Trading Into Darkness
The Magic Below Paris™ Book Two
C. M. Simpson
Michael Anderle
Trading into Darkness (this book) is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2019 C.M. Simpson & Michael Anderle Cover by Mihaela Voicu http://www.mihaelavoicu.com/
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US edition, March 2019
ISBN 978-1-64202-149-3
The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2015-2019 by Michael T. Anderle and LMBPN Publishing.
Contents
1. Shadow-Raid Ambush
2. The Masters Decide
3. An Unwelcome Assignment
4. Shadows of the Past
5. A Change of Plans
6. One with the Shadows
7. Shadow Monsters
8. Shelter from the Shadows
9. Chocolate Farms and Ruins Hall
10. Ruins Hall Arrival
11. Slipping the Leash
12. In Trouble Deep
13. From Frying Pan to Fire
14. Madame Monetti
15. Stone-Wrapped
16. Captive Journey
17. Company in Captivity
18. A Step Through the Dark
19. The Missing
20. In Search of Madame Monetti
21. Madame Found…and Lost
22. Poisoned by Shadow
23. Orelia’s Return
24. Forward Planning
25. A Change in Status
26. Into the Dark
Author Notes - CM Simpson
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
Other Books from C.M. Simpson
Books by Michael Anderle
Trading into Darkness Team
Thanks to our Beta Readers
Mary Morris, Nicole Emens, Larry Omans, Charles Tillman, and John Ashmore
Thanks to our JIT Readers
Dorothy Lloyd
Diane L. Smith
Misty Roa
Angel LaVey
Editor
SkyHunter Editing Team
Dedication
This is for all those who believed in me enough that, eventually, I had the courage to believe in myself.
Thank you.
—C.M. Simpson
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
to Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
to Live the Life We Are
Called.
— Michael
1
Shadow-Raid Ambush
The trail ahead passed through a tall stand of calla shrooms, but Marchant had no time to admire their graceful white trunks or the soft glow coming from the undersides of their caps. Nor did she have time to collect any of the smaller shrooms and toadstools growing at their feet. Stretching her magic into the cavern around her, she knew Mordan had sensed the ambush, too.
The big kat stalked silently a half-dozen yards to her right, moving through the cavern dark as Marsh adjusted her eyes to see better. The problem with calla shrooms was that they were hard to see over…unless you weren’t from the world below and were built a little taller and wider than its inhabitants.
But Marsh wasn’t that lucky. She was slender and slight of build like all cavern folk, her skin pale and shaded like the cream-colored stones among which she made her home. Her eyes were a touch darker than her skin, with green flecks, and a golden tinge, and her hair a disciplined cascade of copper drawn back into a braid to keep it out of her eyes. She didn’t need it blocking her vision, even when she was using her magic to see.
She walked down the path, drawing on the shadows as she went and asking them to show her who else shared the spaces they connected. Carefully, she gathered the shadow threads that answered her so she could see what they revealed.
Not that the shadows spoke, but they connected the spaces in the cavern, and what they touched, Marsh touched too—which meant she could use the shadows to transmit an image of what was in the dark or use them to hear what was spoken out of range of her ears—if she could find the right connecting thread.
She kept going forward, knowing she was moving farther into the trap that had been set. She had the kat, though, and the big beast was confident they could take the small force that awaited them. Marsh just had to draw their attention until she was ready…
Before she could do that, though, the threads slid out of Marsh’s grasp, and she frowned. Someone else was using the shadows, pulling the threads she was calling on to search the dark right out of her fingers. Someone was using the shadows to shelter those waiting in ambush around her.
Marsh pulled on the threads, trying to take them back, but the other mage had a stronger grip and she couldn’t. Maybe she and the kat had made a mistake. If they were facing a more powerful mage among their attackers, they might not be able to take them down.
The attack began before she could act on that thought, the first strike coming from behind. Marsh felt the twist of the shadows and bounced two quick steps forward, pivoting even as the darkness came alive around her. Shadows thinned and dropped away, revealing the body heat of those hiding beneath them.
The damn shadow mage had cloaked the waiting force so well she hadn’t seen through it using either her shadow magic or the nature magic that allowed her to sense the life forces around her.
“Merde!”
One of the ambushers laughed.
“Got you this time, girl!”
“Yuh think?” Marsh stepped forward, pushing her hands in front of her and then taking them wide.
