“So you’re coming?” Marsh couldn’t believe it had been that easy, but Fabrice nodded.
“We’ll pack tonight and move the animals out in the morning. Hugo will keep them in line.”
“If we take the mules from the waystation,” Eveline said, “we’ll move faster than if we just take the cart. We’ll be able to take more with us, too.”
She looked around the kitchen and back to the sink, and Marsh got the impression she wasn’t looking forward to the trip. When she thought of moving through the caverns with the number of mouton she had seen in the barn, she wasn’t looking forward to the trip either. It crossed her mind that Fabrice might be better off leaving the moutons behind and sending someone skilled to bring them back to the farms near Ruins Hall.
“How are we going to keep them all together?” she asked. “Don’t they like to wander?”
“That depends on what the leaders are doing and how safe they feel,” Fabrice told her. “If we take them away from their barn and out of their field, they’ll stick pretty close to the rams and lead ewes.”
“And the mules,” Eveline added. “We bring those down from the waystation and they’ll walk with them, thinking the mules will keep them safe.”
“And the dogs,” Aisha added. “Moutons feel safe with dogs.”
“I need to pay you for the food,” Marsh said, getting out of her chair, “while I remember. And for the shelter…”
She stopped as Fabrice laid a hand on her arm.
“You take us to our friends’ farm, and I’ll consider us even. We wouldn’t be able to make it without you, and I think you’re right. We do have to worry about them coming back. I don’t want to be here when they do. It would be foolish to keep the children out of their hands once, only to be caught by them later.”
“Tell me more about them,” Marsh said, and Fabrice shot a glance at the children before she began.
“The first time we saw them was two cycles ago. It was just the mages. We thought it was the folk from the Ruins Hall Monastery, but their robes were different, and they came from one of the tunnels leading to the mountains…or so folk say. I’ve never spoken to someone who set out on that journey and came back. Oh, and they were tall and big, too. I’ve never seen a man or woman built so big.
“Anyway, we listened at first, especially when they started talking about how much ability our children had.” She blushed. “I mean, what parent doesn’t like hearing that their little one is special or especially blessed?”
She paused, her eyes taking on a faraway look, and Marsh forced herself to sit still and wait. As much as she wanted to press the woman for details, she didn’t want to shape her narrative. If she did, Fabrice might describe events the way Marsh might see them rather than the way she had seen them. Marsh didn’t want that. She wanted to hear Fabrice’s version. If she wanted more detail, she could always ask for it later.
“What really put me off was the insistence. We said no, that we needed the children’s help on the farm, and they asked what gave us the right to deny our children the chance to develop their powers to their potential? I mean, Shadow’s Teeth! How rude was that? As if we didn’t care about our own children’s welfare. Well, I wasn’t going to be emotionally blackmailed. And Patrik? Well, he said that if they were so concerned about the children’s welfare, they wouldn’t mind staying in the cavern and setting up a school that everyone could attend, children and adults alike. But they wouldn’t hear of it.”
“Why not?” Tamlin asked, and Marsh shifted so she could see his face.
The boy seemed genuinely puzzled.
Fabrice shrugged.
“I don’t know, but they took offense and left us to go see the next farm. Trouble was that Patrik and Alaine are good friends, and Alaine gave them the exact same answer. I think they visited every farm after that because everyone we spoke to at the markets said they’d come.” Her voice dropped to almost a whisper. “Thing was, they even approached those whose kids had shown no magical ability at all. Claimed they could teach them new things that would make them better farmers with no magic!”
“Once we’d all gotten together and started comparing notes, it was pretty clear they were after our children, with little regard for what their abilities really were. When Patrik and Alaine went to their camp to ask them what they really wanted, they’d gone. Been gone at least a day, too. No goodbye. No final attempt to recruit anyone. Just gone.”
“We should have been ready for the raiders. Should have known…” She let her words fade and sat staring past Marsh, looking at nothing as her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.
Marsh watched as the little boy wormed his way onto Fabrice’s lap and wound his arms around her neck.
“No cwy, Mama. No cwy.” Curt hugged her tightly, and a girl a little younger than Aisha ducked under Fabrice’s arm and wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist. That must be Tory
For a long moment, none of them moved, and then a strange barking cry echoed through the darkness outside. Hugo crossed to the door and growled, Scruffknuckle shadowing the big dog’s every move. Everyone in the kitchen gasped and Fabrice stood, setting the little boy down on the bench.
“The moutons…” she began, and Marsh rose to reassure her.
“We put them in on the way down from the waystation. If you didn’t let them out…”
Fabrice relaxed.
“Not today,” she said. “We fed them, but the children didn’t want to leave you, and I had business to attend to in the office.”
She looked up.
“Ev, did you bar the doors?”
“Oui, Mama.”
Fabrice relaxed, then blinked and focused on Marsh.
“We’ll pack tonight. If we fetch the mules from the waystation early, we should be clear of the cavern before the joffra start to stir.”
Marsh started to nod, then stopped, her head spinning. Fabrice gave her a shrewd look.
“You need to sleep. The children and I will take care of things here, but you need to rest.”
