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

  I’ll let you go, Roeglin informed them.

  To Marsh, it was like he stepped back through an invisible door and pulled it closed behind him. One minute he was there, the next he was gone. The sudden pang of loss hit hard and threatened to linger. She shoved it aside as Mordan dragged her back to her own head.

  There is no time. Your mate will be waiting as he usually does.

  As he usually did? Marsh wondered what Mordan meant by that, but the kat didn’t give her time to ask. She caught sight of Master Envermet’s startled expression as the door to the meeting space closed between them.

  Mordan!

  The kat dropped her in the center of her mind. We must fetch the cub. She is needed, Mordan repeated and drew her tongue up one side of Marsh’s face.

  Coughing at the smell of the big kat’s breath, Marsh batted Mordan’s face away as she opened her eyes.

  “All right, Dan! I’m coming. I’m here. Give it a minute!” She struggled to her feet, using the kat for support.

  Funny, she remembered being on her feet when Master Envermet had drawn her into the meeting.

  The woman who’d brought her up the stairs rose out of a nearby rocking chair, clicking her tongue softly. “I hope I caught you in time,” she said almost sympathetically. “That was quite a tumble you took.”

  She’d caught her? Marsh arched her eyebrows, registering several points of pain. “Are you okay?”

  The woman laughed. “You’re not that heavy,” she explained, “and I’m stronger than I look.”

  She indicated Master Envermet, now blinking his way back to reality. “That one usually leans on the glass until he’s done. I wondered why you didn’t.”

  Marsh scowled at the shadow captain. “No one warned me I needed to,” she grumbled, not mentioning that she’d probably fallen when the two shadow-mind mages had started teaching her how to block.

  Not everyone needed to know she was developing that kind of magic as well.

  “Thank you for catching me.”

  Mordan bounded toward the stairs, making more noise than she needed to.

  Marsh started after her. “If you’ll excuse me?”

  The woman nodded, and Marsh broke into a run. Behind her, she heard Master Envermet making his farewells. “Mistress Olderman.”

  Oh, so that was the town leader’s wife. Well, that explained the house. Founder’s privilege, Marsh guessed.

  She hit the street on Mordan’s tail. The kat didn’t look back but headed for the community hall at a run. Aisha met them at the door, Tamlin in tow.

  “What is it?” the boy demanded, helping his sister scramble onto the kat’s back.

  “Henri needs us,” Marsh told him. She caught blurred images of a fight, swords gleaming softly in the starlight, shouting, and blood. “He found some raiders.”

  There were gasps from around her, then a general scramble as the nearest warriors picked up weapons, tightened armor straps, and followed them down the streets.

  “How far, Dan?” Tamlin demanded, and Marsh wished she’d thought to ask the same question.

  The kat gave her the impression of darkness and chasms made from fallen buildings.

  “It’s okay, Dan. We’ll follow you.” Tamlin tried to reassure the hosh when he sensed the answers through the link he had with Marsh.

  The kat stopped her broadcast, trotting faster as though mindful of the child clinging to her back. Marsh wondered if the big beast wouldn’t have preferred to carry the child like one of its cubs and felt Mordan’s agreement and regret that human physiology made that an impossibility.

  She was glad Master Envermet had run with them. If there were as many raiders as Mordan’s images indicated, they were going to need all the help they could get.

  “The villagers didn’t know there was a raiding party so close,” Obasi informed them. “They thought the previous one was the last one they’d see before winter, and then we arrived, and they thought it would be the last one they ever saw.”

  Marsh grunted an acknowledgment, and they ran in silence. Henri had traveled far in his hunt. Marsh wondered if any of the druids and warriors who had gone with him were hurt.

  Mordan sent an assurance that when she’d left, the big troublemaking male was the only one who’d been stupid enough to get himself hurt. There was more to it than that, but the kat wasn’t sharing, so Marsh left it alone. There’d be time enough later to dig it out.

  Judging by the brief denial that flashed across the kat’s mind, that wasn’t guaranteed. Marsh wondered why Mordan felt she should be embarrassed. It wasn’t as if the kat would have needed saving.

