Trading by Shroomlight

by C. M. Simpson

  “Oh, cut it out, you two. Honestly!” Henri taunted but stopped, his attention caught by something else. “Sons of the Deep!”

  Marsh didn’t have to look to know what he was seeing. She’d felt the portal collapsing as she’d yanked Roeglin through. Roeglin groaned.

  You couldn’t trust me to find my own way back? His voice was plaintive.

  No, Marsh told him. I knew you could do that. I just didn’t trust you not to go after Gustav all by yourself.

  He curled his lip in disgust. I’m not you, you know.

  Marsh cocked an eyebrow and fixed him with a stare.

  Of course, he wasn’t, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t have gone without her.

  Roeglin caught the look and managed a wry smile.

  Yeah, that’s fair.

  19

  Somewhere to Sleep

  The healers and druids worked together to create living quarters for the new additions, and Aisha insisted on helping too. The little girl was happy to be back at Bisambe, especially now Mina had shroom kats. She wasn’t so happy when she discovered Gustav was missing.

  “I get,” she declared, heading for the Bisambe’s sealed wall. “I get now.”

  Mordan looked askance at Marsh and growled. Perdemor ignored his mother and stalked past them, his tail stuck in the air in disapproval. Scruffknuckle bounded past with his usual exuberance.

  “You don’t know where you’re going,” Tamlin argued. “Listen to what Marsh is saying.”

  “Not my mama.”

  Tamlin grabbed her and swung her around so he could take both her shoulders and look into her eyes. “She is now.”

  “Nuh-uh!” Aisha shook her head, sticking out her bottom lip. “Marsh will find Mama.”

  Marsh decided to take advantage of that. “Yes, I will, and I will find Gustav, too, but we are needed here.”

  “Always somefing,” the little girl declared, mimicking her brother’s tone of disgust perfectly.

  Tamlin stared at her, wide-eyed. “Not nice, Aysh.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him. “You say it.”

  He blushed beet-red at her words and turned his head away from Marsh, keeping his eyes on his sister’s face. “And it’s not nice when I do.”

  Marsh noticed he didn’t apologize. She watched as Aisha studied his face. “Need Gustav.”

  Need Gustav to be safe, Roeglin translated, and Marsh nodded.

  “Aysh,” she said, and the little girl threw a thundercloud scowl in her direction. “Not talking to you.”

  Marsh ignored the raised eyebrows of the warriors around her and walked over to the child.

  “We will go get—”

  The sound of the rock wall parting drew her attention, and she looked over in time to see Tabia’s eyes flash white. They returned to their normal color quickly enough, and she looked at Marsh and Roeglin. “Are you hurt?”

  Marsh shook her head, helping Roeglin to his feet the same way he was helping her. It was a miracle when neither of them dragged the other one back down. She saw his eyes flash white, and shortly after, the others gathered around them.

  “Master Envermet has arrived,” Roeglin told them as Aisha’s delighted shriek pierced the air.

  “Master Ennermet!”

  Tamlin’s horrified cry of “Aisha!” rang out straight afterward and was followed by the sound of running footsteps.

  Roeglin looked at them. “We’d better catch up,” he said and then added, “Try to stay in formation.”

  He wheeled about and dog-trotted in the direction Tabia and her squad had already left in. The rest of the shadow mages followed, Henri and Izmay bringing up the rear. Brigitte jogged forward and tapped Roeglin on the shoulder.

  “I need to catch up with my apprentices.”

  He nodded. “Go.”

  She didn’t wait for him to change his mind but hurried after the two children, catching up in time to see Aisha thread her way between two startled druids and wrap her arms around the shadow captain’s leg. She hugged him tight and burst into tears.

  Marsh heard Roeglin groan and her heart dropped.

  Master Envermet had picked Aisha up and was awkwardly patting her back. Tamlin looked anxiously on when they arrived.

  “Tell me what happened,” he ordered, and Marsh didn’t need Roeglin’s confirmation to know what he meant.

  He means Gustav, Roeglin said and told the shadow captain what had happened.

