Trading Into Daylight (The Magic Below Paris Book 6) Read online

  Trading Into Daylight

  The Magic Below Paris™ Book Six

  C. M. Simpson

  Michael Anderle

  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2019 C.M. Simpson & Michael Anderle

  Cover by Mihaela Voicu http://www.mihaelavoicu.com/

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, October, 2019

  ebook ISBN: 978-1-64202-551-4

  Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-552-1

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2015-2019 by Michael T. Anderle and LMBPN Publishing.

  Contents

  1. Justice Wrought

  2. Unexpected Refuge

  3. The Search Begins

  4. Aisha Found

  5. Waiting for Tamlin

  6. The Stalkers

  7. New Friends

  8. Compromise

  9. A Necessary Theater

  10. Raiders Revealed

  11. Battles of the Mind

  12. Hot Pursuit

  13. Assassin Interruptus

  14. The Raiders and the Remnant

  15. Lupine Liaisons

  16. The Assassin’s Nest

  17. Unexpected Additions

  18. Of Assassins and Mules

  19. Just Taking a Bath

  20. Rest and Recalibration

  21. Infiltration and Escape

  22. A Visit to the Library

  23. Shadow Monsters and Salazar

  24. The Hunt for Gustav

  25. Reunions

  26. A Rocky Road

  27. Journey Impending

  Author Notes - CM Simpson

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Other Books from C.M. Simpson

  Books by Michael Anderle

  Trading Into Daylight Team

  Thanks to our JIT Readers

  James Caplan

  Charles Tillman

  Diane L. Smith

  Dorothy Lloyd

  Larry Omans

  Editor

  SkyHunter Editing Team

  Dedication

  This is for all those who believed in me enough that, eventually, I had the courage to believe in myself.

  Thank you.

  —C.M. Simpson

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  to Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  to Live the Life We Are

  Called.

  — Michael

  1

  Justice Wrought

  Some fought and some tried to run, but the impi warriors were relentless. They pursued them into the tunnel they’d claimed they’d sealed, running them down in the dark—and running them through if they did not surrender.

  Marsh gave Mordan the image the Grotto’s leader had given her. “We need to find him.”

  The big kat sniffed tentatively, but Sulema had no recollection of a scent to give her. Mordan twitched her tail in irritation, and Marsh got the impression the kat did not find human limitation amusing.

  “Please, Dan...”

  The kat laid her ears back and curled her lips in an angry hiss. She did not understand why they delayed going after their kits. They should not be here. The cavern was secure. The raiders were gone. Marsh should be gone, too.

  There was one more threat, Marsh told her, and bounced back to avoid the sword that tried to gut her. It was attached to a man, but not for long. Marsh called a single bolt of lightning from the ceiling and blew him apart.

  “Who’s next?” she snarled.

  Mordan echoed her snarl, and there was a brief scream. Gibbering moans followed it but were soon silenced.

  Did you find him?

  The cat emerged from the shadows, dragging the body of one of her victims. Marsh gagged.

  “By the Deeps, Dan. Did you have to?”

  The kat cocked her head. What did Marsh mean? Sulema said the man must be stopped. She looked at the corpse. Dead is stopped, isn’t it?

  Marsh sighed. Roeglin, we got him.

  Okay, hold him there. Sulema wants to talk to him.

  Pity she didn’t tell Mordan and me.

  Roeglin caught sight of the corpse through her eyes. Marsh heard him gagging a street away.

  Oh, Deeps. Did she have to?

  That’s what I asked her. She said Sulema wanted him stopped, and dead was stopped.

  Marsh favored the kat with a glare and the kat flicked her tail, looking totally unrepentant and very smug.

  Ro, we really need to leave.

  “So I see.” Sulema appeared from around a corner, looking displeased.

  Mordan cocked her head and yawned, showing all her fangs.

  Sulema gave her a disgusted look. “Don’t you threaten me, kat. I have an entire cavern to care for, and this needed to be done.”

  Mordan stood up and stretched, extending her forepaws and arching her back. When she was done, she remained standing and looked from Sulema to Marsh.

  Can we go now? Her request was clear even to the cavern leader, who did not share the link.

  Sulema nudged the corpse with the toe of her boot. “I had Tabia’s and Kwame’s impis bring your mounts and supplies. They’ll be going to the surface with you.”

  “We’re not going to need any extras,” Marsh told her, and Roeglin sighed at her abruptness.

  Sulema’s lips tightened. “Then it is a good thing we are only sending them to escort our druids so they can fortify the sinkhole approaches, isn’t it?”

