
Alain and Obasi looked worried.
“And you say they’ll come back?” Alain noted. “Do we have any idea of how long we have?”
“Or how many there’ll be?” Obasi added.
Roeglin shook his head. “All the mantids could tell us was that these were the creatures they’d fled from and that they’d be back in numbers.”
“But you said Aisha had sealed the portal,” Alain protested. “Won’t that hold them?”
Roeglin shook his head. “We don’t think so. We think it will only buy us a little time.”
He raised his hand as Alain opened his mouth to say more.
“Marsh has a plan for shutting down the portal permanently.” He gave Alain a direct look. “I’m sorry, but she’ll need Tamlin’s and Aisha’s help.”
The man groaned. “Now, why doesn’t that come as a surprise?”
Roeglin shrugged and gestured around the dining hall. “We are looking to train more mages, but right now, they’re the strongest we’ve got.”
“I know.” Alain sighed, sadness momentarily clouding his face. “I don’t have to like it, but Calantha says we should be grateful our children can help. And I am, but…” He gestured helplessly.
Roeglin gave the man’s shoulder an awkward pat. “I’m sorry. We’ll do what we can to make it safer for all of us.”
“It won’t do us any good to leave?” Obasi asked. “We can’t evacuate?”
Roeglin shook his head. “I’ll check with Tok when he arrives in the morning, but I got the impression these creatures are here to hunt. If they are the things the raiders were delivering their prisoners to, they won’t stop until they’ve got their supply lines up and running.”
He looked around the table. “And we all know what that means.”
Murmurs of acknowledgment ran around the table. They knew. The raiders had been the scourge of the surface and then tried extending their operations of enslavement underground. If the Ookens were the force behind the raiders, running away wouldn’t save them.
Obasi and Alain looked at the other leaders. “What do you need us to do?”
“We’re still going to need supplies for the winter, regardless of what is coming,” Roeglin replied, “and we’re still going to need a sheltered pathway linking our settlements, so we don’t lose contact when the snow arrives.”
He looked at Obasi. “Do you have any idea of when that will be?”
“The closest we can guess is any day now.” The druid warrior smiled sheepishly. “We’re speeding the growth of the last crop now.” He looked at Master Envermet and Alain. “I can spare some people to help with the pathway, and maybe prepare some areas along it for winter crops.”
“And if we don’t find any?”
“I’ll speak to Tok and see if his people can help us turn the dungeons below the library into shroom vaults.”
“Shroom vaults?”
“Indoor spaces for growing shrooms,” Obasi explained, “but they’re not suitable as they stand at the moment.”
We would be glad to assist. Tok’s mental voice had them reaching for weapons and pushing back their chairs before they registered who it was.
Roeglin looked at the door. “What brings you back so soon?”
We returned safely to our nest and realized we’d left your mate unguarded. After this afternoon’s skirmish, she will be hunted with greater diligence.
It wasn’t what Marsh wanted to hear.
“So, you’ll be staying?” she asked, blushing as she cast a quick glance at Roeglin.
Henri barked with sudden laughter. “Better you than me.”
19
Friends in Need
The mantids did not need to share a room to protect Marsh’s mind.
It would be better if you slept where you usually lie, Tok informed her. We can rest nearby. Two of us will remain alert at all times, and two will sleep. If you are hunted, we will be awakened to assist in your defense.
“Thank you,” Marsh told them.
She was about to close the door between them when Mordan stalked past. The kat looked up at Tok and made a soft sound of query. The mantid started and stared at the kat.
After a moment of exchanging looks, the mantid responded, Of course, you can stay. We would be honored by your assistance.
Mordan brushed against his legs as she stalked by him into the neighboring room. Marsh breathed a sigh of relief and shut the door, turning to where Roeglin had already settled in her bed.
“You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to,” she informed him, and he gave her a wicked smile.
“Since when has that ever been the case?” he challenged, and she blushed.
He wrapped his arms around her as she slipped into bed. “Besides, I can guard your mind better from here than a room away.”
“That’s what you always say,” Marsh murmured, folding her arms over his as she closed her eyes.
“I have my reasons,” he told her, settling to sleep beside her.
They left the lamp to flicker out on its own as if its yellow flame would be enough to keep the darkness at bay.
It wasn’t.
Marsh fled, the darkness rising behind her. This time it was worse, like a storm ready to sweep her away. She still couldn’t tell what hunted her, but she knew it was there, and getting closer all the time.
She caught sight of a cottage up a small rise to her left. Light gleamed on the porch and shone golden and inviting from behind its curtains. She turned toward it as the only shelter she’d yet seen.
