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

  “So much for a bit of privacy…”

  Ooh, touchy…

  Marsh grabbed hold of her temper and started to change. She was halfway through when she wondered where Mordan was. The big kat hadn’t been there to greet her when she’d woken, and she hadn’t been waiting downstairs. In fact, Dan had been startlingly absent. Marsh made a note to find the kat as soon as she was dressed.

  She glanced at the hourglass and hurried. The kat probably hadn’t gone that far. She didn’t when they were in town.

  Stepping into the corridor, Marsh looked up and down it. The open door halfway along looked like the most likely place, but she couldn’t work out whose room it was. She didn’t remember anyone being in there.

  Dan? she thought, reaching for her link to the kat as she reached the door. You in there?

  A soft mew confirmed the kat’s presence and Marsh slipped inside.

  “What are you doing here?” Piet’s voice stopped her in her tracks.

  Marsh gestured toward Mordan, who was lying alongside the bed, Piet’s hand resting on her head.

  “Looking for the kat.”

  “Oh. She’s been keeping me company. Pa says I set one foot outside this room and he’ll stitch me to the sheets.”

  The thought of the tailor doing exactly that made Marsh smile.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Like someone hit me on the head with a very big fist?”

  Marsh looked out into the hall, then pulled the door closed behind her, and Piet eyed her warily. Mordan lifted her head, nuzzled Piet’s hand, and slowly sat up.

  “Easy, girl,” Marsh told her, remembering what Tamlin had said about Aisha drawing the energy from the creatures around her.

  Oh, the Deeps, no!

  Roeglin wasn’t impressed, and Marsh had the fleeting impression of panic.

  Don’t you dare!

  Like he could stop her trying.

  As she crossed the room to crouch beside the kat, Marsh caught Mordan’s eyes, trying to convey her need to borrow just a little bit of her strength so she could mend Piet. The kat rubbed her head along Marsh’s arm, nudging her hand.

  “Yuh think?”

  The kat bunted her hand again, and Marsh took a deep breath.

  Turning to Piet, she asked, “Do you trust me?”

  Worry clouded the young man’s face, but he gave her a single jerky nod.

  “Sure.”

  He didn’t sound very sure, but it was enough for Marsh.

  “Okay, let me see your head.”

  She didn’t ask for any more permission than that, but leaned in closer to inspect the wound, drawing just a little bit of nature magic so that she could see the way his life colored the area around the injury. It was there, a little darker than it should be but not touched by poison.

  Marsh entwined her fingers in the fur on Mordan’s neck and concentrated on drawing just a little bit of the kat’s energy. It took a moment, but then she felt the big beast’s power touch her skin. She stopped, wary of drawing too much. When she was sure she could control how much she drew, she focused on directing the borrowed power into the wound on Piet’s head.

  At the same time, she tried to feel what effect she was having on the wound. It took her a moment to realize she could gauge that better if she was watching the wound as she worked, and she opened her eyes. It healed much faster than she’d anticipated, and Marsh wondered what to do with the excess power she had taken.

  “Try sending it back into the kat.” Roeglin’s suggestion startled her when he spoke quietly behind her.

  For a heartbeat, Marsh thought she was going to lose control of the energy, but she forced herself to maintain her connection with the sensation of Mordan’s warmth and power and lifted her hand from Piet’s head. Holding the feeling of the kat’s energy in focus, Marsh thought about returning it, sending the excess back into the kat, and then took her hand off the kat too.

  “Thank you,” she said, although her thanks blended with Piet’s gratitude as he sat up.

  “I ought to wring your neck,” Gustav muttered from just inside the doorway, and his anger was followed by the tramp of his boots receding down the hall.

  Marsh stayed where she was and then pushed slowly up off the floor, dusting her knees to delay the moment when she had to face Roeglin. The Deeps knew why the mage was still standing in the doorway. It wasn’t like there was anything left to see.

  He snorted at that but didn’t comment on it.

  “Gustav says it’s past time we left.”

