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

  “Shadow Master Leger?” she asked, looking around.

  Roeglin stood. “Yes?”

  The woman straightened and took several deep breaths.

  “Shadow Master Leger,” she began, “from Shadow Captain Envermet.”

  Marsh opened her mouth to express her surprise, but Roeglin held up his hand.

  “Continue,” he instructed, speaking to the messenger.

  “The shadow captain sends his compliments and wishes you to know he will be arriving at dusk in two days’ time.”

  Around the table, eyes widened, but none of them interrupted.

  The messenger continued, “He will be accompanied by the future teaching staff of Sunward, the Deep Monastery’s surface campus…”

  Marsh and Roeglin drew sharp breaths of surprise, but the messenger hadn’t finished.

  “…as well as a contingent of shadow guard, and druids from the rock mages and Ariella’s Grotto. They will be joining the education center to broaden its ability to assist those developing magical talent.”

  She paused, her face momentarily blank as if she were checking for anything she’d missed. Satisfied there was nothing else, she added, “Message ends.”

  “Please, come and join us,” Gustav invited her. “I will bring you something to eat.”

  Roeglin nodded, but Gustav was stopped at the door by Daikari. Obasi’s assistant was carrying a tray. “I thought you’d need this,” the healer-mage explained. He gestured at the messenger. “It would have been a long ride.”

  Rather than joining the main table, the messenger took the tray and seated herself at a table at the side of the room. Daikari left the room, returning moments later with two hot drinks. “I’m to show you to your quarters when you’re ready,” he advised her, and she nodded.

  “My thanks.”

  She said nothing more, and Daikari settled into a comfortable silence, sipping his drink while she ate.

  Roeglin led the others back to the table. “We really need to see to the construction of a communications tower,” he told them. “It will be safer.”

  They looked at the messenger. She had crossed the Devastation on her own, and they knew the dangers that lurked between the Library and Ariella’s Grotto. One day, a message might not get through.

  They had just settled to their meals when Aisha arrived. The little girl held a bread roll in one hand and Scruffy’s collar in the other.

  “Mama said you were awake,” she explained when she caught Roeglin and Marsh watching her.

  “To show you what Tok taught me,” she went on when Roeglin stared at her. “You were sleeping last time.”

  That last bit was said in an accusatory tone just as Tamlin came to join her.

  “And I came to show you something else,” he told them, “but it might be more useful to shadow mages than anyone else.”

  “Is it useful?” Xavier challenged and blinked as the boy stepped forward, only to vanish from behind his sister and appear next to Roeglin.

  Roeglin started back, twisting out of his seat to draw a shadow blade from the air. Tamlin smirked. Marsh stared open-mouthed at the boy, her eyes darting from the unshadowed patch of ground he’d disappeared into to the unshadowed patch of ground he’d appeared out of.

  “You didn’t… You just shadow-stepped without using any shadows! How did you do that?”

  Izmay was also staring at him, the shadow guard having followed the messenger through the door.

  “Yeah, I’d like to know that, too.”

  “It’s simple,” Tamlin told them and pointed at Marsh. “You told us how, you know.”

  “I did?”

  “Sure, when you told us that shadows were just air that was in the dark.”

  “I did?”

  “Yup,” Roeglin agreed. “You said that when we were having trouble pulling our weapons on the surface. It worked, too.”

  Izmay nodded, and Marsh frowned. It took her several seconds to recall the conversation they’d had on the way to Downslopes.

  “Oh.”

  Seeing she understood, Tamlin continued, “Well, the same is true for shadow-stepping. You don’t need a patch of shadow, right? You just need a patch of air. It doesn’t matter if the shadows are present or not.”

  “Let me try that,” Izmay muttered, and promptly vanished, only to reappear again in another part of the room. “Oh, man, that is…” She let her words trail off and grinned. “You wait until I show this to Henri.

  Marsh’s eyes widened. Judging from the look on Izmay’s face, Henri was in for quite the surprise. She just hoped he wasn’t armed when Izmay pranked him.

