Marchant looked around the cavern, noting that Hugo didn’t stray far from them now, and how he returned to Eveline more often, whining every time he did so. Marsh figured the joffra were coming and they needed to hurry. She increased the pace, reaching out to grab Tamlin’s hand when Aisha wouldn’t give up her grip on Scruffknuckle’s neck.
Eveline raced ahead and was waiting to secure the door behind them when they arrived. She was scolding Hugo as they entered.
“Get your big nose out of the feed sack, and keep it out of the pup’s bowl.”
The pup had a bowl? That was news to Marsh, but it was also a good idea.
“Go wash up!” the girl ordered before Marsh had a chance to speak. “We missed lunch, and the joffra are out. We’re not going anywhere until day cycle.”
Marchant wanted to ask her who’d died and put her in charge but pushed down the urge. It was Eveline’s house, after all, and the Shadows knew some girls were very territorial. She’d encountered enough in Kerrenin’s Ledge to know.
Marsh held up her hands in mock surrender and made a show of walking around the girl to get to the corridor leading to the washroom. Walking backward out of the kitchen wasn’t her best move, however, as the sudden sharp blow to her skull made all too clear.
8
Shadow-Mage Raiders
Marchant woke with a start in a strange bunk with a splitting headache and a violent need to throw up. It took her a second to recognize the bunk room and that she was alone, but her location wasn’t the most urgent of her concerns. Marsh threw back the covers and bolted for the bathroom. When she’d finished losing what was left in her stomach, she wasn’t alone.
“I’m sorry for your discomfort.”
The voice was new, and the source of it was the doorway. Marsh guessed that if the woman had meant her harm, she’d already be hurting. She shifted slightly, making sure her stomach had finished with her. When she was sure of it, she stood and crossed shakily to the closest wash bay, painfully aware of the woman watching her every step of the way.
“This your house?” Marsh asked, knowing what the answer must be.
“It’s been my home since we settled here fifteen years ago.”
Fifteen years—which meant Eveline had been born here.
“I was going to take your daughter to Ruins Hall for help.”
“She told me.”
The woman crossed the bathroom to stand by the wash bay’s door.
“Let me help you to the kitchen,” she said. “That was a good hit.”
Marsh noticed she wasn’t apologizing, and figured she shouldn’t have to since she’d been defending her home and her daughter.
“Mama?” The new voice caught Marsh’s attention; it sounded like its owner was on the edge of panic. “She’s not in the bed, Mama.”
“That’s ‘cos she’s in here,” the woman said, and a boy who looked no older than four came and clung to her trousers.
The woman turned to Marsh.
“I’m Fabrice. The children call me—”
“Fabby!” Aisha’s voice had a panicked pitch, and both Fabrice and Marsh turned toward it. “Fabby! Fabby! She’s gone!”
“It’s all right, Aysh. I’m here,” Marsh called as Fabrice answered, “She’s in here, child. She’s okay.”
Aisha appeared in the doorway seconds later and raced over to wrap her arms around Marsh’s legs. A familiar ball of fur bounded beside her and planted both forepaws on Marsh’s other leg, whining excitedly as he licked every bit of her he could reach. Marsh’s head spun as she tried to push the pair of them off her.
“I’m okay. Okay. Let go of me. Scruffknuckle, get down! Ouch!”
“Okay, that’s enough.” Fabrice might have done a better job of sounding stern if her voice hadn’t been shaking with laughter. “Why don’t you go and clear a space for her in the kitchen and tell Tams and Ev she needs a cup of tea?”
“Bon.” Aisha let go, bolting back out of the bathroom with Scruffknuckle hard on her heels, her shrill treble echoing down the hall. “Tams! Tams! She’s awake!”
Marchant exchanged looks with Fabrice.
“Anyone would think I’d been out for a week,” she said, starting to shake her head and stopping with a wince. “Just how hard did you hit me?”
“Hard enough to put you out for almost a full cycle,” Fabrice admitted, her cheeks coloring. “I am truly sorry.”
