by Butcher, Jim
“I was told she died in childbirth,” I said.
“She did,” Ebenezar confirmed. “I don’t know why, but for some reason she turned away from her previous associates—including Justin DuMorne. After that, nowhere was safe for her. She ran from her former allies and from the Wardens for perhaps two years. And she ran from me. I had my orders regarding her as well.”
I stared at him in pained fascination. “What happened?”
“She met your father. A man. A mortal, without powers, without influence, without resources. But a man with a good soul, like few I have ever seen. I believe that she fell in love with him. But on the night you were born, one of her former allies found her and exacted his vengeance for her desertion.” He looked up at me directly and said, “He used an entropy curse. A ritual entropy curse.”
Shock paralyzed me for a moment. Then I said, “Lord Raith.”
“Yes.”
“He killed my mother.”
“He did,” Ebenezar confirmed.
“God. You’re . . . you’re sure?”
“He’s a snake,” Ebenezar said. “But I’m as sure as I can be.”
The pounding spread up my arm, and the room pulsed brighter and dimmer in time with it. “My mother. He was standing three feet from me. He killed my mother.” A child’s pain—the emptiness in my life the shape of my unknown mother, my unfortunate father—swelled and screamed in rage. The source of that pain, or part of it, had finally been revealed to me. And in that moment, had I known where to strike, I would have eagerly embraced murder. Nothing mattered but exacting retribution. Nothing mattered but taking righteous vengeance for the death of a child’s mother. My mother. I started shaking, and I knew that my sanity was buckling under the pressure.
“Hoss,” Ebenezar said. “Easy, boy.”
“Kill him,” I whispered. “I’ll kill him.”
“No,” Ebenezar said. “You’ve got to breathe, boy. Think.”
I started gathering power. “Kill him. Kill him. Everything. All of it. Nothing left.”
“Harry,” Ebenezar snapped. “Harry, let go. You can’t handle that kind of power. You’ll kill yourself if you try.”
I didn’t care about that, either. The power felt too good—too strong. I wanted it. I wanted Raith to pay. I wanted him to suffer, screaming, and then die for what he had done to me. And I was strong enough to make it happen. I had the power and the resolve to bring such a tide of magic against him that he would be utterly destroyed. I would lay him low and make him howl for mercy before I tore him apart. He deserved nothing less.
And then fire blossomed in my hand again, so sudden and sharp that my back convulsed into an agonized arch, and I fell to the floor. I couldn’t scream. The pain washed my fury away like dandelions before a flash flood. I looked around wildly and saw the old man’s broad, calloused hand clamped down over my burned, lightly bandaged flesh with bruising strength. When he saw my eyes he released my hand, his expression sickened.
I curled up for a minute while my pounding heart telegraphed consecutive tidal waves of agony through me. It was several minutes before I could master the pain and sit slowly up again.
“I’m sorry,” Ebenezar whispered. “Harry, I can’t let you indulge your rage. You’ll kill yourself.”
“I’ll take him with me,” I got out between gritted teeth.
Ebenezar let out a bitter laugh. “No, you won’t, Hoss.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve tried,” he said. “Three times. And I didn’t even get close. And you think your mother went without spending her death curse on her murderer? The creature who had enslaved her? Might as well ask if a fish remembered to swim.”
I blinked at him. “What do you mean?”
“He’s protected,” he said quietly. “Magic just slides off him.”
“Even a death curse?”
“Useless,” he said bitterly. “Raith is protected by something big. Maybe a big damned demon. Maybe even some old god. He can’t be touched with magic.”
“Is that even possible?” I asked.
“Aye,” the old man said. “I don’t know how. But it is. Does a lot to explain how he got to become the White King.”
“I don’t believe it,” I said quietly. “She’d been close to him. She must have known he was protected. She was strong enough to make the White Council afraid of her. She wouldn’t have spent her curse for nothing.”
“She threw it. She wasted it.”
“So now my mother is incompetent as well as evil,” I said.
“I never said that—”
“What do you know about her?” I said. I had my right hand clamped around my left wrist, hoping to distract myself from the pain. “How would you know? Did she tell you? Were you there with her?”
He looked down at the floor, his face pale. “No.”
“Then how the hell do you know?” I demanded.
His words came out in a harsh croak. “Because I knew her, Hoss. I knew her almost better than she knew herself.”
The fire crackled.
“How?” I whispered.
He drew his hand back from the puppy. “She was my apprentice. I was her teacher. Her mentor. She was my responsibility.”
“You taught her?”
“I failed her.” He chewed on his lip. “Harry . . . when Maggie was coming into her power, I made her life a living hell. She was barely more than a child, but I rode herd on her night and day. I pushed her to learn. To excel. But I was too close. Too involved. And she resented it. She ran off as soon as she could get away with it. Started taking up with bad sorts out of sheer rebellion. She made a couple of bad decisions, and . . . and then it was too late for her to go back.”
He sighed. “You’re so much like her. I knew it when they sent you to me. I knew it the minute I saw you. I didn’t want to repeat my mistakes with you. I wanted you to have breathing space. To make up your own mind about what kind of person you would be.” He shook his head. “The hardest lesson a wizard has to learn is that even with so much power, there are some things you can’t control. No matter how much you want to.”
