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

  Did she? Marsh pivoted, taking a mental snapshot of the area around her. She caught an overhanded blow on her shield and sent a shadow dart lancing into the man’s chest as an afterthought. Sure, she’d attracted the attention of opponents from four different directions, but that didn’t mean...

  The hilt of a sword caught her squarely in the back of the head, and light flashed before her eyes. She dropped to her knees.

  Idiot! Tamlin’s reproach was somehow more offensive than the idea that Henri was going to laugh his ass off about this. Well, at least he could call the kat’s rescue even, or was it that he’d get to enjoy the fact that both of them owed him more?

  Marsh hit the ground and rolled, fetching up against a pair of boots and coming to halt on her back. There wasn’t a hope in the Deeps that she was going to avoid the fist descending toward her face. She was ridiculously relieved when a large form leapt over her, a pair of bloodied jaws wrapping themselves around the wrist above it and tearing fist, arm, and attacker sideways. That didn’t put her in the clear, though.

  She rolled to one side to avoid a boot to the head, the movement making the world blur amidst the flashes of black and white. Now that she thought about it, she could do with some of Aisha’s healing herself.

  Can you call a shield?

  A shield? she thought blurrily. What a good idea, which didn’t make it any easier to accomplish, as she discovered when she tried.

  Nausea boiled in her gut, and her head felt strangely heavy. The shadows rippled and shivered out of her grasp, and she kept losing sight of the battlefield.

  She was glad most of the fighters were ignoring her because she was flat on her back. She wondered how long that would last.

  Master Envermet swore inside her head. Hang on. I’m coming.

  Izmay swore from somewhere outside her head, and Marsh tried to find her. It was too hard. The world refused to come into focus, and every time she moved her head, pain lanced through her skull, igniting a churn of nausea in her gut.

  “I’m here,” Aisha announced, leaping over her prone form. “I’ll shield.”

  Before Marsh could tell her not to, the child had released the stone from her hands and called more from the earth, enclosing them in a dome of rock. “See?” she asked Marsh, beaming happily. “All safe. Now, where do you hurt?”

  She sounded so much like one of the healers that Marsh had to smile. “Head,” she managed, and only just succeeded in rolling to face the opposite way before she was thoroughly and hideously sick.

  “Oh, by the Deeps!”

  “Idiot,” Aisha told her in amiable tones and laid a palm against the back of Marsh’s head. “Hold still.”

  “Aysh, are you sure?”

  “Yup,” the little girl confirmed, sending warmth and relief seeping through Marsh’s skull.

  Marsh felt the sickening churn of her stomach subside and breathed a sigh of relief. She rolled into a crouch and patted the underside of the dome. “We need to get out of here,” she told the child, and Aisha shook her head.

  “Nope. Master Envermet says to stay here.”

  “Uh-huh, and do you always do what Master Envermet tells you to?”

  Aisha’s eyes grew very round. “Yeees.”

  She gave Marsh an innocent blink for good measure, and a smile tugged at Marsh’s lips. “Do I look like I was born yesterday?” she asked, and the child frowned.

  “Well?” Marsh asked, folding her arms and drumming her fingers on her biceps. “Do I?”

  Aisha gave her a wary look. “Is that bad?”

  You can let her out now, apprentice. Master Envermet’s voice said, clear and reproving, in their heads.

  Aisha gave a relieved smile and put her small palms together. Parting them with a slight upward gesture, she commanded the rock to slide back into the ground.

  The battle was over, but there were more warriors around than Marsh remembered there being when she fell. She swallowed, wetting her throat.

  “The prisoners?” she began as Master Envermet leaned forward, offering Aisha his hand.

  “Mordan is finding the trail as we speak.” Once the little girl was on her feet, the shadow captain reached for Marsh.

  Marsh took the offered help and let him drag her to her feet. She didn’t even object when he turned her and inspected the back of her head.

  He grunted. “The child is getting good.”

  “I’m right here,” Aisha protested, and froze. After a moment, during which she cocked her head as though she was listening, she spoke again. “Dan says to come.”