Marsh started to shake her head again and stopped. Instead, she accepted the woman’s offer of help and let her steady her as she walked down the corridor.
“Don’t be sorry. You were just protecting the children.”
“It’s just a shame I couldn’t save my husband,” Fabrice admitted. “I don’t know how I’ll run the place now. I was going to head up to the waystation and ask for help, but Eveline tells me it’s deserted.”
Her words made Marsh’s insides turn cold. Deserted like her parents’ waystation, nothing gone except the people. Fabrice continued, unaware of what Marsh was thinking.
“I’ve never seen the like,” she said. “Or heard of it. Have you?”
Fortunately, they had reached the kitchen, so Marsh was saved from answering.
“Marsh!” Tamlin seemed relieved to see her.
Fabrice gave Marsh a sideways glance.
“He thought I’d killed you.”
Tamlin’s face colored.
“You went down like a wet sack, and then you were so still.”
“I’m okay.” Marsh tried to reassure him although she felt anything but.
She looked up as Eveline placed a mug in front of her.
“Here. Drink this,” the girl ordered. “You’ll feel better.”
“Merci,” Marsh said, not sure if she should thank Ev or tell her to take the murky brown brew away. “What is it?”
“Ferbchai. Good for healing.”
Which meant it would taste terrible, Marsh thought, but she raised the cup to her lips and took a sip. The first taste wasn’t too bad, so she took another, and then a third. Then she set the cup down, holding it fiercely with both hands as she bowed her head and fought to keep the brew in her stomach. Ferbchai. She’d heard of it but never had the misfortune to need it. Now that she did, she found it lived up to the legend.
After the first wave of nausea passed, she remembered the advice of all the caravan guards who’d ever been dosed with it.
“Best to get it all down and chase it with something stronger.”
She hoped Fabrice had heard that advice too. If she hadn’t, Marsh was sure as Shadows going to ask for something strong to chase it with. Her uncle would not have approved, but he’d never had to drink the stuff. If he had been, Marsh was sure he’d change his mind.
She raised the mug once more and stared at the brew. Across the table, Tamlin rolled his eyes.
“Don’t be such a baby,” he said. “Drink.”
Marsh shot him a glare, then put the cup to her lips and slowly but surely drained it. When it was empty, she set it on the table in front of her. Whatever the kids were cooking smelled good, but her stomach was in no mood for it. Marsh folded her arms on the table, then rested her head on them and closed her eyes, listening to the movements of those around her.
She could hear Tamlin and Eveline tending the pot on the stove, while Aisha was sitting on the floor feeding the dogs pieces of kibble with the little boy and a girl around her own age. She was wondering who the little girl was when she felt the mug taken out from in front of her and a glass set in her hand.
“Drink that,” Fabby told her. “It’ll help with the taste of the chai.”
Marsh raised her head and looked at the glass. It was made of rough-cut crystal, the kind usually used for water, but this one held something else. The liquid was a strong blue and semi-opaque.
“It’s best not to breathe it in. Just let it get acquainted with your tongue first,” Fabby advised as Marsh lifted the glass.
Eyeing the liquid warily, Marsh raised the glass t
o her lips, held her breath, and took a large sip, rolling the drink across her tongue and around her mouth. At the first taste, her stomach roiled, and Marsh swallowed cautiously, a little bit at a time, surprised when the rebellion subsided in her gut.
By the time Fabby placed a bowl of stew and a side of shroom bread in front of her, Marsh was thinking food might be a good idea. She was also slightly drunk.
“What cycle is it?” she asked after she’d finished most of the bowl and a slice of bread.
“Too late to leave,” Fabby told her, anticipating what she was going to say next. “You can go in the morning once the chai has done its work.”
Marsh frowned.
“What about you?”
“Me?” Fabby laughed. “I’m not going anywhere. I have a farm to run and a bunch of animals that need me. I’ll get you to hire me some good hands and send them back out here.”
Marsh started to shake her head but stopped when her stomach protested.
