The Magic Below Paris Boxed Set, page 71
part #1 of The Magic Below Paris Series
The wolf leader gave her the impression the pack was welcome to join them if it brought meat and then tilted its head to where Mordan had settled herself in a corner with Pierre resting between her paws. Marsh frowned.
“You can’t keep him, you know…” she began, and the big kat opened her mouth in a mock yawn, showing all her fangs as she curled a paw around Pierre. Marsh sighed and hoped this didn’t mean more trouble ahead.
Gustav followed her gaze and smiled.
“Someone’s got a new pet,” he said, and Marsh glared at him.
“Oh, really?”
He turned to her.
“Well, do you want to be the one to tell her she’ll have to give that cub up?”
In all truth, Marsh did not, even though she couldn’t see how she was going to avoid it. Gustav nudged her.
“It’ll be all right,” he said and indicated the wolves. “Now, if these guys agree, I’d like to bring the girls inside so they can sleep…and I’d like to start a fire so we can cook the meat.”
One of the wolves growled.
“Our portion of the meat,” Gustav amended, and the wolf laid its head on its paws.
It was up and moving minutes later, and Marsh followed it to the crevice and out into the cavern proper. The daylight was fading to a more tolerable grey, and none of the returning guards were wearing the gauzy eye-bands Felicity had given them. The wolf pricked its ears and gave two excited yips that drew the others from the cave to join it.
If the hunters were surprised to be greeted by a small but very happy wolf pack, they didn’t show it. Instead, they called Marsh over so the wolves could let them know which of the two goat carcasses they preferred. It was an easy choice, and they put it down so the wolves could feast uninterrupted.
It didn’t take them long to dress the second carcass, leaving the discarded innards for the pack to enjoy. The mules watched the whole proceedings with unease, not letting any of the humans near them until they had washed the blood from their hands and arms. Everyone ate well that night, the wolves surprising the humans by returning to the cave to take their places by the fire.
Marsh caught the eye of their leader, and it reminded her of the druid they had lost, allowing her the image of a young man with dark-brown curls and laughing brown eyes. Pointed ears and a lithe build caught her eye and then the image was gone, the wolf resting its chin on its paws with a huff of sadness.
“Would you like another to run with you?” Marsh asked it, and the wolf raised its head.
Another?
“There are more druids coming from the Deeps,” she told it. “There should be at least one among them who would like to walk the upper caverns.”
This one? the wolf seemed to ask, giving her the impression that the pack liked the cavern they had found. They particularly liked the small cave inside the cavern, although it would seem lonely without a human to keep them company.
“I can ask,” Marsh told them. “Would you like to come and meet them or should I bring them to you?”
She pictured the options and let the wolf think about what it wanted. In the end, it decided it would accompany Marsh back to Kerrenin’s Ledge, and that its pack would come with it. There were many hunting grounds, after all, and who was to say that this one was the best?
“The wolves are coming with us,” she said, and Gustav froze mid-bite.
He met her gaze and then took his bite, chewed, and swallowed, his eyes roving over the gathered pack. It took him a few moments, but finally, he spoke.
“What, all of them?”
Marsh nodded.
“They want to find another druid.”
He glared at her.
“I suppose you told them there would be druids coming to the Ledge and they could take their pick?”
He sounded so unamused that Marsh wondered if she’d done the wrong thing. Roeglin snorted with laughter but said nothing, focusing on his dinner when she looked his way.
Uh-uh. You’re on your own with this one, he told her, but his face was alight with amusement. You Deeps-ridden troublemaker, you.
“I…” Marsh stopped as Felicity put her hand on her knee.
“He’s teasing you.”
Roeglin took a sharp breath and Marsh scowled at him, then saw the funny side of it.
“You forgot, didn’t you?”
The look on his face said it all and Marsh started laughing.
“You forgot. How does it feel when someone does it to you?”
“Does what?” Gustav wanted to know.
“Reads his mind,” Marsh replied and glanced at the shadow mage. “Not nice, is it?”
“I… It’s been awhile,” Roeglin admitted, and Felicity smiled quietly and went back to her meal.
23
Brats Contained
Marsh woke to the sound of voices speaking softly in the dark. It took her a moment to realize she was hearing children, and that they very much didn’t want to be heard.
“We could hide on the surface,” the boy was saying, “or down at the waystation. Pretend we were lost and just needed shelter. They wouldn’t turn us away.”
“Do you think they’d take us?”
“It couldn’t hurt to try, and we could join a caravan if they didn’t want us around. It’s a waystation, after all.”
“It couldn’t be any worse than the farm,” Ninetta added, and Marsh had to admit that the child had a point.
There was silence as they all contemplated that idea, and then Claudette spoke.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s do that. Mum will be okay.”
There was enough doubt in her voice, though, that Marsh decided to intervene. She waited for the three of them to make their very quiet way out of the cave and into the cavern proper and then she followed them, Mordanlenoowar padding softly in her wake. She let them get to the edge of the campsite before she spoke.
“And just where do the three of you think you’re going?”
