“Thank you,” she told it. “Be at peace.”
The area beyond the door remained clear, and she stepped cautiously outside. Early morning light bathed the landscape in muted tones, as though the sun struggled to rise beyond the clouds.
Dan? Marsh called, trying to find her link to the kat. Dan, are you there?
The big kat shook herself and crawled out from the middle of a thick clump of bushes. Marsh got the impression of dust and blood and worry for the cubs. She held her breath and almost collapsed with relief when Scruffknuckle leapt out of another cluster of bushes and bounced off the kat’s side.
She chuckled when Perdemor followed the pup’s assault by landing on his mother’s back. Mordan growled, and Marsh got the impression the kat was disgusted by the youngsters’ jubilant display.
“Well, I’m glad someone finds it funny,” Henri grumbled.
He’d emerged from the ruin to stand beside her, and then gently moved her aside as the settlers followed him out. “You’re in the way again,” he told her, “and we need to get back on the road.”
Marsh pulled away from him and set her hand on her hip. “What? You think there’ll be more?”
He looked down at her and arched an eyebrow. Curling his lip, he replied, “Why? You saying you didn’t miss anyone?”
Marsh’s jaw dropped, but before she could say anything, Tamlin emerged.
“She might have missed a few,” the boy answered smugly, “but I didn’t.”
He didn’t stop but walked past her to join the shadow guards lined up on the outer edges of the reforming caravan. Henri clapped her on the shoulder and crossed to join him, chuckling as he went.
Brigitte giggled, walking by her, holding Aisha’s hand. “Got to admit, Marsh, he got you that time.”
Marsh sighed and was about to follow when Master Envermet emerged. The shadow captain was supported by Izmay and Evan. His face was pale and gaunt, and dark shadows lay beneath his eyes.
“He still needs to practice his control,” he commented, “but he’s getting there.”
For a minute, Marsh stared at him. “You helped him?”
Master Envermet shrugged and kept moving. “I needed you to focus. That horde was a lot bigger than the twenty or thirty the scouts thought they saw coming in.”
Looking at the bodies strewn about them, Marsh saw that he was right. A dozen corpses lay just between their shelter and the road, and she could see the remains of dozens more scattered through the rubble around them.
“Where did they all come from?”
“You saw the bugs?” Marsh nodded, following him back to the lines. Master Envermet continued, “My guess is that they sent them in one final coordinated attack.”
Marsh gulped. “Well, let’s hope it was the final one. These folks could do with a break.”
“So could we,” Master Envermet replied as they returned to the caravan proper.
Dera was waiting. She took one look at the shadow master and signaled for one of the mules to be brought.
“You’re riding,” she snapped when he tried to protest. “I’m not explaining to the Monastery why you collapsed on the way to the Grotto.”
He looked like he was going to argue, but Henri came alongside. “You need help getting into the saddle, sir?”
From the way he said it, the kind of help he was offering involved throwing Master Envermet over the saddle and tying him to the mule’s back. Marsh had heard that tone before.
Apparently, Master Envermet recalled it too because he gave the ex-caravan guard a sour look and hauled himself into the saddle.
“I can manage very well without assistance, thank you, Henri,” he said.
Henri smirked. “Just tryin’ to help, sir.”
Master Envermet fixed him with a dubious look. “I’m sure.”
Dera nodded once to Henri and finished walking the length of the caravan. She paused when she came to Marsh.
Marsh tensed, waiting as the caravan master looked her up and down.
Finally, Dera spoke. “You’ll do,” she said, and Marsh relaxed.
She relaxed even more when Tamlin, Brigitte, and Aisha came to walk beside her.
“Not far now,” she reassured them, and Tamlin rolled his eyes.
21
Hyena Havoc
It was late afternoon by the time the low tower and walls of Ariella’s Reach came into view.
“Whoa! That didn’t take them long!” Tamlin was impressed, but Aisha just shrugged.
“Couple of days with rock mages,” she said nonchalantly.
