Trading by Firelight

by C. M. Simpson

  Trading By Firelight

  The Magic Below Paris™ Book Four

  C. M. Simpson

  Michael Anderle

  Trading By Firelight (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 support@lmbpn.com. 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, April 2019

  ISBN: 978-1-64202-198-1

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2015-2019 by Michael T. Anderle and LMBPN Publishing.

  Contents

  1. Mika’s Outlet Established

  2. Waystation Interlude

  3. The Downslopes Pack

  4. Adopted Sons

  5. Surface Skirmish

  6. Post-Battle Shakedown

  7. Of Fire and Mind

  8. The Caravan’s Fate

  9. The Grotto

  10. The Druid’s Defense

  11. A Strange Welcome

  12. Finding the Magic

  13. Shroom Fire

  14. Dimanche at Last

  15. An Old Flame

  16. Crowd Control

  17. Secrets & Shadow Mages

  18. Kearick the Slippery

  19. Of Wolves, Kats, and Mind Mages

  20. Overnighting with the Shadow Druids

  21. Negotiations, Alliances, and Combat

  22. The Battle at Piermont’s Ponies

  23. Of Kats, Kits, and Healing

  24. The Defenders Established

  25. A Trio of Trouble

  26. Travel Plans

  27. Of Families and Family Secrets

  Author Notes - CM Simpson

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Other Books from C.M. Simpson

  Books by Michael Anderle

  Trading By Firelight Team

  Thanks to our Beta Readers

  Nicole Emens, Charles Tillman, Larry Omans, Daniel Weigert, and Mary Morris

  Thanks to our JIT Readers

  Jeff Goode

  Dorothy Lloyd

  Diane L. Smith

  John Ashmore

  Misty Roa

  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

  Mika’s Outlet Established

  Mika’s Outlet was secure. Marsh took a long look at the clearrock the rock mages had grown to block the opening and the massive set of iron-bound gates that sealed it from the outside and turned to where Roeglin, Gustav and Master Envermet stood beside her.

  “It’s done.”

  “Way to state the obvious, Marsh.”

  Marsh pivoted to face the direction of the voice. She saw nothing but a darker patch of shadows and imagined herself stretching to take them in her hands.

  “You like digging latrines, Tams?”

  Marsh tugged on the shadow but it would not yield. Damn! The boy had gotten stronger in the last few weeks. She tried again, coaxing the shadows apart, trying to get them to thin and show what hid beneath. As she did, she felt them resist her attempts and knew Tamlin was working just as hard to hold them together.

  A small giggle escaped the densest section of them, then Tamlin gasped.

  “Stop it, Aysh!”

  The giggle came again, and Marsh felt the shadows wriggle beneath her hand.

  “Aysh!”

  More giggling followed, then an exclamation of outrage, and the shadows dissipated to reveal Tamlin squirming away from his little sister as she tried to tickle him.

  “Thanks a lot, sis! Now, c’m’ere!”

  Marsh watched as Tamlin made a grab for the mischief-maker, only to have her slip into the rock she was leaning against.

  “Cheater!”

  “Am not!” the rock said.

  “Get your tail out here!”

  “Uh-uh!”

  “You have to sleep sometime!”

  Aisha stuck her head out of the rock.

  “Yeah? You and whose army?”

  Beside Marsh, Roeglin started to laugh.

  “Remind you of anyone?” he asked, nudging Marsh in the ribs, and Envermet snorted.

  “Every damn day,” the shadow guards’ captain said and walked to where the rock mages were inspecting their work.

  Marsh stared after him, not sure whether to be insulted, shocked, or entertained. Envermet’s parting comment didn’t help.

  “I told you to watch the examples you set.”

  Marsh turned to Roeglin, ignoring the amusement dancing in the dark-haired mage’s eyes.

  “I can never tell if he’s mad at me or joking.”

  Roeglin smiled and clapped her on the shoulder.

  “Join the club. Come on, let’s go see how Master Petitfeu’s latest batch of cookies came out.”

  “Cookies!”

  At the mention of the word, Aisha came out of the rock and shot past them, with Tamlin in hot pursuit. There was a flurry of movement, and Scruffknuckle emerged from a nearby cluster of shrooms and grass. He bounded after the two children, two hoshkat kits racing in his wake.

  “You think he’s still bent on revenge?” Roeglin asked, but Marsh shook her head.

  “Nah. He’s just trying to beat her and the pup to the cookies.”

