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

  Marsh might have found it funny if she wasn’t having enough trouble of her own. Two raiders had turned into three, and then four. She’d backed up to a clump of calla shrooms but couldn’t be sure how long it would take for someone to work out they could fit a blade or staff between the trunks. Once they did that, she’d be gone.

  She could hear people fighting farther up the trail and guessed Henri and Jakob were in trouble. Dan.

  She felt a faint affirmative down their connection and knew the kat was heading in to help them. She hoped Jakob remembered to set his blade alight and was relieved to see Gustav had already done so. The man might not have a lot of magic, but he certainly knew how to use the little he had.

  It would have been better if he’d been able to work out how to call the shadows, but she didn’t remember him trying, just the fire. That was something she’d have to follow up later. Right now, she had to figure out how to survive.

  Izmay shouted from somewhere behind her, and Marsh hoped that didn’t mean the female mage had been hurt. She also worried about how the children were doing. If this ambush had been waiting, did that mean there had been another at the ruins?

  Focus! Roeglin was gritting his teeth as he tried to regain his feet, and his warning came too late.

  Someone worked out there were spaces between the calla. The sudden pain of a staff tip being rammed into the back of her thigh jolted Marsh back to the fight. Her leg buckled but she pulled her head to one side fast enough that the second blow missed it and crashed into her shoulder instead. It wasn’t much better.

  Her arm went numb, and she let go of her sword. The raider on her sword side grinned and came in, both sticks whirling. Marsh called another shield from the shadow. She didn’t bother trying to strap it to her arm, just hung it between them to take the brunt of the attacks.

  It was a stopgap measure, and she knew it. She was down, and just hadn’t been gracious enough to concede it.

  “Two chances,” she murmured, and the raider on her shield side also smiled.

  “No chances,” he told her, slamming one of the sticks into her shield while sweeping the other one in a vertical downward arc and smashing the tip into her ankle.

  “Poutain!”

  “Not your fate.”

  Marsh wished she knew what he meant by that, but all she got from his mind was a glimpse of an old stone building, its windows and doors boarded up. Sunlight shone off its yellow stone walls, and he was terrified of it.

  Where is that?

  That’s something we want to find out on our own terms, not theirs, Roeglin answered, and then cried out in pain.

  Marsh looked toward him, dropping her shield for just a moment. That time, she saw the stick come arcing in and got the shield back up in time to block it. The hand that caught her armor by the back of the neck and pulled her against the calla shrooms brought with it the business end of a blade pressed against her lower back.

  “Drop everything.”

  It was hard not to keep fighting, but Marsh did her best, freezing in his grip.

  “Everything,” was accompanied by an increase in pressure and the realization he’d found a gap in her armor. Cloth tore, and the tip of the blade found flesh.

  Marsh gasped and dropped the shields.

  “Better.”

  As he said it, Marsh heard the screeching yowl of a kat hunting...but it didn’t belong to Mordan. A second screech followed, this time accompanied by a scream. Marsh tensed and was pushed abruptly forward.

  She stumbled but still managed to avoid the sticks that came crashing toward her head. She also managed to stay on her feet and pull another shield from the dark. There was no point in trying to grab a sword. Her arm hung uselessly by her side in need of healing.

  Using the shield, she plowed a path past the raider on her left, maneuvering until she was clear of the three of them. If they hadn’t been more focused on the chaos happening on the other side of the trail, she’d have never gotten through.

  Ro?

  I’m here. Marsh caught the thought that he didn’t know how long for.

  Dan!

  Busy, and Marsh caught the impression of blood and blades, of prey running when she didn’t force it to stop and fight back. Busy was one word for it, and the kat was going to need help.

  But only soon. Marsh worked her way behind a thick clump of brevilars and checked her surroundings. The battle still raged, but there was no one in sight. Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she leaned on one of the shrooms and wrapped the shadows around herself.