He gave a startled shout as a wall of shadow slammed into his chest and threw him back. More shouts came from either side of him as the attackers emerging from the shrooms were also flung back. As they fell, Marsh brought her arms back down and drew her sword.
Magic was good for some battles, but the blade was always there when she needed it, and she could always call a shield to her arm. Behind her, the kat roared, and a man screamed.
“Yield! I yield!”
There was a growl, and he yelled again. Shortly afterward, there was another scream. The shield could wait. Marsh gave the fighters in front of her a feral grin, lifting her shield arm and opening her hand. Shadow drew together above it, forming an ebony dart. Marsh flicked her fingers, pointing at a man on the ground, and the dart flew toward him, slamming through the fabric of his cloak to pin him in place.
“Hey!” he shouted, and Marsh laughed.
Truth be told, that had been a little close for training purposes. When she called and directed the next two darts, she made sure they dissipated into harmless smoke just before they hit the tunics of her other targets. Both men stopped their advance and dropped to the ground as though they’d been hit, waiting for the battle to end.
Behind her, the screams had stopped. By her count, Marsh figured the kat had
taken down the other three members of the raiding party, which was strange because she was sure there was supposed to be one more. She reached out with her mind, touching the threads of shadow that connected her with whoever else might be hiding in the dark.
Once again, they slid out of her control, refusing to show what or who shared their touch.
“Roeglin!” Marsh growled as he slid onto the path beside her.
She caught the movement from the corner of her eye, but only barely. Turning, she raised her sword, calling shadows to form a shield on her free arm. His blade slammed against it seconds later.
“Getting careless,” he said as they broke apart, circling each other warily.
Marsh knew she was in trouble when the air at her back moved. She turned side-on, keeping her shield between her and the mage even as she parried the blade coming at her from behind.
Mordan, she called, using her connection to the kat to show her where her opponents stood.
The silence that met her was far from reassuring.
Marsh backed up so both opponents were in easy view. Roeglin she knew, but the shadow guard who’d stepped into the fight was new. Faced with two experienced swordsmen and no kat to help her, Marsh knew surprise was her only hope for a win. Tossing the sword into the air, she made a quick sweeping gesture with her hand.
Black tendrils lashed out, snaking around the shadow guard’s feet…or they would have if he hadn’t quick-stepped to one side and brought his shadow-coated blade down to sever them. Marsh realized that she and Roeglin weren’t the only ones who could work shadow magic. The guard retaliated with a dart that Marsh caught on her shield as Roeglin’s eyes flashed white.
Merde, Marsh thought, wondering what the mage was trying to conjure in her mind.
The calla shrooms around her began to shake, furtive whispers of movement, becoming less subtle with every passing second. Marsh drew on her nature magic to sense the life forces in the cavern, but whatever was coming toward her was either dead or not really there.
Nice! That was one way around Roeglin’s mind magic. Ignoring the shivering shrooms, Marsh focused on the shadow guard, lunging toward him so that he had to step back and parry. As Marsh pressed her attack, Mordan slipped out of the shrooms behind Roeglin, snaking a paw around the shadow mage’s ankles and pulling him over.
His startled shout distracted the guard, and Marsh pressed forward. Unfortunately for the raiders, Mordan wasn’t finished. Even as Roeglin fell, the big kat leapt, crashing into the side of Marsh’s opponent and bringing him down.
Roeglin got off the ground, sputtering.
“One of these days, you’re going to be somewhere the kat can’t reach—and then you’re actually going to have to work out how to get yourself free.”
As he spoke, the others picked themselves up off the ground, some dusting off their tunics and armor and others resettling their weapons. The kat moved between them, nudging each with her nose until they caressed her head, letting her know she was forgiven and they were all right. As much as Marsh had tried to convince Mordan that this type of “play” was necessary so they could learn to stand against other hunters, the kat didn’t like it.
“So,” Marsh asked, looking at Roeglin. “Did I pass?”
He curled his lip.
“You got lucky, but yes, you passed. You can have a cookie. I’ll let Brigitte know.”
Well, that was more sarcasm than she needed, but speaking of cookies…
“How’s Aisha doing?”
“She doesn’t want you to leave, but we’ve convinced her we need her to help keep Lennie busy, so she’ll let it go.”
“Oh, she will, will she?” Marsh didn’t know whether to be annoyed or relieved that the five-year-old had been convinced to stay at the fortress while she and Roeglin joined the teams restoring the trade routes between the Four Settlements.
