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

  The shadows obeyed, a dozen images forming in her mind as she raced to join the youngsters. Roeglin caught up but didn’t try to stop her.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Watching your back while you call the lightning?” he asked, and Marsh didn’t need to be told twice.

  She called the lightning as she went. “I need you!”

  Keeping hold of the threads, she called the lightning to her hand, shaping it as she’d seen Brigitte do and sending it down each thread to the Ookens at the ends.

  “Only the Ookens,” she whispered. “Keep my children safe.”

  She reached Tams and Aisha just after the first lightning bolt had reached the Ooken the shadow threads had revealed. The creature was intent on trying to wrap a tentacle around Aisha. It never knew what had hit it, its existence ending without it realizing it was finished.

  All around her, the other bolts found their targets and dissipated, but Marsh didn’t care. She maneuvered around Aisha so that she faced the door and felt for the kat.

  Stay on this side of the portal, she instructed, wincing as Mordan crushed an Ooken skull with one swipe of a shadow-clad forepaw. Your cubs need you on this side with them, and the other world is too dead to hunt.

  Mordan’s rumbled agreement was followed by a distinct impression that the kat was too busy to talk, and the link between them closed. Marsh breathed easier when Mordan and the kits circled close enough to strike at the Ookens from behind their legs.

  Watch my back, she ordered Roeglin, and his hand dropped briefly to the kat’s shoulder.

  “We can do that, can’t we, Dan?”

  Mordan growled, and her kits echoed her opinion. Scruffknuckle barked happily as he darted out from their protection to seize a tentacle and goad the attached Ooken into claw range. Marsh eyed the portal.

  As she considered what she was going to do next, a dozen more Ookens came through. When another set of tentacles began to emerge, she slammed a cap of shadow over it, glad to hear a familiar whistle from the junction.

  Can you catch all energy?

  I don’t know. There is lightning. What other energy is there?

  There is the energy from the space between portals.

  This really isn’t the time for her to be playing with new magic, Roeglin admonished the mantid.

  She will need to be able to direct it when they try to blast through the shadow, Tok informed him. That energy is not lightning, and she must expect it and divert it, or you will all die.

  We’ll what?

  There is no room here to avoid a plasma blast, and I do not think your shield will be powerful enough to stop it.

  The shadows sto… Oh. Marsh had been about to say that the shadows would stop the lightning, but then she realized they might not. After all, shadow monsters were made of shadow, and the lightning went right through them.

  So do shadow blades, Roeglin reminded her, and the shields stop those.

  It’s not something I have tested, Marsh told him. Turning her attention to Tok, she asked, What should we do?

  You will need to let them through and try to stop them here.

  That should solve both problems, Marsh replied. If they are coming through like this, their bodies will block the door anyway.

  You had better hope that does not happen. The weapon they use fires… He hesitated, searching for the right word, …liquid fire. They would use it to clear any organic debris obstructing their path.

  Wouldn’t that damage their doorway? Roeglin wanted to know.

  Only if they hit it.

  Marsh dropped the shield, aware that others had joined them.

  “Excuse us,” came an unfamiliar voice. “Brin sent us. He says we have to move the rock from above this frame?”

  Marsh stepped back from the door, allowing Roeglin and another fighter to take her place. She wasn’t surprised to recognize Henri’s armored form moving up to defend the entry. Free to concentrate, she looked at the man.

  He was one of Obasi’s people, not a rock mage from the Monastery cavern. She was about to ask him what he thought he could do when she remembered that the Grotto druids knew how to manipulate stone as well.

  “Say that again,” she demanded, and the druid gestured toward the ceiling.

  “We need to get rid of the rock overhead so you can call the lightning onto the portal.” He looked at the two fighters blocking the tunnel, the two children, Brigitte, and the kats. “We really need some room to work.”

  “I…” Marsh knew he was right, and she knew there was little she could do until the path was opened. There was no shortcut she could take that would allow her access to the lightning or give her the ability to call it onto the portal until the way above was clear.

