He dumped a second load of wood beside it. “That should last you the night. The mules have been looked after.”
“Thanks, Henri. You didn’t have to.” Marsh caught Roeglin’s alarmed look and hasty signal to stop, but it was too late.
Henri’s face took on a sly expression. “So, is it worth another meal?”
Marsh sighed, and Master Envermet stepped in. “For doing as I ordered?” he demanded, and Henri ducked his head. “I thought not.”
Marsh mouthed an apology as Henri left, careful not to let Master Envermet see her. The big man shrugged and gave her a grin. “It was worth a shot.”
“I’ll shoot you if you keep it up,” Roeglin muttered, and Henri favored him with a scowl.
“I’d like to see you try.”
Roeglin opened his mouth to respond, and Marsh kicked him in the ankle.
“Ow!”
“We have to go find Tams,” she told him, and Aisha bounced on the spot, the cookie blurring her insistence on going with them.
Brigitte put a stop to that by wrapping her arms around the little girl’s shoulders. “You need to help Master Envermet and me with the food.”
Marsh shot a hasty glance toward the shadow captain, but if he was surprised to receive an order to help with dinner, he didn’t show it. Instead, he unslung his pack, and Izmay surprised them by stepping out of the shadows.
“You don’t need to cater for us. We’re already eating.” She turned to Master Envermet. “We’ll set watches over by the mules, but you’ll need something here. We thought you’d like the privacy.”
That last was said with a glance that took all of them in, and then the shadow guard looked at Aisha. “You and your brother gave us all a nasty fright.”
Aisha’s eyes went very round. “I’m sorry.”
Izmay gave her a smile. “Don’t do it again.”
The little girl nodded. “’Kay.”
“You promise?” Izmay persisted, and Aisha regarded her for a long moment before giving her a solemn nod.
“Promise.”
Marsh caught a small movement and noticed the child had crossed her fingers just out of Izmay’s sight. She decided not to enlighten the shadow guard, or at least not yet. Izmay seemed fierce enough.
The shadow guard smiled. “Good. There will be trouble if you do.”
Aisha looked momentarily worried, then gave the guard a sunny smile. “’Kay.”
“Good.” Izmay straightened, smiled at them, and left, her “Have a good night,” drifting back to them in the twilight.
“Where is that boy?” Master Envermet wondered, looking back toward the town.
“He ‘kay?” Aisha asked, and there was a tremble to her voice.
Marsh crouched in front of her. “What’s the matter, Aysh? He said he’d be careful.”
“Yes...” Aisha’s bottom lip quivered, and her azure eyes filled with tears. “But there was a bad man.”
Marsh cast a worried glance at Roeglin and Master Envermet before pulling Aisha into her arms. “A bad man?” she asked.
“This one.” The child nudged her mind, and Marsh opened the connection between them. A familiar hatchet-thin face appeared before her, its eyes gleaming amber.
“Salazar!”
5
Waiting for Tamlin
At the mention of Salazar’s name, Roeglin pivoted hastily to scan the surrounding area. “Where?”
“They saw him heading into the town,” Marsh explained, ignoring Aisha’s wide-eyed stare as she revealed just how much she’d seen beyond the child’s intended information. “Tamlin went ahead to make sure it was safe for them to go through and maybe pick up more supplies. They were running low.”
“So rude!” Aisha hissed, slapping her on the shoulder.
Marsh swung around and glared at her, pressing her forehead to Aisha’s. “Not rude!” she argued. “Rude is running on ahead instead of waiting. Rude is scaring the crap out of the people who love you, and rude is leaving without taking enough Deeps-be-damned food for the journey.”
Roeglin laid his hand on her shoulder. “Marsh, she’s five.”
“Six,” Marsh snapped back, then laughed to hear herself in chorus with a tiny defiant voice.
“Six,” Master Envermet agreed.
“Birthday?” Aisha asked, her face lighting up with hope.
“When we get back,” Brigitte promised her, and Aisha grew serious.
“With Gustav.”
