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Chapter Two

The dog and I went to rave Graceland Ceo tour book-or God knows, probably on the Internet It&039;s the largest cemetery in town, and one of the oldest There are walls, substantial ones, all the way around, and it has far host stories and attendant shades The graves inside range from simple plots with siyptian obelisks, as of boneyards, and rave is in it

The cemetery isn&039;t open after dark Most aren&039;t, and there&039;s a reason for it Everybody knows the reason, and nobody talks about it It isn&039;t because there are dead people in there It&039;s because there are not-quite-dead people in there Ghosts and shadows linger in graveyards more than anywhere else, especially in the older cities of the country, where the oldest, biggest ceht there in the raveyards, even if they&039;re only two feet high-not to keep people out, but to keep other things in Walls can have a kind of power in the spirit world, and the walls around graveyards are al the living and the unliving seated at different sections of the coates were locked, and there was an attendant in a s too solid to be called a shack, and too s else But I&039;d been there a few tiet in and out after dark if need be There was a portion of the fence in the northeast corner where a road construction crew just outside had left a large h up the wall that even acould reach the top

We went in, Mouse and I Mouse e, but he was barelyfor his lean fra had been built on the scale of those statues outside Chinese restaurants, though-broad chested and powerful, with that sath built into his rey, marked on the tips of his fuzzy ears, his tail, and his lower legs with solid black He looked a little gangly and clu onto be a real monster And da to rave

I found it not far froirl nairl&039;s grave had a statue mounted on it I&039;d seen it often, and it looked inal Alice -a cherub in a prihost would occasionally anihborhoods near the graveyard I&039;d never seen her,

My grave is one of theopen, too-the vaht it for otten me a coffin on perets Air Force One, only a little more morbid Dead Force One

My headstone is siraved in bold letters inlaid with gold: HARRY DRESDEN Then a gold-inlaid pentacle, a five-pointed star surrounded by a circle-the syic contained within mortal will Underneath it are more letters: HE DIED DOING THE RIGHT THING

It&039;s a sobering sort of place to visit

Ito die We know that on an intellectual level We figure it out so, and it scares us so badly that we convince ourselves we&039;re immortal for more than a decade afterward

Death isn&039;t so anyone likes to think about, but the fact is that you can&039;t get out of it No iously you diet, or meditate, or pray, or how le hard, cold fact that faces everyone on earth: One day it&039;s going to be over One day the sun will rise, the world will turn, people will go about their daily routines-only you won&039;t be in it You&039;ll be still And cold

And despite every religious faith, the testiinations of storytellers throughout history, death remains the ultimate mystery No one truly, definitively knohat happens after And that&039;s assuo there blind to whatever is out there in the darkness beyond

Death

You can&039;t escape it

You

Will

Die

That&039;s a bitter, hideously concrete fact to endure-but believe e of color and texture when you face it standing over your own open grave

I stood there aeous, and the late-October moon shone down on me It was too cold for crickets, but the sound of traffic, sirens, car alaro, kept an like it did a lot of nights, but tonight it had coh the graves and around the stones There was a silent, crackling tension in the air, a kind of y that was common in late autuo and the spirit world, the Nevernever, were at their weakest I could sense the restless shades of the graveyard, most of the in the roiling y-laden air

Mouse sat beside ularly, eyes focused, his attention obvious enough to s I could only vaguely feel But whatever was out there, it didn&039;t bother him He sat beside loved hand

I worealue pants, a sweater, and old coht hand, a length of solid oak hand-carved with flowing runes and sigils all up and down its length Myby a chain around my neck My scarred flesh could barely feel the silver bracelet hung with tiny shields on arlic tied together in a big lu when I shifted roup of odd iteh to the casual eye, but they ah plenty of trouble

Mavra had given me her word of honor, but I had plenty of other ene toaround in the haunted graveyard in the dark started to make me nervous, fast

"Co her so long?"