Marsh wanted to ask her whose fault that was but resisted. The woman couldn’t be blamed for her fear. Tomorrow they’d be on the road, and that much closer to reaching Ruins Hall and help. What worried her most was that Ruins Hall, like each of the Four Settlements, had just one appointed enforcer, and that wouldn’t be enough to face down an organized force.
9
Fleeing the Farm
Marchant felt much better the next morning. She rose with just the slightest hint of a headache and a dull throbbing to remind her of where the skillet had landed. She was in and out of the washroom before she realized anyone else had stirred. Fabrice was coming down the stairs as Marsh headed for the kitchen with her backpack in hand.
“If you get the mules, I’ll have the children and moutons ready by the time you return.”
Marsh nodded.
“Can you do it on your own?”
“Has Ev ever saddled a mule?” she asked, and Fabrice shook her head.
“No, but…”
“I have.” Tamlin had arrived without either of them noticing, and he wasn’t alone.
“Me, too,” Aisha piped and caught Marchant’s look of disbelief with raised eyebrows. “Can so.”
Marsh looked from one to the other and saw only sincerity in their faces. She also noticed that Tamlin looked a little pale and that both children carried backpacks.
“We’re ready,” Tamlin told her. “I’ll grab some shroom bread on the way through the kitchen, and we can eat while we walk.” He looked at Fabrice. “If that’s all right with you?”
“Yes. Take some cheese, too.”
Marsh registered the faint tension thrumming through the air. Tamlin seemed most anxious, and Aisha was as taut as a bowstring.
“What’s going on?” she asked, and Eveline answered.
“Tory had a dream. The mages will come back today. We need to hurry.”
“Do you always…”
“Yes,” Evelin
e said. “We’ll talk about it later.”
Her eyes held a pleading look Marsh could not ignore. She turned to Tamlin.
“Bon. When you’re ready.”
He didn’t bother answering but turned and led the way through the kitchen, stopping in the pantry long enough to take the bread he found there.
“We need to hurry,” he said. Marsh decided they could talk about why he was so sure on the way to the station.
As it turned out, Tamlin didn’t give her the opportunity. As soon as they were free of the farmhouse, the boy broke into a jog, maintaining the pace past the barn as Aisha scrambled to catch up. To give her credit, the little girl didn’t protest. Whatever was bothering her brother was bothering her too.
Marsh jogged with them, scanning the cavern around them. The last thing she wanted was for any of them to run right into a joffra ambush. She could only hope that Fabrice was right and the lizard-like monsters really did return to their lairs as the day cycle began. They were going to be in a lot of trouble if it wasn’t true.
By the time they reached the waystation’s gates, she was breathing hard. Tamlin had set a faster pace than she would have given him credit for. Together, they lifted the locking bar and opened the gates.
“Leave them open,” the boy said when Marsh turned to pull the gates closed after them.
“Why?”
He blushed and looked uncomfortable.
“There’s something in the shadows,” he said. “We don’t want to stay here any longer than we need to.”
“How do you know?”
“You know how you ask the shadows if there are any towns nearby?”
“Bien.”
Tamlin led the way to the stables, talking as he went.
“Well, I asked them if Tory’s dream was true and there really were mages coming.” He frowned. “Thing is, when I asked the shadows down the tunnels we’d come by, they said there was no one there, so I had to ask the shadows in the cavern.
“When they said no one was here, I asked them where the people were, and they said they were coming.”
Marsh gave him a skeptical look.
“Did they tell you who was coming?”
“No, just that there was someone.” He led the way into the tack room, pausing to look at her as he reached the door. “They’re coming, Marsh, and I don’t want to be here when they arrive.”
From the look on his face, he believed every word he was saying. Marsh decided she’d better pay attention. She picked up the first of the saddles and harnesses, noting that Tamlin and Aisha had a coordinated act going. He picked up a saddle and the little girl grabbed a bridle, and they headed to the stable.
Marsh stopped long enough to watch as Aisha cleared her throat to get the mule’s attention, then stared intently at in until it dipped its head low enough for her to get the bit into its mouth and the bridle over its ears. Her eyes flared a brilliant green as she did so, and Marsh wondered just how long she’d been able to talk to mules.
Tams caught her look.
“Since she was four,” he said. “Scared the Shades out of me the first time she walked up to a mule and gave it that look.”
He cinched the saddle tight and gave her a meaningful stare.
“Scared our parents too, but they don’t know of anywhere that can teach her more. It’s not shadow magic.” He frowned. “Are you going to put that saddle on a mule or just stand there hugging it all day?
Marsh decided he was the pushiest ten year old she had ever encountered, and that she didn’t have either the time or reason to adjust his attitude. Without monitoring the pair any further, she began to saddle and lead out the mules as quickly as she could. When she returned to find all the stalls empty, she looked at Tamlin.
“Get them into line and I’ll join you.”
She didn’t tell him why and he didn’t bother asking, although he gave her a look full of apprehension. It didn’t matter. Marsh had been stalked by a growing feeling of unease ever since they’d arrived, and it had grown strong enough to make her feel slightly nauseated. There was only one way she could think of to ease it.