“Yes,” Brigitte reassured her. “Now, did Tamlin say when he’d be back?”
“Maybe tonight?” Aisha guessed. “He hides in the dark to be safe.”
Her small voice settled to calm as she said that, as if she’d only just realized just how safe her brother would be now that it was nighttime.
“He can shadow-step?” Marsh didn’t try to hide her surprise.
“He watched you,” Aisha told her as if she should have already known it.
“Oh, I see,” Marsh admitted. “Well, then, we should wait.”
Her mind drifted to Salazar, and she remembered the response he’d gotten from the wolves at her cousin’s waystation. “I’m going to kill him,” she growled.
Aisha twisted in her arms, looking alarmed. “Not Tams!”
The horror in her voice made Marsh laugh. “No,” she agreed. “Not Tams. The bad man.”
“Oh, good.” Aisha relaxed. “I will help.”
Roeglin shook his head. “No, that one Marsh wants to do all by herself.”
That statement drew growls of protest from both Scruffknuckle and Mordan. Marsh rolled her eyes. “Fine, you two can help.”
“Oh, no fair!” Aisha exclaimed. “I am big enough!”
“No,” Master Envermet surprised them by saying. “No one’s ever big enough for that.”
“Marsh is.”
“Marsh isn’t big enough, either.”
Marsh wanted to argue that she Deeps-be-damned was big enough to kill those who posed a threat to her people, but she knew what the shadow captain was getting at. Killing left a scar...and, even if it was thoroughly deserved, the wound it covered cut deep.
She shrugged. “Sometimes...” She caught the look on Master Envermet’s face and let the comment fade. Aisha didn’t need to know about such things, yet.
Before she could think of anything else to say, Mordan rose to her feet, snuffed the air, and let out a chirruping mew. Marsh held her breath, searching the gathering dark for any sign that Tams might be returning.
Mordan stood statue-still and then made the call again. Master Envermet, Brigitte, and Roeglin searched the dark, but none of them caught sight of Tamlin. Brigitte stirred the ashes, adding leaves and grass until the coals still burning in its center set them alight.
Marsh was glad Scruffknuckle had kept his excited bouncing to the campfire’s edges. She couldn’t imagine trying to keep him still on the back of a mule while his paws healed...or rather, she could imagine it, and the picture wasn’t pretty.
Mordan called again, and a cautious chirp answered her. Master Envermet took his hand away from the hilt of his sword, and Roeglin sent his shadow blade back to the dark. Perdemor padded cautiously out of the night.
He slunk over to the entry, sniffing cautiously until he was a hundred percent sure of the scent, and then darted past the two mages to greet his mother. Mordan’s welcoming purr rumbled out over the campsite and she sank onto her belly, wrapping a paw over her wandering kit’s neck.
Pulling the squirming kit closer, she pinned him to the ground and gave him a thorough wash. He mewled in protest before going limp and letting her bathe him. The look on his face, though...
Marsh sputtered with laughter and had to look away. Roeglin had a sudden coughing fit. Even Master Envermet managed a chuckle.
“It’s good to see you again, Perdemor,” he told the young kat and received a glare for his trouble.
Perdemor’s tail twitched with annoyance, and he shot a look of pure rebellion at his mother. Wa
tching him, Marsh thought he looked bigger—much bigger than she’d expected him to be, even allowing for the natural progression of age.
Come to think of it... She let her gaze drift to Mordan, and realized the kat was also much larger than she’d been when they’d first met...and Mordan had been fully grown. What’s going on here?
Don’t you remember? Roeglin asked, and nudged the memory of the druid explaining familiars.
“They can be bigger and more intelligent than others of their kind.” The words echoed through Marsh’s head, and she studied Mordan with fresh eyes.
There was no doubting the kat was intelligent, but more intelligent? She thought back to her first meeting and realized that Mordan’s mental communication had become more complex—a bit like Aisha’s.
Marsh frowned. In fact, the pair of them had advanced in leaps and bounds. She wondered if it was connected. It would be the way the kat seemed to sass the humans riding with her.
She really is being sarcastic, she observed.