  Roeglin broke into a trot.

  “Boy has a point,” he said as he bolted past her. “If those two get to them before the rest of us, there won’t be many left.”

  Laughing, Marsh sprinted after him.

  Her laughter died, however, when she entered the community center that was acting as a temporary barracks in the small town.

  “You!” Brigitte scolded, brandishing a ladle at her.

  Before Marsh could reply, the mage swept her hand toward where Aisha was sitting and sipping a cup of hot chocolate, her hand curled protectively around two very large cookies.

  “I thought things would change when Envermet elevated me to master, but no. Instead, I get assigned not one but two pestilential apprentices—and one of them has the appetite and all the manners of shroom-muncher!”

  “Hey!”

  Clearly, Aisha’s lessons with the rock mages had extended to include all the lifeforms in the caverns. She knew enough of the shroom-devouring beetle to know what Brigitte was referring to and be offended. Across the table from her, Tamlin said nothing.

  “Shut up and eat your cookie!” Brigitte scolded, but Aisha was way ahead of her, so she couldn’t do anything but chew and roll her eyes in reply.

 
; The ex-journeyman looked at Marsh and Roeglin.

  “I suppose the pair of you thought you’d get to test these too?”

  Marsh looked at Roeglin, feeling her skin heat as she blushed. At least the shadow mage looked just as uncomfortable as she felt. Brigitte raised her eyebrows.

  “I see,” she said, and reached behind her for two small baskets. “Then you can take these out to the mages working on the wall. The Deeps know they need the energy far more than either of you.”

  She watched as they took the baskets and gave them an impish grin.

  “And you can have one, too…as thanks for your help.”

  “Hey!” Roeglin began, but Marsh grabbed him by the arm and spun him around before he could say more.

  “On it!” she said, and she had the shadow master out the door before he thought to resist.

  “What did you do that for?”

  “What? She gave us a whole basket of cookies each, and left us unsupervised to deliver them…” Marsh started, and let the words trail off.

  Roeglin’s eyes widened when he caught where she was going.

  “You wouldn’t…”

  “Oh, I don’t know. New mage master giving orders to her seniors…it might be fun.”

  “Right up until I give you both latrine and stable duty for a week.” Master Envermet’s disapproving rumble interrupted her before she could go any farther. “Make sure my mages get their cookies before I fine you yours for being more of a pain in the ass than usual.”

  And he brushed right past them, heading for the kitchen.

  Marsh watched him go, her mouth open in surprise.

  “That was humor,” she managed after a small pause, and it was Roeglin’s turn to hook his arm through hers and guide her toward where the rock mages were resting beside their wall.

  “It was,” he agreed, “and aren’t we just lucky he was in a good mood today?”

  “I wonder why…” Marsh mused, but Roeglin didn’t reply, and neither of them spoke until the cookies had been delivered.

  The answer became clear on their return to the dining hall.

  Shadow guards were hurrying back and forward, some packing their bedrolls into backpacks, and others clearing the tables and chairs from the center of the room. At the same time, several Mika’s Outlet locals were lining up before a short, round man with a balding pate and curly gray hair. Master Envermet was standing beside him and looked up as they entered.

  “Good to see you back so soon,” he said, but whether he was referring to them delivering the cookies or genuinely glad to see their rapid return, Marsh couldn’t tell. “I’m leaving twenty guards to train the Protector’s here; the rest of us are moving out in the morning.”

  He looked at Roeglin.

  “It would be helpful if we had more mind mages,” he said. “I don’t suppose…”

  Roeglin shook his head.

  “Only Felicity so far, but I’m hoping there will be more.”

  Master Envermet’s face clouded, his good mood evaporating as he glanced down at the man at the desk.

  “Everyone has the ability to do magic, don’t they?” he pressed, clearly repeating a question he’d been asked. Roeglin sighed, realizing he’d have to explain the whole magical ability thing again.

  “That is what the first wanderer told us, but we have found that the ability varies…like other human abilities. Some find magic an easy thing,” and here he glanced at Marsh before continuing, “and others find it difficult to the point of near impossibility…and then there is the fact that not everyone can access the same kind of magic, or more than one kind. It’s just a matter of people trying to see what they can do—and knowing and believing that they will be able to do something.”

  Roeglin delivered that last bit like he was delivering a speech, but Marsh didn’t mind; she knew why. She recognized the gray-haired man now. He was the village leader, the mayor, and Marsh knew he’d be looking for a way to get his people to embrace the need to discover and use what magic they might have.

