The Dresden Files Collection 7-12

by Jim Butcher

  “He’s like a lot of men,” Demeter said quietly.

  “I know you’ve got a gun in that drawer,” I told her. “Don’t try it.”

  “Why shouldn’t I?” she said.

  “Because I’m not going to give you to Marcone.”

  “What do you want from me?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “I might ask you for information sometimes. If you could help me without endangering yourself, I’d appreciate it. Either way, it doesn’t affect whether or not I talk to Marcone.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Why not?”

  “Maybe I want to see him go down someday,” I said. “But mostly because it’s none of my damned business. I just wanted you to know that I’d seen you. This time maybe he won’t put it all together. He’s got more likely suspects than you inside his organization—and I’d be shocked if you hadn’t already realized what a great patsy Torelli is going to make.”

  Demeter gave me a wintry smile.

  “But don’t get overconfident. If you make another move that obvious, he’ll figure it out. And you’ll disappear.”

  Demeter let out a bare laugh and shut the filing cabinet. “I disappeared years ago.” She gave me a steady look. “Are you here to do business, Mister Dresden?”

  Granted, there was a building full of very…fit girls who would be happy to, ah, work on my tone. And my tone was letting me know that it would be happy to be worked on. The rest of my body, however, thought that a big meal and about two weeks of sleep was a much better idea. And once you got up to my neck, the rest of me thought that this whole place was looking prettier and hollower every time I visited.

  “It’s done,” I said, and left.

  At home, I couldn’t sleep.

  Finally I had enough spare time to worry about what the hell was wrong with my right hand.

  I wound up in my lab, dangling the packet of stale catnip for Mister and filling Bob in on the events of the past few days.

  “Wow,” Bob said. “Soulfire. Are you sure he said soulfire?”

  “Yeah,” I said wearily. “Why?”

  “Well,” the skull said. “Soulfire is…well. It’s Hellfire, essentially. Only from the other place.”

  “Heavenfire?”

  “Well…” Bob said, “yes. And no. Hellfire is something you use to destroy things. Soulfire is used the opposite way—to create stuff. Look, basically what you do is, you take a portion of your soul and you use it as a matrix for your magic.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  “It’s sort of like using rebar inside concrete,” Bob said. “You put a matrix of rebar in, then pour concrete around it, and the strength of the entire thing together is a great deal higher than either one would be separately. You could do things that way that you could never do with either the rebar or the concrete alone.”

  “But I’m doing that with my soul?” I demanded.

  “Oh, come on, Harry. All you mortals get all hung up over your precious souls. You’ve never seen your soul, never touched it, never done anything with it. What’s all the to-do?”

  “So what you’re saying is that this hand construct was made out of my soul,” I said.

  “Your soul and your magic fused together, yeah,” Bob said. “Your soul converted into energy. Soulfire. In this case, the spirit energy drawn from your aura right around your right hand, because it fit the construct so well, it being a big version of your right hand and all. Your standard force-projection spell formed around the matrix of soulfire, and what had been an instantaneous exertion of force became a long-term entity capable of manipulation and exertion to the same degree. Not really more powerful than just the force spell, as much as it was more than simply the force spell.”

  I wiggled my tingling fingers. “Oh. But my soul’s going to get better, right?”

  “Oh, sure,” Bob said. “Few days, a week or two at most, it’ll grow back in. Go out and have a good time, enjoy yourself, do some things that uplift the human spirit or whatever, and it’ll come back even faster.”

  I grunted. “So what you’re saying is that soulfire doesn’t let me do anything new. It just makes me more of what I already am.”

  “A lot more,” Bob said, nodding cheerfully from his shelf. “It’s how angels do all of their stuff. Though admittedly, they’ve got a lot more in the way of soul to draw upon than you do.”

  “I thought angels didn’t have souls,” I said.

  “Like I said, people get all excited and twitchy when that word gets used,” Bob said. “Angels don’t have anything else.”

  “Oh. What happens if I, uh, you know. Use too much of it?”

  “What’s five minus five, Harry?”

  “Zero.”

  “Right. Think about that for a minute. I’m sure you’ll come to the right conclusion.”

