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

by C. M. Simpson

  The calla shrooms around her began to shake, furtive whispers of movement, becoming less subtle with every passing second. Marsh drew on her nature magic to sense the life forces in the cavern, but whatever was coming toward her was either dead or not really there.

  Nice! That was one way around Roeglin’s mind magic. Ignoring the shivering shrooms, Marsh focused on the shadow guard, lunging toward him so that he had to step back and parry. As Marsh pressed her attack, Mordan slipped out of the shrooms behind Roeglin, snaking a paw around the shadow mage’s ankles and pulling him over.

  His startled shout distracted the guard, and Marsh pressed forward. Unfortunately for the raiders, Mordan wasn’t finished. Even as Roeglin fell, the big kat leapt, crashing into the side of Marsh’s opponent and bringing him down.

  Roeglin got off the ground, sputtering.

  “One of these days, you’re going to be somewhere the kat can’t reach—and then you’re actually going to have to work out how to get yourself free.”

  As he spoke, the others picked themselves up off the ground, some dusting off their tunics and armor and others resettling their weapons. The kat moved between them, nudging each with her nose until they caressed her head, letting her know she was forgiven and they were all right. As much as Marsh had tried to convince Mordan that this type of “play” was necessary so they could learn to stand against other hunters, the kat didn’t like it.

  “So,” Marsh asked, looking at Roeglin. “Did I pass?”

  He curled his lip.

  “You got lucky, but yes, you passed. You can have a cookie. I’ll let Brigitte know.”

  Well, that was more sarcasm than she needed, but speaking of cookies…

  “How’s Aisha doing?”

  “She doesn’t want you to leave, but we’ve convinced her we need her to help keep Lennie busy, so she’ll let it go.”

  “Oh, she will, will she?” Marsh didn’t know whether to be annoyed or relieved that the five-year-old had been convinced to stay at the fortress while she and Roeglin joined the teams restoring the trade routes between the Four Settlements.

  She was going to miss having the little brat along—and at the same time, she wasn’t. Five really was too young to be in the middle of a battle, no matter how well the kid had coped with it in the past. Everyone was still waiting for her and Tamlin to fall apart over the disappearance of their parents, but neither of them had.

  That was good, too, but it was also bad since it put the pressure right on Marsh to find them. She only hoped she could do that before anything worse happened to them, assuming they were still alive.

  “You ready to recharge some glows?” Roeglin’s voice cut through her thoughts, and Marsh groaned.

  While she’d reached the point where drawing on the shadows and staying connected to the hoshkat no longer completely drained her of energy, she still struggled when it came to charging the glows.

  “Everyone can do it,” both Roeglin and Tamlin assured her, but Marsh found using her magic to charge the pale purple gemstones more draining than asking the shadows what lay on the other side of a cavern or searching for the life forces of other creatures. Maybe everyone could do magic, but it was like sword-fighting, or cooking, or studying in that it required practice, and not everyone was good at all the different varieties.

  It would explain why most people lived their whole lives without knowing what they were capable of. Some abilities didn’t naturally bubble to the surface, and some weren’t as strong. Maybe that was why she could work with shadows and not with light. Strengths and weaknesses, and all that.

  Or it could just be because you like hiding in the dark.

  Roeglin’s voice in her head was something she would never get used to. Speaking of different kinds of magic… Well, he could walk through people’s minds, and the person whose head he thought was the most fun to walk through right now was hers. Marsh let her body do the talking, punching him in the shoulder before the thought crossed her mind.

  “Betcha never saw that coming,” she muttered, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

  “I should have,” he grumbled, rubbing his arm. “You hit hard…every…single…time.”

  “So, no glows?”

  “Ha! Nice try. Just for that, you can do extra.”

  Nice way to remind her he was the one in charge. Marsh sighed and fell in beside him as they headed back to the shadow-mage fortress. If she was lucky, this would be her last training session before they headed out to begin restoring the trade routes. The Master of Shadows had decided the road to Ruins Hall would be the first one worked on, and he was sending ten of his best shadow guards to join the force the Ruins Hall founder was building.