  “Thank you, Tamlin,” Roeglin said, stepping into the ensuing silence. “Izmay, can you organize a training session for the shadow guard?”

  “Now?”

  “The morning should suffice.”

  “Yes, Shadow Master.”

  She turned to go, and Gustav pushed back his chair. “And me,” he declared, looking from the shadow guard to Tamlin. “I want to learn that, too.”

  Roeglin’s face showed a brief moment of doubt, which he quickly smoothed away. Again, he nodded to Izmay, and she frowned, looking at the boy. Tamlin shrugged.

  “I can try.”

  “You don’t think I can do it?” Gustav asked, and Marsh’s heart plummeted. The most important part of getting the magic to work for you was to believe. The slightest doubt could mean failure.

  “We won’t know until you try,” Tamlin replied.

  It was the most diplomatic she’d ever heard him, and her heart surged with pride. Aisha looked from her brother to Gustav and back.

  “Not like that,” she told the guard captain, and Marsh knew the child had been mind-walking again. Aisha’s next two words were the two she most dreaded hearing. “Like this.”

  Gustav’s eyes widened and he stumbled back a step, fetching up against a wall and leaning there.

  “Go on,” the child encouraged. “You try it.”

  “Me?”

  “I can hold your hand,” she offered, and Gustav glared at her.

  “I can do it.”

  Marsh drew a sharp breath and Tamlin took a step toward him, but it was too late. Gustav took a deliberate step forward and vanished, reappearing on the other side of the room in front of the child. Before she had time to react, the guard captain had scooped her up and held her out in front of him.

  He shook her slightly. “What have you been told about walking through people’s minds without their permission?”

  Aisha folded her arms and glared at him.

  “You needed help.”

  “And Tamlin?”

  “Couldn’t say.”

  “Couldn’t say what?”

  “He just couldn’t!”

  Gustav set her down on her feet. “Thank you for showing me how to shadow-step,” he told her, “but if I catch you dipping into anyone else’s head without their permission, I will put you over my knee and take whatever punishment your mother wants to give. It’s… It’s rude!”

  Aisha stared up at him with round blue eyes, and then she burst into tears and ran from the room. Gustav groaned and shook his head.

  Roeglin sighed. “We’ll ask her to show us what Tok taught her tomorrow,” he declared.

  Tamlin snickered, walking over to Gustav and poking him in the arm.

  “You better go after her.”

  “Why me? You’re her brother.”

  Tamlin shook his head. “Nuh-uh. You broke her. You get to go find her.”

  11

  A Long-Awaited Meeting

  Aisha was found, and Roeglin and Marsh tried to make her understand why it was important to ask permission before she walked through someone’s mind. It was hard work, and they weren’t sure they’d been successful at the end of it.

  The settlement was buzzing with excitement by the time the sun rose a second time. Everyone had their morning tasks finished in double-quick time and were waiting by the gates to welcome them.


  This is either going to go really well or badly, Roeglin sent to Marsh.

  They were standing on top of the gate, dividing their time between looking for the mantids and watching the people of the Library gather.

  “They’ll be fine,” Gustav told him, and Roeglin shot him a sharp look.

  Gustav laughed. “Don’t look at me like that, boy. I don’t have to be a mind-walker to know what you’re thinking. It’s written right across your face.”

  “I’m worried about what will happen if Master Envermet arrives before we can warn him,” Roeglin admitted. “This meeting could go very wrong in so many ways, it’s not funny.”

  “Here they come,” Marsh warned, having caught a glimpse of sunlight flashing red off the mantids’ carapaces.

  Izmay, Gerry, Henri, Brigitte, and Zeb hurried down the stairs to open the gates, and Marsh, Gustav, and Roeglin followed. By the time Tok arrived in front of the fortress, the entry was clear, and they were there to greet him.