  He didn’t add anything more, even though Marsh was braced for another tirade on just how stupid she’d been. She glanced down at Mordan, sending thoughts of concern for the kat’s welfare.

  The kat yawned, stretched, and padded toward the door.

  Hungry.

  “I’ll see what Per has in the storeroom,” Marsh told her, and Roeglin snorted, again.

  “You’re set on making everyone happy today, are you?”

  Marsh resisted the urge to tell him where in the Deeps he could go, turning instead to Piet.

  “How do you feel now?”

  The youngster swung his legs over the side of the bed.

  “Like I could take on a wall-full of raiders on my own.”

  “Good. I’ll let your pa know so he doesn’t get mad at you when he sees you, okay?”

  “Thanks, Marsh.”

  Marsh didn’t wait for him to say anything more but followed Mordan. She was surprised to see that Roeglin hadn’t waited.

  I’m feeding the kat.

  Oh, he was, was he?

  Gustav wants to see you.

  Uh-oh.

  Gustav was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

  “You—” he began, only to be interrupted by the dining-room door opening.

  The look on his face when he saw who had arrived almost made Marsh laugh, but she didn’t dare. For one thing, the man had probably been pushed far enough, and for another, the councilor had asked them to see her on their return. For her to be visiting now meant something was afoot.

  Marsh wondered what it was.

  “Councilor,” Gustav began. “Forgive me, but we don’t know your name.”

  The councilor’s dark eyes swept the dining room, but her footsteps didn’t slow.

  “I take it you have somewhere we can speak in private?”

  It was less a question than a demand, but Gustav took it in his stride, offering his arm as she drew near.

  “Of course, if you would come with me.” He glanced over at Per. “Could you ask Daniel to send something up?”

  He paused.

  “Preferably something edible.”

  There was an oath from the kitchen that suggested Gustav’s parentage was in doubt and Marsh stifled a laugh. Served her cousin right for listening in.

  I wouldn’t go into the kitchen right now if I were you, Roeglin said, and he offered Marsh his arm as he turned to follow Gustav and the councilor up the stairs.

  “I’ll feed the kat,” Per said when Marsh looked in his direction. “She’ll be fine.”

  Mordan gave Marsh a look of disdain and flicked her tail before walking over to the counter.

  See? You’re just flavor of the month today. Roeglin teased, and Marsh felt her heart sink.

  How she was ever going to make it up to the kat, she didn’t know.

  Just the kat?

  “She’s all that matters.”

  “Thanks, Marsh. Thanks a lot.”

  16

  Mercy Mission

  Gustav was waiting when Roeglin and Marchant arrived at the meeting room upstairs. He indicated the woman perusing the files they’d stacked in a neat pile on the table.

  “This is Councilor Ines Asselin-Labat.”

  At his introduction, the woman paused in her inspection of the papers and looked up. Roeglin closed the door behind them, his eyes gleaming white. The councilor caught it and frowned.

  “I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of
my head, shadow mage.”

  Roeglin returned her gaze, his mouth quirking up in the tiniest of smiles.

  “Most people would, but we don’t know you.”

  Marsh watched as the councilor shot Gustav a glance and received a shrug in reply. She sighed.

  “Very well.” She turned away from Roeglin to take a seat at the end of the table.

  Gustav gestured for Marsh and Roeglin to join them and then went to sit at the other side of the table.

  “You wanted to see us?” he began and then waited for the woman to reply.

  After a moment’s hesitation and another wary glance at Roeglin’s attentive but still-white eyes, she started.

  “I know it’s earlier than expected, but I feel we can’t wait any longer. The raiders are threatening Brodeur.”

  As an opening, Marsh thought, there wasn’t much better. She snuck a look at Roeglin and caught the mage’s slight nod. So that much was true, then. The councilor continued as though she hadn’t noticed.

  “He has a sister who lives on a farmlet a half-day’s ride from the city wall.”

  Gustav sighed, and the councilor paused. When the emissary didn’t say anything, she continued.