I’ll bear that in mind the next time she flicks her tail at me. Master Envermet sounded both amused and disgusted.
Mordan gave a series of chuffs and released her cub. She suddenly looked very pleased with herself.
“You’ll be laughing on the other side of your furry face if you can’t follow orders,” Master Envermet told the kat, “because now I know you can understand me.”
The kat gave Marsh a sour look then nuzzled Perdemor. Marsh rested her head on top of Aisha’s, glad to have her adopted daughter in her arms. The last few days had seemed an eternity.
As she held her, Marsh had another thought. “Did you say Gustav was in the town?”
The child’s sharp nod dislodged her chin and pointed. “That way. Yes.”
“And Tamlin went to get him?” Alarm colored Marsh’s tones.
Aisha shook her head, her small voice sad when she replied. “No. Tams had to see if the bad man was gone. We not go ‘til then.”
“Smart boy,” Master Envermet approved.
Aisha brightened. “He’s not in trouble?”
Master Envermet smiled as he shook his head. “Oh, no, you and he are still in a lot of trouble.”
“I made him come,” the child admitted. “He say wait.”
They all looked at her in surprise. “He did?”
Aisha’s face took on a stubborn cast, and she nodded. “He did. I sneaked out.”
“You did?” The look on Master Envermet’s face startled a laugh out of Marsh and he glared at her. “It’s not funny, Shadow Master!”
That only made Marsh laugh even more, but no one else joined her. It took her a moment to get herself under control. “Sorry, Captain, but your face.”
He gave her a sour look that matched Mordan’s and Marsh sobered. Seeing she was back under control, he turned and glared at Aisha. “You, young lady—
“Apprentice,” Aisha corrected, and his eyes widened before narrowing again.
“Apprentice...are in a lot of trouble.”
“But no Tams,” Aisha insisted.
“He should have brought you back.”
“He tried. I made him come.” An element of smugness crept into her voice. “He not let me go by myself.”
“I...” Master Envermet sighed. “No, I guess he wouldn’t.”
He stared at the child, and Marsh didn’t know if he was angry, relieved, or disgusted. He pointed a finger at Aisha. “Trouble!”
Aisha gave a happy wiggle. “Yup.”
“Now,” Master Envermet continued, “This bad man. When did he arrive?”
“This morning,” Aisha promptly replied. “We saw him.”
“And when did you arrive?”
“Night. The bad man camped that way.” She pointed at where the mules were stabled.
“Ah.”
Marsh had to agree with Master Envermet. It made her wonder how Salazar had missed them.
“We heard him come and put out fire,” Aisha told her and revealed that the connection between them was still active. Marsh wondered why she hadn’t noticed.
You need teaching, Master Envermet told her, and she was weirded out that he knew more mental magic than she did.
Roeglin woke the ability I already had, the shadow captain explained, and there were others along the way who helped me understand it.
Apart from those in Ariella’s Grotto, Marsh couldn’t work out who he might mean, and when she tried to see it inside his head, she found the door to that memory firmly closed. He gave her a quiet smile.
Another time, apprentice.
Aisha gave them each a curious look. Finally, she decided on Marsh. “You not apprentice?”
“I am as a mind mage,” Marsh told her.
“Oh.”
As the child settled in her lap, Marsh decided she’d try again. “Did you say Gustav was in the town?”
Aisha nodded. “Yes. All the people are in the town. Tams is sure.”
Oh, Tams was, was he? Marsh glanced at Master Envermet and Roeglin.
“We’ll discuss it with the rest of them in the morning,” Master Envermet told her, and then added, “if Tams gets back safely tonight.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Marsh asked, feeling Aisha tense in her lap.
“Then we go in and find him.” Master Envermet sounded very sure of that fact, and Aisha relaxed.
Across the fire, Brigitte smiled. Roeglin pulled a waterskin out of his pack and a small saucepan.
“Will these help?” he asked, holding them up, and Brigitte nodded.
“I don’t have the makings for a stew,” she said, “but I have some sweet chai mix.”
