There is a mind mage inside the walls. Master Envermet came straight to the point. Here is where he suggests we go to discover what they plan.
They studied it, and then Roeglin voiced the question Marsh was thinking. Are you sure he’s on our side?
As sure as I can be. Either way, this is the only place he can be sure of having enough shadow for us to step to. It is also close to the wall between where they are keeping the captives and their headquarters. If we want to mind-walk the plans they have for Ariella’s Grotto, that would be the place to start.
Marsh looked at the other mages crouched in the shadows at the edge of the sunlit space beneath the sinkhole’s maw. What about them?
Roeglin...
Marsh might have guessed what Envermet was ordering, but she was sure of it from the look of denial on Henri’s face. He shook his head, and Marsh ignored the demand he made by tapping his head with his finger. There was no way she was going in there to be shouted at.
She pretended to misunderstand him, tapping her own forehead with her forefinger and raising it in salute.
He is furious, Roeglin told her. Apparently, he promised Aisha he would keep you out of trouble. She promised him a tea party in return—and you were catering, by the way.
Marsh smiled. That little devil.
That opportunistic Deeps-spawned son, Roeglin corrected, and Marsh poked him.
Not jealous, are you?
Master Envermet cleared his throat. As entertaining as this is, shall we?
Marsh and Roeglin nodded, accepting the location his contact gave them. This time, they stayed close together and stepped into the deep shade cast by a long-solidified rockfall. They came out together and immediately pulled more shadow around them.
This is not... Master Envermet began as a half-dozen lanterns lit the space they’d crossed into.
You don’t say? Roeglin snapped as Marsh pulled a shield and sword from the shadows.
Only it wasn’t made of shadow. Like the time she’d called weapon and defense on the Surface, the shield and blade were translucent. It didn’t worry Marsh, though. They might be hard to see, but they were still just as effective.
She proved it as soon as the nearest raider stepped in with a short metal bar. He swung. She blocked, and the bar bounced off her shield. Her sword’s point sliced through the leather armor covering his midriff and he fell screaming.
How are you doing that? Master Envermet demanded, not at all daunted by the rule of not intruding without permission. I’m the captain.
Marsh didn’t think that applied, but she didn’t argue. She just showed him what she knew.
Our shadow blades and shields are made of the air in the shadow?
Oui.
Roeglin laughed, pulling a spear from the light and driving it through the man that turned his attention from him to deal with Marsh. He left it to dissipate on its own and pulled another, spotting the mage on the other side of the room.
”You’re next,” he said, driving the spear into the next raider.
“Shag the shrooms,” Master Envermet cursed, drawing several darts from thin air. I wanted him alive.
He threw the first dart and followed it with a second and third.
Us alive is better, Roeglin snapped back.
Marsh, in the meantime, had stopped the screaming and taken out a second of the waiting raiders. Roeglin took down a fourth, and Master Envermet blocked an attack from the fifth. Before he could switch from darts to something more effective, Marsh had stepped over the bodies of her opponents and taken him out.
He growled in frustration, but it did him no good. Roeglin took out the sixth. When the raiders lay dead at their feet, they picked up the dropped lanterns and covered their light.
That was unpleasant, Roeglin told him, and Master Envermet shrugged.
He’s obviously had more practice at shielding.
Do you think he had time to tell them about our people outside? Marsh asked.
Both men cursed, but quietly.
Can you check?
At first, Marsh didn’t get what Roeglin was driving at, and then she did. I am ten times the fool.
Roeglin raised his hand. I didn’t say it.
Marsh took a deep breath and closed her eyes, first seeking out the life forces in the area. Once she had, she frowned. “Where is everyone?” she asked, and the two men were inside her head in an instant.
“Oh, Sons of the Deep.” Roeglin groaned, and Master Envermet reverted to some of Gustav’s favorite phrases.
“Of all the goat-sucking, shroom-shagging, Deeps-be-damned misbegotten sons.” He glared at Marsh as though it was all her fault. “Where did they go?”
Marsh thought about it and studied the results her life scans had brought back. “What about him?” she asked, highlighting one in their minds.
Master Envermet looked at Roeglin. “What do you think?”
“It’s up to you.”
Marsh poked Roeglin. “Will one of you just do it?” She paused. “Unless you want me to...”
The response was instantaneous. “No, no, no,” from Master Envermet, and “I’ll do it,” from Roeglin.
Marsh smirked. It had to be one of them. If she went in, he might not have a mind left to answer the questions they needed him to. She might be able to bend the shadows to her will, but the mind was another matter.
She studied the movement of the life forces both inside the Grotto’s waystation and the town proper and outside it. It was a relief to see no great concentration of life moving toward the scattered lives of the other shadow mages waiting at the edge of the light.
“Where did they go?” she whispered, and Roeglin came back with the answer.
“They’re moving on Shamka, bringing in a larger force through the caverns behind it.”
“But they said there wasn’t a link to the surface world,” Marsh protested.
“They didn’t find it, but it’s there. The raiders probed until they found it...and then they offered the cavern clan rulership of the Grotto in return for their silence.”