  When she was still sure she was alone, she laid one hand on her injured shoulder. Even that light pressure made her wince, but she waited for the initial flare of pain to die and then sought the living energy around her, being careful to borrow only a little of the brevilar’s golden light.

  Redirecting it as healing, she stifled a gasp as warmth flowed into her shoulder. It was different healing herself. This time, she could feel where it hurt and direct the energy toward it, willing the magic to set right what was wrong.

  The warmth of it traveled from her shoulder into her arm. It flowed across her back and neck and over her collarbone, and then it faded. Marsh thanked it and sent back what she hadn’t used, returning it to the fungi and creatures around her.

  Creatures? She opened her eyes.

  The toadstools just outside the brevilars’ light rippled and shook, but the creature was gone.

  Sound crashed back over her, shouts and the clash of swords, and she remembered Roeglin. Reforming the shadows around her into sword and shield, Marsh concentrated on finding him.

  Here. His voice was weak, even in her mind.

  Marsh twisted the magic she used to detect life forces around her and just sought his. The other lives faded out, and she found him lying not far from where she’d almost been captured.

  Almost? The question made Marsh smile. At least he was still able to give her a hard time.

  Just hurry.

  She did, but carefully, pulling more shadow so she could slip past combatants with less chance of drawing their attention.

  I am here, she told him, dropping down beside him.

  She felt the air move behind her and flattened herself over his body. A sword whistled through the space she’d occupied, and she pulled the shield into a dome over them. Channeling the shadow that had failed to conceal her into it, she enclosed them and pushed herself off him.

  He groaned, and she forced herself to ignore it as she inspected his body for injury.

  “Let’s see what you’ve done to yourself,” she murmured, surprised to find the sounds of battle fading as the dome finished forming.

  He coughed. Laughing hurt.

  “And I shouldn’t know that,” Marsh told him. “Now hush.”

  She moved her hands across him, only finding the wound when she slid her fingers under his back. He shuddered as she touched the rent in his armor and felt the gaping rent that continued into flesh.

  “Damn,” she muttered, then turned him onto his other side and worked her hands under the armor until she found the wound.

  Not...the...only...one, Roeglin managed, his mind filtering between wakefulness and darkness.

  “The magic will find it,” Marsh reassured him, and focused on the life force around it. Too anxious to try to separate it, she borrowed from it all, channeling it into the injury and then asking the magic to seek out and repair anything else Roeglin had broken.

  Hey! The protest ended in a groan and a short cry of pain as bone shifted.

  Marsh caught a flash of white, followed by a brief span of dark.

  “Deeps, that hurt almost as bad as when it first happened.”

  “You’re just lucky you fell over so fast.”

  “I did not. I...” He closed his mouth and moved cautiously into a crouch.

  That didn’t stop Marsh from catching just how hard he’d fought to reach her.

  “No wonder they broke so much.”

  “You
’re Deeps-be-damned welcome,” he grumbled and tapped the inside of the dome. “You wanna drop this so we can go help the rest. I thought I saw Gustav taking on four of them, and his sword was well and truly alight.”

  Marsh nodded. “Shield ready?” she asked, pulling one for herself as she stretched a hand toward the dark wall surrounding them.

  He gave an exasperated sigh. “Yes, Maman.”

  “Ingrate,” she snapped, dispelling the dome with a swift swipe of her hand.

  They rose quickly, their shields knocking aside the half-dozen blades that greeted them but not stopping the spears that appeared to threaten them from three different directions. Marsh let the shadows go and slowly raised her hands.

  “Oh, yeah, that worked just fine,” Roeglin snarked, and she rolled her eyes.

  “Well, it worked better than your plan.”

  Laughter rippled, and the spears faded. The fierce anger on Izmay’s face faded to relief, an expression that was mirrored by those around them. The sword blades were lifted away. There were a half-dozen faces Marsh didn’t recognize, and several more she knew from Shamka.

