“You know you’re not going to change his mind, don’t you?” he said, and the little girl pouted.
The druid had taken a few steps after Valerie and the other leaders, but now he returned.
“Is there a prob—” he began as Mordan roared.
Before Marsh could react, the big kat had pounced, knocking the druid from his feet and standing over him. The kit Aisha had been petting let out a roar of his own, cannoning into his mother and batting at her with his paws. His attack made Mordan yowl in protest and she spun around, swatting the kit to one side and pinning him to the ground.
“Dan!” Aisha shrieked, getting to her feet.
She might have run over to intervene except that Tamlin leapt forward, lunging out to grab his little sister before she could take a single step. The child shrieked in frustration, and Marsh heard several startled oaths from the inn’s back door.
Hurried steps followed, as did the hiss of steel as swords were drawn.
“Hold!”
Gustav’s voice rolled over them, and Master Envermet echoed him.
“Hold!”
Marsh had to resist the urge to freeze. She turned her head just enough to catch sight of the two captains standing between the mercenaries and the druids, their hands raised slightly before them as they tried to calm the men and women in front of them.
For their part, the mercenaries and Alois’ druids had paused. Some were in the middle of drawing their weapons, and others looked about to dive in and tackle Mordan.
Dan? Marsh asked. What are you doing?
The kit is mine! the big kat said, snarling to emphasize her claim.
The kit in question looped himself around her paw, scratching at his mother’s foreleg and trying to bite it.
He doesn’t agree, Marsh pointed out.
He has made a poor choice.
What choice? Marsh asked, but Alois spoke before the kat could answer.
To Marsh’s surprise, he was talking to the kit.
“I told you we should have asked your mother first.”
The kit stilled long enough to hiss at the druid and went right back to trying to tear his mother’s leg to shreds. Looking at the damage it was doing with his claws, Marsh winced. She was probably going to sleep for a week after putting all that back together, and she was already tired from mending her arm.
Mordan rumbled softly, and Alois shifted his gaze from kit to kat. His eyes flared green as he tried to catch Mordan’s eye, but it was a few long heartbeats before the kat lowered her head and consented to speak with him.
Marsh tried to join them but the kat bunted her out like an afterthought, keeping her eyes on Alois’s face. Around them, the entire courtyard seemed to hold its breath.
“He could have chosen worse, Dan,” Marsh told her, but her only response was that the kat’s tail twitched faster.
She stretched a hand toward the kat, only to have Mordan lift her lip in a half-snarl. The kat neither moved her head nor looked in Marsh’s direction though, and Marsh waited, glad to see the kit had finally exhausted himself and now lay still but defiant under his mother’s paw. Marsh saw the blood running down Mordan’s foreleg and hoped she’d be able to do something about it soon.
The silence stretched around them for several more heartbeats, then Mordan sat, lifting her paw from Alois’s chest so the druid could scramble to his feet. After a moment’s hesitation, the kat also took her paw from on top of the kit, letting him roll to his feet. Instead of trotting over to Alois, though, the kit gave a plaintive mew and rose onto his back feet to put his paws on his mother’s shoulders. He mewed again, anxiously nuzzling her face.
At first, Mordan didn’t respond, but the kit gave a pleading chirp and the kat relented, swiping a paw under him to knock him off his feet before thoroughly washing his face and head. As soon as she was done, the kit bounded over to Alois and sat by the druid’s feet, his tail curled around his forepaws. Alois laid a hand on the kit’s head, and it purred.
Mordan looked at Marsh and raised her bleeding foreleg, but Marsh put one hand on her hip and cocked her head.
“Oh, so now you want my attention,” she began, and the kat waved her paw again.
“I can do,” Aisha interrupted, but Tamlin held her back.
“You can go upstairs to bed,” he told her. “It’s late, and you’ll be grumpy in the morning.”
“Will not,” the little girl protested, adding, “Kat hurts. I fix.”
“Nuh-uh,” Tamlin told her. “Marsh fix.”
“But...” Aisha tried, only to find her brother guiding her gently but firmly back to the inn, Brigitte following.
“No,” Tamlin insisted, and Aisha pouted but allowed him to steer her inside.
Marsh watched them go. As soon as they were beyond the walls, she shuffled over to Mordan and rested the kat’s foreleg across her knees to inspect the wounds. They were deep and would fester if she didn’t treat them, but they weren’t as bad as she feared. Marsh sighed.
“All right,” she said. “Let’s do this.”
No “‘let’s” about it, Roeglin snarked. You’re on your own with this one.
His presence reminded her that she wasn’t alone—and that she had an audience.
Fantastic.
Roeglin chuckled and Marsh sent him a mental finger before focusing her full attention on the kat’s injuries.
“Trust you to pick a fight with something that’s got claws as sharp as yours,” she grumbled, and was surprised to catch a flash of a kat’s butt in her head.
“Everyone’s a smart ass.”
Focusing again, she called the energy in her surroundings, drawing what little she could from the cobbled earth and a little from each of the people gathered around her, but not so much, she hoped, that any of them would notice.
It’s still nice to be asked first.
