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

  “Have Zeb and Jakob go with you,” Roeglin told him. “It will help to have men who’ve seen the Ookens in the flesh.”

  “That it will,” Master Envermet agreed.

  20

  Too Little for Lightning

  Marsh watched them go, glad of Roeglin’s presence by her side. When they were the only two in the room, she sank onto the edge of the bed and rested her elbows on her knees. Cupping her chin in her hands, she stared at the empty doorway.

  “Are you okay?” Roeglin asked, and she gave him a reluctant nod.

  “I think so. I’m just tired, is all. Do you think it’ll come if I sleep now?”

  Roeglin regarded her with a curious gaze. “Do you?”

  Marsh thought about that and shook her head. “I think it has other things to do at this time of day.”

  “Are you sure?” Roeglin asked, then smothered a yawn of his own.

  Marsh nodded. “But then, you and I have other things to do at this time of the day, too.”

  She pushed herself upright, dragging a clean pair of socks out of her drawer and pulling her boots out from under the bed.

  Roeglin watched as she put them on, then sat down beside her. “You don’t have to be the strong one all the time,” he reminded her, and she managed a shaky smile.

  “Tell me that when this is over,” she told him. “That’ll be when I let myself sleep instead of getting our people ready for war.”

  He pulled back from her and arched an eyebrow. “So you think it’s war, do you?”

  Marsh nodded. “I really think it is. That storm or whatever was in it? It was ready for war. It wanted everything we had, and then it wanted everything else.”

  She stood up. “I’d better go talk to Aisha and Tamlin. We’ve got to work out how to pull the power out of a winter storm and get it that far Below.”

  Roeglin’s hand brushed hers and she stopped.

  “Have you thought about asking the druids?” he asked, giving her a crinkly smile.

  His laughter touched her mind, and the sense of mischief that he was suggesting the obvious and knew she probably hadn’t thought of it. He was right, and it made Marsh smile.

  “You think I should?”

  “I really do. I mean, you’re not going to be able to guarantee having a storm blowing around when you need one.” He shrugged. “Maybe one of them knows how to predict when there’ll be one. We don’t need to wait for the gate to open, do we? I mean, we can blow it up before the monsters come back, can’t we?”

  “What are you trying to say, Roeglin?” Marsh asked.

  “I’m trying to say that if we can guarantee destroying the gate even if we can’t guarantee destroying the threat beyond it, then we should consider doing that rather than leaving it too late. Remember, storms aren’t guaranteed.”

  Hearing the worry in his voice, Marsh cupped his cheeks in the palms of her hands.

  “I’ll remember,” she told him. “No vengeance for my nightmares if we can get rid of the source of them by destroying the door first, I promise.”

  “You do?”

  “I really, really do,” Marsh told him, trusting that he could see the truth of her words in her mind.

  He confirmed it by pulling her into his arms for another hug. “That’s what I love about you,” he murmured. “You trust me to look when you need me to.”

  Marsh gave an abrupt laugh and stepped back, slapping the flat of her palm against his chest. “Ha! Deep’s ass, I do. I know you’ll be looking whether I like it or not. I just wanted to be sure you were looking that time.”

  Roeglin gave a sheepish chuckle. “Fine, I admit it. I just can’t keep my head out of yours.”

  “Just as long as you keep it in the game as well,” Marsh told him and headed for the door. “You know where to find me.”

  “I do,” he acknowledged, “and you, me.”

  They parted, still smiling, to face whatever the day might bring, and Roeglin couldn’t help feeling a little hopeful. Maybe a partnership would work after all.

  Marsh found the children at breakfast, then went in search of their parents, the crisp morning air making her shiver as she arrived. Their delight at seeing her turned somber when she explained what the settlement faced.

  “You want to put our children back on the front line again?” Calantha sounded almost annoyed.

  Marsh felt her face heat. “I’m sorry,” she began, but the woman waved her down.

  “Don’t you dare apologize, Marsh. To be honest, if getting ready to face that challenge will keep them from giving my other children any more ideas, I’d be grateful.”