  Together, they would re-forge the path to Kerrenin’s Ledge and the other two settlements that made up the Four Settlements community. Together, they would force the raiders out of their lands and make them give back the people they had taken—if they could re-connect the caverns.

  “Together,” Roeglin agreed, and Marsh knew she was never going to get the damn man out of her head.

  He was there to stay, and not in a good way.

  “Hey!” But whatever Roeglin was going to add was lost. They’d reached the entry to the fortress, and Aisha was waiting.

  2

  The Masters Decide

  An hour later, Marchant closed her eyes and bowed her head. At this rate, she was going to see purple gemstones in her sleep…and not a single damn one of them was going to be glowing.

  “Aagh!”

  She drew a deep breath and straightened, settling her fingers against the top of the stone and gently stroking down. The movement was supposed to draw the light out of the air and coax it into the glow stone, but either there was no light in the air around her, or it was hiding too deeply in the shadows to be found. Marsh had been trying so hard to discover it that she was finding it difficult to believe anything could make the stone brighten.

  Okay, maybe she could set it alight. That would always work.

  Right now, all she wanted to do was tear the stone from its stand and hurl it across the room. Knowing her luck, though, if she did that, it would hit the wall and shatter, and then there would be no way to charge it. She sighed and wondered what would happen if she tried charging it with heated shadow.

  Sure, it wouldn’t glow with visible light, but most of the people walked the caverns using heat patterns to enhance their vision anyway—and it would be easy, so easy. Marsh traced a line down the gem and into the stone. Heated shadow could burn as brightly as any light if folks were looking at it right.

  Repeating the gesture, Marsh let her mind wander, playing with the idea of shadow-heated glows. Would it make them harder for the raiders to find and put out? Would being hidden from normal sight be protection or hindrance? Would…

  “That’s not a bad idea, Marsh, but I don’t think it’ll have the same effect on the shadow monsters as filling it with light.”

  Marsh started, her concentration crumbling into a thousand pieces as Brigitte’s voice broke into her thoughts. The journeyman had a point. Marsh stared down at the stone.

  At first glance, it didn’t look much different from an uncharged glow, except maybe a little darker, as if a shadow had been cast across it. But if you looked at it closely, the shadow flickered and wavered like a candle burning dark—and if you looked at it as heat instead of light, it burnt like the sun above the surface world.

  Aisha stood up from behind several rows of brightly shining glows, her blue eyes dark with concentration. Shaking her head so her dark curls bounced, the little girl crossed to the workbench and studied what Marsh had done.

  “Monsters won’t like the hot and the bright,” she commented, and with a twist of her hands, turned the dark flame to a living beacon of white and yellow.

  Marsh yelped and skittered back as her eyes began to water and heat licked at her face. Aisha laughed but looked expectantly at Brigitte.

  “What do you think?” />
  To give her credit, Brigitte managed to keep a straight face, even if laughter bubbled in her azure gaze and she avoided looking Marsh directly in the eye.

  “I think I’ll have to ask the Master of Shadows what he thinks,” her instructor said. “That’s an interesting idea the two of you have come up with.”

  It was kind of Brigitte to give her credit, Marsh thought, but most of it should go to the child. She, at least, knew what she was doing.

  Marsh might have been cross with Aisha, except the little girl hadn’t meant anything by it. The kid loved playing with new ideas, and Marsh had just handed her one on a plate. Marsh stared at the flaming glow, letting its light draw her in like a campfire would, and then she blinked.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “I asked if you thought you could try another one,” Brigitte said in a voice that told Marsh she’d said it more than once.

  Marsh nodded.

  “Sure. I can’t get any worse, right?”