  Marsh colored and apologized. “I’m sorry.” She glanced at Mordan. “We just need to be away.”

  Sulema’s face softened. “I understand. I am sorry we had to delay your departure, but this...” she gestured to the settlement around them, “had to be dealt with while we had the strength to do so.”

  Marsh wanted to point out that the forces from the Deeps Monastery were still there and the dozen she was taking wouldn’t make much of a difference. Sulema tilted her head.

  “It was your firepower I needed,” the Grotto leader told her. “Just in case there were more raiders or more came.” She kicked the corpse again. “He lied about sealing it.”

  Mordan looked toward the tunnel they’d discovered that led to the surface. It was less a narrow trail through the shrooms than a well-used road.

  “He’s been lying to us about their ability to trade with the surface and how much they wanted to stay isolated, too,” Sulema added. “It seems to me the only ones who were isolated were us.”

  Roeglin arrived from the other direction. “I take it that’s going to change?”

  Sulema nodded. “Oh, yes, but not before we’ve fortified the entrance here, and the one on the surface. We’ll be mounting a standing watch, and building a waystation and trading post.
It’s the only way we can truly monitor the area around the sinkhole entrance.”

  “So, that’s what Kwame and Tabia will be doing?” Marsh asked, and Sulema looked at her.

  “Along with a small contingent from your monastery. It is time we had a presence beneath the sun, again.”

  “Master Envermet knew?” Marsh demanded, and the Shadow Guard captain answered.

  “Master Envermet did,” he said, strolling out from between two buildings, leading their mules. “He also said this was the last time you could be delayed, and that you would be leaving directly after the battle.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Are you ready?”

  Marsh looked down at her blood-spattered armor and then at Mordan. “Deeps, yes.”

  Master Envermet turned to Sulema. “If we have done all you need?”

  “Yes. Thank you.”

  “I will call Sergeant Sewa—”

  “I’m here, sir.”

  She stepped out of the shadows of a nearby building and gave Marsh a quick smile. “I didn’t want to hold you up.” She turned to the captain. “I’ve called the troops into the town square. You can let them know.”

  It was as close to an order Marsh had heard anyone give the captain, and he looked mildly surprised.

  “Thank you, Sergeant.”

  She stepped back into the shadows and disappeared, her voice floating in the darkness. “I’ll meet you there.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Sulema told him. “It’ll make the transfer official.”

  “And your people?”

  “Some will be in attendance. The rest are mopping up.” She gave Marsh a stern look. “We didn’t kill them all.”

  Unlike some, hung in the air between them, and Marsh’s cheeks burned.

  She stalked over to her mule, taking the reins from Master Envermet’s hand. Roeglin followed.

  Master Envermet looked at her. “I’ll keep this brief,” he promised.

  Marsh said nothing, but she was pleasantly surprised when he did exactly as he’d said.

  “I know this is not what you expected,” he began, addressing the gathered Shadow Guard, “but the people of Ariella’s Grotto thank you—and so do I.”

  Heads turned to survey the cavern around them, but the guards’ attention returned as he continued, “I will be joining Mistress Leclerc in her rescue mission, but I leave you in able hands.” He indicated his sergeant. “Captain Seward will lead you in my absence. Work for her as you have worked for me, and I will have no complaints when I return.”

  The shadow mages and guards stirred restlessly at his words, but Master Envermet ignored them.

  “Captain, if you would step forward?” he ordered and gave her a brief smile. “I see you are out of uniform.”

  She was blushing as he reached into his shirt pocket, and his smile returned at her expression of surprise.

  “I had them made up before we left...just in case.”

  “You knew?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “When I chose you as my second in command, I chose a very competent sergeant who showed great promise. You have lived up to that promise and earned your stripes. I trust they will be in place by morning.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “And this,” he added, holding up a small silver badge, “marks your status as the First Captain in Ariella’s Grotto. It will require the appropriate engraving, but will serve to mark you as long as these men and women stand witness.”

  He raised his head and surveyed the gathered troops. “And do you?” he challenged.

  “Sir! Yes, sir!” echoed back at him, and he pinned the medal to Seward’s chest.

  “Congratulations, Captain.”

  The troops cheered until Envermet held up his hand. He indicated Sulema. “You are to provide the leadership of Ariella’s Grotto with every assistance in securing their territories until I return or Captain Seward identifies a higher priority. Am I understood?”

  “Sir, yes, sir!”

  Again, they stilled as he raised his hand.

  “This is my last order until I come back.” He gestured at Seward. “Look to your captain.”

  “Sir!”