  Marsh frowned. “What do you mean, more ideas?”

  “I mean, Sasha stepped out of a wall and scared seven kinds of the Dark out of me,” Calantha exclaimed, waving a spoon at Aisha when the child giggled. “It’s not funny, young lady.”

  Tamlin snorted. “You have to admit, Maman, it kinda is.”

  Marsh watched as Calantha resisted the urge to smile, but the small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth won, and the woman gave a short laugh.

  “All right, you two, I’ll admit it was a bit funny, but that doesn’t mean I want her learning how to fight like the pair of you do.”

  “Learning how to fight was what saved our lives, Maman,” Tams told her seriously. He laid a hand over his mother’s and caught her eyes with his own, reminding Marsh of just how much time the boy had spent around Roeglin. “I don’t want her to die.”

  “Tamlin!” Marsh was shocked, but she could see that his words had hit a chord. “I’m sorry, Calantha, I…”

  “You don’t need to be sorry,” the woman said for the second time that day, “but just because he has a point, it doesn’t mean I’m ready to hear it. She’s only four.”

  Tams was relentless. “That’s how old Aisha was when she had to learn.”

  “Was not,” the little girl declared stoutly. “Was three? No, maybe two?”

  She frowned. “I hid in the rocks when you hid in the shadows.”

  Tams regarded his sister in wide-eyed surprise. “You did?”

  Aisha gave a solemn nod. “I did.”

  “You little cheater!” he exclaimed, and Aisha giggled again.

  Calantha sighed and rolled her eyes. “Well, at least now I know why the pair of you were so good at hide and seek!”

  Marsh leaned forward, gaining her attention. “You can send her to the school Master Envermet is setting up. She doesn’t have to learn how to fight, but it would be better if she learned how to control the abilities she has.”

  “And hiding in the rocks can keep her safe,” Aisha informed her gently. “That was the first thing I learned.”

  Marsh noticed how carefully the child was enunciating her words and suppressed a smile. This was Aisha’s latest tactic—speaking like an adult so the adults would take her seriously. The little devil was learning fast!

  Calantha turned to Tamlin. “Is that true?”

  The boy nodded. “Marsh wouldn’t let us travel up front with her. She said it was too dangerous, so she made us travel with Master Envermet, where there wasn’t supposed to be any fighting.”

  “But there was, wasn’t there?” Calantha asked, and Tamlin smiled.

  “The shadow monsters don’t listen to what they should and shouldn’t do, even though it is what they usually do. Aisha would hide in the rocks, and I would hide in the shadows. We used to secretly copy the soldiers when they practiced fighting, but we weren’t supposed to.”

  Calantha stared at the boy. “Are you telling me you learned to fight when you weren’t supposed to?”

  Tamlin nodded. His face was serious, but Marsh caught the slight quirk of his lips that said he was trying not to smile. Aisha was looking serious too, but her eyes were bright with mischief.

  “Sasha does, too,” she stated, and Calantha’s eyes widened in horror.

  “Since when?”

  Aisha’s reply was forestalled by the small form that erupted fr
om the wall beside Aisha. “You said you wouldn’t tell! You promised!”

  Aisha made a brief gesture with her hand and Sasha jerked to a halt, rock entwined around one foot and ankle. “Aysh! You…you Deeps-damn-ded shag room!”

  Marsh’s eyes widened, and she couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled out of her.

  “Fighting and cursing,” Alain noted, trying not to laugh or look impressed. “She’s made fast progress.”

  Marsh shook her head, her face hot with embarrassment. “I really don’t know what to say.”

  Calantha exchanged glances with Alain and rolled her eyes. She looped an arm around her youngest daughter and squeezed her gently. “No cursing, young lady.”

  “Aisha does,” she muttered, directing a sullen look at her sister.

  Aisha’s mouth dropped open, and she looked askance at her sister. “I do—”

  Tamlin cut her off. “Do too.”

  “Not as much as you,” Aisha argued, and Alain intervened.

  “Right. New rule: there will be no cursing in this house, and preferably none where your mother or I can hear it.”