As soon as she was clear of the mules, she took off at a sprint for the watchtower that stood on the farthest corner from the gate. Taking the stairs two at a time, she ran to the top and looked out over the caverns, adjusting her vision to take in as much as she could from the surrounding darkness. Any other time she would have paused long enough to admire the flaring luminescence that spread out over the cavern, but there was only one thing she was interested in now.
Steadying herself against the edge of the parapet, she took several deep breaths, closed her eyes, and then opened them, again, scanning the farthest reaches of the cavern. It really was almost as large as the cavern in which Ruins Hall had been built, and what made it more astounding was that it must have been empty and undiscovered when the waystation had been established.
It didn’t take her long to find what she was both looking for and hoping not to find. In the distance, she saw a bright gleam of light. Sharp as a knife, it burned a hole in the dark and gave Marsh an idea of just how far away the force Fabrice’s younger daughter had dreamed about was. On seeing it, she didn’t stop to ask the shadows how many or who. She just turned and fled down the stairs, barely managing not to run to where Tamlin was leading the mules through the open gates.
“They’re coming,” she said, slowing her pace as she got closer. Tamlin didn’t bother asking who either.
He just turned and scooped Aisha from the ground, settling her on the closest animal.
“This one’s yours,” he said, passing over another set of reins as soon as his sister was holding on.
Marsh took the reins from his hands and mounted. They booted their beasts into a trot that took them back to the farm at a faster pace than they could have managed on their own. Fabrice and her children were moving among a sea of woolly backs—or rather, Fabrice and Eveline were.
They had put Curt on the back of one of the biggest sheep, and the little girl Marsh remembered from the night before was holding its lead.
“Well, that’s one way to keep them out of trouble,” Marchant said, and Tamlin’s eyes snapped open.
“We need to hurry,” he said, his face paler than before, “but only after we get the moutons hooked on.”
He slid from the back of his mule and rushed to lift Aisha to the ground.
“Stay there,” he told Marsh. “Ask the shadows to keep watch for us.”
Ask the shadows to keep watch? At first, Marsh had no idea what he was talking about, then she took a guess at what he meant. Gathering her reins, she rested her hands on the pommel and closed her eyes, trusting things would remain calm enough for her to concentrate on the shadows. The boy was right; they did need to know what was happening on the other side of the cavern.
“Show me the people coming through the dark,” she said, reaching out and touching the shadow strands that coiled and gathered around her. “Show me how many and who.”
She searched the strands, feeling for the ones that could tell her what she wanted to know and releasing those that could not. When she was sure she had found the right ones, Marchant focused on drawing the information through them. She wanted images. She wanted to hear the people talking. She wanted…
What was that? The voice sounded like it was right beside her, and Marsh’s eyes snapped open. As soon as she did, the voice faded, to be replaced by the bleating of the moutons and the sound of their hooves as they moved over the road.
They were moving?
Marchant looked around and realized she’d spent more time in the shadow threads than she’d thought. While she’d been focused on searching for whoever was coming across the cavern after them, Tamlin and the others had finished organizing the moutons and clipped a lead rope to her mule’s bridle.
“What did you find?” Tamlin asked.
“I heard voices, and it surprised me.” She shook her head. “I lost the thread.”
>
He scowled at her.
“We need to know how much time we have,” he said, “and if you can hear them, we need to know what they’re planning.”
“Shouldn’t I be keeping an eye on the trail?” she asked, and Tamlin gave her a look of scorn.
“I’m already doing that.”
Marsh felt her face heat, more from outrage than embarrassment. The boy was all of ten—and the way he was going, he might not make eleven! What made him think he could read the trail? It was Fabrice who answered her question.
“He’s following the trail glows,” the woman told her, then added, “I’m sure he’ll call you if we run into trouble.”
Marsh was sure he’d call her too. What she wasn’t sure about was if he’d call her in time. Fabrice had an answer for that too.
“There are five of us watching the trail, and the moutons have their own way of warning us when danger is near. Ruins Hall will need to hear about what happened after we left and what might be coming for them.”
The woman had a point, not to mention a vested interest in knowing what might be headed toward the Hall. After all, she was going to be making her home in the cavern, and she wouldn’t want to find herself homeless a second time. Marsh sighed.
“Okay. I will try.”
If she was honest with herself, she wasn’t sure she could find the threads again, even if what Fabrice said was true. However, they needed to know who was bringing the attacks and what they were planning next. Tightening her grip on the reins and the saddle, Marsh closed her eyes and sought the shadows around them. It didn’t take her long to find the same threads again.
This time she followed them with more care. She remembered the words she’d heard before and wondered if the raiders had somehow sensed her looking for them. Was there a way the shadows could hide her presence from those they touched?
Before she could pursue that thought, she felt the threads ripple, their answer an almost tangible wave. Marsh pushed the thought away and gave the shadows all her attention. Right now she needed to find out who was coming for them and what they planned. She needed to see them, by the Shades!
Trading into Shadow (The Magic Beneath Paris Book 1) Page 8