Tamlin scowled and Aisha put a hand on her hip and twitched an eyebrow, daring him to say any more.
“It’s still impressive,” Marsh interrupted before a fight could break out, and Brigitte nodded.
Looking from one to the other of them, Aisha pouted. “Coupla days,” she muttered sulkily.
“Troublemaker,” Henri broke in, coming alongside them and gently prodding the girl’s shoulder.
“Am not,” Aisha argued, but she smiled as she said it.
Henri smiled back. “Are so, too.”
Whatever Aisha was about to say was lost in a weird rattling cackle that echoed through the ruins around them. The mules laid back their ears and snorted nervously, and the Grotto’s guards drew their weapons, moving a little farther out from the caravan.
Dera’s order rang down the line. “Look sharp and keep them moving!”
Master Envermet lifted his head and straightened in the saddle. Before Dera could notice, he slid out of the saddle, landing beside the mule while it was still moving and looping the reins over the one next to it.
“Keep moving,” he told the woman riding it. “Follow Dera’s instructions.”
“The caravan master,” he added, pointing, when she looked puzzled.
The spine-chilling cackle came again.
“What is that?” Marsh asked, and one of the Grotto warriors answered.
“Hyenas. There’s a pack that’s been terrorizing the area since before we arrived.”
“We must have missed them on the way out.”
“Or there were too many of you,” the warrior replied, then eyed their weapons, “or you were too well-armed. These monsters aren’t stupid.”
“What are hyenas?” Aisha wanted to know.
The warrior frowned and looked at Master Envermet. “Can’t you just find the image in my head and share it with her?”
Master Envermet shook his head. “I need to stay alert,” he replied. “Why don’t you try describing it?”
The warrior sighed. “Well,” he began, “it’s about the size of that big kat you were riding, but its head is more like your dog’s.”
Aisha regarded him with wide eyes. If Marsh hadn’t been looking at her, she’d have missed the momentary flash of white.
“And they smell bad?” the little girl asked. “Worse even than a mule?”
The warrior closed his mouth with an audible snap and cast Marsh a worried look. “You never said she knew how to read minds!”
Marsh scowled. “She’s not supposed to read them without asking first. It’s rude!”
Aisha blew a raspberry and wrinkled her nose. “Sorry and thank you,” she said, addressing the warrior—and it was as clear as day that she didn’t mean either.
“Aysh!” Tamlin wasn’t impressed.
Neither was Marsh. She turned to the warrior. “I’m sorry.”
The man shrugged. “Kids, right?”
Marsh nodded. “Like cubs.”
It was Aisha’s turn to be unimpressed. “Ruuude!”
She opened her mouth to continue, but the hyena’s unnerving hunting cry came again. It was followed by distant shouts of alarm, and several of the guards looked at Dera.
“Go!” she commanded, and six of them broke into a jog and ran past the rest of the caravan. Dera looked at Marsh and Master Envermet. “Can you spare two more for assistance?” she asked.
Master Envermet nodded. “Henri, I
zmay, you’re up.”
The two guards hurried after the Grotto warriors, and Marsh noticed that Izmay was no longer wearing the gauze strip over her eyes. It made her remember the overhanging clouds, and she looked up. They seemed to be lower.
The air was cooler too, and the afternoon darker than any afternoon had a right to be. A slight breeze had sprung up. Its touch chilled her skin and sent a shiver down her spine.
It also carried the outraged shouts and the clash of weapons as the warriors attacked the pack. Other voices rose above them, urging people to run. One such cry was cut short, and another yelled for help.
Henri’s roar was unmistakable, even if Marsh had no idea what a “Deeps-becursed spawn of the three-headed shadow” might be.
She was relieved to hear Mordan’s deep-throated roar join the fray.
The pack assists, the kat told her and was gone.
Marsh wondered if the cubs assisted too but guessed that was the case. She cast a worried glance at Master Envermet, but he seemed to be ignoring the fracas ahead. Instead, he was surveying the tumbled piles and scrawny clumps of bushes around them.