“Just as long as it isn’t ferb chai,” Marsh warned, and Brigitte’s teeth flashed white.
“I have that too, but not for tonight.”
Roeglin settled the pot at the edge of the fire, and Master Envermet brought more wood. Marsh noticed that he kept the flames low and that he brought large pieces that would burn low and produce coals.
Marsh yawned, the day slowly catching up and combining with the fire’s warmth to make her sleepy. Neither was enough, however, for her to be able to sleep until Tamlin returned. Just thinking of the boy in the town with Salazar was enough to give her the shivers.
And thinking of Salazar reminded her of Kearick. She might have last seen her old boss vanishing into the depths of a library beyond a raider’s portal, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have some way of contacting the man.
Salazar had always followed Kearick, and the two had worked in close partnership. Where Salazar went, Kearick had surely sanctioned.
Are you sure of that? Roeglin asked, and she jumped.
“No,” she admitted, “but it’s something I have to keep in mind.”
He settled beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“He’ll be back,” he said, and Marsh didn’t think he meant either Salazar or Kearick.
“I hope so.”
6
The Stalkers
Marsh lifted Aisha onto her shoulder. The little girl was a dead weight in her arms, but she still mumbled a soft protest, and Marsh sighed.
“I’m going to put her to bed,” she said, softly, as if that would make a difference to the outcome.
Roeglin smirked.
“Good luck with that,” Master Envermet told her, and she pulled a face.
On the other side of the fire, Mordan nudged her kit, and Perdemor woke with a sleepy mew. The mew woke Scruffknuckle, and the pup lifted his head. Catching sight of Marsh heading for the low opening under the bush with Aisha in her arms, he got slowly to his feet.
To Marsh’s surprise, the pup didn’t try to barge past her but followed her carefully to the child’s sleeping place. He nudged the blanket back so Marsh could slide the child inside, and then he dragged it back up over the little girl’s shoulders and flopped down on top of it.
Marsh stifled a laugh. The pup had just trapped Aisha in the blanket, and the look on his face said
he knew it. As she crouched there, Perdemor brushed past her and stretched out on Aisha’s other side.
Marsh smiled at them. “Thanks, guys,” she whispered. “You look after her, okay?”
They both settled their heads on the blankets beside their tiny charge and sighed, and Marsh backed slowly away. She was conscious of two sets of gleaming eyes watching her intently from the dark...and she was glad it wasn’t three.
Aisha didn’t stir.
“She out?” Roeglin wanted to know when Marsh returned.
“She is, and Perdemor and Scruffknuckle are sleeping guard.”
“They are?”
“They’ve pinned her under her blankets. She’ll be furious if she wakes up and finds out.”
Roeglin chuckled. “Good.”
Brigitte smiled, too, then her expression grew serious. “Tell me you’re not going after him tonight.”
Marsh glanced at the sky. The sun was gone, and the darkness had replaced the soft gray light of evening. The stars were out in full force, but the moon was yet to be seen. “We could...”
Master Envermet’s response was immediate. “No. We wait.”
Marsh looked at Roeglin. “But he could...”
Roeglin’s face was sympathetic. “Let’s give it a bit more time.”
Marsh stood up and turned toward the entrance, almost bumping into Henri as he walked through the gap.
“Take one more step and I’ll sit on you,” he told her, blocking her path.
He looked at Master Envermet. “I’m on first watch if you need me. The rest are turning in. Call us if you need us.”
He paused. “Latrines are to the left of the stables, near the mullock heap.”
“Thank you, Henri,” Master Envermet replied. “Much appreciated.”
Henri looked back at Marsh. “Don’t you have a fire to sit beside?”
Marsh glared at him, but he stared back, unfazed.
“Fine,” she said with a sigh and turned away. After a couple of steps, she turned back, only to find Henri hadn’t moved and that Izmay had joined him.
“I will sit on you to keep you here,” he told her.
“And I’ll help him,” Izmay added, quirking an eyebrow.
Trading Into Daylight (The Magic Below Paris Book 6) Page 4