She backed off another couple of steps, surprised to see more tendrils sprouting around the edges of the brown mass—and mildly alarmed when they grew to a hand-length long and stroked curiously over the bare floor closest them.
“What is that?”
“Unfriendly?”
As the boy scrambled off the rock, Marsh noticed the color had returned to his cheeks and that his face looked less gaunt.
“We saving the bread for tonight?”
Marsh knew what he was asking. He wanted to know how much they had left, and as much as she didn’t want to tell him, he had a right to know. Ten was old enough, right?
“Yes,” she said, and would have left it at that if he hadn’t pushed for more.
“So, when do we have to get to Ruins Hall by?” he asked, and his eyes darted to his sister.
Marsh understood; he wanted to know how many days’ food they had left, but he didn’t want to worry Aisha. That was good, because she didn’t want to worry the child either.
“Three days at the most,” she told him and wondered how in all the Shades she was going to manage it.
“Do you know the way?”
The question gave her pause. Truth? She didn’t know the way. Did she think she could work it out? Sure. Well, maybe. It depended on how far these ruins went before they turned back into tunnels. Outside of Ruins Hall, this was her first experience with what the Ancients had left behind—and she didn’t quite know what to make of it. What she did know was that she needed to get back out into the corridor if she was going to try to match up the maps in her head with the direction they’d traveled in.
“I can figure it out.”
The boy stared at her, demanding an explanation, and Marsh gave an exasperated sigh.
“Look…” She paused. “What is your name, anyway.”
“Well, it’s not ‘anyway,’” the boy snapped back, “but thanks for asking. It’s about time you bothered. I’m Tamlin. She’s Aisha.”
Aisha was horrified.
“Tams! That’s rude!”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like she bothered to ask.”
They were both right, but Marsh narrowed her eyes at them.
“I could just leave your asses right here!” The threat popped out before she realized she’d said it and she glared, daring them to protest her cussing.
Aisha put her hand on her hip and cocked her head.
“You’re rude, too.”
Tamlin let go of her arm and scooped up the glow
“Come on, Aysh. It’s not like we haven’t heard it before.”
The little girl favored Marsh with one more glare before turning to follow her brother. Together, they started clearing the rocks away from the crack, leaving Marchant to collect her pack. The sight of Scruff earnestly pawing away the smaller stones beside Aisha made her smile, and she stooped to push the largest chunk of rubble out of the way.
“Ruins Hall, right?” she asked and slipped through the gap into the corridor beyond.
“Three days,” Tamlin reminded her.
Leaning against the tunnel wall, she closed her eyes, and wondered if the boy would ever let up.
Twenty heartbeats later, she discovered he probably wouldn’t.
“You can’t work it out, can you?” he accused, sounding as snarky as anyone she’d ever crossed.
Marsh opened her eyes.
“I’d have better luck if you’d shut your mouth and let me concentrate.”
Aisha stamped her foot and turned her back on the pair of them, the pup watching her every move.
“Well, we can’t go back the way we came,” the boy told her. “The trail won’t be fixed, and the shadows will be waiting.”
Like he was the expert!
Marsh bit back the retort that rose to her lips.
“I know that. Just let me sort it through. If you’re quiet, it won’t take long.”
“Mmhmmm.”
With another glare, Marsh closed her eyes. She had the lay of the tunnel now, and how it linked to the main chamber not ten yards away. She even thought she’d worked out how the crevice and the tunnel beyond connected in relation to the trail. What she didn’t know was exactly how far they’d run before turning into it. She hadn’t been paying attention to that.
And that was part of what was making it so difficult. She needed to figure out if they had to return to the tiered chamber or if they could follow this corridor. With luck, it would meet another cavern that might lead back to the trail or circle around to one of the caverns off Ruins Hall. She thought she almost had it when Tamlin spoke again, jolting the picture right out of her head.
“We can’t stand here all day,” he grumbled. “If the hoshkat has kits to feed, it’ll be back—and I don’t think last night’s trick is going to work again.”
Marchant wasn’t so sure. They’d made a bargain, and the kat had kept her end of it—so far. The boy had a point, though. Maybe she didn’t want to go back through the main chamber. It would be better if she didn’t tempt the shadows. That didn’t mean she liked his nagging!
She opened her mouth to say as much when Aisha’s light footsteps caught her ear. She realized the girl had wandered past her to where a fall of rubble had exposed the natural cavern wall. As she turned to see what the little brat was doing, the girl scrambled to the top of the rubble pile and looked back at them.
“We go this way,” she said, and jumped to stand on top of another piece of rubble. “This way.”
“Aisha! Wait!” Tamlin was after her like a slime bat on a pickled egg.
Marsh hurried after the pair of them. She couldn’t run, but with her longer stride, it didn’t take much time to catch up. Like most of her people, she was narrowly built but wiry and strong, and able to pick out details in the dark if she had to—and like most of her people, she preferred to live by the light of the glow stones or luminescent lichens or the end-of-day twilight in the surface world. What she didn’t let on was that she could adjust to the brighter light of full day, just like her parents had. She was different enough as it was.