“Heads up!” he suddenly shouted, making her jump. “Incoming, right!”
His warning came seconds before five large hunch-backed beasts burst out of the shrubbery. The lead beasts lunged for the nearest mule, and one of the beasts following them leapt at one of the guards.
Its attack might have been successful if the guard hadn’t been warned. As it was, he ducked, pivoted, and came around to face the creature, sword at the ready. It snarled and feinted, its jaws snapping as it tried to attack him around the blade.
The mule reared and snorted, avoiding its attacker’s first bite. It laid its ears back, slamming its forehooves into the hard-packed earth beside the beast trying to eat it.
“Bad puppy!” That cry came in all too familiar tones, and Marsh was just in time to see Aisha duck under Master Envermet’s hand and avoid Tamlin’s grab. The child swerved around her, running straight for the hyenas.
At least, that’s what Marsh assumed they were. The creatures were as big as Dan and did indeed look more like Scruffknuckle than the kat. They confirmed it when the hindmost beast lifted its head and gave the sharp cackling cry they’d heard before.
That did not deter Aisha. She ran for the hyenas attacking the mule, sliding past one of the travelers as they tried to grab her. Ducking under his hand, she interposed herself between the lead hyena and the mule.
“No!” she shouted as if she were scolding Scruffknuckle rather than a monster that outmassed her by a factor of ten to one.
The hyena changed targets, its huge jaws snapping closed around the girl’s wrist. Marsh pulled a dart from the air, expecting a shriek of pain. What she did not expect was a yelp of pain and the crunch of teeth against stone.
“Bad puppy!” Aisha yelled and slapped the hyena’s head with her other hand—her stone-encased hand.
The hyena let go.
“Bad, bad, puppy!” Aisha shouted, still holding out one hand while making an upward motion with the other.
Marsh threw the dart at another of the creatures as it tried to take advantage of the child’s distraction and come at her from the side. Tamlin rolled his palm over, fingers folded inward. Flicking them up and open, he grumbled, “Daughter of the Deeps’ dark and dirty behind.”
Aisha’s shriek of protest came out muffled as she swung to face her brother. As soon as she raised her fist and started pounding on an invisible wall, Marsh knew why. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned her attention to the hyenas.
The lead beast hadn’t moved. Aisha had encased its feet and legs in stone, and it now snapped at anything nearby. The mule Aisha had been protecting stood behind the girl, snorting and tossing its head.
Marsh noticed that as defiant as it was, it didn’t move out from behind the child to take advantage of the hyena’s distress. She moved closer as the Grotto’s guards advanced, preparing to drive the rest of the pack away.
Master Envermet came to stand beside her, a barely visible air blade shimmering in his grasp.
“No!” Aisha shrieked, and the shadow captain glanced down at her.
“Why not?”
“I want to talk to her.”
Her? Marsh thought and took a closer look at the hyena. “But we’re killing her pack,” she protested.
“Then she will be all by herself,” the child replied, and moved to the side of the bubble encasing her that was closest to the hyena.
The monster focused on her with a snarl that raised the hair on the back of Marsh’s neck. Aisha’s eyes went wide and she took an involuntary step back, her lips parting with shock.
The girl scowled at the creature. Her eyes narrowed and she closed her mouth, pressing her lips together in a firm line of disapproval. It was so similar to Master Envermet’s expression that Marsh almost laughed.
Except the child had fixed the hyena with a stern glare, and her eyes had flared green. At first, the hyena’s stance did not change, and it refused to meet Aisha’s gaze.
The girl stamped her foot and slapped the bubble in front of its nose. It lunged toward her hand, and Marsh had to grab Master Envermet’s arm to stop him from retaliating. When its jaws met solid air, the hyena paused.
Turning its head toward the child, it met her eyes, its amber gaze flaring briefly gold as it agreed to speak. Seconds later, Aisha threw herself away from it, tripping over her own feet and landing heavily on her backside.