“Sons of the...” Marsh began, but Roeglin lifted his hand.
“It gets better.”
“Well, it could hardly get any worse.”
“Exactly what I meant by better,” Roeglin told her, but he wasn’t smiling, and there wasn’t a thing he found funny about what he said next. “They’ve found a tunnel that takes them close to Bisambe.”
“How close?” Master Envermet’s voice was very calm.
“Rock-mage close.”
“I will let Sulema know. Where is the force you saw arrive?”
“Almost at Shamka. We crossed paths but didn’t know it.”
“Do you have a contact there?”
“Yes.”
“Warn them. Marsh, stand watch.”
“Sir,” she replied, but he was gone before she responded, and he and Roeglin stayed silent for several heartbeats as they warned their respective targets.
“Done,” Roeglin said, emerging, and Master Envermet opened his eyes.
“We’re to go to Shamka and try to hold them long enough for reinforcements to reach them.”
“What about the raiders in the tunnels?”
“We save Shamka, we can come at them from two directions. Sulema has enough rock mages to hold them.”
“And she has Aisha,” Marsh added and felt Master Envermet dip shamelessly into her skull.
Rather than resist, she showed the memory of what Aisha had done to keep the shadow monsters from pursuing another batch of escaped prisoners. He was both impressed and horrified. “How old is she?”
“Five, but she will tell you she’s six.”
“I think you’ll find she’s right,” Master Envermet told her, and then added, “as of four days ago.”
“How do you know that?”
“I found their birth records.”
Marsh’s heart plummeted. “But I’ve missed her birthday!”
She managed to st
ifle that last to a strangled whisper, and Roeglin laid a hand on her knee. “We all missed her birthday, and we will all make it up to her. Even Tamlin forgot.”
“It’s not like we have a calendar,” Marsh reminded him, to which Master Envermet had only one reply.
“No, but we do have a rendezvous. Let’s get back to the others.”
21
Cubs, Kits and Kids
The others had already started heading for Shamka when they reached the spot where they’d left them. Roeglin, Marsh, and Captain Envermet slid from shadow to shadow until they caught up.
“Why are you running?” the captain shouted. “Shadow-step. Grab your partners, and make sure they get there with you.”
He turned to Roeglin as he leapt for the next patch of shadow. “You told them?”
Roeglin shrugged. “The sooner they got moving, the sooner we could remind them to use the shadows like the shadow mages they are.”
“It’s new for them,” Marsh reminded them, and they both grinned.
“It’s new for us, too.”
“What’s the plan?” Henri asked when they all emerged at one spot.
“We take them on any way we can,” Captain Envermet told them. “Hit-and-run tactics. We whittle them down and keep them distracted from their objective as best we can.”
“And then we go get Gustav, yeah?”
Marsh would have stared if she hadn’t been so busy concentrating on the life forces around them. Roeglin, we’ve almost reached the rear.
I’ll let everyone know—and the battle plan, too, he added, glancing at Captain Envermet.
“Yes. Hit them hard, but don’t stand there for them to hit you back. There are more of them than us, and we only have one healer. Don’t lose her.”
He tapped Marsh on the shoulder. “Don’t put yourself in a position to get killed.”
As if he could stop her, Marsh thought.
“I’m sure Mistress Sulema could find a task that makes latrine duty look like a very good time,” Master Envermet told her, and she subsided.
He raised his voice. “Stay with your partners. Kill them all. We can’t afford mercy.”
Marsh tried not to think of the raiders ahead of her as men and women. That part would come later, and she would deal with it then. Right now, there was a little girl learning to wield the shadow of her mother’s sword and a father who had lost too much already.
Those were the people she had to worry about, not the ones attacking them. She thought of Aisha and Tamlin. She had to kill these guys fast, and then she remembered.
Roeglin?
He saw what was in her mind. Merde. Captain!
Already done. He came to stand beside Marsh. I’ve warned Shamka too. They’re taking shelter, but I don’t know what the lightning will do to buildings, so try not to walk it into the town.
There are healers in Shamka, right? Marsh asked.
She tried to hide what she intended from Roeglin, but he caught it anyway.
Marsh, we can’t be sure there’s a healer close enough for that.
I have to get to Aisha.
You can’t do that if you’re dead, Roeglin retorted, and Master Envermet intervened.
I concur. Take out as many as you can, but don’t drain yourself dry. There aren’t enough of us to keep you safe, and I don’t want to be explaining to either of those children that you killed yourself trying to reach them. Understood?
Marsh nodded and the shadow captain gave her a long, hard stare.
Good, because I can see the state of your head, and I will put you out myself.
Merde.
Roeglin heard her and laughed.
Take them out, Marsh.
She focused on the shadows, feeling the energy flowing through them and calling it out, directing it toward the life forces she knew were the raiders moving ahead of them. As she unleashed it, she saw a small gleam of life break free of another larger one and race straight toward the enemy lines...and she knew without a doubt exactly who she was seeing.
She directed the lightning back, sparing the first two lines of raiders and the tiny life now calling a shadow blade from the darkness and screaming defiance while her father desperately tried to catch up. He grabbed her just as the first raider came in range of her sword, pulling her back.