  “So, we can curse, then?” Tamlin asked hopefully.

  “I’d rather you didn’t,” Alain replied. “Think of how often you hear Roeglin or Master Envermet curse.”

  Marsh did. She blushed even more, and the children started giggling. Alain gave a heavy sigh.

  “Fine! Think of when you hear them cursing. They understand there’s a time and place.”

  “Sometimes it just slips out,” Tamlin observed.

  “Like that time Marsh went looking for the raiders without them,” Aisha added. “Master Envermet cursed a lot that day!”

  “Roeglin, too,” Tamlin agreed.

  “And Izmay,” Aisha added, her eyes wide at the memory. “She knows a lot of curses.”

  “And Brigitte,” Tamlin chortled. “I didn’t know she knew so many, either!”

  Alain groaned and shook a finger at Marsh. “This… This…”

  He gestured helplessly at Sasha, who was listening to the conversation with wide-eyed interest. Calantha shook her head.

  “Just try not to curse,” she directed and turned back to Marsh.

  The children settled.

  Once they were quiet and paying attention, Calantha continued. “So, what was it you wanted them to do?”

  “I need their help when I call the lightning,” Marsh told her. “There’s a door to another world we need to close. The mantids say a powerful surge of lightning should be enough to close it and stop it from being opened again.”

  “In just that place, or everywhere?” Alain said, asking the question she’d hoped they wouldn’t think of.

  She sighed. “Just that door,” she admitted. “Tok says it won’t stop them from opening another door elsewhere.”

  “Which you’ll have to find and then close the same way?” Calantha wanted to know.

  “Yes,” Marsh told her.

  “And you and the children, my children, are the only ones who can call the lightning.” It was a statement and not a question, and Marsh nodded.

  “For now, yes. Blowing up this door should give us time to find others who can learn the same thing. Given how many mages are at the Library, we won’t be the only ones for long.”

  Alain frowned. “I know Tamlin got the hang of calling lightning a little while ago,” he began and pointed at Aisha, “but when did my daughter find the knack?”

  “That’s easy, Papa,” Aisha chirped. “I found the lightning in the rocks.”

  He stared at her, his mouth open in shock. “There’s lightning in…in the rocks?”

  “Uh-huh.” Aisha nodded her head, grinning happily. “Now I can call it, too. Wanta see?”

  “Me! Me me!” Sasha cried, bouncing excitedly in her mother’s lap. “Show me!”

  Aisha opened her mouth to explain, and Calantha held up her hand.

  “Don’t you dare!” she admonished, her face pale. “She’s four! There will be no lightning.”

  “No fair!” Sasha wailed. “Aysh and Tams can.”

  “Aysh is si…seven!” Calantha snapped, and the two older children gaped at her outright lie. She flushed and continued before any of them could speak. “There will be no lightning until you’re seven. No arguing.”

  Marsh considered pointing out that if Sasha was able to call the lightning, they were going to need her no matter how old she was, but she took one look at Calantha’s face and decided that was an argument for another day.

  She tried not to think that that day would be the one where Sasha had found the lightning for herself. The thought sent a shiver of apprehension through her, and she decided to have a word with Aisha, Tamlin, Obasi, and Brigitte. If Sasha was anything like her sister, she’d need to be watched.

  Thinking of Brigitte reminded Marsh of the shadow mage’s new-found ability with rocks and stone. She made a note to see if Brigitte could also find the lightning in the stones. If she could, it would be an enormous help in what they wanted to do.

  Calantha turned to Aisha. “You are forbidden to show your sister how to call the lightning in the rocks. Forbidden! Do you hear me?”

  Aisha stared at her mother and slowly nodded.

  Marsh got the impression that Aisha had never seen her mother so angry or adamant about anything. Her gaze shifted to Tamlin’s expression; he looked like he’d never seen Calantha like this, either.

  It was going to take something fairly spectacular to shift the woman on her decision. She kept her expression carefully blank and hoped Sasha didn’t follow in her sister’s footsteps and do whatever it was that would cause a reversal in the decision.