  “I need you to go and see if she and her family are safe…and I need you to convince them to come within the city walls if you can.”

  She paused and then spoke again.

  “I was going to ask you to go after you returned from the council’s mission, but when I heard you were still in town, I thought this would provide us with an opportunity to keep my mission secret a little longer. I fear that if the raiders knew I was sending someone to safeguard the captain’s family, they would move on them. This way, given everyone knows you are leaving late and won’t reach Mika’s Outlet tonight, we have a window for secrecy.”

  “What happens when we arrive late at the Outlet?” Gustav wasn’t convinced.

  “You won’t,” the councilor replied. “Well, you won’t arrive much later, and hopefully you’ll have the family with you, so the secret won’t need to be kept much longer. You will do this for me, won’t you?”

  “What’s in it for you?” Gustav asked.

  Marsh wanted to know why he’d felt the need to be so blunt.

  Ines blushed.

  “The fewer distractions the captain has, the more he will be focused on keeping the Ledge safe—”

  Roeglin cleared his throat, and the lady’s blush grew deeper. The mage opened his eyes and raised his eyebrows at her.

  “It would be better they heard it from you than me,” he told her, and she scowled at him.

  He held her gaze until she broke eye contact and looked down at the table.

  “Fine,” she said. “I love him, and he’s been distant since he’s had to worry for his sister, and that’s even though I argued for him to be allowed to go and see to her safety.”

  “How does he feel about you?” Gustav wanted to know, although Marsh didn’t know why that would matter.

  It matters, Roeglin told her, and the councilor’s next words proved him correct.

  “I thought he returned my feelings,” Ines admitted, watching as Roeglin’s eyes sheeted white once more and frowning. “If he doesn’t, I don’t know…”

  “The city needs you,” Gustav said, and her face hardened.

  “It’s not enough.”

  The emissary made a broad-armed gesture that took in more than the room around them.

  “Where would you go?”

  “Away. Somewhere Brodeur wasn’t.”

  Roeglin’s intervention was unexpected.

  “He would miss you.”

  That brought her to sudden stillness, followed by just a little hope.

  “He would?”

  “Oh, yes. He would. He misses you now.”

  “He does?” Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “How do you know?”

  Roeglin looked at her, his eyes returning to their usual shade of green.

  “How do you think?”

  Ines looked mortified.

  “You didn’t…”

  Roeglin smirked.

  “What else was I going to do? The city needs you. You needed to know. He needs his family to be safe.”

  He looked at Gustav, clearly leaving the decision in the emissary’s hands although it was obvious what they needed to do. The Protector captain sighed.

  “Very well. We’ll take your detour and see what we can do.”

  The councilor breathed a sigh of relief, taking Gustav’s hand as she rose from her seat.

  “Thank you,” she said, shaking it. “Thank you very much.”

  As Gustav rose with her, there was a knock at the door—and Marsh remembered Gustav’s request to Per.

  “You’d best sit down again,” she told them. “Daniel’s in a foul enough mood already.”

  Her words brought sudden realization to Gustav’s face and he froze, keeping the councilor’s hand captive. The knock came again and he turned to her, the pleading look on his face almost comical.

  “Councilor…”

  “Ines,” she corrected and resumed her seat with a smile, “and yes, I would be honored to join you for lunch.”

  Gustav gave a sigh of relief and followed her example.

  “Come in!” he called, and Daniel arrived with the food he’d requested.

  The look he gave them said he was glad to find them still present, and Marsh breathed a silent thanks to the Depths for the councilor’s understanding. Exactly how her unpredictable cousin would have reacted if he’d found them all on the brink of leaving, she hated to think. Lunch was eaten with swift efficiency and no speech, but it was eaten. Daniel would have no complaints.

  When they were done, Ines cast an anxious glance at the door.

  “Do you think it’s safe to go now?” she asked, and Marsh knew the woman wasn’t trying to rush them.