The darkness behind her grew, its presence closer, sapping her will to run. It tried to drain her of hope, to convince her there was nothing she could do except sink to her knees and await its arrival. That the pain it offered was all she could hope to live for.
Tendrils of cloud twisted around her head and tried to entwine her arms.
Marsh brushed them away, seized the more stubborn ones with her fingers, and tore them from her scalp, yelping with pain as hair came away too, but she didn’t stop.
Fight it, Marsh. Roeglin’s voice came out of the dark, almost her undoing.
Her stride faltered, and he shouted in alarm.
For the Deep’s sake, don’t stop! Make for the cottage.
The cottage, huh? Marsh eyed the ti
ny building and half-turned toward it, only to find her way blocked by a snarling hoshkat.
Dan?
The kat growled, swatting at her as she drew closer. Marsh tried to swerve around her, only to have another form block her path. She dodged and continued to run.
Do not stop. The wind whispered in a chorus of voices, and she swore she heard Roeglin there, too. She’d have stopped to ponder why he was contradicting himself, but there was no time. She raced on, trying to outrun the storm.
Ahead of her were mountains, towering hills cloaked in trees and ruins. Her lungs burned, but she knew there would be shelter there. Those ruins had survived the savagery of many storms. Surely, they’d survive this one.
And once inside… She pushed herself harder, feeling the wind rising around her, more solid than air had a right to be. She fought that too, drawing a blade from the storm’s darkness.
She woke, gasping, held tight, with Roeglin whispering in her ear.
“Wake up. Please wake up!”
“I’m here!” Marsh looked around wildly, registering the lantern, now burning brightly, Roeglin’s grip of iron, Mordan’s anxious presence by the bed, and the mantid standing in the doorway.
“What happened?”
“Do you know what type of stone blocks our minds?” Master Envermet asked, stepping through the door. He glanced at Marsh as Roeglin let her go. “Welcome back, by the way.”
“There’s a what?” Marsh asked, scrambling to catch what he’d said.
“A stone that interferes with mind magic,” Master Envermet reminded her. “If we could discover which one it was, we could build you a room made from it, and maybe stand a chance of giving you a good night’s sleep.”
Marsh fought to steady her breathing. She’d only been running in her dream, for the Deep’s sake! Why did it feel like she’d been running for real?
“You’re only coming up with this, now?” she demanded between gasps.
“I’m sorry. It was only when I tried to ask Sulema for aid that I realized the answer might be closer than we thought.”
“Did you get through?” Roeglin asked, his voice rough with worry.
He didn’t touch her, though, and Marsh was grateful. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to get a grip on what had happened.
“I don’t care what rock you surround me with,” she announced. “I want them gone, even if it means I go hunting.”
She straightened. “As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what I want. I want to hunt down the thing that is hunting me.”
She pushed herself to her feet and advanced on Tok. The mantid backed up nervously, raising his hands before him.
Like that would protect you if I wanted to harm you, Marsh thought. You’re just lucky I know you are my friends.
Tok relaxed a little. Then what can we help you with?
Tell me where to find him.
Tok shrugged helplessly, flicking his antennae nervously. You know where he is. He is beyond the portal.
How can I open that? Marsh pressed.
You cannot. You must wait for the portal to open, and then you must get past what comes out.
Marsh raised her forefinger, intending to tap the mantid’s chest, but Roeglin intervened. He stepped between them.
“Is there any way we can draw him out?” he asked.
The mantid curled his antennae and turned them this way and that as though seeking some sort of scent. A fine shiver ran through him.
We would need to find something he wanted above all else, some kind of bait that would entice him to open the door sooner rather than later, something that would bring him here in person, and not just his minions.
“And?” Roeglin demanded.
I will need time to think of such a thing.
Marsh laughed. “You don’t need to think of anything. He is coming because he needs to be first.”
Roeglin gave her a look of concern. “The first to do what?”
“The raiders, the resources,” she explained. “He’s been gathering what he needs in order to establish a base here. That is what he wants to be first for. He wishes to be the first to establish a base. There is someone he wants to please.”
Tok regarded her with attentive antennae. From the quiver that ran through them, Marsh figured he was communicating with his fellow mantids. The closest she could get to their response was…worried?
They were worried by what she was thinking?
Yes, Tok replied. The first move is to always establish a base on the target world. If what you say is true, the invasion we feared is coming, and he wishes to claim the right to rule. There will be others thinking of doing the same.
“How do we fight them?” Master Envermet demanded. “How do we beat them?”