  “It’s bad?”

  “See? You’re not totally hopeless,” Bob said. “And hey, you got a new magic sword to custodianize, too? Merlin, eat your heart out; he only got to look after one! And working a case with Uriel! You’re hitting the big-time, Harry!”

  “I haven’t really heard much about Uriel,” I said. “I mean I know he’s an archangel, but…”

  “He’s…sort of Old Testament,” Bob said. “You know the guy who killed the firstborn children of Egypt? Him. Other than that, well. There’s only suspicions. And he isn’t the sort to brag. It’s always the quiet ones, you know?”

  “Heaven has a spook,” I said. “And Mab likes his style.”

  “And he did you a favor!” Bob said brightly. “You just know that can’t be good!”

  I put my head down on the table and sighed.

  But after that I was able to go upstairs and get some real sleep.

  I always like the onion-volcano thing they do at the Japanese steak houses. Me and the other seven-year-olds at the table. I got to catch the shrimp in my mouth, too, when the chef flicked them up into a high arc with his knife. I did so well he hit me with two, one from a knife in either hand, and I got them both, to a round of applause from the table, and a genuine laugh from Anastasia.

  We had a delicious meal, and the two of us lingered after everyone else at our little table-grill had left.

  “Can I get your take on something?” I asked her.

  “Certainly.”

  I told her about my experience on the island, and the eerie sense of familiarity that had come with it.

  “Oh, that,” Anastasia said. “Your Sight’s coming in. That’s all.”

  I blinked at her. “Uh. What?”

  “The Sight,” she replied calmly. “Every wizard develops some measure of precognizance as he matures. It sounds to me as if yours has begun to stir, and has recognized a place that may be of significance to you in the future.”

  “This happens to everyone?” I said, incredulous.

  “To every wizard,” she said, smiling. “Yes.”

  “Then why have I never heard about it?” I demanded.

  “Because young wizards who are anticipating the arrival of their Sight have an appalling tendency to ignore uncomfortable truths by labeling more appealing fantasies revelations of their Sight. Everything they care about turns into a prophecy. It’s vastly irritating, and the best way to avoid it is to keep it quiet until a young wizard finds out about it for himself.”

  I mulled over that idea for a few moments. “Significant to my future, eh?”

  “Potentially,” she replied quietly, nodding. “One must proceed with extreme caution when acting upon any kind of precognizant information, of course—but in this case, it seems clear that there is more to that island than meets the eye. If it were me, I’d look into it—cautiously.”

  “Thank you,” I told her seriously. “For the advice, I mean.”

  “It cost me little enough,” she said, smiling. “May I get your take on something?”

  “Seems only fair.”

  “I’m surprised at you, Harry. I always thought that you had an interest in Karrin.”

  I
shrugged my shoulders. “Timing, maybe. It’s never seemed to be the right time for us.”

  “But you do care for her,” she said.

  “Of course,” I said. “She’s gone with me into too many bad places for anything else.”

  “That,” Anastasia said, her eyes steady, “I can understand.”

  I tilted my head and studied her face. “Why ask about another woman?”

  She smiled. “I wanted to understand why you were here.”

  I leaned over to her, touching her chin lightly with the fingertips of my right hand, and kissed her very gently. She returned it, slowly, savoring the touch of my mouth on hers.

  I broke off the kiss several moments after it had become inappropriate for a public venue and said, “Because it’s good for the soul.”

  “An excellent answer,” she murmured, her dark eyes huge. “One that should, perhaps, be further explored.”

  I rose and held out her chair for her, and helped her into her coat.

  As it turned out, the rest of the night was good for the soul, too.

  Author’s Note

  When I was seven years old, I got a bad case of strep throat and was out of school for a whole week. During that time, my sisters bought me my first fantasy and sci-fi novels: the boxed set of Lord of the Rings and the boxed set of the Han Solo adventure novels by Brian Daley. I devoured them all during that week.

  From that point on, I was pretty much doomed to join SF&F fandom. From there, it was only one more step to decide I wanted to be a writer of my favorite fiction material, and here we are.

  I blame my sisters.