  The impi that had escorted the shadow captain and his men into camp cast worried glances at their own captain and then at Tabia, who had waited quietly, watching the scene.

  When Roeglin had finished his report, Aisha sat up and gave Master Envermet a hopeful look. “We go get?”

  He smiled at her and shook his head. “I need to talk to Mistress Sulema and...”

  There were tears in Aisha’s voice. “Pleeease get.”

  Master Envermet blinked, then looked at Marsh and Roeglin and blinked again. It was clear he was seeing something in the way they were standing but didn’t have time to comment. Marsh gave him credit, though. He didn’t try to disentangle the child in his arms or set her down.

  He just settled her on his hip and turned to the community leader. “Mistress Sulema, forgive the intrusion. Do you have time to see us?”

  She dipped her head in acknowledgment. “Captain Moldrane told us you were coming, and I, for one, am glad to see he was right. Your timing is flawless.”

  Captain Envermet frowned. “This sounds ominous.” He turned to the woman riding alongside him. “Sergeant Seward, would you see to the men?”

  “Sir.”

  Envermet indicated Roeglin. “Shadow Master Leger will be your liaison.”

  “Stay with me,” Roeglin ordered when Marsh would have moved to accompany Tamlin and Brigitte. “You too.”

  Casting reluctant glances behind them, the pair returned to the rest of the squad and followed Roeglin as he liaised with the people from Ariella’s Grotto. They did not see Master Envermet again until he joined them in the dining hall, Aisha draped against his shoulder.

  He settled himself into the spare seat at their table, one arm around her back, and looked at Marsh. “She’s gotten bigger,” he said, “and heavier.”

  The “she” in question gave an inelegant snort and wiped her face on his shirt. He wrinkled his face. “She’s cute when she’s asleep and not causing trouble.”

  “I bet you say that about all the children.” Marsh smiled, relieved to see the child had worn herself out. She glanced at Tamlin.

  “See?” she told him. “Perfectly fine.”

  Master Envermet regarded the boy with a serious stare and then his lips quirked upwards. “My days of eating children are over, boy.”

  His comment drew a smile from Tamlin. “I’m sorry she got away from me, sir.”

  The captain’s smile widened. “She does that often. Somehow I don’t think it’s always your fault.”

  Tamlin blushed. “That doesn’t matter, sir. She is my sister, and I’m supposed to keep her out of trouble.”

  Master Envermet gave a short bark of laughter. “You’d be better off trying to light the Deeps—and you’d have more of a chance at succeeding.”

  Tamlin stood. “Have you eaten, sir?”

  Envermet shook his head and looked at Roeglin and his Sergeant. “Are the men settled?”

  Sergeant Seward caught Roeglin’s signal to go ahead and began her report. As she began, Tamlin left the table and returned with a plate of food for the shadow captain.

  “Thank you, Apprentice.”

  He listened while he ate, not relinquishing Aisha to anyone. “Let her sleep,” he told them when they offered to take her. “The Deeps know she’s worried enough. Besides,” he added, “this way I know exactly where she is.”

  That made Marsh laugh and she relaxed, quietly accepting the hot chocolate Tamlin brought her and sipping it as the boy settled down beside her.

  “We have a plan,” Master Envermet to
ld them when he’d finished and Tamlin had cleared his plate. He sipped at the kaffee the boy brought and fixed the team with an apologetic stare. “I am very sorry, but Gustav will have to hold on just a little bit longer.”

  He caught Tamlin’s anxious glance toward his sister and nodded. “She knows, and she wasn’t happy, but apart from a couple of ‘no fairs,’ ‘means,’ and ‘dat rudes,’ she didn’t protest too much. Next time, remind me a war council is no place for a child with a vested interest—especially this one.”

  Marsh wanted to tell him that it was exactly the place for a small child with a vested interest—and in particular that one—but she bit her tongue and listened instead. By the end, she was disappointed in the Grotto’s leaders and in Master Envermet, but she understood, too. The only way they were going after Gustav anytime soon was to secure the cavern as fast as possible.

  Well, she could do that.