She’d forgotten about Claudette’s propensity for attacking first and asking questions after, but the flare of purple light was just warning enough for her to pull a shield from the shadows, and catch the ball of caged lightning against it.
“Hey!” she shouted. “That’s enough of that.”
As if to emphasize her determination, Mordan’s growl rumbled out around them and Marsh stalked forward.
“Claudette Bisset, you get your tail over here right now. And you, Ninetta. And you, Pierre. Do not make me come out there and get you.”
She jumped as Gustav’s voice bellowed out after hers.
“Do not make any of us come out there to get you. We’ve had to come far enough as it is.”
They waited, listening to the cavern’s silence while the mules snorted and moved restlessly at their tethers.
Mordan’s growl was all the notice they had that the big kat had moved.
“No,” Claudette said. “No, I won’t.”
Pierre gave a frightened shriek, and Mordan bounded back to Marsh and dropped the child at her feet before leaping back out into the cavern.
Moments later, they heard Claudette again.
“But…”
Mordan snarled, and Marsh kept a grip on the boy in front of her. Part of his shirt was damp from where the big kat had picked him up, but the rest of him was fine. He didn’t move, just stared out into the cavern. It didn’t take long for Mordan to guide the girls back to them.
The big kat stalked into sight, with the troublesome pair taking one step back for every step the feline took forward. They stopped and turned when Mordan looked past them to where Gustav was waiting, his hands on his hips.
“I don’t suppose you two young ladies would care to tell me what you were doing over a cup of kaffee?” he asked.
The two girls hung their heads, their hands joining as they looked up at him.
“We were just…”
“We needed…”
“Uh-uh. You can speak to me when we’re back inside. You’ve scared the mules quite enough. The Deeps know just how long it’s going to take the calm the beasts down again. I swear trouble is a female!”
“Hey!” Marsh protested.
She didn’t need to hear Zeb’s response.
“If the boot fits, shadow mage. If. The boot. Fits.”
Marsh resisted the urge to tell him what to do with his boot and led Pierre back into the cave after them instead. Felicity was waiting, and so were the wolves. Once everyone was inside, they filled the space between the fire and the crevice and sat down.
Marsh saw Claudette eye the big creatures with dismay and then take her place by the fire. She also felt Pierre’s small hand tighten around hers and wondered what it was that kids seemed to see in her, because she was the last person she’d have thought was any good with them.
Don’t bet on it, Roeglin told her, and Marsh felt the warmth of Felicity’s agreement.
Realizing there were now two mind mages inside her head didn’t make her any happier than she had been moments before, but she said nothing. She supposed she couldn’t blame Felicity for wanting to take a peek.
“Now,” Gustav said, turning to the children when everyone was settled, “exactly where did the three of you think you were going?”
Three sets of eyes returned his look with silent reproach but the Protector captain was silent, letting the quiet increase the pressure until one of them cracked. In the end, Claudette gave a loud sigh and rolled her eyes.
“We don’t want to go back to the farm,” she said. “It’s not safe for Netti or Pierre. They’ll only be hurt.”
Gustav pretended puzzlement even though Mordan gave a grumbling sound of worry and the nearest wolf sat up, ears pricked with concern. Marsh had to wonder if Claudette had some form of nature magic, the way the animals were responding to her voice.
If she does, she doesn’t know it yet, Roeglin muttered. Let’s keep it that way for a bit, shall we?
Marsh had to agree. The thought of an animal-speaking Claudette was a bit of a worry, given the stunt she’d just tried to pull. Later, perhaps, when she’d calmed down a bit, or maybe discovered it for herself, but certainly not now.
“But they’re your parents,” Gustav continued. “Why would they hurt you?”
Claudette tossed an apologetic look toward Felicity and answered, “Mine won’t hurt me, but theirs don’t like magic, do they?” She looked at the other two, and Pierre gave a wide-eyed shake of his head. Ninetta just stared, her brown eyes dark with distress and her face pale in the light of the fire.
Gustav turned to her, his face gentle.
“I’ve met your father,” he said. “Is what Claudie says true?”
It took Ninetta a moment to answer, and when she did, her voice was quiet.
“He did this the first time.” She turned and lifted the back of her tunic.
Felicity gasped and Marsh drew a sharp breath, her eyes stinging with the threat of tears. Ninetta lowered her tunic and sat back down.
“Don’t take me back,” she begged, and then looked at the boy, “and don’t take Pierre back, either. His dad is just as bad.”
Marsh saw Gustav swallow as though moistening his throat. When he spoke next, his voice rasped with suppressed emotion.
“What about your mothers?”
Yes, Marsh thought. What about your mothers?
It was a good question, and she waited, feeling Felicity tense beside her.
Across the fire, Ninetta bit her lip and twisted her hands in her lap. Her reply was almost impossible to hear, but it was there.
“She helped.”
There was a world of betrayal in those two words, and Felicity was around the fire’s edge and pulling the girl into her arms before any of the rest of them had worked out how to respond. She looked across at Marsh, her chin tucked over Ninetta’s head as the child cried against her, and her eyes pleaded for Marsh to do something.
