by Butcher, Jim
“Hey,” I said to Molly.
“Hey,” she said back.
“I guess it worked, huh?”
Her eyes widened. “You didn’t know if it would?”
“The design was sound,” I said. “I’d just never had the chance to field-test it.”
“Oh,” Molly said. “Um. It worked.”
I grunted. Then I looked up at Ebenezar. “Sir.”
“Hoss,” he said. “Glad you could join us.”
“We waste time,” Ancient Mai said. She looked at me and said, “Tell your apprentice to drop the shield at once.”
“In a minute.”
Her eyes narrowed, and the Wardens beside her looked a little more alert.
I ignored her and asked Molly, “Where’s Thomas?”
“With his family,” said a calm voice.
I looked over my shoulder to see Lara Raith standing in the doorway, a slender shape wrapped in one of the blankets from a bunk on the Water Beetle. She looked as pale and lovely as ever, though her hair had been burned down close to her scalp. Without it to frame her face, there was a greater sense of sharp, angular gauntness to her features, and her grey eyes seemed even larger and more distinct. “Don’t worry, Dresden. Your cat’s-paw will live to be manipulated another day. My people are taking care of him.”
I tried to find something in her face that would tell me anything else about Thomas. It wasn’t there. She just watched me coolly.
“There, vampire,” Ancient Mai said politely. “You have seen him and spoken to him. What follows is Council business.”
Lara smiled faintly at Ancient Mai and turned to me. “One more thing before I go, Harry. Do you mind if I borrow the blanket?”
“What if I do?” I asked.
She let it slip off of one pale shoulder. “I’d give it back, of course.”
The image of the swollen, bruised, burned creature that had kissed Madeline Raith as it pulled out her entrails returned to my thoughts, vividly.
“Keep it,” I told her.
She smiled again, this time showing teeth, and bowed her head. Then she turned and left. I idly followed her progress down to the shore, where she walked out onto the floating dock and was gone.
I looked at Ebenezar. “What happened?”
He grunted. “Whoever came through the Nevernever opened a gate about a hundred yards back in the trees,” he said. “And he brought about a hundred big old shaggy spiders with him.”
I blinked, and frowned. “Spiders?”
Ebenezar nodded. “Not conjured forms, either. They were the real thing, from Faerie, maybe. Gave us a real hard time. Some of them started webbing the trees while the others kept us busy, trying to trap us in.”
“Didn’t want us getting behind them to whoever opened the gate,” Listens-to-Wind said.
“Didn’t want anyone to see who it was, more likely,” I said. “That was our perp. That was the killer.”
“Maybe,” Ebenezar said quietly, nodding. “As soon as those trees and the webbing came down, we started pushing the spiders back. He ran. And once he was gone, the spiders scattered, too.”
“Dammit,” I said quietly.
“That’s what all this was about,” Ebenezar said. “There was no informant, no testimony.”
I nodded. “I told you that to draw the real killer out. To force him to act. And he did. You saw it with your own eyes. That should be proof enough that Morgan is innocent.”
Ancient Mai shook her head. “The only thing that proves is that someone else is willing to betray the Council and has something to hide. It doesn’t mean that Morgan couldn’t have killed LaFortier. At best, it suggests that he did not act alone.”
Ebenezar gave her a steady look. Then he said, “So there is a conspiracy now—is what you’re saying? What was that you were saying earlier about simplicity?”
Mai glanced away from him, and shrugged her shoulders. “Dresden’s theory is, admittedly, a simpler and more likely explanation.” She sighed. “It is, however, insufficient to the situation.”
Ebenezar scowled. “Someone’s got to hang?”
Mai turned her eyes back to him and held steady. “That is precisely correct. It is plausible that Morgan was involved. The hard evidence universally suggests that he is guilty. And the White Council will not show weakness in the face of this act. We cannot afford to allow LaFortier’s death to pass without retribution.”
“Retribution,” Ebenezar said. “Not justice.”