This time Marsh managed to hold onto the energy despite Roeglin’s interruption. She didn’t bother giving him the finger either, just directed the magic into the kat’s leg, asking it to mend the torn flesh and skin. It didn’t take much.
“Now that that’s done,” Master Envermet said when Mordan’s leg was whole again, “let’s take our business inside. Captain Moldrane, if you would be so good as to assist the Defenders in organizing accommodation...”
“Sir. Leclerc and Leger, you’re with me.”
24
The Defenders Established
The meeting was still going when Marsh, Gustav, and Roeglin returned from helping the Defenders’ Quartermaster. Instead of being held in an upstairs meeting room, it had been moved to Shameless’ common room, and the smell of roast meat and freshly baked shroom bread wafted out of the kitchen. The tables had been rearranged into a large square, and the rest of the Five Families had arrived.
At least, Marsh assumed the four groups of important-looking people were representatives of the Five Families. She was only sure of Monsieur Laberge, who was sitting quietly at the end of the table and watching as the other three groups argued with Valerie and Luka. One, a big man wearing a leather tunic dyed dark green, banged his fist on the table.
Cutlery jumped and clattered and the table stilled.
“I don’t care if you pay the penalties!” he shouted. “I need the guards. The raids are becoming—”
“Enough!”
The man stopped, his mouth hanging open as he looked at Devin. The Keepers’ leader didn’t give him a chance to say anything more.
“The raids are worse,” he said, and the man closed his mouth, listening as the mage continued, “but a dedicated guard service won’t keep you safe. The size of the force that overran the Piermonts’ stud would take out your usual guard force in less than a half-turn.”
“A half... We’ll just hire double!” the man declared, and returned his attention to the head of the table.
Valerie shook her head.
“No, Monsieur Gaebler. As much as I’d like to say my people could handle any threat the raiders c
ould offer, I will not lie. The Vanguard could not have taken the force down without the help of Luka’s Road Guards or Devin’s Keepers.” She nodded toward where Master Envermet and a small contingent of shadow guards and protectors sat. “Or without the Ruins Deep Protectors and the shadow mages.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that what I saw was an organized fighting force that was much larger than I thought possible, and that I think what we saw was just a small portion of something much bigger.” This time Valerie nodded at Marsh. “Shadow Mage Leclerc will be searching for it once the Four Caverns are secured.”
The big man’s eyebrows lifted and he followed Valerie’s gaze, studying Marsh like she was a mule up for inspection. Marsh lifted her chin and cocked her head, making it clear she was studying him just as hard—and that she wasn’t impressed by what she saw.
Way to make friends and influence people, Roeglin murmured, and Marsh had a hard time holding Monsieur Gaebler’s gaze.
In the end, the big man shrugged and turned back to Valerie.
“What makes you think she’s fit for the job?” He glanced at Captain Envermet. “Or that she’d give us an honest report on what she found anyway?”
Marsh opened her mouth to respond, then caught the look on the shadow captain’s face, relaxing back on her heels and giving him a slight nod. She saw his mouth quirk and he stood. At first, it looked like he might leave, but he didn’t.
“Almost two months ago, Marchant Leclerc was nothing more than a courier.”
Marsh might have protested that, but Roeglin slipped his hand into hers and squeezed her fingers. The unexpectedness of it startled her to silence and Master Envermet continued.
“She would have been the sole survivor of the last caravan to attempt the journey from Kerrenin’s Ledge to Ruins Hall if she hadn’t rescued two children as she fled. The rest of the caravan could not be saved, although all that was found afterward were the carcasses of the mules they left behind. There was no trace of the men, women, or children with that caravan when the area was searched. The trade goods had been left intact and the mules slaughtered, but the people? It was like they’d vanished.”
Monsieur Gaebler shifted restlessly in his seat.
“And your point, shadow mage?”
From his tone, he didn’t hold mages in high regard, and his opinion was carried over to any mage he encountered.
“My point?” Master Envermet asked. “My point is that Marsh survived and kept two children alive for a week while she navigated her way through unfamiliar caverns to return to Ruins Hall, and on the way, she rescued the last remaining family in Leon’s Deep and brought them to safety. My point is twofold. The first is that if anyone can find the source of the raiders and get our people back, it is her. The second is that the raiders are part of something much bigger, and the Four Caverns need to work together if they are going to survive it.”
“And how does establishing what amounts to four private militias do that?” Gaebler challenged.
“Each cavern supports their Protectors or Defenders, as the case may be,” Captain Envermet replied. “They make sure they are housed and fed and equipped, and in return,” he continued, raising his hand to quell the murmurs of protest that rippled around the table. “In return, those Protectors and their allies secure the caverns by sealing any exits or entrances bar the most essential, then work together to put down every raider incursion they find, refusing to give the raiders a foothold.”
Monsieur Gaebler snorted, making his opinion of that idea plain for all to hear.
Unperturbed, Captain Envermet continued.
“Ruins Hall has not had an attack in all the time we have been gone. Prior to that, we were losing people every week, with the outermost steadings and claims being cleared first, and without our knowledge.”