  She scanned them all but didn’t see the two she was looking for.

  “Where’s Henri?”

  Izmay shook her head, her face clouding with worry. “We were hoping you were with them.”

  “Sons of the Deep,” she breathed and bolted for the tunnel.

  “Merde,” Roeglin echoed, catching the memory of Jakob and Henri running for the tunnel, Mordan in their wake.

  Dan? Marsh called, but the link between them didn’t work and her innards twisted with worry. Dan?

  “Scan for them,” Gustav ordered, his voice rough.

  The strangers fell in around them and he made no objection, not even when one of them was no taller than Aisha. Marsh thought she recognized her, but she was scooped up by one of the men running with them and set on his shoulders before Marsh could be sure.

  Marsh kept running, but her mind worried at who would let a child on a battlefield.

  And you don’t?

  That’s different.

  Roeglin laughed.

  Mina brought the shroomkats, he told her. She saved our lives.

  Well, whatever Mina had done, her presence reminded Marsh that Aisha and Tamlin were elsewhere...and that she didn’t know how they were faring...and that she couldn’t go and help them.

  Help here, Roeglin told her. The raiders will try to capture them first.

  Before they try killing them? Marsh snapped, but she didn’t stop, hitting the entrance to the tunnel at a dead run as her stomach churned with anxiety.

  The scan showed nothing in the first stretch: no Mordan, no bodies, no one waiting in ambush. The reason became apparent as soon as they rounded a sharp bend.

  Marsh caught a glimpse of the rock face with barely time to turn side-on. She hit hard and bounced back into Roeglin. “Merde.”

  “Bet you wish you’d brought Aisha now.” He teased, eyeing the stone in frustration.

  “Henri and Jakob are in trouble,” Marsh said, “and I can’t feel Mordan.”

  Roeglin laid a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find a way around.”

  “Why?” Gustav asked, coming to a halt behind them. His armor was torn in several places, and Marsh wondered just how badly he’d been injured when the force from Shamka had arrived.

  We didn’t come from Shamka. Tabia’s voice intruded in her head. We came from Haven. Shani dreamt there was need. Her voice grew heavy with grief. I did not think she dreamt the need was yours or that Khalifa had already fallen.

  “You had friends here?”

  Tabia answered her out loud. “You could say that,” and in her head, My lover.

  She gestured toward the wall and looked back. “Lekan, Mosi, Bahati, you’re up.”

  16

  Retrieval

  Marsh and Roeglin stepped aside, flanking the druids as they worked. They slipped through the parting stone as soon as the gap was wide enough.

  “Scan.” Gustav’s reminder slid after them, adding sibilance to the tunnel, and Marsh woke the magic that would let her do exactly that.

  Behind her, the mages sent the rock face back into the walls that had spawned it, and the rest of them followed. She tried not to let the sound of their footsteps distract her, searching ahead, hoping to find the three lives she had come to save. Any more would be a bonus.

  She caught a sense of them just as Roeglin reached out and laid a hand on her chest.

  They’re ahead.

  Well, she knew that the bright flare of human life hadn’t slipped past her. She shifted to take a closer look at what the shadow threads touched and slowed to an almost complete halt.

  Tell them... she began and stopped as she registered the sudden silence behind her.

  Already done. Roeglin was smirking. She could tell that without even looking at the man.

  Smartass.

  Concentrate.

  She knew then that he was taking what she saw and relaying it directly to the mind mages behind them...and to Gustav.

  Seriously. You have to focus.

  And he seriously had to shut his mouth, or she’d never understand what it was that she was seeing.

  Ahead of her, the tunnel widened into a low-ceilinged cavern with the trail running through the middle. She got that. There were two distinct groups in the cavern, and she got that too, even if one of those groups was split into three clusters.

  The prisoners from the Grotto proper were held at bay by the loaded crossbows aimed at them from three directions. What Marsh didn’t understand was the raider standing between them.