  “Does Dan say where?”

  Aisha gave Marsh a calculating look. “She will show Marsh. She says Obasi and you can look and then show the warriors.

  Like I’m some kind of message board, Marsh thought as the kat padded softly into her skull.

  Hey, Dan, she said by way of greeting.

  The kat lifted her nose and sniffed, carefully inspecting their surroundings.

  I’m fine, Dan, Marsh told her.

  Mordan gave her a dubious look and flicked her tail.

  Aisha healed me, Marsh insisted. Now, tell these guys what they need to know.

  The kat’s ears twitched, and her tail flicked once more.

  Please, Dan, Marsh begged.

  The kat eyed her carefully and then huffed out a long-suffering sigh. The location of the raider camp and the paths they could take became clear in her mind, and Marsh felt Master Envermet and Obasi take it and send it to those who needed to know.

  As soon as they were done, they left. Mordan gave Marsh another very long look, and then turned and stalked out of her head, her tail straight up in the air.

  “Well, that’s a perfect kat’s ass if ever I saw one.” Master Envermet had returned, and he was amused.

  “And you wonder where Aisha gets it from,” Marsh grumbled. She gestured toward the kat’s fading backside. “It’s not me. I swear it.”

  She got the feeling Master Envermet didn’t believe her but didn’t have time to argue.

  He came straight to the point. “We need you to help Tamlin, Aisha, and Izmay shield the prisoners.”

  His words sent a shock through Marsh and she jolted to her feet, reaching down her link to ask Mordan for the way.

  Busy. The kat threw her out again.

  Marsh landed in her head with thump and blinked. What...

  Before she could ask, Scruffy bounded through a gap in the rubble and pranced around her. Marsh knew what he was there for, even before Aisha spoke.

  “He will take us. He says we have to be quick and quiet, and Master Ennermet is not to attack before Mordan says so.”

  The look on Master Envermet’s face at these instructions brought laughter bubbling to Marsh’s lips. Aisha fixed him with a stern look. “Dan is serious,” she declared, frowning to show just how serious the kat was.

  Master Envermet nodded. “Tell Mordan I understand. I will wait for her signal.”

  Aisha gave him a beatific smile. “Dan says ‘thank you.’”

  “You’d better hurry. Scruffy is waiting,” Master Envermet suggested, indicating the pup.

  Scruffknuckle was dancing on the spot, his paws beating a silent tattoo on the hard-packed earth. Aisha hurried toward him, glancing once at Marsh to make sure she was following

  Marsh resisted the urge to roll her eyes and went. Behind her, Master Envermet started issuing quiet instructions to the warriors around him. She didn’t stop to see what they were but followed Scruffknuckle into the night.

  The impression she’d gotten from Mordan was that the raiders’ camp was close. Well, maybe it hadn’t seemed like very far to her, but it took Marsh and Aisha a good half hour before Scruffknuckle slowed down and Mordan stepped out of the shadows of a building.

  The kat fixed them with a brilliant blue-eyed stare. You will need quiet and caution.

  Marsh might have taken offense, except she noticed the kat was looking at Scruffknuckle. The pup gave a half-bow and a bounce, and th
e kat’s tail twitched. She held Scruffy’s gaze for a long moment and then turned and padded around the building’s side.

  When Mordan sank into a low-bellied crouch, Marsh and Aisha crouched too. They did not expect the kat to give a single soft growl and wait. Creeping up beside her, Marsh knelt to survey the ruins around them.

  A soft whistle drew her attention, and Mordan moved forward. Marsh went with her, and they found Tamlin kneeling beside a low cluster of rocks. His face melted in relief when he saw Marsh and Aisha.

  “You came!” he whispered, then patted the kat on the shoulder. “We really need to do something,” he urged the kat.

  Mordan gave him a sharp look and walked up and peered past the rock. Her entire body went tense, and she froze. A low growl leaked out from beneath her whiskers, and Tamlin clapped a hand over her muzzle.