It had been something of a bone of contention between her and her uncle. He’d always wanted her to help him with the waystation or go out and take over her parents’ steading, and she’d always refused. He’d harped on the fact that her mom and dad had always said she didn’t mind the full sun as a baby, and she’d always managed to avoid having to prove it still wasn’t a bother.
She didn’t want to dwell on the surface world. That had been her parents’ dream, but they’d vanished before she could join them and share it. Now Marsh preferred the caverns and the secret places, and the idea of treading where the Ancients had dug and uncovering their secrets. It was why she was working for Kearick.
The dealer had promised to find her a mentor among the seekers, as he called the retrieval specialists who brought him artifacts—after she’d served as a messenger for him, of course. Fair was fair, he’d said, and he wouldn’t recommend her until she’d worked with him a while. Marsh had agreed, and her uncle had almost had a fit.
“But you could be a trader!” he’d protested, “Or a trail guide…or run Downslopes!”
Downslopes had been her parents’ holding, and Marsh was having none of it.
“Let Gabe do it. He loves the surface,” Marsh had told him, and stormed out.
She hadn’t been back, either, always finding an excuse to take the next run or go over maps of the trade route and the tunnels connecting to it in Kearick’s library. It had been six months since they had spoken. Marsh sighed, pushing the memories away as she reached the pile of rubble and had to concentrate.
“Took you long enough!” Tamlin sniped, and Marsh wondered if she’d get away with giving him a clip under the ear. Would there be angry relatives to answer to when she got them to Ruins Hall?
If she got them to Ruins Hall.
She gazed after Aisha.
“Why this way?” she called, scrambling over the tumbled concrete blocks
and fallen steel.
She was more curious about how Aisha had known it was the right way to go rather than why she’d chosen it. It was the way she would have picked if Tamlin had given her another few heartbeats to think about it.
Aisha didn’t quite give her the answer she was looking for.
“’Cos,” Aisha told her and moved quickly along the corridor until they came to another open area.
“Aysh…” Marchant started, and let her voice trail away. “Whoa.”
A million lights danced on the cavern floor, and the drip and splash of water echoed around them. Colors arced over their heads and rippled under painted stars that mirrored the sky in the surface world. They made Marsh’s head spin, even as she resisted the urge to stare. It reminded her of something she’d seen in a book, and she wished she had more time to explore it. This was why she’d become a seeker, after all.
Before she could do more than register the amazing sight before her, Aisha had stepped smartly to the right and started moving along a tight ledge until she reached a long narrow cavern with tall square pillars and vaulted ceilings. The little girl moved quickly, then stopped and crouched in the shadow, reaching for Tamlin’s hand as he came to a halt beside her. Before he could speak, she raised her finger to her lips and waved for Marsh to join them. Scruffy sat on the floor just in front of her, ears pricked and eyes alert.
For a minute Marchant wondered where the pup’s parents were, but Aisha reached up to pull her head close to Tamlin’s and her own.
“Tamlin has to make the shadows,” she whispered. “And we has to be very quiet. I’ll ‘splain later.”
She looked at Marsh, letting go of Scruffknuckle’s neck to wind her arms around Marsh’s shoulders.
“Up.”
She put her finger against Marsh’s lips while Tamlin increased the darkness around them, then they’d crept along the edge of the pool and away from it into the dark.
4
Voices in the Dark
That night, they set up camp in a hollow gouged into the side of a long natural tunnel. By then it was Tamlin leading them, his voice firm and his directions sure as they came to each junction. He’d stop every time, closing his eyes as though communing with the shadows. It was clear that he didn’t realize closing his eyes didn’t stop Marsh from noticing the faint white glow when he opened them, again.
Marchant made sure the two children and the pup were settled at the back of the hollow and took her place at the front. Despite its ragged edges and low entrance, she was worried that something might come by and see them, so she had Tamlin cover the glow.
“We’ll camp dark tonight,” she said, handing out the bread and including Scruffknuckle in the feeding.
Giving him water was harder. In the end, she poured water into the bowl she usually ate from. Aisha reached out and patted her knee.
“Scruffknuckle says thank you,” she told Marchant, and took her turn sipping from the canteen as the pup lapped noisily beside her.
Marsh wasn’t going to ask her how she knew what the pup was saying. If she hadn’t seen the way Aisha’s eyes had flashed when looking at him that morning, she might have thought the child was just giving her own thanks instead of the pup’s. After all, she didn’t have to let the dog travel with them.
Uh huh, and just how do you think you would stop him?
There was no answer for that, so Marsh looked out into the tunnel dark, letting her eyes adjust until she could make out the lighter walls and patches of shadow where they were pitted by hollows or cracks.
“How did you know which way to go, today?” she asked, and this time her question included both of them.
They both looked at her, but it was Aisha who answered first.
“I asked the rocks,” she replied like it was the most natural thing in the world, and Tamlin stared at her.
“But you can’t talk to the rocks,” he said, and Aisha had scowled at him.
“Can so, too!”
Marchant watched Tamlin open his mouth to argue and then change his mind. Instead of challenging his sister, he asked a question.
“When did you try it?”
A mischievous smile crossed the girl’s face as she replied.
