12
Hot Pursuit
Marsh fell asleep and woke in her sleeping roll on the ground. She was stretched out beside Roeglin, who was breathing quietly beside her.
They were in another ruin, but not the campsite Master Envermet had said they were returning to. Marsh studied the straight walls, knowing they were ancient even though they were overgrown with creepers and chunks of them were missing. Across the chamber from her, the mules snorted, shifting restlessly in the dark.
She sat up and looked around. The dull glow of a fire threw orange flickers against one wall, and the shadows of those gathered at its edges rippled and shuddered like fleshless giants in silhouette. Marsh shivered, her body aching.
One of the figures stood up and crossed quickly to where she sat.
“Ssshhh,” he told her. “It’s not time for you to wake.”
Marsh blinked at him. “Jakob? Where’s Master Envermet?”
“He’ll be back soon. He took Brigitte and Tamlin with him. Aisha is upset, but we needed her to stay here with you.”
Judging from the way he said it, the little wretch was in earshot and listening to every word. Marsh indicated Roeglin. “How is he?”
Jakob got the hint. “Aisha got him through the worst. Like you, he just needs to rest.”
“How is she?”
Jakob’s mouth twisted. “She’s her usual grouchy self.”
“Not grouchy,” the child argued, sounding exactly that.
“Yes, grouchy.” Master Envermet had returned, but they hadn’t heard him arrive. Aisha shot the man a dark look.
“Needs bells,” she muttered, her little voice full of rebellion.
Master Envermet’s eyebrows rose, and he looked at Marsh. “That is your responsibility,” he told her, and Marsh noted how Jakob kept his head turned away to hid the smirk on his face.
Master Envermet noticed anyway. “It is no laughing matter,” he added, and Jakob snickered.
Marsh shook her head and regretted it. Pain lanced through her skull, and she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, Master Envermet had pursed his lips. “You overdid it,” he told her, “and you need to sleep.”
Marsh was about to say she needed to do something else when he indicated a corner of the cave. “Latrines are that way.”
His hand moved to point to another corner, “And there is a pool for bathing over there. It is downstream from the spring.”
There was a spring?
“There is a spring,” Master Envermet confirmed, “but it flows down from another level, so we collect our drinking water from above the pool.”
Henri arrived carrying a bowl of soup and a shroom roll. “I shouldn’t be making you dinner,” he told her, “but it was my turn.”
“Merci,” Marsh replied, taking the food and setting it carefully on a rock. “I will be back for it.”
She did not explain where she was going and he sighed, looking down at Roeglin. “I don’t suppose I should wake him?”
“Not yet.” Master Envermet’s tone was firm. “He needs to sleep.”
Henri stared at him, stung by the vehemence in his tone. “What did he do?”
“Almost got himself killed by a...” Master Envermet paused, obviously struggling for words, “mind bug.”
“Mind bug?”
Roeglin groaned and Master Envermet glared. “Quiet, Henri.”
“Sir, yessir,” Henri muttered and stomped back to the fire.
“Ask a man a question,” he grumbled as he went.
Izmay punched him in the shoulder and handed him another shroom roll. “He’s worried.”
Henri cast a dark look at the corner, where Master Envermet had settled himself on a rock beside the sleeping mage. His look lightened, and he frowned. “So I see.”
He handed the roll back to Izmay. “Has he eaten yet?”
Tamlin stepped out of the shadows beside him. “No, and neither have I.” He looked at the fire and sniffed plaintively. “Is there enough for me?”
Henri regarded the boy with a mixture of consternation, outrage, and amusement. “Sit your Deeps-forsaken ass down and we’ll feed you...and tell that shadow mistress to get her ass over here, too.”
Tamlin drew himself to his full height and answered with as much dignity as he could muster. “She will be here soon. She has to check on Aisha.”
“Does not,” the child snapped, arriving beside Brigitte.
“Does too,” Henri retorted. “You need to eat.”