  She stepped farther into the tunnel, reaching for the children along the mental connections between them.

  “I heard,” Aisha told her sulkily. “I’m coming.”

  “Oui, me too,” Tamlin confirmed. He looked up at the druid. “We’ll watch your back.”

  The man regarded him solemn-faced and gave him a single nod. “I would appreciate that.”

  Marsh breathed a sigh of relief, glad to have the children by her side, and even more glad when Mordan and the cubs moved back with them.

  As if they’d been given an invitation, several guards slipped past to block the corridor closest to the portal. Roeglin fended off another tentacle attack, lengthened his sword into a spear, and skewered the Ooken that had just emerged from the other side of the gate.

  “Can you work from there, or do you need to be closer?”

  The mage eyed the portal and the tunnel’s rise over it. “Here is fine,” he replied, then frowned. “Where do you want it?”

  “Want what?” Roeglin shot a look toward Marsh.

  “The rock,” the mage told them. “It’s got to go somewhere. Where do you want it?”

  Roeglin smirked, and Marsh smiled in response. “How hard can you throw it?” she asked.

  “Throw?”

  “Mais oui. I want you to throw all the rock you remove through that portal.”

  Henri shield slammed an Ooken that leapt through the portal’s ruddy glow and then sliced off several tentacles from the creature following. The druid’s face cleared.

  “Oh. Well, we can do that.”

  Marsh stepped back, preparing to protect the druids from any Ookens that might get past Roeglin. The druids stepped forward and started drawing rock from the ceiling, hurling it through the portal as fast as they could get it to obey their commands.

  The lead druid talked as he worked. “Brin and Sylvie are clearing the ground above, and our folk are helping there as well. Brin just thought the work might go faster if there were some of us clearing down here too.”

  “The faster, the better,” Marsh agreed, and he gave her a humorless grin.

  “That’s what the others said, too. That storm was strong when they told the winds to bring it, but it’s stronger now and getting worse. If we don’t hurry, there won’t be a Library left to defend.”

  Marsh didn’t know what to say to that. She’d already seen the power of the storm. For it to have gotten even more powerful was an alarming thought.

  “What can I do to help?” she asked.

  “Stay out of the way, and don’t let those things get me.” The mage hadn’t stopped working as he’d been talking, but his eyes had been darting nervously from the fighting going on at the portal front to the defenders working on either side of him to make sure none of the ones that got past the defenders reached him.

  Mordan and her cubs prowled restlessly between them and the junction, and none of them looked happy that the path to the attacking Ookens was blocked.

  Just be ready to get Aisha out of here, Marsh told the kat, and Mordan laid back her ears and hissed at her. Marsh glared at the hosh, then slowly and deliberately pictured the perfect kat’s ass in her mind.

  Judging by the long unhappy growl that rumbled out of Mordan’s th
roat, her response was not appreciated. Marsh turned away.

  Too bad. It was hard enough that she had to wait; she didn’t need to deal with the kat’s conniptions as well.

  “Almost through,” the mage murmured.

  His words pre-empted a sudden burst of cold air and the crack and rumble of thunder. As the last of the rock vanished through the portal, he stepped back. “There you go.”

  “Merci beaucoup,” Marsh told him, moving under the opening, her eyes on the distant sky above her.

  As she looked, there was another rumble and lightning danced through the crowd, lighting the circle of anxious faces peering down at her. She waved, then looked at Roeglin.

  “Tell them to stand clear,” she requested and gestured for Tamlin, Aisha, and Brigitte to join her.

  She wasn’t ready for another small figure to slip from the shadows and wrap her hand around Aisha’s.

  “Sasha!” the little girl hissed. “What are you doing here?”

  The child gave her a beatific grin and stretched a hand to the sky. “Pretty!”

  Marsh opened her mouth to say that ‘yes’ it was pretty, but what happened next left her speechless. A single line of power stretched down to touch the child’s open hand and then earth itself in the stone below.

  “Sons of the Deep,” Tamlin whispered. “Sasha, can you let the lightning go now?”