“Hide and seek.” She sounded so pleased with herself that Marsh had to suppress a laugh.
Tamlin was outraged.
“You little cheater!”
Aisha’s smile faded.
“Am not!” Then she added, “You call the shadows!”
Tamlin poked his sister.
“So?”
“Cheater!”
Aisha poked him back. Before Marsh had time to intervene, the two of them were poking and tickling and giggling like a pair of mad things and the krypthund had taken refuge behind her feet. Their happy madness was, however, short-lived.
The hund suddenly turned so he sat with his back against Marchant’s ankles, his muzzle facing out toward the tunnel. His movement caught the children’s attention and they stopped rolling around on the floor, their giggling abruptly ceasing. Then the pup gave a sudden sharp yap and circled around Marsh to rub against Tamlin and Aisha’s faces. Aisha got it first.
“Ssshhh!” she said, holding her finger up in front of her mouth and rolling off her stomach into a crouch.
Tamlin didn’t argue. Instead, he mimicked her movements even as Marsh ducked so she could see past the overhang concealing the hollow’s entrance. The hund came to stand beside her, dabbing her cheek with his tongue before turning his attention to the tunnel beyond. Uncomfortable with the gap in front of them, Marsh tipped her pack onto its side and set it carefully across the open space, leaving just enough room to peer past it.
The dull stone-colored cloth would blend with the tunnel walls and help conceal the existence of the hollow—or so she hoped. Not long after that, they heard voices.
“I tell you, it sounded like children laughing.”
“And what would you know about that? One look at your face and they always cry!”
“A bit like you and the ladies!”
“Oh, shut up.”
“At least, I have a wife and—”
They heard a dull thump, followed by an indignant “Ow!”
“We’ve heard all about your wife and your kids and how you’re ever such a lucky man, yadda, yadda-de-yadda, but I still think you’re hearing things. You’ve been away so long you’ve got your children on your mind.”
“Ssshhh! This is where it’ll be.”
The third voice came as a surprise, and Marsh wondered just how many were out there. Behind her, the children sat as still as stones and didn’t make a noise. Even the pup stayed uncannily frozen.
Marsh listened in the darkness as the sound of booted feet walking down the tunnel became audible. The footsteps approached cautiously, but their tread was heavy, as though stealth was not something that came naturally. For a moment, Marsh thought about going out to meet them, to see if they would help get her and the kids back to Ruins Hall—and then it crossed her mind that they were far from any trail she knew,and there were raiders afoot.
Maybe it would be better if they stayed out of sight, at least until she could be sure whoever was out there was safe to approach. She held her breath, listening for any sign that they’d been discovered.
“You’re both out of your tiny little minds,” the third voice said. “What would a bunch of children be doing this far from the settlement?”
“You never know,” the second voice replied. “Children are known to wander.”
“Mine don’t.”
“And yet here we are.”
“I tell you I heard something.”
“Told you to watch them mushrooms.”
“Didn’t touch the mushrooms,” came the protest, which was met by laughter.
“What if it’s a trap?” That third voice sounded closer, and Marsh was able to make out the rough edges of its words and the hoarseness of the throat that made them.
“What, kids?�
� Voice Two didn’t believe him, but the third voice wasn’t perturbed.
“Nah, the sound of kids. All sorts of things in these tunnels. Who’s to say one of them hasn’t learned to mimic kids to draw folk out where it can eat them?”
The footsteps stopped as though he’d mentioned something from a shared nightmare and Marsh held her breath.
Suddenly one of the men gave a startled oath.
“The shadows!” he exclaimed, and Marsh held her breath. “The shadows are moving.”
Boots crunched over rubble as the men outside moved nervously, and then another of them whispered, “What was that?” Marsh heard steel rasp as swords were drawn.
“Back to camp,” the first voice said, and the boots moved as one, debris crunching underfoot and pebbles rattling as they were knocked aside.
“Easy,” the third voice cautioned. “Keep your eyes on the dark.”
It sounded closer than it had been, and Scruff rose to his feet. Quick as she could, Marsh lashed out and wrapped her hand around his muzzle, willing him to be quiet, but it did no good. A growl leaked out, and all movement in the tunnel stopped.
“Did you hear that?”
“Oui. Back it up slowly. We’ll be safer in camp.”
Marsh let go of Scruff’s nose and he growled again, sounding much bigger and fiercer because the hollow magnified his voice. This time the footsteps did not falter. They might even have picked up speed.
“Steady…”
Together, they listened as the men moved away, not relaxing until Scruffknuckle huffed a sigh of relief and settled to the floor. When she was sure she wouldn’t be heard, Marsh turned to Tamlin.
“Was that you?” she asked. The boy was sitting with his back against the wall instead of crouching.
He nodded, then leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes.
“He needs to eat,” Aisha said. “He always needs to eat when he calls the shadows.”
Marsh reached for her pack, but Tamlin waved a hand.
“Not this time, Aysh. I’ll be fine.” But Marsh could hear the weakness in his voice, and she knew his sister was right.
“You heard the men,” she said. “There’s a settlement not far from here. We can spare the bread.”
Trading into Shadow (The Magic Beneath Paris Book 1) Page 3