“Do n—” Aisha stopped. “Do so too,” she finished, and Henri grinned.
“Gotcha,” he said.
Aisha stamped her foot. “Did not.”
Henri snickered and took the bowl from her hand. “Lots or a little bit?”
“Lots!” she told him, bouncing on the spot, and he dribbled a tiny amount into the bottom of the bowl.
She looked at it and scowled. “That’s not lots...”
Henri peered into the bowl. “What do you mean? That’s plenty for a tiny person like you.”
Aisha’s scowl got darker. “I’m not tiny. I’m big.” She pointed to the bowl. “More.”
Brigitte cleared her throat and nudged the child.
Aisha sighed. “S’il play.”
The way she said it was less “please” and more of an order, but Henri smiled at her anyway. “Fine.” He added a large spoonful to her bowl, and then a tiny bit more. “Because you asked so nicely.”
He passed her the bowl, and Aisha beamed. “Merci.”
Brigitte handed Henri her own bowl and then ushered Aisha to a seat by the fire. Henri followed her with her bowl and two rolls, then turned to fill two more.
“Merci,” Tamlin told him when Henri handed them over, and he carried them to where Master Envermet was sitting.
The shadow captain accepted his with gratitude and the boy sat opposite him.
“How’s your wrist?” Master Envermet asked as Marsh arrived.
“Aisha healed it this morning,” Tamlin told him and indicated the bowl and the roll. “That’s yours.”
“And you’re eating it in bed,” Master Envermet added when she stooped to pick it up.
Marsh was too tired to argue. She just nodded, ignoring the exchange of raised eyebrows when she sat on top of her bedroll and lifted her first spoonful.
“You okay?” Tamlin managed after watching her eat the first few mouthfuls.
Marsh nodded. “Just tired.”
She proved the point by finishing her bowl and settling into a dreamless slumber moments later. When she woke a second time, Roeglin was no longer beside her, and the fire no longer burned. She rolled her bedding and stowed it in her pack.
When she was almost finished, Roeglin returned. He handed her a breakfast roll, which she ate as she checked the campsite. Master Envermet dropped by.
“We ride when you’re ready,” he told her. “Make sure you’re prepared for a long day’s ride.”
Marsh nodded and set about finalizing her preparations. It didn’t take long, and she took her place beside the shadow captain as they led their mules toward a thick screen of vines. When they arrived, Aisha nudged her mule forward and stretched a hand toward the vine, her eyes glowing a brilliant green.
The vegetation lifted, coiling out of their way so they could ride beneath it and down a narrow passage to the cavern entrance.
“The Deeps know why so much of this is still standing,” Roeglin told her, “but we’re grateful.”
“I thought we were going to circle back to the old campsite,” Marsh replied.
Master Envermet answered, “I decided against it. We’d have had to swing too wide to avoid being seen from the town. It was easier to stick to the trail and find somewhere along the way.”
“And how did you find this?” Marsh wanted to know, thinking of the concealed inner cavern and the long corridor to reach it.
“Little bird,” Aisha piped succinctly.
“Quite literally,” Master Envermet add
ed by way of explanation, and Marsh supposed that explained it all.
She rode a little farther before wondering, “How far behind are we?”
“A day,” Master Envermet replied, and panic sent nausea rolling through her. He ignored it. “We’d have been no use to anyone, the state we were in.”
And by “we,” Marsh understood he meant her and Roeglin.
“And Tamlin and Aisha,” the shadow captain added, pulling the thought from her mind.
He let her see the injuries the four of them had sustained, and Marsh shuddered. The captain was right. They’d have been no good to anyone, and a liability to the team. Fortunately, he also let her see that the rest of the team had needed to rest also.
They might not have been as badly injured, but they’d been fatigued and below their best. Master Envermet wanted everyone at the top of their game when he took the raiders on. She was only glad there’d only been nine raiders and no more. The fight had been close enough as it was.