Marsh lifted Pierre from the ground and walked around to sit next to Felicity. She nestled the boy in her lap and laid a hand on Ninetta’s arm, her heart aching when the child flinched at her touch. Not saying a word, she reached into the ground beneath her, seeking for the energy that ran through the soil and the stone, drawing on the slow flow of it and guiding it into the girl.
She pictured the crisscross of welts on Ninetta’s back and sent the energy over them, imagining the skin whole and smooth again before letting the excess subside back into the ground. When she was done, she lifted her hand away and looked into the girl’s eyes.
“How’s that feel?”
Ninetta wriggled carefully, lifting first one shoulder and then the other before twisting slowly from side to side. When she was done, she settled back into Felicity’s arms, staring at Marsh in wide-eyed amazement.
“I didn’t know the shadows could do that!”
Marsh shook her head.
“That was different.”
“Show me how?”
“Later, when we’ve worked out what we’re going to do next, okay?”
“Okay.” The girl sounded happy enough that Marsh figured she might stick around a bit longer.
Claudette didn’t look pleased, but she didn’t say anything. Gustav studied them through the flames and then he spoke.
“We need to go back to the farm and see if they are willing to have you return,” he began and raised his hand when they drew breath to protest. “I promise, we will not leave you with them—and they will not want us to, given that we will be leaving you on the condition that we can leave a shadow mage with each of you to teach you how to control your abilities and to teach anyone else who has magical ability. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Ninetta said, and Marsh heard the smile in the girl’s voice.
As plans went, it was solid. If Davide’s attitude had been anything to go by, the surviving farm hands would never agree to a shadow mage staying to tutor any budding magicians. All she could hope was that that the mothers could be convinced to leave the farm, instead.
When Gustav asked Pierre if he was okay with that idea, the boy just gave him a wide-eyed stare and nodded. They broke camp shortly after, loading up the mules and riding back to the farm. This time Gustav didn’t ask Marsh to scout ahead; he had Mordan and the wolves scout instead.
When they returned with the news that the farm was deserted, the moutons still in their barn and no humans in sight, a feeling of déjà vu settled over Marsh. Gustav gave her a worried look and they rode carefully forward, stopping just out of sight of the main house before the captain looked at her and Roeglin.
“Go in,” he said. “Tell me what you find.”
They weren’t gone long. The farm was like all the other deserted properties they’d ever visited. Food on the table—the evening meal, from what Marsh could tell—with dessert long burned on a stove left to go out on its own.
Valuables had been left in their drawers, and supplies left in crates and boxes.
“We need to bring the moutons back,” Marsh said, and Ninetta nodded.
“All the animals,” the girl added. “They won’t survive without someone to look after them.”
Gustav gave them both a look that said they were trying his patience, and in the end, they compromised agreeing to take the moutons the donkeys and the mules and release the rest. Nikolas’s help was invaluable, as was Felicity’s and the children’s, as they went to work getting the animals together. By the end of the morning, they were ready to move out again.
This time, the wolves kept the moutons together until they reached the Kerrenin’s Ledge’s gates. The woolly troublemakers stayed crammed tightly on the path, running between the mules without complaint and showing no interest in straying. It was past dusk and the gates firmly were closed, but that didn’t stop Gustav, Roeglin, and Marsh.
They marched up to the gates, Gustav drawing his sword so he could hammer on them with its pommel.
“Halt!”
The cry came from the top of the wall as they approached and they stopped, Gustav sheathing his sword as they did so. This time the gates creaked inward, and the waiting guards were arrayed to form a corridor into the city proper. Captain Brodeur came to join them, mounted and riding beside Councilor Ines.
“I saw you coming from the walls,” she told Gustav, “and ordered him into the saddle.”
She looked over at where the captain had ridden so that he could reach across and embrace his sister and smiled.
“That is a sight worth waiting for. Tell me, how did you find the Outlet?”
“We didn’t reach the Outlet,” Gustav told her, and Marsh let their words flow around her as they discussed the path of their journey and what they’d found at both the Bisset farmlet and the larger steading farther on.
“And you say it’s now abandoned?” Ines sounded disappointed.
“We did not reach it in time to stop it from happening,” Gustav said, and Marsh noticed he didn’t say they’d had no way of knowing the raiders would strike so fast.
The councilor turned to Marsh.
“This Idris…did you know him?”
“No,” Marsh said. “He was new to me.”
“Would you know him again if you saw him?”
Marsh frowned, wondering if the councilor was truly listening to anything she said.
“He’s dead, but if I saw him again, I would kill him just the same.”
Ines smiled.
“Good.”
Marsh’s frown deepened.
“May I ask why?”
“I may know the family,” Ines replied. “They run to multiples.”
Now, that was something Marsh hadn’t wanted to know, although she was glad she did.
“How do you know of them?” Gustav asked, but the councilor didn’t answer straight away.
Marsh was thinking she might need a nudge when Ines sighed.
“Let’s just say I’ve run into them before,” she said, and there was a finality in her tone that made it clear that the subject was closed.
“Uh huh,” Gustav replied, making it equally clear he wasn’t done but he’d let it lie for a little longer as he pursued another subject. “How are Master Greta and her son?”