“What if they come back?” she asked. “They missed you this time, but next time…”
She let her words trail off, giving Fabrice time to put the picture together for herself. When the woman frowned and set her lips in a stubborn line, Marchant tried a different tack.
“Do you know why they came in the first place?” She waved her hand around at the kitchen. “I mean, they left everything behind. Everything they could have sold for a profit or used in future raiding, they just left. It doesn’t make sense. Even the mules. Why would they leave mules behind?”
She paused as though mulling over the problem but only finding more questions.
“And supplies… You’d think, if they were taking people, they’d be taking supplies as well. It’s not like we encountered a whole bunch of… Oh.”
She stopped. They had encountered a whole bunch of people in the tunnels…or rather, she’d sensed a whole bunch of people moving away. If they didn’t need supplies, did that mean they’d killed everyone?
No, that didn’t make any sense. If they’d wanted to kill everyone, they could have just done it and left the bodies right where they dropped. Besides, if they killed everyone, that meant her parents were…
Marchant shook her head and closed her eyes.
Nope. Her parents were alive. She knew it. So, if the raiders didn’t need supplies then… Then, what?
“They were looking for anyone who could do magic.”
Eveline’s voice cut through her thoughts like a hot knife through butter and Marchant opened her eyes.
“What did you say?”
“She said they were looking for anyone who could do magic,” Fabrice said, “but they took everyone they could find. I escaped because I was already preparing to hide.”
She gestured at her children.
“I had to keep them safe. Patrik insisted it was the most important thing, so he made a place for us to hide.”
“Out in the barn,” Marsh said when she paused, and Fabrice nodded.
“There’s a secret room behind the feed shed. No one’s found it yet.”
She shot Marsh a half-smile.
“We watched you feed the animals and check the chickens. I almost came out then, but the children were afraid. I figured we could meet you on our terms without compromising our hiding place.”
Marsh remembered their meeting very well and couldn’t stop her hand from rubbing gently at the lump on the back of her head.
“Then why did you hit me?”
“I was scared,” Fabrice said. “I saw you in the doorway, and it was just too much after what I heard through the walls.”
She looked at Eveline, who was doing the dishes.
“I had to be sure.”
Marchant tried to understand that. After all, the woman had seen her with the children earlier. Why would she feel the need to hit her with a…
“What did you hit me with?”
Fabrice blushed.
“I was near the sink when I heard you returning. I just grabbed the first thing that came to hand.”
“This,” Eveline said, hefting the skillet she’d used to cook their breakfast in. Marchant winced.
That explained why she’d dropped like a stone. She was lucky the blow hadn’t killed her. She shifted the conversation back to why the raiders had come.
“Tell me about them,” she said, catching Fabrice’s eye.
“Why do you need to know?”
“Because I think we saw them in the tunnels.” She hesitated, then let her breath out in a soft sigh. “And because I think they may have taken my parents.”
“Your parents?”
“They had a waystation on the Surface, Downslopes. It was found empty, just like the station up the road. Not a living soul. Just the animals and valuables left behind.” She stopped. “I was a child, staying with my uncle while they set it up. I’ve always hoped they were alive, and now I just might have to go looking for them.”
Fabrice’s face brightened.
“Will you look for my Patrik too?”
Her request caught Marchant by surprise, and she almost backed away from the hope in the woman’s eyes. Who was she to promise such things? But she knew she was going to try. Her parents, Fabrice’s husband…
“And the children?” Fabrice pressed. “They took everyone who lived here. I was lucky to be able to take my youngest two and hide. For a long while, I thought I’d lost Eveline, too.”
Her eyes filled with tears, but not a single one fell as she looked at her daughter with a shimmering gaze.
“They didn’t search the laundry baskets,” Eveline said, “and Raph dumped a load of dirty clothes on top of me before he went out to help Papa.”
“Shadow’s Heart be with him,” Fabrice said.
“And Shadow’s Hand,” Eveline replied and turned back to the dishes.
“How did you know they were coming?” Marsh asked.