I just stared at him. “You’re an assassin. A murderer. You knew about what happened to my mother. You knew her and you never told me. Good God, Ebenezar. How could you do that to me? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m only human, Hoss. I did what I thought was best for you at the time.”
“I trusted you,” I said. “Do you know how much that means to me?”
“Yes,” he said. “I never did it with the intention of hurting you. But it’s done. And I wouldn’t choose to do it any differently if it happened again.”
He moved, got the sack, and hunkered down by me so that he could rest my forearm over one knee and examine the burned hand. Then he reached into the bag and drew out a long strand of string hung with some kind of white stone. “Let’s see to your hand. I think I can get the circulation restored, at least a little. Maybe enough to save the hand. And I can stop the pain for a day or two. You’ll still have to get to a doctor, but this should tide you over if you’re expecting trouble tonight.”
It didn’t take him long, and I tried to sort through my thoughts. They were buried under a storm of raw emotions, all of them ugly. I lost track of time again for a minute. When I looked up, my hand didn’t hurt and it seemed a little less withered beneath the white bandages. A string of white stones had been tied around my wrist. Even as I watched, one of them yellowed and began to slowly darken.
“The stones will absorb the pain for a while. They’ll crumble one at a time, so you’ll know when they stop working.” He looked up to my face. “Do you want my help tonight?”
An hour ago it wouldn’t even have been a question. I’d have been more than glad to have Ebenezar next to me in a fight. But the old man had been right. The truth hurt. The truth burned. My thoughts and feelings boiled in a blistering, dangerous tumult in my chest. I didn’t want to admit what was at the core of that turmoil
, but denying it wouldn’t make it any less true.
Ebenezar had lied to me. From day one.
And if he’d been lying to me, what else had he lied about?
I’d built my whole stupid life on a few simple beliefs. That I had a responsibility to use my power to help people. That it was worth risking my own life and safety to defend others. Beliefs I’d taken as my own primarily because of the old man’s influence.
But he hadn’t been what I thought he was. Ebenezar wasn’t a paragon of wizardly virtue. If anything he was a precautionary tale. He had seemed to talk a good game, but underneath that surface, he’d been as cold and as vicious as any of the cowardly bastards in the Council whom I despised.
Maybe he’d never claimed to be a shining example. Maybe I’d just needed someone to admire. To believe in. Maybe I’d been the stupid one, putting my faith in the wrong place.
But none of that changed the fact that Ebenezar had hidden things from me. That he’d lied.
That made it simple.
“No,” I whispered. “I don’t want you there. I don’t know you. I never did.”
“But you’d fight beside someone like the Hellhound.”
“Kincaid’s a killer for hire. He never pretended he was anything else.”
The old man exhaled slowly and said, “I reckon that ain’t unfair.”
“Thank you for your help. But I’ve got things to do. You should go.”
He rose, picked up the paper bag, and said, “I’m still there for you, Hoss, if you change your—”
I felt my teeth clench. “I said get out.”
He blinked his eyes a few times and whispered, “A hard lesson. The hardest.”
Then he left.
I refused to watch him go.
Chapter Thirty-six
I sat in the silence of the old man’s departure and felt a lot of things. I felt tired. I felt afraid. And I felt alone. The puppy sat up and displayed some of the wisdom and compassion of his kind. He wobbled carefully over to me, scrambled up onto my lap, and started licking the bottom of my chin.
I petted his soft baby fur, and it gave me an unexpected sense of comfort. Sure, he was tiny, and sure, he was just a dog, but he was warm and loving and a brave little beast. And he liked me. He kept on giving me puppy kisses, tail wagging, until I finally smiled at him and roughed up his fur with one hand.
Mister wasn’t about to let a mere dog outdo him. The hefty tom promptly descended from his perch on my bookshelf and started rubbing himself back and forth under my hand until I paid attention to him, too.
“I guess you aren’t nothing but trouble,” I told the dog. “But I already have a furry companion. Right, Mister?”
Mister blinked at me with an enigmatic cat expression, batted the puppy off the couch and onto the floor, and promptly lost interest in me. Mister flowed back down onto the floor, where the puppy rolled to his feet, tail wagging ferociously, and began to romp clumsily around the cat, thrilled with the game. Mister flicked his ears with disdain and went back up onto his bookshelf.
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. The world might be vicious and treacherous and deadly, but it couldn’t kill laughter. Laughter, like love, has power to survive the worst things life has to offer. And to do it with style.
It got me moving. I dressed for trouble—black fatigue pants, a heavy wool shirt of deep red, black combat boots. I put on my gun belt with one hand, clipped my sword cane to the belt, and covered it with my duster. I made sure I had my mother’s amulet and my shield bracelet, sat down, and called Thomas’s cell phone.
The phone got about half of a ring out before someone picked it up and a girl’s frightened voice asked, “Tommy?”
“Inari?” I asked. “Is that you?”
“It’s me,” she confirmed. “This is Harry, isn’t it.”
“For another few hours anyway,” I said. “May I speak to Thomas, please?”
