by Jim Butcher
“There,” she said quietly. She leaned down and buried her face in the thick ruff of fur around Mouse’s throat. “There. You’ll be all right.”
Mouse moved very gingerly, moving his head to nudge against her hand. His tail thumped several times on the floor.
“Murph,” I said. “Give us a minute?”
“Sure,” she said quietly. “I need to make a call anyway.” She nodded to me and walked quietly to the apartment door—pointedly pausing to close the door from the living room to my small bedroom, shutting Morgan out of the conversation.
I sat with Mouse, stroking his head gently. “Okay,” I said to Molly. “What happened?”
She sat up and looked at me. She looked like she wanted to throw up. Her nose was running, now.
“I … it occurred to me, Harry, that … well, if the traitor wanted to really set the Council at one another’s throats, the best way to do it would be to force one of them to do something unforgiveable. Like, maybe force Morgan to kill Wizard LaFortier.”
“Gee,” I said. “That never once occurred to me, though I am older and wiser than you and have been doing this for most of your life, whereas you’ve been in the business for just under four years.”
She flushed. “Yes. Well. Then I thought that the best way to use that sort of influence wouldn’t be to use it on Morgan,” she said. “But on the people who would be after him.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Okay,” I said. “At this point, I have to ask you if you know how difficult it is to manipulate the mind and will of anyone of significant age. Most wizards who are eighty or a hundred years old are generally considered more or less immune to that kind of gross manipulation.”
“I didn’t know that,” Molly said humbly. “But … what I’m talking about wouldn’t be a severe alteration to anyone. It wouldn’t be obvious,” she said. “You wouldn’t make someone turn into a raving lunatic and murderer. I mean, that’s sort of noticeable. Instead, you make sure that you just … sort of nudge the people who are chasing after Morgan into being a little bit more like you want them to be.”
I narrowed my eyes. It was an interesting line of thought. “Such as?”
“Well …” she said. “If someone is naturally quick to anger and prone to fighting, you highlight that part of their personality. You give it more importance than it would have without intervention. If someone is prone to maneuvering politically to take advantage of a situation, you bring that to the forefront of their personality. If someone is nursing a grudge, you shine a spotlight on it in their thoughts, their emotions, to get them to act on it.”
I thought about that one for a second.
“It’s how I’d do it,” Molly said quietly, lowering her eyes.
I looked at the young woman I’d been teaching. When I saw Molly, I always saw her smile, her sense of humor, her youth, and her joy. She was the daughter of a close friend. I knew her family and was often a guest in their home. I saw my apprentice, the effort she put into learning, her frustrations, and her triumphs.
I had never, until that very moment, thought of her as someone who might one day be a very, very scary individual.
I found myself smiling bitterly.
Who was I to throw stones?
“Maybe,” I said finally. “It would be one hell of a difficult thing to prove.”
She nodded. “But if it was going to be used, there’s one person who would without doubt be a target.”
I glanced at Luccio. Her mouth was open slightly as she slept. She was drooling a little. It was ridiculous and adorable.
“Yeah,” Molly said. “But she would never have let me look. You know she wouldn’t have.”
“For good reason,” I said.
Molly’s jaw tensed up for a second. “I know.”
“So you thought you’d look while everyone was unconscious,” I said. “When you wouldn’t get caught.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“You told yourself that you were doing the right thing,” I said. “Just a peek, in and out.”
She closed her eyes. “I was … Harry, what if she isn’t being honest with you? What if all this time, she’s been getting close to you because she doesn’t trust you. What if she’s just like Morgan—only a lot better at hiding it?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
“No?” She met my eyes. “Whose apprentice was he, Harry? Who taught him to be the way he is? Who did he idolize so much that he modeled himself after her?”
I just sat there for a second.
Molly pressed the issue. “Do you honestly think that she never knew how Morgan treated you?”
I took a deep breath. Then I said, “Yeah. I think that.”
She shook her head. “You know better.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t.”
“You should,” she said fiercely. “I couldn’t take the chance that she would let you go down with Morgan. I had to know.”
I stared at her for a minute. Then I said, in a very quiet voice, “I always know when I’m being tempted to do something very, very wrong. I start sentences with phrases like, ‘I would never, ever do this—but.’ Or ‘I know this is wrong but.’ It’s the but that tips you off.”
“Harry,” Molly began.
“You broke one of the Laws of Magic, Molly. Willfully. Even though you knew it could cost you your life. Even though you knew that it could also cost mine.” I shook my head and looked away from her. “Hell’s bells, kid. I choose to trust Anastasia Luccio because that’s what people do. You don’t ever get to know for sure what someone thinks of you. What they really feel inside.”
“But I could—”
“No,” I said gently. “Even psychomancy doesn’t give you everything. We aren’t meant to know what’s going on in there. That’s what talking is for. That’s what trust is for.”
“Harry, I’m sorr—”
I lifted a hand. “Don’t apologize. Maybe I’m the one who let you down. Maybe I should have taught you better.” I petted Mouse’s head gently, looking away from her. “It doesn’t matter at the moment. People have died because I’ve been trying to save Morgan’s life. Thomas might still die. And now, if we do manage to save Morgan’s crusty old ass, he’s going to report that you’ve violated your parole. The Council will kill you. And me.”