  The kat wrenched her head free and glared at him. We go now!

  The growl might not have been heard in the real world, but it rang through their heads like the thunder of a cave-in. Marsh winced but moved alongside the kat so she could see what was happening beyond the rocks.

  Has Master Envermet arrived? she asked.

  He will be here in time, the kat informed her, and her tone was final. You and your cubs will shield those who need it. My cubs and I will draw the scavengers away.

  Scavengers. It was the first time Marsh had heard the kat use that term for the raiders.

  Scavengers, she noted, not hunters.

  They are not worthy of the name.

  What would a hoshkat know of worth?

  You’d be surprised.

  Marsh frowned. Having Master Envermet and Roeglin pulling thoughts from her mind was bad enough, but having Mordan do it as well?

  Marsh moved cautiously around the rubble, slipping into the shadows of the shrubbery beyond it so she could see the situation better.

  It wasn’t good.

  18

  The Lightning Comes

  “I am going to murder every single one of them!” Tamlin declared, and even though he kept his voice to a whisper, it vibrated with fury.

  Marsh blinked at the intensity. “We’ll deal with them.”

  “How?” the boy challenged, making a frustrated gesture at the prisoners huddled at the feet of their guards. “How do we save them, let alone deal with those guys? It’s not like I can...”

  He stopped and looked at the prisoners again. Marsh followed his gaze and wondered what the boy thought he could do, and exactly how the kat was going to deal with the dozen raiders using the prisoners as shields.

  The raiders had positioned themselves well, holding their crossbows so each one covered a different approach, and each of them was completely surrounded by captives. From where she was hiding, Marsh couldn’t tell how they were going to be able to create a shield that didn’t shield the raiders as well.

  The sky crackled.

  Marsh glanced up, but there wasn’t a single cloud. Realizing Tamlin had gone uncharacteristically silent, she glanced at the boy and was unnerved to see him staring intently at the sky.

  At first, she thought his eyes were dark with anger, and then she realized they were black—as black as hers when she drew weapons from the air, or Aisha’s when the child ordered the stone to do her bidding.

  Thinking of the girl reminded Marsh that she and Tamlin were not alone, and she wondered where the girl had gone. To her surprise, Aisha crouched not far from her. She was studying the situation, her small face full of thunder.

  Before Marsh could reach out to comfort her, the child scurried forward. She stayed low to the ground, keeping rocks and rubble between her and the raiders and scampering past bushes that might give her passage away.

  Aisha! Marsh called, reaching down their link, but the child didn’t answer. Aisha, you get back here!

  Shh!

  Marsh was about to shout at the child when energy crackled through the air in a web of tangled threads. Aisha scrambled around another outcrop and vanished from sight, and Tamlin raised his hands over his head, calling lightning to them.

  In the open area surrounding their campfire, the raiders nervously looked skyward. The one nearest them followed the arc of light that led to Tamlin’s palms.

  The man’s mouth dropped open in shock, and he froze. His eyes shifted as Marsh rose up beside the boy. One of the prisoners at his feet flinched and ducked away. The movement caught the raider’s attention, and he raised his sword.

  “No!” Aisha’s shriek drew the attention of more of the raiders as the child stepped into the open.

  She raised her arms and made a sweeping movement with her hand. The raider cried out in alarm and dropped his sword. The prisoners at his feet to jerked aside in an attempt to avoid it.

  He stooped to pick it up, but an oozing gray mass slid up his legs and began engulfing his torso. The raider shouted in terror, swiping at his stomach as the stone spread. One of the other raiders raised the crossbow he’d had resting against his leg, and Mordan showed exactly how she was going to reach them despite their barrier of prisoners.

  The kat’s gray and brown form was a blur as she hurtled through the air before slamming into the raider’s chest. He flung his arms out for balance, and the crossbow went flying. Prisoners scrambled away from him in alarm, but some didn’t move fast enough.

  They cried out in pain and alarm as kat and captor crashed down among them. The raider gave a single cry of fear and went silent.