  This time Aisha caught herself before she commented. Marsh saw the child open her mouth to agree and then hastily bite her lower lip. It made her smile. Maybe five-year-olds could be taught diplomacy, or maybe Aisha had a better sense of self-preservation than anyone gave her credit for. Whatever the case, Marsh was glad the girl had decided not to say anything. She wasn’t sure she could handle sympathy right now.

  With a sigh, she stood up and stretched, then walked over to the box of uncharged glows, taking one from the top and returning to her workstation. Setting it down carefully, Marsh lowered herself to her knees, running her hand over the glow from gem-tip to metal setting.

  Right. Let’s do this.

  An hour later, when she was trembling with fatigue, Brigitte laid a hand on her shoulder.

  “Time to stop,” she said. “You’ve done enough for the day.”

  She had?

  Marsh surveyed the gem, relieved to see a soft glow coming from within the stone. At least she’d done something. Roeglin’s voice shattered the illusion.

  “You could almost use it as a night light.”

  Brigitte groaned, and Marsh closed her eyes as Aisha sprang to her defense.

  “It’s a good light,” the child declared, seeing their reactions and coming to stand beside Marsh.

  She put her hand gently on Marsh’s shoulder, patting her like she was a puppy.

  “It’s a night light,” Roeglin argued as he stepped into the room.

  Marsh waited for Aisha to argue that it wasn’t, but the girl shifted uncomfortably beside her. After a moment’s silence, she patted Marsh’s shoulder again, this time reassuringly.

  “It’s a very good night light,” she said, and Marsh sagged.

  Brigitte stepped in.

  “It’s more than enough for today,” she repeated. “Class dismissed.”

  She hesitated, and Marsh hoped she wouldn’t try to be supportive. The Deeps knew she’d had about all the support she could handle. As if sensing this, Brigitte turned her attention to the newly-arrived mage.

  “What can I do for you, Ro? I take it you had a reason to come to see me, other than upsetting my students?”

  Relaxing as Roeglin’s attention shifted, Marsh pushed herself slowly to her feet. She was about to gather her newly created night light when Brigitte spoke.

  “Leave that there, Trainee. I’ll pack up today. You and Aisha need to get ready for dinner.”

  Well, at least she hadn’t told her she needed a break. Marsh turned for the door and looked at Aisha.

  “Bath time,” she said, and the child pouted.

  “Not dirty.”

  “Yeah? I can smell you from here.”

  “Can. Not.”

  Marsh started walking. In truth, all she wanted to do was curl up in a corner and cry. After proving her mastery of shadow this morning, the afternoon had served as a reminder of just how much magic she couldn’t tap into.

  And she needed to do this. Every mage on the trade route had to be able to charge the glows or they wouldn’t get the road opened anytime soon, and they had to. The Deeps knew what the raiders were doing while they had Ruins Hall isolated. Marsh hurried down the corridor.

  She had to work out what she was doing wrong and fix it. What good was she going to be otherwise? A heavy sadness settled over her, and her eyes prickled with tears of frustration. Why couldn’t she call the light?

  Before she could start chewing over the problem again, Aisha interrupted. The little girl ran to catch up and slipped her hand into Marsh’s.

  “It’s okay,” the child told her. “The shadows won’t talk to me. Only the rocks.”

  Marsh wasn’t sure how that was meant to be comforting, but at least the girl was trying. They walked in silence for a few more moments and then Aisha asked, “Do I really smell?”

  As Marsh opened her mouth to reassure the child, another voice cut in.

  “Of course you do. You stink. You smell worse than a mule when Mordan’s been chasing it.”

  Roeglin’s taunt might have worked, but Aisha had had four older siblings, and her brother Tamlin was merciless. The little girl knew exactly how to deal with the shadow mage’s teasing.

  “Worse than you?” she retorted, and Marsh sputtered, turning in time to catch the look on Roeglin’s face.

  Aisha giggled, and Roeglin’s surprise turned to chagrin.

  “Ha. Ha,” he said. “Very funny.”

  He turned to Marsh.

  “I need to see you,” he told her, and again Aisha leapt to her defense.