“Justice is not what keeps the various powers in this world from destroying the White Council and having their way with humanity,” Ancient Mai responded. “Fear does that. Power does that. They must know that if they strike us, there will be deadly consequences. I am aware how reprehensible an act it would be to sentence an innocent man to death—and one who has repeatedly demonstrated his dedication to the well-being of the Council, to boot. But on the whole, it is less destructive and less irresponsible than allowing our enemies to perceive weakness.”
Ebenezar put his elbows on his knees and looked at his hands. He shook his head once, and then said nothing.
“Now,” Ancient Mai said, turning her focus back to me. “You will instruct your apprentice to lower the shield, or I will tear it down.”
“Might want to take a few steps back before you do,” I said. “If anything but the proper sequence takes it apart, it explodes. It’ll take out the cottage. And the tower. And the top of the hill. The kid and Morgan should be fine, though.”
Molly made a choking sound.
“Hngh. Finally made that idea work, did you?” Ebenezar said.
I shrugged. “After those zombies turned up and just hammered their way through my defenses, I wanted something that would give me some options.”
“How long did it take you to make?”
“Nights and weekends for three months,” I sighed. “It was a real pain in the ass.”
“Sounds it,” Ebenezar agreed.
“Wizard McCoy,” Mai said sharply. “I remind you that Dresden and his apprentice aided and abetted a fugitive from justice.”
From behind me, Listens-to-Wind said, “Mai. That’s enough.”
She turned her eyes to him and stared hard.
“Enough,” Listens-to-Wind repeated. “The hour is dark enough without trying to paint more people with the same brush we’re going to be forced to use on Morgan. One death is necessary. Adding two more innocents to the count would be callous, pointless, and evil. The Council will interpret Dresden’s actions as ultimately to the support of the Laws of Magic and the White Council. And that will be the end of it.”
There was no expression on Mai’s face—absolutely none. I couldn’t have told you a darn thing about what was going on behind that mask. She stared at the two older wizards for a time, then at me. “The Merlin will not be pleased.”
“That is good,” Listens-to-Wind said. “No one should be pleased with this day’s outcome.”
“I’ll take Morgan into custody, Mai,” Ebenezar said. “Why don’t you take the Wardens back to the city in the boat? It should give you less trouble without me and Injun Joe on it. We’ll follow along in the other boat.”
“Your word,” Mai said, “that you will bring Morgan to Edinburgh.”
“Bring him and bring him unharmed,” Ebenezar said. “You have my word.”
She nodded her head once. “Wardens.”
Then she walked calmly out. The four Wardens fell into step behind her.
I kept track of them once they were outside. They started down the path that would lead them back to the dock.
I looked up at Listens-to-Wind. “I need your help with something.”
He nodded.
“There’s a patch of blackberry bushes out there. One of the Little Folk tried to play guardian angel for me. The naaglosh—”
“Don’t say the word,” Listens-to-Wind said calmly. “It draws power from fear, and from spreading its reputation. Referring to them by name can only in
crease their power.”
I snorted. “I saw you send it running. You think I’m giving it any fear?”
“Not at the moment,” Injun Joe said. “But speaking the word doesn’t accomplish anything good. Besides, it’s a sloppy habit to get into.”
I grunted. I could accept that. He’d probably phrased things that way intentionally. Besides, of the two of us, which one had a better track record against naagloshii? I decided to not be an idiot and listen to the medicine man.
“The creature,” I said, “knocked him out of the air. Maybe hurt or killed him.”
Injun Joe nodded. His broken arm had been splinted with a field dressing and wrapped in medical tape. The Wardens had probably brought their own gear. “I saw the very end of your fight. Which is why I felt it appropriate to give the creature the same treatment.” He shook his head. “It took a lion’s courage for the little one to do what he did. I already went looking for him.”
I felt a little bit sick. “Was he . . . ?”