  The mantids’ arrival elicited gasps of surprise and awe from the crowd beyond the gate, then one of the ex-slaves they’d saved started to applaud. At first, the clapping sent ripples of alarm through the mantids.

  Their antennae stiffened, and their eyes swiveled to take in the view beyond the gates. Once they realized the short, sharp sounds were made by the humans slapping their hands together, they relaxed, but only a little.

  What does it mean? Tok asked, his thought intruding unbidden in Marsh’s mind.

  That they appreciate you and thank you for what you did when you protected them from the remnant, Marsh explained.

  Oh. Thank you. The mantid bobbed his head and torso, and she managed a slight bow in return. May I address them?

  Of course, Roeglin told him. He took up position on one side of the mantid, and Marsh chose to walk on the other.

  The shadow guard and the children fell in behind them, each one walking beside a mantid as they passed into the town proper. The mantids hadn’t come empty-handed. Most of them carried packs laden with shrooms.

  People of the Library, Tok announced, we are very pleased to meet you at last.

  Cheering greeted his words, and he continued, We have brought supplies for your kitchens.

  The cheering and applause renewed. Several of the kitchen staff came over to take the mantids’ burdens. The expressions on their faces were a comedic mixture of gratitude, awe, and fear.

  “We do not know how to prepare food for you,” the chief chef finally ventured.

  May I share the information with you? Tok asked, his tone suddenly formal.

  “Okay?” the chef replied, his tone wary.

  The mantid didn’t elaborate, but Marsh caught sight of the information he’d given the chef and was in awe.

  “Er, could you share that with these folk?” the chef asked, and Tok cocked his head.

  Very well, provided it will not distress them.

  “Oh, it won’t distress them,” the chef told him, eyeballing the three cooks closest.

  They returned his look with wary stares, and a ripple shuddered through Tok’s body. Marsh recognized the movement as a sign of unease, or the mantid equivalent of a human shrug.

  The exclamations of surprise and shocked looks turned in his direction told her the cooks hadn’t known what to expect and were having trouble assimilating it. Roeglin tensed, and Marsh got ready to call shadows to bind them.

  They continued to stare, stunned, at the mantid chief, then they shook their heads and grinned.

  “We can do that,” one declared.

  The others nodded, picking up the packs they’d set down at their feet.

  “How many are we catering for?” another wanted to know, and Tok looked at him.

  The answer passed between them, and the chef shrugged. “Oh. Well, we can do that.”

  “I told you not to be afraid.” Evan’s voice reached Marsh, and she looked toward him. The ex-guard had his hand on a mantid’s shoulder as he looked up at its face, his expression one of joy. He wrapped his hand around the mantid’s bicep. “Come on, let me introduce you to some people.”

  The mantid cast a glance at Tok, and the lead mantid flicked an antenna. Marsh didn’t know what passed between them, but the mantid relaxed and followed Evan into the crowd.

  Before long, the other mantids were moving among the people. Some were being greeted by the warriors who’d come to the aid of the caravan, their antennae showing surprise at being recognized and addressed as friends.

  “We should have done this from the start,” Roeglin observed, and Tok dipped his head in agreement.

  We did what we thought was best, the mantid reminded him. Neither of us was to know our people were so resilient.

  “We should have,” Roeglin replied. “They have been through a lot and survived to come out the other side. Why wouldn’t they have coped with this?”

  Tok flexed his eyestalks and flicked his antennae.

  Because we look very different from what your people expect, the mantid explained, his mind voice sounding surprised that Roeglin did not remember.

  “I remember,” Roeglin replied just as Aisha danced up to them.

  She reached up and patted the mantid’s carapace. Hello, Tok, she greeted him. I missed you this morning.”

  It had been agreed to halt her lessons until after the meeting, and she hadn’t been impressed.

  I hope you’ve been practicing, the mantid informed her, and she rolled her eyes.

  You would know if I didn’t.

  The mantid clattered its mandibles and rasped a leg against his abdomen—his species’ equivalent of a laugh. I would indeed.