She stared at me helplessly. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Get caught,” I said quietly. “Jesus Christ, kid. I trusted you.”
She wept more heavily now. Her face was a mess. She bowed her head.
“If Morgan goes down for this,” I said, “there’s going to be trouble like you wouldn’t believe. And even more people are going to die.” I stood up slowly. “So. I’m going to do everything in my power to save him.”
She nodded without looking up.
“So you’ve got a choice to make, grasshopper. You can come with me, knowing the cost if we succeed. Or you can go.”
“Go?” she whispered.
“Go,” I said. “Leave now. Run, for as long as you can. Hell, it looks a lot like I’m going to get myself killed anyway. Probably Morgan, too. In that case, things will go to hell, but the Wardens will be way too busy to chase you. You’ll be able to ignore what’s right all you want, do whatever you like—as long as you don’t get caught.”
She pressed her arms against her stomach. She sounded like she was about to throw up, through the sobs.
I put a hand on her head and said, “Or you can come with me. You can do something right. Something that has meaning.”
She looked up at me, her lovely young face discolored in anguish.
“Everyone dies, honey,” I said, very quietly. “Everyone. There’s no ‘if.’ There’s only ‘when.’ ” I let that sink in for a moment. “When you die, do you want to feel ashamed of what you’ve done with your life? Feel ashamed of what your life meant?”
She stared at my eyes for a minute and a half of silence broken only by the sound of her
muted weeping. Then her head twitched in a single tiny shake.
“I promise that I’ll be beside you,” I said. “I can’t promise anything else. Only that I’ll stand beside you for as long as I can.”
“Okay,” she whispered. She leaned against me.
I put my hand on her hair for a minute. Then I said gently, “We’re out of time. The Wardens will know Morgan is in Chicago within a few hours at most. They might be on their way already.”
“Okay,” she said. “Wh-what are we going to do?”
I took a deep breath. “Among other things, I’m going to attempt a sanctum invocation,” I said.
Her eyes widened. “But … you said that kind of thing was dangerous. That only a fool would take such a chance.”
“I agreed to help Donald freaking Morgan when he showed up at my door,” I sighed. “I qualify.”
She wiped at her eyes and nose. “What do I do?”
“Get my ritual box. Put it in the car Murphy’s cuddling up with outside.”
“Okay,” Molly said. She turned away but then paused and looked back over her shoulder at me. “Harry?”
“Yeah?”
“I know it was wrong, but …”
I looked at her sharply and frowned.
She shook her head and held up her hands. “Hear me out. I know it was wrong, and I didn’t get much of a look but … I swear to you. I think someone has tampered with Captain Luccio. I’d bet my life on it.”
I ignored the little chill that danced down my spine.
“Could be that you have,” I said quietly. “And mine, too. Go get the box.”
Molly hurried to comply.
I waited until she was outside to look at Mouse. The big dog sat up, his eyes gravely concerned. He wasn’t favoring his shoulder at all, and his movement was completely unimpaired.
Mouse got hit by the driver of a minivan once. He got back up, ran it down, and returned the favor. The Foo dog was very, very tough. I doubted he’d really needed the medical attention to recover, though I was also sure it would help speed things along. But I hadn’t been completely certain the injury wasn’t as serious as it looked.
In other words, the freaking dog had fooled Molly and me both.
“You were acting?” I said. “To make it hit Molly harder?”
His tail wagged back and forth proudly.
“Damn,” I said, impressed. “Maybe I should have named you Denzel.”
His jaws opened in a doggy grin.
“Earlier tonight,” I said, “when I was trying to figure out how to find Thomas, you interrupted me. I didn’t think about it before now, but you helped him track me down when Madrigal Raith was auctioning me off on eBay.”
His tail wagged harder.
“Could you find Thomas?”
“Woof,” he said, and his front paws bounced a couple of inches off the floor.
I nodded slowly, thinking. Then I said, “I’ve got another mission for you. One that could be more important. You game?”
He shook his fur out and padded to the door. Then he stopped and looked back over his shoulder at me.
“Okay,” I told him, walking to the door myself. “Listen up. Things are about to get sort of risky.”
Chapter
Thirty-five
I looked at Luccio’s still-unconscious form. The stress of coordinating the search for Morgan for who knows how long before he showed up, coupled with the pains of her injuries and the sedative effect of the painkillers I’d given her, meant that she’d never stirred. Not when the gun went off, not when we’d been talking, and not when we’d all had to work together to get Morgan back up the stairs and out to the silver Rolls.
I made sure she was covered with a blanket. The moment I did, Mister descended from his perch atop one of my bookcases, and draped himself languidly over her lower legs, purring.
I scratched my cat’s ears and said, “Keep her company.”
He gave me an inscrutable look that said maybe he would and maybe he wouldn’t. Mister was a cat, and cats generally considered it the obligation of the universe to provide shelter, sustenance, and amusement as required. I think Mister considered it beneath his dignity to plan for the future.