  She didn’t envy him the task. Ninetta’s farm wasn’t the only place they’d discovered a bad attitude toward magic. Of course, they hadn’t arrived in the nick of time to save the farmers from a band of raiders, but they had done that when they arrived at the town—and the rock mages and shadow mages had been the only reason Mika’s Outlet wasn’t a ghost town like so many others before it.

  Things like that had a way of turning attitudes around—for most people. She had no doubt that there would still be some who needed more proof… and others who would never be convinced. The community would just have to find a way to deal with it as they developed. From what she could see, magic had always been inside them, and it was there to stay.

  She studied the mayor’s face, watching him digest the news. From the little she knew of him, he’d already be trying to work out ways of getting his people to try what Roeglin had suggested—trying to see what abilities they had that he could leverage. Marsh cleared her throat, looking around the hall, and drawing Envermet’s attention.

  “Yes, Shadow Mage?”

  “I was just wondering how many of the rock mages were staying,” she said. “There’s a wolf pack looking for partners, and…”

  Master Envermet waved for her to stop.

  “I’m leaving a contingent of twenty shadow guards, and a half dozen of the rock mages have asked to stay, something I will agree to as soon as I’ve cleared it with the Masters of Beast and Stone.”

  He said this last with a glance toward Roeglin that was as good as an order.

  “When?” the shadow mage asked.

  “When we’re done here,” Envermet told him. “The mayor needs to know as soon as we are able.”

  The mayor, for his part, was looking at Envermet in puzzlement.

  “Yes?” the shadow captain asked, no doubt knowing what was coming.

  “I don’t mean to be rude,” the mayor began, and Marsh sensed genuine concern behind his words, even with the “but” hanging in the air between them.

  And sure enough, it was there when the man continued.

  “But how can rock mages help us with wolves? Or crops,” he added after a moment’s hesitation. “I don’t understand how workers in stone can be of any help with the plants and beasts…and I don’t see any druids here.”

  He cast an apologetic glance toward Marsh.

  “With the exception of the shadow mage here, and the child, of course. No offense intended.”

  “None taken,” Marsh told him, but left it to Master Envermet to explain why the rock mages were so much more than their name implied.

  The shadow guard captain gave a heavy sigh and walked away from the table. Before Marsh and Roeglin could do more than draw a breath in protest, he’d collected a nearby chair and returned to sit beside the mayor. Marsh and Roeglin hurried to do the same.

  “The rock mages,” Master Envermet began as soon as they’d seated themselves, “are only called that because that is how they served the Caverns when they showed themselves at all. If they’d lived on the surface they would have been called druids from the start, but, just as the shrooms and their creatures are a part of the natural world around them, so too are the rocks, and most work with more than one of those elements.”

  Marsh listened as the shadow captain described the different things the rock mages could do, her eyes tracking the movement in the room. She saw when the last of the Mika’s Outlet recruits arrived and gathered around the table. These men and women listened intently to what Envermet had to say, their gazes drifting across the room as though searching for these “rock mages.”

  Marsh saw some frowns when they didn’t see any of the druidic mages and watched as their attention was drawn by something else. She followed their gazes and found that, having cleared the packs and bedding from around the hall, the shadow guards had moved the tables to the edges and stacked the chairs on top of them before forming into squads in the room’s center.

  She had to adm
it they looked impressive in their Protector uniforms. They looked even more impressive when they started their first set of katas, drawing their swords and going through the standard moves before pulling shadow from the edges of the room to coat their blades. Marsh saw the Mika’s Outlet recruits’ eyes grow wide as Master Envermet finished his explanation.

  Without a word, the shadow captain got up out of his chair and carried it over to the edge of the room, with Marsh and Roeglin doing the same. They came to stand behind him as he positioned himself beside the table, watching as his troops brought their final kata to an end, saw him waiting, and came to attention.

  “Recruits,” he began, and all eyes turned toward him as he addressed the locals.

  When he had their attention, he indicated the guards in the hall.

  “That is how skilled you will become,” he told the recruits, and Marsh saw several eyes widen.

  The mayor looked impressed and pleased, but interrupted what Master Envermet was about to say next.

  “And will they learn other types of magic, Master Envermet?”

  Marsh suppressed a sigh as the man continued to push his agenda, but she left the response to the shadow captain. Envermet paused and shot him a look that said he was interrupting, but then he replied.