Mouse let out a growl so low and quiet that I barely heard it-but I could feel the dog&039;s sudden tension and wariness quivering up through rippedI couldn&039;t see Whatever it was, judging fro closer Then there was a quiet, rushing sound and Mouse crouched, nose pointed at rave, his teeth bared

I stepped closer to rounds I muttered under my breath, took off my amulet, and pushed soloith a low blue light I draped the aripped the staff in rave

The ealed, and flowed into the form of a withered corpse-that of a woh froown and kirtle, reen and the latter black The fabric was simple cotton-modern manufacture, then, and not actual historic dress

Mouse&039;s snarl bubbled up into asnarl

The corpse sat up, opened milk-white eyes, and focused on me It lifted a hand, in which it held a white lily, and held it toward me Then the corpse spoke in a voice that was all rasp and whisper "Wizard Dresden A flower for your grave"

"Mavra," I said "You&039;re late"

"There was a headwind," the vampire answered She flicked her wrist, and the lily arched up out of the grave and landed on my headstone She followed it out with a similar, uncannily srace I noted that she wore a sword and a dagger on a weapons belt at her waist They looked old and worn, and I was betting that they were not of rave, her face turned very slightly away froht of my amulet, her cataract eyes steady on Mouse "You kept your hand? After those burns, I would have thought you would have amputated it"

"It&039;s mine," I said "And it&039;s none of your business And you&039;re wasting my time"

The vampire&039;s corpse lips stretched into a smile Flakes of dead flesh fell down from the corners of her mouth Brittle hair like dried straw had er, but here and there longer strands the color of breadyour mortality to make you impatient, Dresden Surely you want to take this opportunity to discuss your assault on ain and rested my hand on Mouse&039;s head "I&039;ot dirt on Murphy and you want soh was full of cobwebs and sandpaper "I forget how young you are until I see you," she said "Life is fleeting, Dresden If you insist on keeping yours, you ought to enjoy it"

"Funny thing is, trading insults with an egotistical super zoood time," I said Mouse punctuated the sentence with another ru to turn away "If that&039;s all you had in hed harder, and the sound of it spooked the hell out ofabout it, the way that it sis that should hter There was no warmth in it, no humanity, no kindness, no joy It was like Mavra herself-it had the withered huhtmare

"Very well," Mavra said "We shall eain, wary So off all my alarm bells

"Find The Word of Ke, one hand resting negligently upon her sword, and started to leave

"Hey!" I choked "That&039;s it?"

"That&039;s it," she said without turning

"Wait a minute!" I said

She paused

"What the hell is The Word of Ke to what?" I asked

"Power"

"And you want it"

"Yes"

"And you want me to find it"

"Yes Alone Tell no one of our agree"

I took in a slow breath "What happens if I tell you to go to hell?"

Mavra silently lifted a single arers, and even in the ht I could see that it was of Murphy

"I&039;ll stop you," I said "And if I don&039;t, I&039;ll come after you If you hurt her, I&039;ll kill you so hard your last ten victims will make miraculous recoveries"

"I won&039;t have to touch her," she said "I&039;ll send the evidence to the police The mortal authorities will prosecute her"

"You can&039;t do that," I said "Wizards and vampires et mortal authorities involved, the Council will do it as well And then the Reds You could escalate lobal chaos"

"If I intended to eainst you, perhaps," Mavra said "You are White Council"

My sto I was a member of the White Council of Wizards, a solid citizen of the supernatural realms

But Murphy wasn&039;t

"The protector of the people," Mavra all but purred "The defender of the laill find herself a convicted murderer, and her only explanation would make her sound like a madwoman She is prepared to die in battle, wizard But I won&039;t merely kill her I will unmake her I will destroy the labor of her life and her heart"

"You bitch," I said

"Of course" She looked at me over her shoulder "And unless you are prepared to unh of it to i you can do to stop me"

Fury exploded sohts in a red fire Mouse rolled forward toward Mavra a step, shaking the rowl, and I didn&039;t realize at first that he was following my lead "Like hell there isn&039;t," I snarled "If I hadn&039;t agreed to a truce I would-"

Mavra&039;s corpse-yellow teeth appeared in a ghastly sood Unless I put a halt to it, the pictures and other evidence will be sent to the police And I will do so only once I am satisfied with your retrieval of The Word of Kehts hence, and I will turn over the evidence to you You have my word"