She scrambled backward, standing up as the shock died from her face.
Marsh did not expect the sharp upward jerk of her hand or the stone spike that ended the hyena’s life. As the stone subsided back into the ground and the hyena’s body hit the dirt, she and Master Envermet turned to look at the child.
“Bad puppy,” the child whispered, tears streaming down her face as she looked at the hyena.
As if sensing the attention she’d drawn, she looked up and stepped toward Marsh, her hands raised in silent appeal. Behind her, Tamlin gave an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes.
Marsh ignored him but shot a quick glance outward to make sure there were no more hyenas.
The warriors who’d gone to meet them were pulling back to the settlers, and Dera was already shouting for them to get moving.
“We haven’t got all day,” she cried. “Let’s not keep them waiting.”
Master Envermet’s eyes flared briefly white. “They close the gates at dusk.”
“Earlier if they feel the need,” one of the nearby Grotto warriors replied.
“Given how many warriors have gone to their aid, let’s hope they don’t feel the need,” Master Envermet snapped back.
The warrior smirked. “We’ll see. The remnant have been hitting us hard over the last few weeks.”
Master Envermet gave him a grim smile in return and replied, “Well, there aren’t that many of them left now.”
“The Reach isn’t to know what we’ve done,” the soldier answered, “and caution is the watchword here.”
Master Envermet grunted by way of reply and turned to Aisha, who had wriggled out of Marsh’s arms and was walking beside him.
“Don’t ever do that, again,” he told her sternly, and she stuck out her bottom lip and scowled.
“I mean it, apprentice.”
The scowl got deeper, and Master Envermet frowned in return. Watching the pair, Marsh wondered what the shadow captain was going to say next. When he didn’t speak, she glanced quickly at his face to see if he was speaking mind to mind with the child.
To her surprise, his eyes remained a clear sapphire blue—and still he didn’t say a word.
After several steps, Aisha spoke. “It was a bad puppy,” she insisted, her voice full of rebellion.
“Uh-huh,” Master Envermet replied, “and how do you know?”
“It was gonna eat us.”
Master Envermet’s eyebrows shot up in exaggerated surprise. “What, all of us?”
<
br /> Aisha nodded, her eyes big and round. “All of us. Its pack was hungry, and the wild humans don’t taste as good.”
Well, at least we know the remnant had other enemies as well, Marsh thought. Instantly, her mind was filled with feelings of disgust and revulsion as Mordan showed her exactly what she thought of the hyenas’ choice of diet.
Not even the wolves eat those, Aisha informed her.
I thought you weren’t supposed to be peeking? Marsh grumbled.
Master Envermet laughed. “It’s good to know some things don’t change.”
“We’re almost there,” the Grotto warrior interrupted. He’d walked with them since the end of the battle. Marsh got the impression it wasn’t for the company, but more to keep at least one of them out of trouble.
Well, you didn’t do such a good job of that, Master Envermet put in.
Merci beaucoup, Marsh snipped back. “No, I mean it. Thanks for that. Thanks a lot.”
22
Curiosity
They reached the fortress just as the sun was setting. The last light of day bathed its walls in red and orange, lending them an unearthly hue. On seeing it, one of the ex-guards gasped.
Marsh turned at the sound and was just in time to see him skitter backward.
“Xavier?”
The man ignored her, staring at the walls with horror written across his face.
“Xavier!” The word cracked out like a blow, and the man started.
One of the settlers wrapped her arm around his shoulders and shook him. “What is it, Zave?”
His mouth gaped like a stunned fish, and she shook him again. He closed his mouth and swallowed hard, his eyes never leaving the sunset-limned walls. Marsh and Captain Envermet dropped back to walk beside him.
“What is it?” Master Envermet asked as Xavier stumbled forward.
“It reminds me of the light from Below,” he whispered, his eyes darting furtively to the faces of those around him. “The light would come, and then they...”
Trading By Stormlight (The Magic Below Paris Book 7) Page 18