Listens-to-Wind smiled faintly and shook his head. “Knocked senseless for a while, and wounded by blackberry thorns, though his armor protected him from the worst of it.”
I found myself barking out a short little laugh of relief. “That armor? You’re kidding.”
He shook his head. “Worst thing hurt was his pride, I think.” His dark eyes sparkled. “Little guy like that, taking on something so far out of his weight class. That was a sight to see.”
Ebenezar snorted. “Yeah. Wonder where the pixie learned that.”
I felt my cheeks coloring. “I didn’t want to do it. I had to.”
“You picked a good fight,” Listens-to-Wind said. “Not a very smart fight. But that old ghost is as close to pure evil as you’ll ever see. Good man always stands against that.”
“You had it on the run,” I said. “You could have killed it.”
“Sure,” Listens-to-Wind said. “Would have been a chase, and then more fight. Might have taken hours. Would have made the old ghost desperate. It would have started using innocents as shields, obstacles, distractions.” The old medicine man shrugged. “Maybe I would have lost, too. And while it was going on, spiders would be eating fat old hill-billies and picking their fangs clean with their bones.”
Ebenezar snorted. “Never would have happened. I don’t much care for vampires, especially not those White Court weasels, but I’ll say this much for them. They can fight, when they have a mind to. After the first rush, those bugs were a lot more careful.”
“Yeah,” I said. “They didn’t have much of a spine when they tried to stop me on the trail to Edinburgh.”
Both of the old wizards traded a look, and then Injun Joe turned back to me. “You got jumped by spiders going through the Way?”
“Yeah,” I said. I thought about it and was surprised. Had it happened so recently? “Two days ago, when I came to Edinburgh. I told you about it. The killer must have had some kind of watch put on the Chicago end of the Way, to get them into position in time to intercept me.” I let out a weary little snigger.
“What’s so funny?” Ebenezar asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “Just appreciating irony and getting punchy. I guess he didn’t want me letting the Council know where Morgan was.”
“Sounds like a reasonable theory,” Injun Joe said. He looked at Ebenezar. “Got to be somebody at Edinburgh. Cuts the suspect pool down even more.”
Ebenezar grunted agreement. “But not much. We’re getting closer.” He exhaled. “But it won’t do Morgan any good.” He stood, and his knees popped a couple of times on the way. “All right, Hoss,” he said quietly. “I guess we can’t put this off any longer.”
I folded my arms and looked at Ebenezar evenly.
The old man’s face darkened. “Hoss,” he said quietly, “I hate this as much as you do. But as much as you don’t like it, as much as I don’t like it, Ancient Mai is right about this. The real killer will know that Morgan is innocent—but the other powers won’t. They’ll only see us doing business hard and quick, like always. Hell, it might even get the real killer enough confidence to slip up and make a mistake.”
“I told Morgan I’d help him,” I said. “And I will.”
“Son,” Injun Joe said quietly, “no one can help him now.”
I ground my teeth. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I’m not giving him to you. And I’ll fight you if you make me.”
Ebenezar looked at me and then shook his head, smiling sadly. “You couldn’t fight one of your little pixie friends right now, boy.”
I shrugged. “I’ll try. You can’t have him.”
“Harry,” said a quiet voice, weirdly mutated by the shield.
I looked up to see Morgan lying quietly on his pallet, his eyes open and focused on me. “It’s all right,” he said.
I blinked at him. “What?”
“It’s all right,” he said quietly. “I’ll go with them.” His eyes turned to Ebenezar. “I killed LaFortier. I deceived Dresden into believing my innocence. I’ll give you a deposition.”
“Morgan,” I said sharply, “what the hell are you doing?”
“My duty,” he replied. There was, I thought, a faint note of pride in his voice, absent since he had appeared at my door. “I’ve always known that it might call for me to give up my life to protect the Council. And so it has.”
I stared at the wounded man, my stomach churning. “Morgan . . .”
