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I fumed and brooded all the way back tonervously the whole ti at the top of the steps, and let out a plaintiverod and shield bracelet ready in case any vanilla goons aiting around with uns, I was fairly confident no preternasties were hanging around in ambush Mister tended to er was around

Which just goes to show that my cat has considerably more sense than s, and didn&039;t quitedown the stairs I didn&039;t waste any ti inside and locked up behind ot out some cat food and fresh water for Mister&039;s bowls, and spent a couple lanced at my bed and wrote it off as a useless idea I was too worked up to sleep, even tired as I was I was already chin deep in alligators and sinking fast

"Right, then, Harry," I rabbed a heavy, wars, and opened the trapdoor leading down to the subbase ladder-staircase led down to the damp stone chamber beneath, where I kept ainst the wooden steps

I started lighting candles My lab, barring a brief bout of insanity, generally reflects the state of anized, but basically functional The rooe Three worktables line three of the walls in a U shape, and a fourth table runs down the center of the U, leaving a narroay around it Wire utility shelves line the walls above the tables Piled on the shelves and tables are a vast array of redients, plus that sort of miscellaneous domestic clutter that in households ofdrawer in the kitchen Books, notebooks, journals, and papers line the shelves, together with containers and boxes and pouches full of all sorts of herbs, roots, and redients, from a bottle of snake hisses to a vial of milk-thistle extract

At the far end of the room there was a patch of floor kept co set into the stone of the floor,circle, resided there Experience had shown ht need a ritual circle to defend yourself fro a denizen of the Nevernever a temporary prisoner

One of the shelves had less on it than the others At either end rested a candleholder, long since overrun withbut mounds, like a honeybee Vesuvius Books, mostly paperback romances, and various small and feminine articles took up the rest of the shelf, but for where a bleached human skull sat in the ainst the shelf "Bob Bob, wake up Work to be done"

Twin points of orange and gold light kindled in the shadows of the skull&039;s eye sockets, and grew brighter as I went about the roo half a dozen candles and a kerosene lamp The skull rattled a little, and then said, "It&039;s only a few hours froives?"

I started getting out beakers and vials and a small alcohol burner "More trouble," I said "It&039;s been one hell of a day" I told Bob the Skull about the television studio, the va Shroud, and the plague-filled corpse

"Wow You don&039;t do things halfway, do you, Harry?"

"Advise now; critique later I&039;s and whip up a potion or two, and you&039;re going to help"

"Right," Bob said "Where do you want to start?"

"With Ortega Where is my copy of the Accords?"

"Cardboard box" Bob said "Third shelf, on the botto jars"

I found the box and pawed through it until I had found a vellum scroll tied shut with a white ribbon I opened it and peered down at the handwritten calligraphy It started off with the word Insoot more opaque from there

"I can&039;t make heads or tails of this," I said "Where&039;s the section about duels?"

"Fifth paragraph from the end You want the Cliff&039;s Notes version?"

I rolled the scroll shut again "Hit me"

"It&039;s based on Code Duello," Bob said "Well, technically it&039;s based on much older rules that eventually inspired the Code Duello, but that&039;s just chickens and eggs Ortega is the challenger, and you&039;re the challenged"

"I know that I get to pick the weapons and the ground, right?"

"Wrong," Bob said "You pick the weapons, but he gets to choose the tioing to take high noon out in a park souess I can just say that we&039;ll duel with ic"

"If it&039;s one of the available choices It almost always is"

"Who decides?"

"The vampires and the Council will pick from a list of neutral emissaries The emissary decides"

I nodded "So if I don&039;t have it as an option I&039;"

Bob said "Yeah, but be careful It&039;s got to be a weapon that he can use If you pick one he can&039;t, he can refuse it, and force you to take your second choice"

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning that regardless of what happens, if he doesn&039;t want to fight you in et to be a warlord without thinking things through, Harry Odds are that he has a good idea what you can do and has planned accordingly What do you know about hih"

Bob&039;s eyelights stared at me for a minute "Well, Napoleon, I&039;enius"

I flicked my pencil at the skull in annoyance It bounced off a nose hole "Get to the point"

"The point is that you&039;d be better off taking so you can predict"

"I&039;in with," I said "Do I need to get a second?"

"You both do," Bob said "The seconds ork out the ter in touch with yours at some point"

"Uh I don&039;t have one"

Bob&039;s skull turned a bit on its shelf and banged its forehead gently into the brick wall a few tiot another pencil and a pad of yellow lined paper and wrote To do across the top, and Ask Michael about duel underneath it "Okay And I want you to find out whatever you can about Ortega before dawn"

"Check," Bob said "I have your permission to come out?"

"Not yet There&039;s hts rolled "Of course there&039;sof distilled water and a can of Coke I opened the can, took a sip, and said, "That corpse Murphy showed reed "But if it was really that ?"

"Bigger than that spell the Shadoas using to tear hearts out a few years ago"

I whistled "And he was running it off of thunderstorms and ceremonial rites, too What would it take to power a curse that strong?"

"Curses aren&039;t reallyinto a sorcerous ley line, or a human sacrifice"

I sippedsome serious hardball then"

Bob et nasty on a Red Court agent"

"They wouldn&039;t," I said "They wouldn&039;t use ic like that Even if technically it was the diseases that killed the guy, it&039;s too da the First Law"

"Who else would have that kind of power?" Bob asked e and sketched out a rough version of the tattoo on the corpse I held it up to show it to Bob "Someone who didn&039;t like this, maybe"

"Eye of Thoth," Bob supplied "That the tattoo on the corpse?"

"Yeah Was this guy in someone&039;s secret club?"

"Maybe The eye is a pretty popular occult syh, so you can&039;t rule out the possibility that he was an independent"

"Okay," I said "So who uses it?"

"Plenty of groups Brotherhoods connected to the White Council, historic societies, a couple of fringe groups of occult scholars, personality cults, television psychics, coet the point," I said I turned to a fresh page and from razor-sharp memory sketched out the symbol I&039;d seen on the denize this?"

Bob&039;s eyelights widened "Are you insane? Harry, tear that paper up Burn it"

I frowned "Bob, wait a minute-"

"Do it now!"

The skull&039;s voice was frightened, and I get nervous when Bob gets frightened Not much can scare Bob out of his usual wiseass-couess you recognize it"

"Yeah And I&039; to do with that bunch"

"I didn&039;t hear that, Bob I need information on them They&039;re in town, they&039;ve taken a shot atthey&039;re after the Shroud"

"Let theot no idea the kind of power this group has"

"Fallen, I know," I said "Order of the Blackened Denarius But they have to play by the rules, right?"

"Harry, it isn&039;t just the Fallen The people they&039;ve taken are nearly as bad They&039;re assassins, poisoners, warriors, sorcerers-"

"Sorcerers?"

"The coins make them effectively immortal Some of the Order have had a thousand years to practice, and row teeth Neverthey could have found to er over the years Even without infernal superpowers, they&039;d be badass"

I frowned, and tore the bits of paper into se that curse?"

"There&039;s no question that they&039;d have the skill Maybe enough that they wouldn&039;t need as big a power source"

"Great," I said, and rubbed at uers all around I want you to track down the Shroud"

"No can do," Bob said