  Oh.

  Mordan spared enough of a mental presence to hiss at her before giving the external world her full attention. Marsh got the impression the kat would rather forget the whole incident and knew very well that Henri wouldn’t let her.

  “Are we nearly there?” The breathless question brought her back to the present, and she realized Izmay was running beside her.

  Mordan?

  The kat’s replay was instantaneous. Close.

  “Almost.”

  “Is he badly hurt?” Izmay’s next question was breathless with more than the effort of the run.

  This time, the kat seemed to realize what was at stake.

  He needs the child, or he will hunt the darks beyond.

  “Yes,” Marsh relayed.

  Izmay’s next breath sounded more like a sob than a gasp, but Marsh pretended she hadn’t heard.

  “I should never have let him go on his own,” Izmay berated herself.

  “He’s with four druids and warriors,” Marsh reminded her.

  “What did he do? Try to save one of them?” The woman would not be comforted.

  Marsh was blunt. “The kat.”

  That brought a choked laugh. “For true?”

  Mordan’s coughing grunt of protest was confirmation enough. Izmay slapped the kat on the rump.

  “You owe me, Dan.”

  Dan’s ears flattened to her skull, but that was her only reply. She slowed and dropped to her belly. As if she’d given a direct command, the warriors following her did the same.

  Marsh became aware of a presence hovering at the very edge of her mind.

  Yes?

  May I? Obasi asked, stepping into her head.

  Sure. What do you need?

  I need to know what the kat knows.

  Mordan’s response was instantaneous. Information flooded in, scents predominantly, but snatches of image, too.

  Obasi surveyed it all and then nodded. Thank you.

  He was gone in an instant, and Mordan followed. Marsh surfaced just as Aisha slipped from the kat’s back and dragged Tamlin through the bushes surrounding a large piece of rubble.

  “This way.” The child’s whisper reached Marsh’s ears like a summons.

  She slipped past the warriors who had followed, Izmay padding after them like a shadow.

  He’d better be alive, she thought and realized she’d lost Aisha. Deeps-be-damned spawn of...

  Aisha’s voice rang clearly in her head. I’m here, and that’s not nice.

  Marsh cursed herself for forgetting the child’s link to her mind.

  And that’s just rude. She really didn’t need to hear the amusement in Tamlin’s voice.

  Go...do rude things to yourself, she managed, changing the phrase at the last instant. His amusement rang clear in her mind, even if his laughter was muffled in the real world.

  Marsh and Izmay followed the sound, surprised when another voice interrupted them.

  “Coming in from your right. Obasi sent me.”

  Obasi had? For a moment Marsh wondered why, and then she stopped. The druids were healers, and the Grotto had more than its fair share of them. An overwhelming feeling of gratitude engulfed her.

  Maybe they had a chance of stopping Aisha from draining herself after all. Ahead of her, a green glow gleamed through the trees.

  Hurry. Tamlin’s plea came just after
she’d noticed it. He’s hurt bad.

  Marsh did not reply, but Izmay gave a short, sharp cry and rushed forward.

  There are three of us, Marsh warned.

  I’ve got you, Tamlin reassured her. Please, hurry.

  Marsh hurried, breaking through the underbrush as Izmay skidded to her knees beside Henri. To give the woman credit, she did her best not to disturb Aisha.

  The child crouched beside the fallen caravan guard. Unable to remove his armor, she’d wiggled her hands through the hole left by the sword. The glow of her efforts seeped through the slash and out from under the edges of the armor.

  Before she could say anything, Obasi’s druid arrived.

  “I’m Udo,” he said by way of introduction, then maneuvered past Aisha so he knelt opposite her. “Let me help.”

  Aisha grimaced. “’Kay,” she replied, but she didn’t take her hands away, and the glow didn’t diminish. “It’s a big hole.”

  A big hole? Marsh wondered where the child had picked up that term for an injury.

  She’s been traveling with soldiers for almost three months. A scornful note crept into Tamlin’s voice. What did you expect her to learn, apart from a really good range of curses and why you don’t argue with your captain?