We cannot defeat them, Tok replied, but Death can. She will come. We only have to hold them back until she notices and arrives.
Roeglin slid out of bed and stood beside Marsh.
“How do you know this anyway?” he asked. “Last I remember, you were running and screaming.”
“And pulling a sword from the black,” Master Envermet reminded him. “Don’t forget that. If you hadn’t had such a good hold on her, you’d have been a dead man.”
“Worth it,” Roeglin responded, his face hard. “Worth every second of it.”
He laid his hands on Marsh’s shoulders and looked into her face. “How did you know?”
“The storm,” Marsh began, her voice trembling at the memory. “It kept catching hold of me, and every time it did, some of what he intended leaked through. He wants to be the first to arrive. He wants to claim the Devastation as his territory.”
“What else did you find out from the storm?” Master Envermet demanded, his voice harsh.
“That he’s chosen the Library as his base, and he will be the one to lead the invasion forces.” Her voice grew softer, but there was a core of iron beneath it. “He doesn’t think we are enough of a threat for him to need to arrive later.”
That is both good and bad, K’tch observed. We might stand a chance if he gives us even a little more time to prepare.
“He thinks we’re weak?” Master Envermet asked.
To Marsh, he sounded almost outraged. She nodded. “He does, which is why he believes it will be safe for him to arrive with the first troops.”
“That indicates more than a little arrogance,” the shadow captain replied. “A lesson might be in order.”
“As long as it’s his last,” Marsh told him. “We don’t want him putting anything he might learn to use.”
Master Envermet’s mouth twisted sourly. “Agreed. This lesson will be his last, and there will be no graduation.”
Tok shifted uneasily, and Marsh looked at the mantid. “What is it, Tok?”
I need to return to the nest. My people must prepare for war. He looked at Obasi. If you send the people you have in mind, my cultivators will be ready to assist them in any way they require.
The mantid paused. We too would appreciate your particular skills to speed the crops if you have the energy to spare.
Obasi closed the distance between them, taking the mantid’s hands in his. “You only had to ask. We cannot spare many, but I can find you six, at least two of whom are quite gifted with handling shrooms.”
Tok shifted his hands so one rested on the outside of Obasi’s grip and held his hands in return. Your people’s aid would be welcome.
Something in the mantid’s tone made Marsh wonder how much difficulty Tok’s people faced with the coming winter.
We will need warmer quarters and have been unable to spare the people to prepare them, the mantid surprised her by answering. With the help of the Grotto’s druids, we will be ready for the cold season.
He shuddered, and this time it was not an apology. I wish we had pried earlier, for then we would have understood the hardship ahead of us. This “cold” in your thoughts is much more severe than anything we have experienced.
“We will be glad to aid
you,” Obasi reassured him. “If you will come with me before you leave, I will ask my people to accompany you on your return.”
His offer was met by restless shuffles among the other mantids and a myriad of soft clicks and whistles as they discussed the offer. Obasi waited patiently, his eyes glowing white as he followed the conversation in his head.
Marsh wondered what he heard, but decided if the mantids had wanted her to hear it, they would have included her in the conversation. Tok cocked his head as though catching her thoughts.
I am sorry, we did not think it of interest.
“You can tell us later,” Roeglin reassured him, “or Obasi can. He has permission to send you the people he can spare.”
You trust him to do that? Tok asked.
Roeglin dipped his chin in assent. “Of course. If I did not, he would not be responsible for the area I have asked him to take charge of.”
Tok flipped his antennae in amusement. Of course, he would not.
There was relief in his mental tones that made Marsh smile.
Then we will take our leave.
“Go in peace, my friend,” Roeglin told him. “Do you require an escort to see you safely home?”
“Thank you, but no. The wolves keep watch for us.”
“Speaking of a watch,” Roeglin added, “we will set one on the portal. I don’t think mental magic is disrupted between here and the Below, is it?”
Master Envermet shook his head.
“Then, Master Envermet, can I ask you to head that effort?” Roeglin asked. “It will take men away from the new college, but I will provide extra help once this threat has been dealt with.”
Master Envermet gave him a slight smile. “I would be honored to help with the defense of what is to be my home,” he said and looked at Obasi. “I can organize a watch, but I will need to borrow warriors who can fight with their minds as well as other abilities.”
“Come with me,” Obasi told him. “I will introduce you to my impi leaders, and they will find you the people you need.”
“I’ll let Alain and Evan know you will be needing guards from them,” Roeglin added. “I take it not all your watchmen will need mental magic?”
“No,” Master Envermet said. “I will meet with Alain once the first watch is set.”
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 181