I got a pen and paper and wrote.
Anastasia,
I’m running out of time, and visitors are on the way. I’m going someplace where I might be able to create new options. You’ll understand shortly.
I’m sorry I didn’t bring you, too. In your condition, you’d be of limited assistance. I know you don’t like it, but you also know that I’m right.
Help yourself to whatever you need. I hope that we’ll talk soon.
Harry
I folded the note and left it on the coffee table, where she’d see it upon waking. Then I bent over, kissed her hair, and left her sleeping safe in my home.
I parked the Rolls in the lot next to the marina. If we hurried, we could still get there before the witching hour, which would be the best time to try the invocation. Granted, trying it while injured and weary with absolutely no preritual work was probably going to detract more than enough from the ritual to offset the premium timing, but I was beggared for time and therefore not spoiling for choice.
“Allow me to reiterate,” Murphy said, “that I feel that this is a bad idea.”
“So noted,” I said. “But will you do it?”
She stared out the Rolls’s windshield at the vast expanse of Lake Michigan, a simple and enormous blackness against the lights of Chicago. “Yes,” she said.
“If there was anything else you could do,” I said, “I’d ask you to do it. I swear.”
“I know,” she said. “It just pisses me off that there’s nothing more I can add.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, you’re going to be in danger, too. Someone might decide to come by and try to use you against me. And if word gets back to the Council about how much you know, they’re going to blow a gasket.”
She smiled a bit. “Yes, thank you. I feel less left out now that I know someone might kill me anyway.” She shifted, settling her gun’s shoulder harness a little more comfortably. “I am aware of my limits. That isn’t the same thing as liking them.” She looked back at me. “How are you going to reach the others?”
“I’d … really rather not say. The less you know—”
“The safer I am?”
“No, actually,” I said. “The less you know, the safer I am. Don’t forget that we might be dealing with people who can take information out of your head, whether you want to give it or not.”
Murphy folded her arms and shivered. “I hate feeling helpless.”
“Yeah,” I said, “me, too. How’s he doing, Molly?”
“Still asleep,” Molly reported from the back of the limo. “I don’t think his fever is any higher, though.” She reached out and touched Morgan’s forehead with the back of one hand.
Morgan’s arm rose up and sharply slapped her arm away at the wrist, though he never changed the pace of his breathing or otherwise stirred. Christ. It was literally a reflex action. I shook my head and said, “Let’s move, people.”
Molly and I wrestled the wounded Warden into his wheelchair again. He roused enough to help a little, and sagged back into sleep as soon as he was seated. Molly slung the strap of my ritual box over her shoulder and started pushing Morgan across the parking lot to the marina docks. I grabbed a couple of heavy black nylon bags.
“And what do we have in there?” Murphy asked me.
“Party favors,” I said.
“You’re having a party out there?”
I turned my eyes to the east and stared out over the lake. You couldn’t see the island from Chicago, even on a clear day, but I knew it was there, a sullen and threatening presence. “Yeah,” I said quietly. A real party. Practically everyone who’d wanted to kill me lately would be there.
Murphy shook her head. “All of this over one man.”
“Over a hero of the Council,” I
said quietly. “Over the most feared man on the Wardens. Morgan nearly took out the Red King himself—a vampire maybe four thousand years old, surrounded by some disgustingly powerful retainers. If he hadn’t bugged out, Morgan would have killed him.”
“You almost said something nice about him,” Murphy said.
“Not nice,” I said. “But I can acknowledge who he is. Morgan has probably saved more lives than you could count, over the years. And he’s killed innocents, too. I’m certain of it. He’s been the Council’s executioner for at least twenty or thirty years. He’s obsessive and tactless and ruthless and prejudiced. He hates with a holy passion. He’s a big, ugly, vicious attack dog.”
Murphy smiled faintly. “But he’s your attack dog.”
“He’s our attack dog,” I echoed. “He’d give his life without hesitation if he thought it was necessary.”
Murphy watched Molly pushing Morgan down the dock. “God. It’s got to be awful, to know that you’re capable of disregarding life so completely. Someone else’s, yours, doesn’t really matter which. To know that you’re so readily capable of taking everything away from a human being. That’s got to eat away at him.”
“For so long there’s not a lot left, maybe,” I said. “I think you’re right about the killer acting in desperation. This situation got way too confused and complicated for it to be a scheme. It’s just … a big confluence of all kinds of chickens coming home to roost.”
“Maybe that will make it simpler to resolve.”
“World War One was kind of the same deal,” I said. “But then, it was sort of hard to point a finger at any one person and say, ‘That guy did it.’ World War Two was simpler, that way.”
“You’ve been operating under the assumption that there is someone to blame,” Murphy said.
“Only if I can catch him.” I shook my head. “If I can’t … well.”
Murphy turned to me. She reached up with both hands, put them on the sides of my head, and pulled me down a little. Then she kissed my forehead and my mouth, neither quickly nor with passion. Then she let me go and looked up at me, her eyes worried and calm. “You know that I love you, Harry. You’re a good man. A good friend.”