  She’d learned that? Marsh was surprised. She hadn’t seen any evidence Aisha knew anything of the latter.

  Tamlin snorted. “It’s a work in progress.”

  “It’s a bloody miracle he’s alive.” The healer’s assessment was met with silence and he looked up, suddenly registering Izmay’s presence.

  “Not that that’s a bad thing,” he amended, pulling out a battle knife. “I’m gonna have to cut us a workspace.”

  Aisha nodded, and Tamlin dropped down beside him. “What do you need?”

  Marsh watched as the man told him, and realized none of them were keeping guard. Mordan grumbled a protest. Well, fine. The kat was keeping watch, but she shouldn’t have been the only pair of eyes, and she was probably needed elsewhere.

  Perdemor assists, and the cub.

  Marsh sighed. At least she knew where the two youngsters were. Still... “I’ll keep watch here if you—”

  Between one word and the next, the kat was gone. Marsh breathed a sigh of relief and pulled a sword and buckler from the night. Listening to the dark as if that would give her any more warning, she waited, trying to keep her attention outward instead of with the drama playing out at her feet.

  “The Deeps dammit, child!” Henri‘s dismayed roar startled her, and she glanced down in time to see him slap Aisha’s hands aside. “What in all the hellion’s Deeps have you done to my armor?”

  “Rude!” Aisha exclaimed and slapped him. “I fixed you, you...you ingrate!”

  Henri froze and then bent forward, putting his face a bare inch from the child’s. “What did you call me, girl?”

  Aisha put her forehead against his and settled her hands on her hips. “Ingrate!” she shouted. “And rude and...and NOT FAIR!”

  “I think you owe her an apology.” Izmay’s voice was mild, but the command was unmistakable.

  Henri raised his eyebrows and drew his sword. “I think we have twenty or thirty raiders to kill before they reach the town and not a lot of time to kill them in. Any objections?”

  Aisha let him straighten up and take two steps before she hooked her small foot around his ankle and tripped him.

  “Why, you little...” He rolled over and pushed to his feet.

  The child cocked her head and raised her eyebrows. “Yes?” she challenged, and the stone around Henri’s feet shifted, sliding up his calves to encase his legs.

  “Hey!” he began, but Aisha didn’t let him get any further.

  “Little what?”

  Izmay began to snicker, and Udo watched in drop-jawed surprise. Marsh almost felt sorry for Henri. She didn’t dwell on that, though. There was no time. Someone had to keep watch while the clowns were at play.

  Tamlin put a stop to it. “We don’t have time for this!”

  “Too darn right, we don’t,” Henri answered, and glared at the little girl. “Let me go.”

  “Say ‘sorry.’”

  “But I’m not.” Aisha raised her hand, and Henri closed his mouth.

  Silence stretched between them for a long moment, during which the stone quietly reached his thighs.

  “Agh! Fine! I am sorry! There. Are you happy?”

  Aisha gave a little skip and danced past him. “Yup,” she replied, leaving the stone exactly where it was.

  “Hey!”

  “Joking!” the little girl sang back, vanishing between two bushes with her brother in hot pursuit.

  The stone slid back to the ground, leaving Henri free, and he glanced at Marsh. “I suppose I’d better go after the little monster.”

  Marsh gestured for him to do exactly that, then caught the look on Udo’s face. “You’ll be needed,” she said, reminding him there was a fight going on somewhere, probably nearby.

  The sudden white of his eyes reminded her that the Grotto’s inhabitants often communicated without words.

  “Now they won’t be killed by mistake,” he said when the white had faded, “but we’d better hurry. Someone has told that child she can wield a sword.”

  That’s not all she can do, Marsh thought but didn’t say. Izmay’s voice stopped her.

  “He didn’t even say hello.”

  “The man’s an idiot,” Marsh reassured her, “and Aisha had just done a number on his armor.”

  “Not Aisha,” Udo reminded them as he threaded his way out of the clearing. He frowned. “This is a good distance from the battle. How did he—”

  “Get here?” Marsh prompted, and Udo nodded.