  Gustav followed her look, and then he pushed back his chair and stood, offering the councilor his arm.

  “I think so. Let me accompany you downstairs.”

  Ines smiled and rose to accept his offer.

  “Thank you,” she said, and Marsh watched them leave.

  Once they were gone, she and Roeglin gathered the dishes and took them down to the kitchen. Daniel looked up as they entered.

  “How was it?”

  “Very good, thank you,” Marsh told him, and Roeglin nodded a hasty agreement before he left.

  Daniel caught Marsh’s hesitancy and frowned.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m heading out shortly. Just wanted to say goodbye.”

  His frown deepened.

  “How long will you be gone?” he asked, and Marsh caught a hint of anxiety in his tone.

  In reality, he wasn’t asking her how long she’d be gone. He was really asking her if she’d be coming back, and they both knew it. Marsh’s mind raced, calculating the journey to Brodeur’s sister’s place and then to Mika’s Outlet and back. She tried to guess at how long it would take to sort the difficulties between the emerging mage and their family and decided four days was likely.

  At least, she hoped four days was all it was going to take. Anything longer meant trouble they hadn’t expected, and she didn’t want to think of what form that might take.

  “Seven days,” she said, factoring in the travel time before clarifying. “Seven days, six nights from now, okay?”

  From the look on his face, it really wasn’t okay, but they both knew it couldn’t be helped.

  “Anything you want me to get you while I’m out there?” she asked, knowing there were a lot of ingredients that could only be gathered in the cavern outside the Ledge’s walls.

  When Daniel turned away from her, she thought she’d upset him more than she’d meant to, but he merely crossed to a bench and reached out for a notepad hanging on the wall above it.

  “These,” he said, tearing off the top page and handing it to her. “Don’t lose the list. I’ll need to copy what’s missing when you ge
t back.”

  Marsh was about to ask him if he wanted to copy it while she was still there, but Gustav’s bellow reached them before she could speak.

  “Shadow Mage Leclerc!”

  She rolled her eyes, tucking the list into her pocket.

  “Sorry, Dan. Got to run.” She hurried over to embrace him in an awkwardly-returned hug. “Be safe until I get back, okay?”

  She didn’t wait for him to reply but rushed back to the door leading into the dining hall. His answer reached her just as she stepped through it to the room beyond.

  “You too.”

  The tears hidden in those two words brought a lump to Marsh’s throat, and it was all she could do not to turn back. Some of what she was feeling must have shown on her face, though, because her uncle hurried over to engulf her in a swift hug.

  “I’ll take care of him,” he told her. “You take care of yourself.”

  The lump grew larger, blocking her voice, so Marsh nodded and hugged him back. When she could clear her throat, she said, “You too, Per. I’ll see you in a week.”

  His eyebrows rose.

  “A week?” He glanced toward the kitchen. “Is that what you told him?”

  “Seven days, six nights,” Marsh confirmed, and heard Roeglin groan while Gustav slapped a palm to his forehead.

  “Great. Now we have a deadline.”

  Marsh wanted to know why that should bother them and Roeglin replied, “Because, if we take any longer, that stubborn, over-dramatic son-of-the-Deep is going to come looking, and none of us want him doing that.”

  “I heard that,” echoed out of the kitchen, and Roeglin made a sound of exasperation.

  He didn’t get to say anything else before Henri, Jakob, and the three shadow guards arrived.

  “Mules are prepped,” Henri reported.

  “We even snagged a couple as pack beasts,” Izmay added, shooting a look at Per. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  The stationmaster had reached the kitchen door. He shrugged.

  “They all need the run,” he said. “Take what you need, but leave at least three in case I need them.”

  “Will do,” Izmay replied, and Marsh caught the faint sense of relief beneath her words. She was curious about what the woman might consider to be “a couple.”

  Half a dozen.

  Marsh surveyed the mules tethered to the hitching rail in the courtyard and wondered exactly how much of a fight the woman had expected from Per. Gustav looked from mules to the guard and back again.