  “Stay down!” Master Envermet’s roar was followed by an equally loud command. “Stay back!”

  Given that none of the raiders had moved, Marsh wondered why he would command them to stay back. She looked at the shadow captain and understood.

  The lightning no longer created harmless traceries in the air. It arced and crackled.

  “Only the raiders!” Tamlin yelled, and Marsh glanced at the boy in alarm.

  She remembered that he’d been in Briar’s Ridge when she’d called forked lightning on the two raiders attacking her. He’d also seen her defend Shamka and take out the raiders attacking Bisambe, and there’d been that incident back at the fortress. She shouldn’t be surprised that he’d try it here.

  He was going to need some help.

  Without Master Envermet to connect their minds, Marsh couldn’t get into his head to see what he was doing. The fact that the shadow captain didn’t pick the thought out of her head and help meant he was too busy paying attention to something else.

  She was on her own.

  Marsh looked from the boy to the flickering lightning and decided that if she couldn’t guide one, she would just have to ask for the cooperation of the other. The only question was how.

  “Help me,” she murmured, feeling the lightning sliding around the edge of her control. It slithered and skipped, already in the grasp of another.

  Marsh did not let that deter her. “Only the raiders,” she told it, picturing the raiders in her mind. “Only them. Not the people at their feet.”

  The lightning still refused to come under her control, but she felt the energy shift slightly as she aligned her will with the boy’s.

  “One bolt each,” Tamlin ordered, and Marsh felt the lightning gather into concentrated bands.

  “One bolt only,” Marsh reiterated, lending her will to Tamlin’s. “Only the raiders.”

  The energy coiling through the air obeyed.

  “Now!” Tamlin cried, and the air flashed, a dozen simultaneous bolts striking earthward in the blink of an eye.

  Marsh bent her will around it. “One bolt only, and we thank you.”

  “One bolt!” Tamlin cried, panic edging his words.

  “One bolt,” Marsh repeated, willing the lightning to obey.

  The smell of ozone permeated the air, swiftly followed by the smell of burnt and cooking flesh. Several people screamed, but the raiders fell without a sound, their lives taken before they realized what had struck.

  Master Envermet stood at the edge of the campsite, his han
d raised to signal his warriors to stand clear. They obeyed, but Marsh saw that several held crossbows at the ready—and that they were slowly lowering them.

  “Thank you,” Marsh told the lightning as the last raider hit the ground. “Return to your home and be at peace. We thank you.”

  The energy still resisted her command, so she was glad to hear Tamlin repeating her words.

  “Thank you,” the boy murmured. “You have my gratitude. Be at peace. Return to the sky and be at peace.”

  He turned his hands palm up and opened them, releasing the flickering energy twining around his fingers.

  “Go back home and rest,” he told it, and Marsh told it the same.

  “Rest. We thank you.”

  She listened as the boy repeated his thanks, feeling the lightning fade beneath her touch and watching the display of flickering light gradually dim. When the air stilled and the sparkling tracery died, Master Envermet signaled the warriors forward.

  To Marsh’s surprise, the prisoners flinched away from the approaching fighters, but none of them tried to run. Instead, they cowered, huddling together.

  One or two of the adults reached out to scoop children into the relative protection of their arms. Others tensed as though expecting to be struck. The men and women from Ariella’s Grotto stopped just short of them, crouching so as not to tower over them.

  Master Envermet stepped forward, commanding their attention with his presence.

  “We offer shelter and protection,” he began, and one of the women raised her head.

  “What if we don’t want it?”

  Master Envermet met the challenge in her gaze. “If you don’t want our help, you can go wherever you want.”

  “Truly?”

  The shadow captain nodded. “Truly.”

  Silence followed his words, and the prisoners stirred. Some warily studied the warriors as though realizing that none of them had approached.

  “What if we have nowhere to go?” The question was soft-voiced and tentative, as if the person asking it expected to be punished.

  “We have room for you in the Four Caverns,” Master Envermet began and was met by puzzled stares.