  “I think Mordan brought him, or one of the warriors he was hunting with.”

  Again, the warrior’s eyes flared white. Marsh waited until he relaxed and his eyes went back to their usual shade of chocolate. “They are safe,” he told her, “and it is thanks to the kat that Henri lives, although he almost died to save her.”

  “She’s never going to live that down,” Marsh muttered.

  “He’s never going to let her,” Izmay agreed.

  “The fight is this way,” Udo told them and stepped around an outcrop of rock.

  17

  Aisha Unleashed

  It wasn’t long before they heard the sounds of battle. Shouts rose over the clash of weapons and rattle of stone. Marsh was not comforted to hear Aisha’s shrill yell mingled with the rest.

  “That child is wreaking some havoc,” were definitely not the words she wanted to hear from Udo. He must have caught the displeasure in her face because he shook his head. “I wouldn’t interrupt her if I were you. She is quite safe.”

  “Quite safe” was not how Marsh would have described Aisha’s position, but the child was holding her own with the assistance of one determined kit and a very faithful pup. The pair kept her flanks clear while she chose a target and stabbed them from the rear.

  From the brief glimpse Marsh caught of her before two raiders broke from the fight to face her, the child was quite the dirty fighter.

  Where did she learn that? she wondered.

  I have no idea, but I’m grateful. Obasi’s voice broke in. Welcome to the fight. We need you. Reinforcements are coming from the town, but we have to hold them here, and we need to prevent them from retreating.

  They did? The need caught Marsh by surprise. I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why?”

  They have prisoners. If they can get to them, they’ll kill them to stop them from being released.

  All of them? Marsh wanted to know if there were any she should spare. Obasi’s reply put an end to that.

  All.

  It was as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Well, we can’t have that.

  She raised her shield to block an incoming strike and thrust her sword to send one of her opponents darting back. The one she’d blocked reversed his swing and tried agai
n. The other regained his balance and circled back in, looking for an opening.

  To all the Deeps with this! she thought, parrying another attack and pushing one opponent back while keeping a wary eye on the one trying to find a way through her defenses. I need to take these guys down and fast.

  Flame flashed to her right, and she watched as Izmay danced back, her blade held in her shield hand as she threw a second ball of fire. Marsh wasn’t the only one who had magic, and the shadow mage was trying something new.

  Marsh hoped she didn’t overdo it.

  How long do we have to hold them? she asked, not knowing if Obasi could hear her.

  I won’t know until help arrives, he replied, sounding breathless.

  Well, that wasn’t any good.

  Marsh reached for the lightning hiding in the shadows and was surprised to hear a rumble of thunder. Cool air swirled around them.

  “Great!” Henri cursed. “See what you arschlochs have made us do? Now we’re gonna get wet.”

  “Arschlochs!” Aisha shouted with glee.

  “Hey! You watch your language!” he scolded, and Aisha’s rebellious retort rang across the battlefield.

  “Arschloch!” It was hard to tell if the child was addressing Henri or the man she’d just stabbed through the thigh.

  Her victim fell screaming, and Perdemor ended his cries as Aisha looked for her next target.

  I’m going to murder whoever gave her the idea she could fight, Marsh swore, and then I’m gonna bring them back and kill them all over again!

  There was nothing she could do, however, as her two opponents closed, obscuring her view of the child. One caught the direction of her gaze. “Oh, she’s yours, is she? I’ll try to remember that when...”

  That was as far as he got. Marsh called the lightning. On my opponents! she demanded. My opponents now. Burn them to the ground!

  Aisha had moved on by the time the men fell, but Marsh still couldn’t reach her. She gave a shriek of frustration, attacking the next man before he had time to turn around and choosing her next opponent before the first had hit the ground.

  Aisha, in the meantime, was moving closer. “I’m coming!” the child cried, and Marsh wondered why she seemed to think Marsh needed her.

  Because you called her. Tamlin’s voice was an exasperated grumble in her head. Why, are you saying you don’t?