Marsh watched as she screamed and flailed. By then he had been joined by half a dozen more men and women. One took the girl and passed her back to someone else, shielding her from the raiders and deflecting their attacks on themselves.
Marsh kept the lightning static, concentrating on making sure she knew exactly where the raiders’ life forces were and where those of the villagers could be found. Ahead of her and on either side, the other shadow mages spread out, making sure none of the raiders made it through to her or beyond them.
I will not have them roaming the caverns Master Envermet declared. I will not have them threatening our allies.
Marsh remembered the aftermath of the raiders in the tunnel and could not force it from her mind. As she directed the lightning to take these raiders down, images from the tunnel flickered through her mind...and not just the tunnel.
“Oh, Shadow’s Heart,” she whispered and the lightning wavered.
It’s okay, Marsh, you can let it go. You’ve evened the odds. Envermet’s words were comforting, but Marsh didn’t know if she could trust them.
He shook her gently. Stand down, Leclerc.
As gentle as that order was, there was a hint of iron to it. Marsh stopped.
“Tell it to go back,” Roeglin said. “Tell it everything’s okay and thank it for its service.”
“Yes,” Marsh murmured and focused on the lightning, pushing her worry for the children aside. “Thank you, shadows. You can rest now.”
She concentrated on calming thoughts and sending it back to the ceiling. “Thank you.”
There weren’t many raiders left. At least, not of this force.
We can’t go yet, Captain Envermet told her. We have to make sure the town can hold against anyone else that might come against it.
Understood.
The curtness of her reply earned a sharp look, but a small group of raiders were trying to get past them, and there was no way in all the Deeps that any of them were letting them get away. After that group, there was another, and then a third, then Mordan roared a warning, both inside and outside her head.
Marsh hit the floor, bringing Roeglin down beside her. The quarrel meant for her heart buried itself in a nearby calla shroom. Marsh rolled to one side and Roeglin rolled to the other.
Who have you pissed off?
Marsh watched another group of raiders race past them. I wonder...
But Roeglin wasn’t having a bar of it.
If he was part of the raiders, he’d had plenty of other opportunities to get close. As it was, he chose when she was either helpless or busy.
Not necessarily.
Yeah, she had to admit Roeglin had a point. Her would-be assassin had vanished after his first attack at Bisambe and hadn’t returned, and neither she nor Mordan had touched him. That didn’t mean he wasn’t part of the raiders.
The kat growled through her skull. Mordan was going to do more than touch him. Mordan was going to shred him, and then she was going to shred all the little pieces...and then she was going to find out where her cub and her pup had gone and the human that went with them.
Scan, Marsh, Roeglin urged, when Marsh froze.
Scruffy and Perdemor were missing?
And your cubs cannot be found, the kat replied tartly. The four of them are up to mischief and we have not been able to stop them.
Her cubs?
The kat reinforced the idea by showing her images of Tamlin and Aisha.
All our cubs!
Roeglin pushed himself sideways, slamming into Marsh in a half-dive and half-roll and flipping her over and then under him. Before she had time to protest, he’d drawn a dome of shadow over them, shielding them from another
attack.
I’ll talk to Mistress Sulema, Captain Envermet said. You will have answers.
The shell boomed around them, the sound of it sending a dull echo through her bones.
“Marsh, you need to find the assassin. Try using the life sense.”
“I don’t even know if it will work. I don’t think it did last time.”
“Try anyway.” Again the shield boomed, and Marsh stilled.
It was hard to concentrate on the glowing patches of life around her when she was worried sick about Aisha and Tamlin.
“You and me both, Marsh.”
She took a deep breath and sent her senses outward. It didn’t take her long to locate the remaining raiders, and Envermet took those locations from her mind, sending them to the nearest shadow mages to deal with.
“Find him, Marsh,” Roeglin urged, and this time she was able to focus.
At first, she didn’t see him, and then she did.
“How is he doing that?” she wanted to know.
“It doesn’t matter,” Roeglin told her, sounding very satisfied. “Mordan’s got him now.”
Panic surged through Marsh. “She can’t! What if she gets hurt?”
“She won’t. She won’t, Marsh. Master Envermet is with her.”
More panic flared. “What if he—”
Roeglin laid a hand over her mouth. “He won’t. He’s... He’ll be all right.”
But Marsh pulled the thought right out of his head...or part of it. “What do you mean he’s done this before?”
“It’s a long story.”
And it’s not yours to tell.
Marsh looked down at Roeglin, but he shook his head. “You heard the man.”
She leaned her head against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her.
Master Envermet’s voice was an unwanted intrusion. You can come out now.
They came out and Master Envermet dumped the assassin at their feet, Mordan looking askance as he claimed her kill. Marsh sent gratitude along her link to the kat. She knew who’d really made the kill.
Mordan gave Master Envermet a pained look and Marsh did a double-take. He had made the kill? She studied the body of the assassin more closely. This one was almost exactly like the last, but he also wasn’t the last—at least, not as Marsh remembered him.
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 118