Relief smoothed some of the nausea away, and then the next thought hit.
“Did we get them all?”
Tension flowed over the light link Master Envermet had established. “What do you mean?”
“I mean...” Marsh wracked her brains, trying to work out where the rogue thought had come from. It came as they picked their way along a narrow section of trail. “Deeps be damned.”
“Do tell.”
Marsh ignored the impatient overtones in Master Envermet’s voice and explained, “In the tunnels, when we attacked them, they sent runners out. Sort of messengers to warn the raiders ahead. The one who tried to protect the villagers was terrified they’d send word and his family would be killed.”
“Scan ahead!” Master Envermet commanded. “If they sent them, they might still be in range.”
Somehow Marsh doubted it, but she obeyed anyway. They needed to know what, and who, might lie ahead. Again, she sensed only the usual life forms of the area: the small, furry long-eared things termed “rabbits,” something like a wolf with reddish fur and a brushy tail, a small herd of deer...
“No humans.” She looked at Roeglin. “Could you try?”
He nodded, his eyes going white as he looked for human minds farther out. Master Envermet kept them moving, but Marsh could sense the man’s tension as he waited.
“They’re there,” Roeglin told them, pointing farther west across the ruined city. “They had to stop and rest.”
“Well, at least we know they’re human,” Henri muttered, and Jakob snickered.
“Are they on foot?” Master Envermet demanded, and Roeglin was silent a moment longer.
“I sense no mules,” he said, and the shadow captain kicked his mount into a trot.
“We need to run them down.”
They jolted forward, Marsh both searching for the lives ahead and asking the air to show her where the fleeing raiders were. The strands lay silent until the mules started to flag, and Master Envermet turned to Roeglin in consternation.
“How far ahead did you say they were?”
Roeglin flushed. “They were at the end of my range.”
“And that is?”
“In the cavern, it is limited by the rocks and tunnels or the kind of connection I have with the person I’m trying to find. Out here?” He shrugged.
Master Envermet gave him a look of pure disgust and tapped the sides of his mule again. When they’d gone a mile, he walked the mule until it had rested before urging it back to a trot. They alternated between the two paces until the sun rode high, then called a break for lunch.
Marsh dragged a shroom roll from her pack, drawing on the strands of air around her. Roeglin’s talk of ranges gave her pause, and she wondered what her range might be...and if it faced similar constraints.
She pulled on the air around her. Out here, the strands connecting things might be invisible, but they were there. With no cavern walls to divide the air into pockets, just how far could she sense?
Taking a bite from her roll, Marsh asked them to show here where the raiders were. Perhaps she’d have more luck than Roeglin. Shadow magic was different, wasn’t it?
When none of them responded, she started to think maybe it wasn’t as different as she’d hoped. It wasn’t until she was back in the saddle that one of the strands gave a faint thrum.
The challenge was for her to stay aware of her surroundings while she saw what lay at the end of them. She caught fleeting images of the raiders getting up from where they’d stopped to rest.
They broke into a tired run, holding the pace for ten strides before dropping into a walk. This they also held for ten strides before jolting back into the faster pace. There was no sign of the mules, as Roeglin had sensed.
She thought about telling him, but he signaled them into a trot and she lost her connection to the strand. It was dusk before Roeglin glanced at Master Envermet, and the shadow captain called a halt.
“They’re camping,” he told them, and the team breathed a sigh of relief.
Mordan, Scruffknuckle, and Perdemor stepped out of the rocks and rubble at the edge of the path, the big kat cocking her head in Marsh’s direction.
Master Envermet glanced at her. “What did she say?”
“She and the cubs will go close and watch the prey,” Marsh replied, and the kat blinked and turned away, pup and kit following.
“Very good,” Master Envermet said as if his permission would change a damn thing the kat was doing.
Marsh decided not to point it out to him, glad of the break as the captain considered what they were going to do next.