  And so can I, Roeglin agreed. We’ll get this done and then we’ll go, with or without their permission.

  They both kept their faces as straight as possible, not letting on just how upset they were at the council’s decision or his agreement. The security of the caverns had to come first. In their heads, they understood it. Their hearts had difficulty with what it cost, though.

  “Where does she sleep?” Master Envermet asked after he had briefed them on their part.

  Marsh, Brigitte, and Tamlin rose from their chairs.

  “Where are Perdemor and Scruffy?”

  Master Envermet grimaced. “They played hide and seek under the tables and someone nearly lost a shin, so Sulema had one of her druids convince the rabid pair to spend some time with Mordan.”

  He grimaced. “Kat was not impressed.”

  Marsh could imagine, but she also knew Mordan would keep the pair in line and mostly out of mischief. “Our room’s this way.”

  “Where are you going to sleep?” Master Envermet asked a short while later.

  He’d just tucked Aisha into her bed and watched the kit and pup rearrange themselves around her. As he’d turned to leave, he’d spotted Mordan stretched out on the other bottom bunk. The kat took up the entire space.

  Marsh sighed and eyed the bunk above Aisha. “There.”

  “But your blankets are under the kat.”

  Mordan cracked an eyelid, her blue gaze daring either of them to try to steal her blankets. Marsh sighed. “Well, it sucks to be me, then.”

  Master Envermet scowled thoughtfully. “I don’t suppose she’s open to reason?”

  Mordan lifted her head and hissed at him, and Marsh laughed. “I don’t know, but I don’t think she’s forgiven you for giving her babysitting duty.” The kat settled her head back down on her paws and closed her eyes with slow deliberation.

  “She’s sassing me.” Master Envermet sounded as though the possibility hadn’t occurred to him.

  “She’s had a long day killing raiders,” Marsh told him. “I’ll be fine. We’ll come to an agreement.”

  When he continued to hesitate, she added, “We always do.”

  He sighed and turned about. “Very well, then. I’ll leave you to your negotiations.”

  He got to the door and turned about. “She and Tamlin are staying here tomorrow.”

  He took a step and then stopped and looked back. “That was one of her ‘not fairs.’ It was followed by a ‘dat’s rude’ when I told her they were too young to be on a battlefield. She said, ‘are not.’ I said I was in charge and she said she was. She said you let her, and I said you weren’t in charge anymore, so she called me mean.”

  He looked put out and puzzled at the same time. “Why did you take her with you?”

  “It was the only way I could keep her safe,” Marsh told him, and his eyebrows lifted.

  “Do tell.”

  Marsh cocked an eyebrow of her own and put her hand on one hip, indicating Aisha and the two animals with her other hand. “She’d have followed, and I wouldn’t have known where she was. We kept her with our team, and we kept an eye on her.”

  “And they still got captured,” the captain pointed out.

  Marsh blushed and he smirked. “Your Aisha is quite the chatterbox. There was a roomful of elders ready to dispute your right to parent them, save that they had something more important to debate. Try to be the model parent for the next couple of days, okay?”

  Marsh nodded, her face burning with embarrassment. When he’d left, Brigitte pushed off the wall she’d leaned against and clambered up into her bunk. “Ouch! That was not subtle.”

  “As if subtle has ever worked on Marsh.” Roeglin stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the room, making them both jump.

  He glanced around, looking very pleased to find himself in their room. “That’s a very handy skill,” he added, a smug expression on his face.

  “What in the Deeps are you doing in our room?” Brigitte demanded, and it was Roeglin’s turn to blush.

  “Uh, I wanted to see Marsh...”

  “To say goodnight,” he added when Brigitte giggled.

  The shadow mistress swung her legs over the edge of the bunk. “I can go if you like,” she offered, but Roeglin shook his head and Marsh held up her hand.

  “I need a walk anyway,” she said, and Brigitte waggled her eyebrows.

  “And are you coming back?”

  Marsh let her jaw drop, her face heating again. “I haven’t decided yet.” She gestured toward her bed, and Mordan gave an enormous yawn and stretched her legs, taking up more space than she had before. “But it’s not like I have a bed.”