“They tried to convince me my children would do better boarding at their school,” Fabrice told her. “The ones who came with the raiders, they came again last trading day, moving through the waystation and talking to folk about the children they’d seen with magical ability. ‘Aptitude,’ they called it. Said such children needed special guidance, and they were the best ones to provide it. Sent wrigglers down my spine.”
She gave an exaggerated shiver.
“We were watching for them. Patrik saw them from the upstairs office, and he told me to take the children.” She glanced at her daughter. “I couldn’t find Eveline and didn’t have time to look.”
Marsh noticed the slight wave of color that rose up Eveline’s neck but said nothing. It was something she’d look into later if she had time. Whatever the girl had been doing, it didn’t matter in the light of what had happened after, and she doubted it would have made a difference to who the raiders took and who got left behind.
She reached across the table and touched Fabrice’s hand.
“Is there no one you could stay with? Even if it’s just until we get Patrik back?”
“You could come with us to the shadow mage monastery,” Tamlin broke in. “They’d have room for the animals, and they could protect Ev and the little ones. Teach them how to use their magic.”
Marchant caught the look on Fabrice’s face and intervened.
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, Tamlin. We don’t know if those shadow mages are working with the ones who attacked with the raiders.”
“Oh.”
Tams wasn’t slow to realize his mistake; Marsh would give him that.
“I’m sorry,” he told Fabrice. “I didn’t think. I mean, my parents wouldn’t have been taking me somewhere that was bad, would they?”
Fabrice hurried to reassure him.
“I’m sure they knew what they were doing,” she said and looked at Marchant. “Why don’t we get Marsh to check them out? If they’re not the same, we might come to join you.”
She turned back to Marsh.
“In the meantime, I know so
me folk on the outskirts of Ruins. They’ve been after Patrik to mix our mouton bloodlines, so I’m certain I can strike a bargain in exchange for a place for my beasts and my family.”
“So you’re coming?” Marsh couldn’t believe it had been that easy, but Fabrice nodded.
“We’ll pack tonight and move the animals out in the morning. Hugo will keep them in line.”
“If we take the mules from the waystation,” Eveline said, “we’ll move faster than if we just take the cart. We’ll be able to take more with us, too.”
She looked around the kitchen and back to the sink, and Marsh got the impression she wasn’t looking forward to the trip. When she thought of moving through the caverns with the number of mouton she had seen in the barn, she wasn’t looking forward to the trip either. It crossed her mind that Fabrice might be better off leaving the moutons behind and sending someone skilled to bring them back to the farms near Ruins Hall.
“How are we going to keep them all together?” she asked. “Don’t they like to wander?”
“That depends on what the leaders are doing and how safe they feel,” Fabrice told her. “If we take them away from their barn and out of their field, they’ll stick pretty close to the rams and lead ewes.”
“And the mules,” Eveline added. “We bring those down from the waystation and they’ll walk with them, thinking the mules will keep them safe.”
“And the dogs,” Aisha added. “Moutons feel safe with dogs.”
“I need to pay you for the food,” Marsh said, getting out of her chair, “while I remember. And for the shelter…”
She stopped as Fabrice laid a hand on her arm.
“You take us to our friends’ farm, and I’ll consider us even. We wouldn’t be able to make it without you, and I think you’re right. We do have to worry about them coming back. I don’t want to be here when they do. It would be foolish to keep the children out of their hands once, only to be caught by them later.”
“Tell me more about them,” Marsh said, and Fabrice shot a glance at the children before she began.
“The first time we saw them was two cycles ago. It was just the mages. We thought it was the folk from the Ruins Hall Monastery, but their robes were different, and they came from one of the tunnels leading to the mountains…or so folk say. I’ve never spoken to someone who set out on that journey and came back. Oh, and they were tall and big, too. I’ve never seen a man or woman built so big.
Magic Below Paris Complete Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 8): Trading Into Shadow, Trading Into Darkness, Trading Close to Light, Trading By Firelight, Trading by Shroomlight, plus 3 more Page 7