  Instead of pursuing that thought, she cleared her throat. “So, I do have your permission to train Aisha and Tamlin to control their ability to call the lightning?”

  Calantha regarded her with a sour stare. “Of course. They’ve already discovered how to call it. They need to be trained.”

  Marsh nodded, her eyes catching the look on Sasha’s face as the little girl listened to her mother’s words. She saw when the girl’s expression shifted from resentment to determination and failed to stifle a groan.

  “What?” Calantha demanded. “I thought you would be happy.”

  “I am,” Marsh reassured her. “Happy and grateful. Thank you.”

  Alain, however, had followed the direction of her look and seen the expression on Sasha’s face. His mouth dropped open, but he hastily closed it, darting a quick glance at Marsh.

  She got the impression he had something he wanted to say, but another glance at his wife silenced him. No doubt he’d be seeking her out later. It was not a meeting she was looking forward to.

  I’ll speak to him. Roeglin’s voice was a welcome relief. His next words were not. You’ve made a promise, but I have not.

  Well, shag the shrooms and shank the Deeps, she thought and was rewarded with a gasp from Aisha.

  Rude! the little girl told her, remembering to keep the exchange strictly between them.

  Marsh arched her eyebrows. Don’t make me come over there.

  Don’t make me tell Mama what you and Roeglin are doing, the child shot back.

  Marsh narrowed her eyes at the girl. You wouldn’t.

  Aisha gave her a beatific smile, and Tamlin groaned.

  “What?” his mother asked, and the boy shook his head.

  “I just realized I was going to be late for class,” he told her, pushing back his chair.

  “Me, too,” Aisha added, doing the same.

  Sasha tried to wriggle out of Calantha’s grasp. “Me! An’ me!”

  Calantha pulled her close and frowned at Tamlin. “I thought Marsh was going to do your lessons today?”

  “Well, you know that, and we know that, but Brigitte hasn’t been told yet, and she’ll make us do push-ups and run ten times around the square for being late.”

  “I’ll get Roeglin to—” Marsh began, but Tamlin waved her offer aside.

 
“It will be better if you come and get us,” he told her. “That will give you time to talk to her about other things.”

  The whole sentence sounded normal to Marsh, despite the significance of her talking to Brigitte about “other things.” Marsh had to admire the way the boy kept his face straight. That had to be taking some effort.

  Instead of remarking on it, Marsh nodded. “Good point. Go talk to Brigitte. Tell her I’ll be over shortly to discuss your training.”

  She stopped them as they raced toward the door. “Haven’t you forgotten something?” she asked, indicating their parents.

  “Bye, Maman, Papa!” Aisha cried and would have dashed out the door if Tamlin hadn’t grabbed her by her arm.

  “Say goodbye properly!” he ordered, and Aisha shot him a look that promised retribution later.

  Marsh squelched an internal sigh. It looked like the day was going to be inexorably long.

  She watched as Aisha marched over to her mother and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

  “Bye-bye, Maman,” she said, and then kissed her sister. “Bye, Sasha. Be good for Maman.”

  Her little sister’s response was as sullen as any of hers when she’d been thwarted. “Bye.”

  Tamlin followed suit, and the pair of them left after bidding Alain goodbye.

  Marsh shook her head. “I don’t know what to say,” she admitted, and Calantha and Alain laughed.

  “It’s just children,” Calantha explained and then frowned. “You should know that.”

  “Yes, but I’ve never seen them like that.”

  “Well, get used to it. Those are their normal selves.” Calantha paused. “Well, when they’re not being precocious demi-mages.”

  The term made Marsh smile “Precocious demi-mages,” she repeated. “That’s one way to put it.”

  Calantha smiled, and Alain pushed back his chair. He glanced out the door.

  “Is there anything else we need to discuss?” he asked, and Marsh shook her head.

  Alain pushed back his chair. “In that case, I’d better be gone before Evan sends a rescue party.”

  Calantha raised an eyebrow. “What have you been telling that man?” she asked, and Alain chuckled.