  “Nuh-uh. Brigitte said we had to have a bath for dinner.”

  “That’s not going to taste very nice.”

  Marsh rolled her eyes, but Roeglin hadn’t finished. He fixed the pair of them with a stern gaze before focusing on Marsh.

  “After your bath, and after you’ve delivered Aisha to her brother,” he said. “My office.”

  His office. Well.

  Marsh wondered what she’d done wrong but decided not to ask. It was probably something to do with her utter hopelessness at recharging the glows, and she probably wasn’t going to like it. Her heart sank. What if he told her she was grounded until she got her head around it? What if…

  Not all shadow mages can recharge glows, Roeglin told her, pulling her fears from her head and interrupting her thoughts to reassure her, and you’re not grounded.

  “Half a turn,” he said out loud as he turned away. “Don’t be late.”

  “Yes, Master Roeglin.”

  Marsh couldn’t bring herself to use just his title. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to acknowledge his rank; it was just that she didn’t feel comfortable calling him “master.” She could handle calling the heads of the school or the others by the title alone, but not Roeglin. She needed to use his name as well. Maybe it had something to do with the way she’d met him.

  He hadn’t been a master then.

  Okay, he had been a master, but he hadn’t been her master. She could get her head around the title, but not around calling him by it. Stupid, really.

  To her surprise, Roeglin didn’t have anything to say to that. He merely quirked an eyebrow at her, smirking as he headed up the next flight of stairs. Marsh escorted Aisha to the communal baths and got her clean, then led her back to the quarters they now shared and dressed her in a fresh robe before delivering her to her brother.

  “I have to see Master Roeglin, so you’ve got dinner duty,” she said when Tamlin answered her knock.

  His dark eyes flicked from Marsh to Aisha, and he nodded. Any other time, he might have argued about having to mind his sister when it was Marsh’s turn, but not when Marchant called Roeglin by his title and rank. It was their code for official business, and Tamlin knew not to argue when he heard it. The boy was settling into the role of shadow-mage apprentice as if he’d been born to it.

  “I’ll see you after dinner,” she told him, and again he nodded.

  She’d rescued the two children from the shadow monster ambush that had depri
ved them of the rest of their family, and she took her duties as a surrogate parent seriously. If she couldn’t find any other family members willing to take them, or if she failed to rescue their parents—something she didn’t want to think about—she’d be all the family they had. And until she got things sorted, she needed to be that family for them, regardless.

  That meant making sure she checked in with them every day, like their parents would, making sure they were okay and listening to their hopes and fears. She made it part of their daily routine, no matter how busy her day had been, how fraught, or how exhausting. At first, she’d been worried, but they seemed happy enough. The fact that Aisha shared her room helped.

  Marsh wondered how they would do when she had to travel, but pushed that thought aside. It was hard not to look back as she left Tamlin’s quarters, but she managed. She didn’t want to be a clingy parent. Knowing the boy would look after his sister, Marsh hurried to Roeglin’s office.

  The shadow master’s greeting was straight to the point and not exactly a welcome.

  “I noticed you’re having trouble charging the glows.”

  As an opening line, it stopped Marsh cold. She froze two steps into his office.

  “Close the door behind you.”

  When she had, Roeglin gestured toward a chair. Marsh was still searching for the right words as he continued.

  “You’re not in trouble,” he assured her, and she tensed, knowing there was a “but” coming.

  He did not disappoint her.

  “But we are going to have to think of alternatives if you can’t call the light into the glows.”

  Marsh swallowed, clenching her jaw to stop herself from forbidding him from saying what came next. After a quick glance to make sure she was waiting, Roeglin went on.

  “If you can’t manage it, we’ll have to add Aisha to the team.”

  Now she did have something to say.

  “No!”

  Roeglin tilted his head toward her, raising both eyebrows.

  “I beg your pardon.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Marsh answered it anyway.

  “You are not putting her out where she might be attacked.”