  “Or blankets,” she added as the kat buried her nose in those very items.

  “You could share mine,” Roeglin suggested, and Brigitte snickered.

  “At least I’ll know where to send Aisha and Tamlin when they go looking for you in the morning.”

  “You wouldn’t,” Marsh protested, but the look on Brigitte’s face said she would...and was planning on it, in fact.

  Roeglin grabbed her arm and pulled her into the corridor.

  “I’ll see you in the morning,” Brigitte caroled after them, lying down and pulling her own bedding over her. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”

  Marsh leaned her forehead against Roeglin’s shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around her waist.

  “I don’t know what she finds so funny,” he grumbled. “It’s not like we’d be getting up to anything with Tamlin in the room.”

  Marsh stopped dead in her tracks and he hastened to correct himself. “I mean, not that I thought...that.”

  “You need to watch your feet around your mouth, Ro.”

  And wasn’t it just their luck that he’d said that when they were passing Henri’s room and that the big guy had been in residence to hear it. It was worse when Izmay started laughing.

  You need to maybe just not speak, Ro, Marsh told him mind to mind where no one could hear her.

  20

  Misperceptions

  They didn’t get up to anything, but Roeglin was right. She did sleep better with her back against his chest and his arms around her. Tamlin was not impressed.

  “You could at least have warned me,” he spat when he saw her in Roeglin’s bed the next morning. “You’re just lucky I slept through it.”

  “We didn’t,” Marsh protested and pushed the blankets and Roeglin’s arm off her. “See?”

  They’d gone to bed fully clothed, removing just their boots and stowing those side by side under the bed. Tamlin had closed his eyes, but his face looked as red as hers felt. The situation became more complex when Aisha arrived.

  The child gave a squeal of delight and hugged her brother. “Marsh is going to have a baby!”

  Howls of laughter erupted in the corridor outside, and someone choked on the kaffee Marsh could smell. She glared at the two children and stalked over to the door, closing it against the suddenly curious faces on the other side.

  More laughter followed, then Master Envermet roared, “We have a quarter turn, peopl
e! Get your shroom-sodden asses ready for the battlefield. It’s supposed to be a sneak and peek, but anything could happen. I hear one cackle, giggle, or snort give away our position, and I will nail you to the wall myself. Now, move! Move! Move!”

  Roeglin groaned and climbed out of bed, straightening his uniform. Aisha bounced up and down in delight, and Tamlin rolled his eyes. “She’s not having a baby, Aysh.”

  He sounded much older and more tired than Marsh would have thought possible. Aysh stopped bouncing and regarded him with puzzlement. “Yes, she is. Maman said.”

  Her eyes filled with tears, and she wrapped her arms around Tamlin’s waist. “Master Ennermay say no!”

  “No what?” Tamlin asked.

  “We can’t go,” the child wailed, and Tamlin looked from Marsh to Roeglin and back again.

  Marsh turned away and sat beside Roeglin on the edge of the bed, passing him his boots and then pulling hers onto her feet. She’d managed to get one completely laced when the door opened and Master Envermet stuck his head into the room.

  He gave Marsh a stern look. “I see you found somewhere to sleep last night.”

  “Yes, sir,” she managed after giving him a startled look. Not seeing any amusement on his face, she went back to her boots.

  “Do you think you could have been a bit quieter?” he asked, and this time, Roeglin gave him a suspicious glance.

  Master Envermet’s face remained an impassive mask and Roeglin stood.

  “You should at least change your uniforms,” the captain told them. “I can escort Shadow Mage Leclerc and the younger Apprentice Danet back to their quarters so you and the older Apprentice Danet can change.”

  They were both staring at him now, and Marsh knew Roeglin was trying as hard as she was to peek into the shadow captain’s mind. She wondered if he was having as little luck. Some of her frustration must have shown in her face because Captain Envermet gave them a long, solemn look, followed by a short laugh.

  “Your faces.” He snickered. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen two innocent people look quite so guilty...or frustrated.”