His expression turned bleak.
“The Deeps know what happened to those people or if any of them are still alive, but we are sworn to stop any more from being taken.”
“Right down to giving your lives, I suppose.” The merchant was scornful.
“We’d hardly be an effective fighting force if we weren’t prepared to do that, now would we?”
Before Monsieur Gaebler could respond to that, another of the important-looking visitors rose to his feet, demanding an answer.
“And who exactly is supposed to pay for all this defense?”
From his tone, Marsh figured he had a fair idea and didn’t agree. Master Envermet looked at Valerie and Luka, and both leaders signaled for him to continue.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know your name?”
The man was shocked.
“My name? My name, shadow mage, is Eamon Freign, and I am the first heir to the Open Skies Consortium.”
Open Skies? Marsh tried to process how that made any sense when the man’s entire operation had to be based beneath the ground. Open Skies? She snorted but turned the sound into a hurried sneeze, ignoring the brief glances turned her way.
You sure you don’t need to go to bed? Roeglin asked. Because that could be arranged.
You and whose... Marsh began and Roeglin laughed, but not where anyone else could hear it.
I only have to tell you to sleep, he said, and Marsh felt a brief urge to do just that.
You wouldn’t!
Don’t tempt me.
Marsh might have argued further, but Master Envermet was speaking and she wanted to listen. Pretending she wasn’t worried by Roeglin’s threat, she paid attention.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Monsieur Freign. To answer your question, the original plan is for the governing body of each cavern to cover the costs of their Protectors. Once the Caverns have been secured, each force is expected to generate its own revenue from monies earned for protecting the trade routes and operating the waystations.”
“Really?” the man wasn’t impressed. “And I suppose the current operators of the waystations all think this is a capital idea?”
Again his voice suggested he thought no such thing, and the look on his face when Master Envermet answered was priceless.
“We wouldn’t know. Every waystation we’ve encountered except for Downslopes has been completely abandoned.” The shadow captain appeared not to notice the man’s reaction but continued, changing the subject. “Would you mind telling me what brought you here tonight?”
That got Eamon’s attention, and he scowled.
“I...we,” he corrected himself, indicating the other unidentified guests seated at the table, “heard the Vanguard had returned and wanted to protest their theft of our personnel.”
As if his words were a signal, Valerie cut in.
“Our theft?” she demanded. “Your failure to retain your people is not our concern. To the best of...”
Hugh cleared his throat and hurried around the counter that served as the bar when the common room wasn’t being used as a meeting hall.
“Excuse me, Commander. I haven’t briefed you on the new recruits that came in today.”
Valerie closed her mouth, her lips forming a thin straight line. She looked at the ceiling as though seeking either patience or solace. When she returned her gaze to Hugh, her voice was hard.
“We have new recruits?”
Marsh saw Hugh’s throat move as he swallowed.
“Yes, ma’am. I believe eight of them resigned from Monsieur Freign’s house this morning, and another five came from the Desmarais looms. All of them wanted a more active part in serving the cavern’s needs, and were adamant that their skills were better suited to doing that than their current occupations.”
“And are they?”
“Are they what, Ma’am?”
“Better suited.”
“There are several with experience as caravan guards who were forced to take up alternate employ when the caravans stopped coming, and two who had previous experience in the Battle of Chaumont. I was going to tell you once the meeting was done.”
“Thank y
ou, Hugh,” Valerie replied, and turned back to the table.
She caught the gaze of the two families, then looked at Monsieur Freign.
“We’ll be accepting their service,” she told him, forestalling his protest by half-raising a hand. “Your mills won’t run if all your workers disappear.”
“But...” Eamon began as the last leader to keep his silence stood.
“Luka?” he asked, making it plain that Valerie’s word wasn’t going to be enough.
Luka got to his feet.
“My co-commander’s decision stands,” he said. “We need men with that kind of experience if we are to keep you in trade.”
Silence reigned as both men stared in disbelief and Luka added.
“Or would you rather we left you on your own as we evacuate the rest of the cavern?”
The response was instantaneous.
“You wouldn’t...”
Valerie and Luka exchanged looks and turned back to the four leaders.
“We would.”
“I have some room.”
All eyes turned to Alois, who had been sitting quietly at the end of the table. The four leaders studied him as though they’d never seen him before...which turned out to be the case.
“And you are?” Eamon Freign asked as if Alois had no right to be at the table.
“Allied to the Defenders of Dimanche,” Alois told him, “and I will close the route to the surface after they’ve left in order to protect the tunnels.”
He nodded to Devin.
“With the Keepers’ permission, of course.”
Devin took the cue.
“Without allies to help us protect the cavern, we’ll evacuate too, and close the route to Ariella’s where we’ll take refuge...if it still stands,” he said.
Together those prepared to lead the cavern’s defense faced the leaders of the four families. As they did so, Master Envermet quietly resumed his seat and Marsh, Roeglin, and Gustav withdrew to lean against the meeting room wall. The silence that followed Devin’s declaration lasted for a very long minute, then Monsieur Laberge broke it.
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