“You did your best,” Morgan said quietly. “Despite everything that has gone between us. You put yourself to the hazard again and again for my sake. It was a worthy effort. But it just wasn’t to be. No shame in that.” He closed his eyes again. “You’ll learn, if you live long enough. You never win them all.”
“Dammit,” I sighed. I tried to put my face in my hands and had to flinch back as my right cheek touched my skin and began to burn with pain. I still couldn’t see out of my right eye. “Dammit, after all this. Dammit.”
The fire popped and crackled and no one said anything.
“He’s in a lot of pain,” Listens-to-Wind said quietly, breaking the silence. “At least I can make him more comfortable. And you need some more attention, too.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “Take the shield down. Please.”
I didn’t want to do it.
But this wasn’t about me.
I showed Molly how to lower the shield.
We got Morgan settled into a bunk on the Water Beetle and prepared to leave. Molly, troubled and worried about me, had volunteered to stay with Morgan. Listens-to-Wind had offered to show her something of what he did with healing magic. I grabbed some painkillers while we were there, and felt like I could at least walk far enough to find Will and Georgia.
Demonreach showed me where they were sleeping, and I led Ebenezar through the woods toward them.
“How did Injun Joe know about me claiming this place as a sanctum?” I asked.
“Messenger arrived from Rashid,” Ebenezar said. “He’s more familiar with what you can do with that kind of bond. So he went up to find you and get you to take those trees out from under the bugs.”
I shook my head. “I’ve never seen anyone do shapeshifting the way he did it.”
“Not many ever have,” Ebenezar said, with obvious pride in his old friend’s skills in his voice. After a moment, he said, “He’s offered to teach you some, if you want to learn.”
“With my luck? I’d shift into a duck or something, and not be able to come back out of it.”
He snorted quietly, and then said, “Not shifting. He knows more than any man alive about dealing with rage over injustice and being unfairly wronged. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s admirable that you have those kinds of feelings, and choose to do something about them. But they can do terrible things to a man, too.” His face was distant for a moment, his eyes focused elsewhere. “Terrible things. He’s been there. I think if you spent some time with him, you’d benefit by it.”
“Aren’t I a little old to be an apprentice?�
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“Stop learning, start dying,” Ebenezar said, in the tone of a man quoting a bedrock-firm maxim. “You’re never too old to learn.”
“I’ve got responsibilities,” I said.
“I know.”
“I’ll think about it.”
He nodded. Then he paused for a moment, considering his next words. “There’s one thing about tonight that I can’t figure out, Hoss,” my old mentor said. “You went to all the trouble to get everyone here. To lure the killer here. I give you a perfect excuse to roam free behind the lines with no one looking over your shoulder so you can get the job done. But instead of slipping up through the weeds and taking down the killer—which would clear up this whole business—you go up the hill and throw down with something you know damn well you can’t beat.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I know.”
Ebenezar spread his hands. “Why?”
I walked for several tired, heavy steps before answering. “Thomas got into trouble helping me.”
“Thomas,” Ebenezar said. “The vampire.”
I shrugged.
“He was more important to you than stopping the possible fragmentation of the White Council.”
“The creature was heading straight for the cottage. My apprentice and my client were both there—and he had Thomas, too.”
Ebenezar muttered something to himself. “The girl had that crystal to protect herself with. Hell, son, if it went off as violently as you said it would, it might have killed the creature all by itself.” He shook his head. “Normally, I think you’ve got a pretty solid head on your shoulders, Hoss. But that was a bad call.”
“Maybe,” I said quietly.
“No maybe about it,” he replied firmly.
“He’s a friend.”
Ebenezar stopped in his tracks and faced me squarely. “He’s not your friend, Harry. You might be his, but he isn’t yours. He’s a vampire. When all’s said and done, he’d eat you if he was hungry enough. It’s what he is.” Ebenezar gestured at the woods around us. “Hell’s bells, boy. We found what was left of that Raith creature’s cousin, after the battle. And I figure you saw what it did to its own blood.”