  “Why?” the child asked, her eyes wide with puzzlement.

  “Because we all have to call it together,” Tamlin explained. “’Kay?”

  “Me too?”

  Tamlin cast Marsh a worried look but nodded. “Yes, you, too.”

  “Okay!” Sasha bounced happily and flicked the lightning back into the clouds.

  Where did she… Roeglin began, but Marsh cut him off.

  I don’t know!

  She watched you practice, Tok informed them, but Etk’k says she hid when you attacked the Ookens and he lost track of her.

  So she didn’t follow us through?”

  No. She was with her father when you returned.

  And you know this how?

  Because it was in Alain’s mind when he answered Roeglin’s summons. He was glad he’d found her and hoped she behaved for her mother.

  Marsh’s mind raced as she tried to fit this latest development into her plans. It was clear the child could call the lightning and direct it, but she wasn’t sure if Sasha could do that in conjunction with the rest of them. What she needed was…

  “Brigitte, can you combine and direct all the lightning we call?” Marsh asked, remembering what the shadow mistress had managed at the prison.”

  “I can try.”

  “I help,” Sasha said in tones that reminded Marsh far too much of Aisha.

  Before she could think of what to say, Roeglin interrupted, “I’ll link them, but you need to hurry.”

  Looking past him, Marsh saw that Zeb had stepped up to take Roeglin’s place in defending the tunnel from the Ookens that kept emerging from the portal.

  “We can’t hold them much longer,” was not what she wanted to hear.

  Roeglin came and stood between Sasha and Brigitte, resting a hand on each of their shoulders.

  “What…” Sasha began as Roeglin’s eyes went white. “Oooh. ‘Kay.”

  “Now, Marsh,” Roeglin ordered, his eyes still sheeted in white, his voice tense.

  “Yes…Marsh…” Henry gritted out, blocking another attack and slashing through another tentacle. “Now.”

  Marsh turned her eyes to the sky.

  “Stand clear!” she commanded, and the ring of faces above her hastily disappeared. She hoped they’d moved far enough back and was happy to hear Tok’s reassurance.

  They are moving out of the ruin as we speak.

  It was all she needed. As another half-dozen Ookens tried to force their way through a space designed for two humans at most, she raised her hand and spoke to the lightning dancing through the clouds.

  “Please,” she told it. “I need you.”

  “Get ready,” Master Envermet ordered, but Marsh knew he wasn’t speaking to her and kept her attention on the sky.

  “Please,” she begged, stretching a hand toward the portal. “Help me!”

  She was vaguely aware of Tamlin, Sasha, Brigitte, and Aisha repeating her mantra. “Please help.”

  The clouds above glowed an impossible white, dazzling Marsh and making it hard to see anything. She was glad she was already pointing toward the portal as she lost sight of it. The light descended in a single column of coruscating silver, gold, and white.

  “Stand clear!” Master Envermet roared.

  “Protect us,” she prayed, begging the lightning to understand. “Destroy our enemies. Destroy their path to our home.”

  Her skin tingled and then burned as the lightning descended.

  “Break the gate between worlds,” Marsh asked it. “Destroy those beyond. Leave no Ookens alive.”

  “Only the Ookens,” was a plea from Sasha and Brigitte that told her Roeglin was wielding as much influence as he dared.

  “Only the Ookens,” she repeated in case the lightning didn’t get the message.

  “Stand by!” Master Envermet ordered, but Marsh was too busy calling the lightning to wonder why.

  “Now, Brigitte,” Roeglin directed, and the sizzling column of light deflected from the upraised hands of its summoners to pour through the gate.

  “That’s enough, Marsh!” Roeglin cried as Master Envermet roared again.

  “Get them out! Now!”

  “Than—” was all Marsh got out before a heavy body slammed into her, jolting the words from her mind and carrying her two steps down the tunnel where it was joined by another.

  “Dan! Shadow-step!” Izmay shouted.

  The lightning continued to pour down from the heavens until an unearthly roar filled the air and the ground shook around them.