“Roeglin, can you sense the raiders with the prisoners?”
The question caught Marsh by surprise, but it made sense. If the main body of raiders had a two-day start, they might not be that far ahead, although...
Roeglin shook his head. “These were only a day ahead of us,” he replied. “The others are three, maybe four.” He frowned. “I think there might be a smaller group between these and the main party, but I can’t tell how big.”
“Gustav’s group is moving more slowly,” Master Envermet stated. “We might catch them.”
Roeglin nodded. “Yes, but they are still too far ahead for me to sense them...and now we know we have others in between.”
“What about sensing Gustav? Don’t you have some kind of connection with him?”
Roeglin closed his eyes, and they waited. The shadow guards shifted in their saddles, scanning the rubble and ruins around them. As the sun set, Izmay, Gerry, and Zeb removing the gauzy strips of cloth that protected their eyes from its glare.
“We need to camp soon,” Henri observed as dusk slipped into twilight.
“We’ll take their camp,” Master Envermet told him and glanced at the mind mage. “Roeglin?”
“He is past them, but the connection is very faint. I can’t tell how far.”
“Then we take the runners and camp for the night,” Master Envermet decided, just as a distant howl drifted through the evening.
13
Assassin Interruptus
Marsh tightened the reins as the mule danced beneath her, its long ears flicking. The guards exchanged glances, and Henri looked at Master Envermet.
“It had better be a very secure campsite,” the shadow captain said and glanced at Marsh. “Can the kat give us a layout?”
Marsh reached along the link to Mordan and found the kat watching the four men at the fire. She shared the images without being nudged, and Marsh felt the shadow captain slide into her mind to study them.
“They seem very relaxed,” he observed as another howl drifted down, closer this time. The raiders didn’t even look up. “I wonder what they know that we don’t”
They watched the raiders until three of them retired through the entry to another brush-covered ruin.
“How big was this city?” Marsh wondered, realizing they’d been moving between the remains of crumbled buildings ever since they’d reached the surface.
“How big did it look from Kerrenin’s Ledge?” Roeglin asked, and she remembered thinking the Devastation reached the horizon.
“It doesn’t matter how big it is,” Master Envermet growled. “What matters is the very small section we find ourselves in right now.”
The shadow captain slid down from his mule. “We’ll go the rest of the way on foot,” he said, looking at the area around them.
Marsh looked around, too. The gray light was fading, but as she surveyed her surroundings, she realized she could see as well here as she could in the caverns, and she had seen something.
A frisson of unease ran over her, sending chills radiating through her body. She swung out of the saddle just as the kat screeched a warning in her head.
Mordan made no audible sound, but the cry had Marsh diving for the nearest pile of rubble. A small sack flew through the air, and the rest of the team scattered. The mules propped, but Henri and Jakob had kept hold of their reins, and the rest of the mules followed them.
Marsh’s mount bucked and kicked as the sack landed on its back and burst into a grayish-green haze.
“Sons of—” Roeglin began, but Master Envermet’s command cut through their minds.
Silence. He followed it with Marsh?
Kat warned me in time. She scanned the area from which the bag had come and reached through the dark, trying to sense a life force. There was one. It was faint for something so close, but the way it was masked was familiar. Assassin!
Master Envermet must have passed that along because Henri snorted. “Troublemaker.”
His soft comment was followed by the sound of a fist meeting flesh and his subdued grumble of pain.
He’s there, Master Envermet told them, sending the assassin’s location to the team and keeping them updated.
Marsh wondered how he did it, given she could barely sense the man with her life sense, and that Roeglin seemed as blind as she was. She tugged on the shadow strands around her, but even though some gave the fleeting impression of movement, none gave her an image.
How is he doing that? she wondered, but the location began to move as the assassin worked his way farther back in the ruins and then around them.
Trading Into Daylight (The Magic Below Paris Book 6) Page 9