  He had his back to the prisoners, his hands upraised as though trying to placate the crossbowmen.

  “Please,” he begged. “We don’t have to do this. We can just leave them here and come back for them.”

  “They’ll be free by then,” one of the other raiders snarled. “Better we leave their bodies as a lesson to those that followed.”

  A despairing moan flowed through the prisoners, and several adults turned to shelter the children beside them.

  “If you leave them, we can recapture them later. Their remaining forces cannot stand against the army we’ve been sent.”

  “If we leave survivors, more will resist.”

  “Not true,” the raider argued, glancing back at the children being sheltered closest. His voice broke. “Please...”

  The raider leader lifted his crossbow.

  “No.”

  His quiet rejection was echoed in Marsh’s shout as she charged forward, sighting on a patch of darkness at the end of one of the shadow threads. Behind her, Tabia’s soldiers and druids broke into a run.

  Marsh leapt into a deeper piece of shadow against the tunnel wall and willed herself to come out in the place she’d seen via the shadow threads. Roeglin’s expletive followed her through the shift.

  “Shag the Deep!”

  She might have laughed, but she’d arrived. This time she didn’t bother with a sword and shield. Instead, she demanded the lightning from the darkness at cavern’s ceiling, bringing it down on the raiders farthest from her.

  “Get down!” she screamed, hoping the villagers would pay attention. There was no way she could stop all the crossbow bolts aimed at them, but this way, they’d at least have a chance.

  You can’t, but I can, Roeglin said, coming through the shadows behind her. He created a wall of shadow between the villagers and the raiders. It split the cavern in two, the three groups of raiders on one side and the villagers and the protesting raider on the other.

  Marsh kept her attention on the lightning, drawing it closer to where she was standing as men fell screaming before it. The raiders’ leader looked from her to the men being shattered and pivoted, altering the crossbow’s aim.

  Marsh sidestepped as other raiders followed their captain’s lead. She was so much toasted-shroom she didn’t want to think about it, but there was one last thing she could do.

/>   Instead of walking the lightning slowly forward, she called more lightning from the ceiling. She was vaguely aware of Roeglin’s shout of alarm and the sound of crossbows being fired. Somewhere in the distance, she also heard Gustav’s panicked shout.

  “Halt! Halt! For the Deeps’ sake, STOP!”

  As his cry reached her ears, Roeglin flung himself over her, dragging her down to the floor and encasing them in darkness.

  You are shroom-shaggingly insane, and we are going to talk about your temper later!

  Temper? Marsh didn’t think her temper had come into it. She’d done what she’d needed to do to stop the raiders from killing the villagers. From taking down Gustav and Tabia and their people as they came into the cavern. From... Okay, she hadn’t stopped them from killing her.

  No, I did that. Didn’t Roeglin sound just too pissed for words? You have no idea.

  Marsh wished he really was too pissed for words because then she wouldn’t have to listen to the tirade she knew was coming, but Roeglin had other things on his mind.

  Do you think you can turn the lightning off now?

  Like it was a tap, but Roeglin’s request was echoed by Tabia. Please turn off the lightning. We can’t tend to the wounded until you do. Then she heard Gustav.

  “I am going to kick her Deeps-begotten ass all the way from the Devastation to the Deeps-be-damned Deeps!”

  Wow. You sure know how to impress a guy, Roeglin told her, and it didn’t help that he was laughing.

  Even with the dome pressing down around them, his amusement was almost infectious, and Marsh caught herself smiling. She rolled her eyes. She was in so much trouble.

  “You have no idea.”

  Marsh remembered the outraged frustration in Gustav’s voice and the consternation in Tabia’s tones. “Yeah, I think I do.”

  Roeglin caught a little of what she was thinking and agreed. “True, but you saved them, which is more than any of the rest of us could do.”

  “Weren’t you the one who blocked the crossbow fire?”