“No,” Inari said. It sounded like she had been crying. “I was hoping this was him. I think he’s in trouble.”
I frowned. “What kind of trouble?”
“I saw one of my father’s men,” she said. “I think he had a gun. He made Thomas drop his phone in the parking lot and get into the car. I didn’t know what I should do.”
“Easy, easy,” I said. “Where was he taken from?”
“The studio,” she said, her voice miserable. “He gave me a ride here when we heard about the shooting. I’m here now.”
“Is Lara there?” I asked.
“Yes. She’s right here.”
“Put her on, please.”
“Okay,” Inari said.
The phone rustled. A moment later Lara’s voice glided out of the phone and into my ear. “Hello, Harry.”
“Lara. I know your father is behind the curse on Arturo, along with Arturo’s wives. I know they’ve been gunning for his fiancée so that Raith can get Arturo back under his control. And I have a question for you.”
“Oh?” she said.
“Yeah. Where is Thomas?”
“It excites me when a man is so subtle,” she said. “So debonaire.”
“Better brace yourself, then,” I said. “I want him in one piece. I’m willing to kill anyone who gets in the way. And I’m willing to pay you to help me.”
“Really?” Lara said. I heard her murmur something, presumably to Inari. She waited a moment, I heard a door close, and the tone of her voice changed subtly, becoming businesslike. “I am willing to hear you out.”
“And I’m willing to give you House Raith. And the White Court with it.”
Shocked silence followed. Then she said, “And how would you manage such a thing?”
“I remove your father from power. You take over.”
“How vague. The situation isn’t a simple one,” she said, but I could hear a throbbing note of excitement in her voice. “The other Houses of the White Court follow House Raith because they fear and respect my father. It seems unlikely that they would transfer that respect to me.”
“Unlikely. Not impossible. I think it can be done.”
She made a slow, low purring sound. “Do you? And what would you expect from me in return? If my father has decided to remove Thomas, I am hardly capable of stopping him.”
“You won’t need to. Just take me to him. I’ll get Thomas myself.”
“After which, my father will be so impressed with your diplomatic skills that he cedes the House to me?”
“Something like that,” I said. “Get me there. Then all you have to do is watch from the sidelines while Cat’s-paw Dresden handles your father.”
“Mmm,” she said. “That would certainly raise my status among the Lords of the Court. To arrange for a usurpation isn’t so unusual, but very few manage to have good seats to it as well. A firsthand view of it would be a grace note few have attained.”
“Plus if you were standing right there and things went badly for me, you’d be in a good spot to backstab me and keep your father’s goodwill.”
“Of course,” she said, without a trace of shame. “You understand me rather well, wizard.”
“Oh, there’s one other thing I want.”
“Yes?” she asked.
“Leave the kid alone. Don’t push her. Don’t pressure her. You come clean with Inari. You tell her the deal with her bloodline and you let her make up her own mind when it comes to her future.”
She waited for a beat and then said, “That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
She purred again. “My. I am not yet sure if you are truly that formidable or simply a vast and mighty fool, but for the time being I am finding you an extremely exciting man.”
“All the girls tell me that.”
She laughed. “Let us assume for a moment that I find your proposal agreeable. I would need to know how you intend to overthrow my father. He’s somewhat invincible, you see.”
“No, he isn’t,” I said. “I’m going to show you how weak he really is.”
&nb
sp; “And how do you know this?”
I closed my eyes and said, “Insight.”
Lara lapsed into a thoughtful silence for a moment. Then she said, “There is something else I must know, wizard. Why? Why do this?”
“I owe Thomas for favors past,” I said. “He’s been an ally, and if I leave him hanging out to dry it’s going to be bad for me in the long term, when I need other allies. If the plan comes off, I also get someone in charge of things at the White Court who is more reasonable to work with.”
Lara made a soft sound that was probably mostly pensive but that would have been a lot more interesting in the dark. Uh. I mean, in person.
“No,” she said then. “That’s not all of it.”
“Why not?”
“That would be sufficient reason if it were me,” she said. “But you aren’t like me, wizard. You aren’t like most of your own kind. I have no doubt that you have reasonable skill at the calculus of power, but calculation is not at the heart of your nature. You prepare to take a terrible risk, and I would know why your heart is set to it.”
I chewed on my lip for a second, weighing my options and the possible consequences. Then I said, “Do you know who Thomas’s mother was?”
“Margaret LeFay,” she said, puzzled. “But what does that—” She stopped abruptly. “Ah. Now I see. That explains a great deal about his involvement in political matters over the past few years.” She let out a little laugh, but it was somehow sad. “You’re much like him, you know. Thomas would sooner tear off his own arm than see one of his siblings hurt. He’s quite irrational about it.”
“Is that reason enough for you?” I asked.
“I am not yet entirely devoid of affection for my family, wizard. It satisfies me.”
“Besides,” I added, “I’ve just handed you a secret with the potential for some fairly good blackmail down the line.”
She laughed. “Oh, you do understand me.”
“Are you in?”
There was silence. When Lara finally spoke again, her voice was firmer, more eager. “I do not know precisely where my father would have had Thomas taken.”