  Roeglin chuckled, and he and Marsh led Tok to the town square, where they’d set up a space for the humans and mantids to mingle. All around them, the townsfolk and the mantids “talked.” Roeglin and Marsh watched them.

  “Tok is right,” Roeglin said.

  “You couldn’t have known,” Marsh assured him. “The precautions were necessary. They gave us time to get used to the idea our neighbors were very different.”

  Roeglin lifted his head, his eyes flashing briefly white. Moments later, Evan came over. He gestured at the activity around them.

  “And you were afraid.” He chuckled. “Take a look at those people!”

  “We are,” Roeglin answered, smiling, “but it’s time to get down to the business of the day.”

  “You really should have had more faith in us,” Xavier told him, joining them. Together they waited as mantids and humans settled in the square. Tok joined them on stage with another, slightly smaller mantid at his side.

  Aisha hung off his arm but allowed him to usher her to a seat.

  Xavier leaned close. “You know, there was a group of us who were going to corner you and ask you to check on these guys, don’t you?”

  Roeglin regarded him with surprise. “No.”

  Xavier grinned. “Well, we were. They saved so many of us that we needed to know they were okay.”

  He paused and looked out over the square.

  “A lot of us owe them our lives. It would be good to see more of them.”

  The light around them dimmed, and they looked up. To their relief, the clouds were scattered and fluffy, not gathering for a storm. This time of year, that wasn’t guaranteed.

  “We should build a roof over the top of this,” Roeglin observed.

  “A meeting hall?” Evan asked, and Roeglin paused.

  “Something we could close up to keep the weather out, but leave open when it’s nice, like today. Come winter, we’ll need a space for everyone to relax in. It might as well be here.”

  “I’ll talk to the druids.” He paused. “We really need a carpenter.”

  “I’ll see what I can do when I talk to Master Envermet. Maybe he has one among the new personnel he’s bringing.”

  “Any idea when they’re scheduled to arrive?”

  “This afternoon. I think around dusk.”

  I agree that you n
eed a sheltered meeting place. The mantid looked around the square. And this space would be ideal for the building you have in mind.

  “Can I see that?” Evan asked, and Roeglin realized the mantid was sharing with those who could hear the conversation.

  Tok glanced at Roeglin, who sighed. “Sure. Go ahead.”

  Xavier and Evan’s faces lit up.

  “I like that!” Evan stated, and Xavier nodded.

  “It’s perfect. I think if we can show this to the druids, they’ll be able to work out how to build it.”

  Tok glanced at Roeglin once more.

  “I will show them,” Roeglin told him firmly. “Later. Such plans are not for tonight.”

  We could also do with their help, Tok declared. This building is a perfect meeting place, and we have found a route that would allow us to move underground between your home and ours.

  Roeglin straightened. “You have?”

  We have.

  “What did you have in mind?” Obasi had joined them, settling himself beside the table.

  “You heard that?” Roeglin asked.

  “I believe Tok is broadcasting rather widely,” Obasi told him.

  The mantid’s eyes widened. Is that bad?

  “No, not yet,” Roeglin told him, as Marsh looked at the people close by. All of them were listening a lot more closely than they appeared to be.

  Roeglin drew the information from the link between them. “Perhaps you should keep the conversation only to those at the table,” he suggested.

  Tok’s eyes bobbed, and he shifted his antennae as though taking stock of the surrounding situation. One of the druids chatting not far from the table crossed over to them.

  He pulled up a seat and looked at Roeglin. “If this roadway passes through the ruins, it might be possible for us to find a place in there to try for some winter crops. The hill is a little too exposed, but if we could find a sheltered space amidst the buildings…”

  Roeglin groaned. “Very well.” He turned to Tok. “I think we are going to need a second meeting to discuss this project if that is acceptable to you.

  It is, Tok assured him, and I like the ideas this one has for making more growing room.

  One eyestalk swiveled toward Gustav. And we will need his knowledge of defenses.