  “Thank you,” Marsh whispered as Henri catapulted forward and tripped.

  “Deeps, girl! You couldn’t have picked someplace with a softer landing?” he bellowed, ignoring Marsh and tucking so he hit the cobbles shoulder-first and rolled onto his back, holding Marsh against his chest.

  “Quit your bitching,” Izmay managed, but her voice grated with pain.

  Marsh gasped. Her link to the lightning was lost as the air was driven from her lungs. She lay still for several heartbeats until Henri groaned, then she hastily scrambled off him and onto her feet.

  “Roeglin?” That panicked tone couldn’t possibly be hers! “Tamlin?”

  Her voice wavered and she blinked, trying to regain her sight and keep her balance.

  “Aisha?”

  She looked around, seeing several figures slowly picking themselves up off the ground. Overhead the storm was gone, although the clouds remained. Marsh glanced up at them, registering darkness and the first fat, wet drops of rain.

  “Dan?” she called, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

  She scanned the courtyard, her vision slowly clearing so she could identify who was there. Izmay and Henri were getting to their feet and checking each other for injury, and Tamlin was being engulfed in his father’s hug. Over to one side, Sasha was being lifted and scolded by her mother.

  Marsh also caught sight of Aisha. The little girl tried to sneak behind the nearest building, only to be brought back by Perdemor and Scruffknuckle, while Zeb and Jakob helped Brigitte to her feet and apologized profusely nearby.

  Marsh’s heart lifted but stayed tense when she failed to see Mordan.

  “Dan?” she called just as the kat stalked out of the shadows, her ears flat to her skull. She glared at Marsh as she passed and headed for the gate.

  “Dan?” Marsh asked, catching sight of Roeglin deep in conversation with Tok.

  The pride leader remained.

  “What?” Marsh staggered after her. “Where are the kits?”

  With the pack leader, Mordan replied, picturing Adrienne. Safe.

  Some of the pain around Ma
rsh’s heart eased.

  The pride leader? She frowned, trying to work out who the kat might mean. She’d seen Roeglin, and he was in the courtyard. Why are we going this way?

  The tunnel is blocked, but he remains.

  Marsh’s heart sank. Who?

  The pride leader, the kat repeated, and this time she showed Master Envermet’s face.

  But why did he stay?

  To keep the lightning from returning.

  To stop the what? From where?

  And to keep the rocks and fire back.

  “The what?” Marsh didn’t wait for the kat’s reply. She ran toward the area Brin and Sylvie had opened to the sky.

  As she feared, it had collapsed, and the hole was gone.

  “Master Envermet!” she cried, wading to the center of the pit and trying to lift some of the rubble clear. “Master Envermet!”

  The boulder wouldn’t budge, but Marsh didn’t let that deter her. She moved to another one, a smaller one. This one she could lift. She struggled to drag it to one side, vaguely aware of the others who’d followed her out the gate.

  “Marsh!” Aisha’s voice penetrated the distance between them. “Marsh!”

  It was closer the second time.

  Marsh almost dropped the boulder.

  “Marsh!” Aisha cried again.

  The child’s persistence annoyed her, and Marsh looked up, getting ready to scold her. “What?”

  Aisha was already picking her way into the hollow. “What are you doing?” she asked, coming toward her.

  That simple question stopped Marsh in her tracks. She stared at the child, then lifted her gaze to where Roeglin, Henri, Tok, and the shadow guard stood at the edge of the depression.

  “I…” she began, gesturing helplessly at the devastation around her. “We can’t leave him!”

  “Who?” Aisha asked, and Marsh hesitated, trying to work out how she was going to break the news to the child.

  Too late, she tried to block the connection between them.

  “Master Ennermet!” the girl shrieked and raced to the center of the dip, reaching for the largest boulder she could find.

  Instead of trying to lift it, she scrambled onto it. “Find him!” she commanded, but her order wasn’t directed at Marsh.

  “No!” Marsh shouted, lunging for her, but the boulder stretched up to encase the child, then sank into the ground.