  Master Envermet was smiling as he turned to Seward. “Take care of my troops.”

  “Sir, yes, sir.”

  He gave her a single nod of acknowledgment and turned back toward the entrance leading to the surface. Marsh hovered, torn between following him or calling for her team.

  Captain Seward seemed to read her mind, and her voice rang out over the square. “Advance team, you are dismissed to Shadow Captain Envermet’s command.”

  Relief flooded through Marsh as she watched Izmay, Henri, Jacob, Gerry, and Zeb moved forward, each of them leading a fully laden mule. She breathed a sigh of relief when Brigitte accompanied them.

  As they filed past to stand behind her, one of the young Grotto warriors stepped forward. “I will be going, too,” he declared, and Sulema turned toward him.

  Before she could speak, he continued, “They saved my family and my grandmother. This is how I will repay them.”

  “By becoming a thorn in the foot,” an elderly voice sniped.

  Several chuckles followed, and the young man threw a look of exasperation over his shoulder.

  Sulema spoke quickly to calm him. “I am sure you will be of greater help than that,” she assured him.

  “Then I can go?” He sounded surprised, and Sulema gave a throaty laugh. “Yes, Obasi. We will look after your grandmother until your return.”

  He hurried over to the settlement leader and clasped her hands in his, raising them to his bowed forehead. “Thank you, Mother.”

  Mother? Marsh wondered.

  Roeglin replied, It is a term of respect in the Grotto, one given to an older female who is not old enough to be a grandmother.

  But... Marsh began.

  Or to one you do not wish to call old, Roeglin added, a smile in his mental contact.

  As soon as Obasi had said his farewells, they headed for the tunnel the settlement had claimed no longer led to the surface.

  “We should have killed them all,” Henri muttered, observing the well-worn trail.

  “Not all of them agreed,” Izmay reminded him.

  He grunted, not entirely convinced.

  “And some had their children held hostage,” she reminded him.

  “Tell me we killed everyone responsible,” he rumbled, looking thoroughly disgusted.

  She gave him a fierce smile. “Those who felt no remorse, yes.”

  “And those who did?”

  “The Grotto will ensure they pay.”

  Henri grunted, scowling fiercely as he thought about it, but he said nothing more. They rode toward the surface in relative silence, Mordan padding through the dark ahead of them.

  2

  Unexpected Refuge

  Marsh settled into silence, tamping down the urge to kick her mule into a fast trot to reach the surface faster. Mordan’s anxiety fed over the link between them, and she reached out to soothe the big kat.

  Her answer was a snarl that rippled through the dark and set the mules to snorting.

  Roeglin raised an eyebrow and looked at her.

  “She wants us to go faster,” Marsh explained, and the guards around her groaned.

  “Speaking of going faster,” Master Envermet called back, “I need you up here scanning ahead.”

  Marsh sighed and kicked the mule forward. When she arrived, Master Envermet held out his hand for the reins.

  “I’ll make sure you stay alongside,” he told her, and Marsh nodded.

  She closed her eyes and sent her senses out into the dark. The impis moved in their wake, content to let them take the lead.

  They stopped where the trail widened into a cavern. Marsh blinked and looked around as Master Envermet nudged her and handed back her reins.

  She caught the remains of square-edged pillars stretching up to a ceiling that was unnaturally flat beneath the slow growth of s
talactites and the seepage of dirt. They were not the first travelers to stop there, she noted, seeing the remains of a campfire at the cavern mouth.

  As they surveyed the space, she caught sight of the solid stone walls of a shelter. The doors were firmly closed but wide enough to allow two mules and riders to walk abreast.

  “Think they’ll let us in?” she asked when she caught Master Envermet studying the structure.

  “I think we need to scout it out before any of us go near it,” he replied and frowned at her. “How are you feeling?”

  Marsh opened her mouth to say she felt okay when she realized just how bone-tired she was. Her body ached with the fatigue of fighting a battle followed by a long day’s ride.

  Master Envermet grunted and looked back to Roeglin.

  “Shadow mage, I need to know how many minds are behind those walls.”

  For a moment, Marsh wondered how Roeglin was feeling, but his mind touch was firm and strong. I don’t use as much magic as you when I fight, he told her, and I haven’t been scanning for life for the past six hours.

  The man had a point, Marsh thought, and she subsided. He slid from his mule and stepped into the nearest patch of shadow.

  He reappeared as a dark patch on the edge of a cluster of calla shrooms, then vanished again to reappear at the base of the walls. Marsh watched as he crouched, stretched out a hand, and laid it on the solid timber of the structure’s gates.