She was going to miss having the little brat along—and at the same time, she wasn’t. Five really was too young to be in the middle of a battle, no matter how well the kid had coped with it in the past. Everyone was still waiting for her and Tamlin to fall apart over the disappearance of their parents, but neither of them had.
That was good, too, but it was also bad since it put the pressure right on Marsh to find them. She only hoped she could do that before anything worse happened to them, assuming they were still alive.
“You ready to recharge some glows?” Roeglin’s voice cut through her thoughts, and Marsh groaned.
While she’d reached the point where drawing on the shadows and staying connected to the hoshkat no longer completely drained her of energy, she still struggled when it came to charging the glows.
“Everyone can do it,” both Roeglin and Tamlin assured her, but Marsh found using her magic to charge the pale purple gemstones more draining than asking the shadows what lay on the other side of a cavern or searching for the life forces of other creatures. Maybe everyone could do magic, but it was like sword-fighting, or cooking, or studying in that it required practice, and not everyone was good at all the different varieties.
It would explain why most people lived their whole lives without knowing what they were capable of. Some abilities didn’t naturally bubble to the surface, and some weren’t as strong. Maybe that was why she could work with shadows and not with light. Strengths and weaknesses, and all that.
Or it could just be because you like hiding in the dark.
Roeglin’s voice in her head was something she would never get used to. Speaking of different kinds of magic… Well, he could walk through people’s minds, and the person whose head he thought was the most fun to walk through right now was hers. Marsh let her body do the talking, punching him in the shoulder before the thought crossed her mind.
“Betcha never saw that coming,” she muttered, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“I should have,” he grumbled, rubbing his arm. “You hit hard…every…single…time.”
“So, no glows?”
“Ha! Nice try. Just for that, you can do extra.”
Nice way to remind her he was the one in charge. Marsh sighed and fell in beside him as they headed back to the shadow-mage fortress. If she was lucky, this would be her last training session before they headed out to begin restoring the trade routes. The Master of Shadows had decided the road to Ruins Hall would be the first one worked on, and he was sending ten of his best shadow guards to join the force the Ruins Hall founder was building.
Together, they would re-forge the path to Kerrenin’s Ledge and the other two settlements that made up the Four Settlements community. Together, they would force the raiders out of their lands and make them give back the people they had taken—if they could re-connect the caverns.
“Together,” Roeglin agreed, and Marsh knew she was never going to get the damn man out of her head.
He was there to stay, and not in a good way.
“Hey!” But whatever Roeglin was going to add was lost. They’d reached the entry to the fortress, and Aisha was waiting.
2
The Masters Decide
An hour later, Marchant closed her eyes and bowed her head. At this rate, she was going to see purple gemstones in her sleep…and not a single damn one of them was going to be glowing.
“Aagh!”
She drew a deep breath and straightened, settling her fingers against the top of the stone and gently stroking down. The movement was supposed to draw the light out of the air and coax it into the glow stone, but either there was no light in the air around her, or it was hiding too deeply in the shadows to be found. Marsh had been trying so hard to discover it that she was finding it difficult to believe anything could make the stone brighten.
Okay, maybe she could set it alight. That would always work.
Right now, all she wanted to do was tear the stone from its stand and hurl it across the room. Knowing her luck, though, if she did that, it would hit the wall and shatter, and then there would be no way to charge it. She sighe
d and wondered what would happen if she tried charging it with heated shadow.
Sure, it wouldn’t glow with visible light, but most of the people walked the caverns using heat patterns to enhance their vision anyway—and it would be easy, so easy. Marsh traced a line down the gem and into the stone. Heated shadow could burn as brightly as any light if folks were looking at it right.
Repeating the gesture, Marsh let her mind wander, playing with the idea of shadow-heated glows. Would it make them harder for the raiders to find and put out? Would being hidden from normal sight be protection or hindrance? Would…
“That’s not a bad idea, Marsh, but I don’t think it’ll have the same effect on the shadow monsters as filling it with light.”
Marsh started, her concentration crumbling into a thousand pieces as Brigitte’s voice broke into her thoughts. The journeyman had a point. Marsh stared down at the stone.
At first glance, it didn’t look much different from an uncharged glow, except maybe a little darker, as if a shadow had been cast across it. But if you looked at it closely, the shadow flickered and wavered like a candle burning dark—and if you looked at it as heat instead of light, it burnt like the sun above the surface world.
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