  My first love as a fan is swords-and-horses fantasy. After Tolkien I went after C. S. Lewis. After Lewis, it was Lloyd Alexander. After them came Fritz Leiber, Roger Zelazny, Robert Howard, John Norman, Poul Anderson, David Eddings, Weis and Hickman, Terry Brooks, Elizabeth Moon, Glen Cook, and before I knew it I was a dual citizen of the United States and Lankhmar, Narnia, Gor, Cimmeria, Krynn, Amber—you get the picture.

  When I set out to become a writer, I spent years writing swords-and-horses fantasy novels—and seemed to have little innate talent for it. But I worked at my writing, branching out into other areas as experiments, including SF, mystery, and contemporary fantasy. That’s how the Dresden Files initially came about—as a happy accident while trying to accomplish something else. Sort of like penicillin.

  But I never forgot my first love, and to my immense delight and excitement, one day I got a call from my agent and found out that I was going to get to share my newest swords-and-horses fantasy novel with other fans.

  The Codex Alera is a fantasy series set within the savage world of Carna, where spirits of the elements, known as furies, lurk in every facet of life, and where many intelligent races vie for security and survival. The realm of Alera is the monolithic civilization of humanity, and its unique ability to harness and command the furies is all that enables its survival in the face of the enormous, sometimes hostile elemental powers of Carna, and against savage creatures who would lay Alera in waste and ruin.

  Yet even a realm as powerful as Alera is not immune to destruction from within, and the death of the heir apparent to the Crown has triggered a frenzy of ambitious political maneuvering and infighting amongst the High Lords, those who wield the most powerful furies known to man. Plots are afoot, traitors and spies abound, and a civil war seems inevitable—all while the enemies of the realm watch, ready to strike at the first sign of weakness.

  Tavi is a young man living on the frontier of Aleran civilization—because, let’s face it, swords-and-horses fantasies start there. Born a freak, unable to utilize any powers of furycrafting whatsoever, Tavi has grown up relying upon his own wits, speed, and courage to survive. When an ambitious plot to discredit the Crown lays Tavi’s home, the Calderon Valley, naked and defenseless before a horde of the barbarian Marat, the boy and his family find themselves directly in harm’s way.

  There are no titanic High Lords to protect them, no Legions, no Knights with their mighty furies to take the field. Tavi and the free frontiersmen of the Calderon Valley must find some way to uncover the plot and to defend their homes against a merciless horde of Marat and their beasts.

  It is a desperate hour, when the fate of all Alera hangs in the balance, when a handful of ordinary steadholders must find the courage and strength to defy an overwhelming foe, and when the courage and intelligence of one young man will save the Realm—or destroy it.

  Thank you, readers and fellow fans, for all of your support and kindness. I hope that you enjoy reading the books of the Codex Alera as much as I enjoyed creating them for you.

  —Jim

  Furies of Calderon, Academ’s Fury, Cursor’s Fury, and Captain’s Fury are available from Ace Books.

  ALSO BY JIM BUTCHER

  THE DRESDEN FILES

  STORM FRONT

  FOOL MOON

  GRAVE PERIL

  SUMMER KNIGHT

  DEATH MASKS

  BLOOD RITES

  DEAD BEAT

  PROVEN GUILTY

  WHITE KNIGHT

  SMALL FAVOR

  “THE WARRIOR” IN MEAN STREETS (WITH SIMON R. GREEN, KAT RICHARDSON, AND THOMAS E. SNIEGOSKI)

  THE CODEX ALERA

  FURIES OF CALDERON

  ACADEM’S FURY

  CURSOR’S FURY

  CAPTAIN’S FURY

  PRINCEPS’ FURY

  ROC

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  First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library,

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  First Printing, April 2009

  Copyright ⓒ Jim Butcher, 2009 All rights reserved

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

  Butcher, Jim, 1971-

  Turn coat: a novel of the Dresden files/Jim Butcher.

  p. cm.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-03242-8

  1. Dresden, Harry (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Chicago (Ill.)—Fiction. 3. Wizards—Fiction.

  I. Title.

  PS3602.U85T87 2009

  813’.6—dc22

  2009000124

  Set in Janson Text

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  For Bob. Sleep well.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five