She dropped the photo of Murphy, and soht played over it for a second as it fell to the ground There was the acrid smell of scorched chemicals

When I looked back up at Mavra there was no one there

I walked slowly over to the fallen photo, struggling to slap h to reach out with my supernatural senses I didn&039;t feel any of Mavra&039;s presence anywhere near rowls died down to loary sounds of uncertainty- and then to silence While I wasn&039;t quite certain of the all the details, Mouse wasn&039;t your average dog, and if Mouse didn&039;t sense lurking bad guys, it was because there weren&039;t any bad guys lurking

The vaone

I picked up the photo Murphy&039;s picture had been y had left scorch marks in the shape of numbers over Murphy&039;s face A phone nu, and Ito be only sick worry and fear left in its place

If I didn&039;t work for one of the worst of the bad guys I&039;ve ever dealt with, Murphy would get hung out to dry

Said bad guy was after power-and was on a deadline to boot If Mavra needed sole was about to go down And threeht into play sometime soon, and at this ti

Necro down atPartly from the cold

I felt very alone

Mouse exhaled a breath that was not quite a whiainst et you ho involved with this"

Chapter Three

I needed some answers Time to hit the lab

Mouse and I returned to en Bug that is my faithful steed "Blue" is kind of a metaphorical description The car has had various doors and panels replaced hite, yellow, red, and green My ed to pound the hood inal condition, which I&039;d bent out of shape while rauy, but I hadn&039;t had the rey added to its ense too quickly to be very graceful about getting out of the car He filled upfrom there to the front and then out the drivers-side door he ree I&039;ve seen of an elephant seal flopping through a New Zealand parking lot He e his tail contentedly Mouse liked going places in the car That the place had happened to be a clandestine raveyard didn&039;t see for him It was all about the journey, not the destination A very Zen soul, was Mouse

Mister hadn&039;t come back yet, and neither had Thomas I tried not to think too hard about that Mister had been on his ohen I found hi He could take care of hied to survive for all but the last several months of his life without me He could take care of himself too

I didn&039;t have to worry about either of theht

I disarmed my wards, the spells that protected my home from various supernatural intrusions, and slipped inside with Mouse I built up the fire a bit, and the dog settled down in front of it with a pleased sigh Then I ditched rabbed my thick old flannel robe and a Coke, and headed downstairs

I live in a bases opens up on a folding wooden stair ladder that leads down to the subbasement and my lab It&039;s cold down there, year-round, which is why I wear the heavy robe It&039;s onemystique, but I stay comfortable

"Bob," I said as I climbed down into the pitch-dark lab "Warot work to do"

The first lights in the rooe color of candle flarowing brighter, until I could see the entire shelf the skull rested upon-a simple wooden board on the wall, covered in candles, romance novels, a number of small items, and the pale human skull

"About time," the skull mumbled "It&039;s been weeks since you needed me"

" Tis the season," I said "Most of the Halloween jobs start looking the same after a few years No need to consult you when I already know the answers I need"

"If you were so smart," Bob muttered, "you wouldn&039;t need ht," I told him I pulled a box of kitchencandles I started with a bunch of the down the center of the se, whereas I a out the word "Are you feeling all right, Harry?"

I continued on, lighting candles on the white wire shelves and workbenches on the three walls in a C shape around the long steel table My shelves were still croith plastic dishes, lids, coffee cans, bags, boxes, tins, vials, flasks, and every other kind of sine, filled with all kinds of substances as mundane as lint and as exotic as octopus ink I had several hundred pounds&039; worth of books and notebooks on the shelves, soed neatly and some stacked hastily where they&039;d been when last I left them I hadn&039;t been down to the lab for a while, and I don&039;t allow the faeries access, so there was a little bit of dust over everything

"Why do you ask?" I said

"Well," Bob said, his tone careful, "you&039;re co all of your candles with matches"

"So?" I said

"So you can light all the candles with that stupid little spell youthe box because of your burned hand So it&039;s taken you seventhose candles"

I fuloved fingers

"Eight," he said

I suppressed a growl, struck a freshit

"Nine," Bob said

"Shut up," I told hiot it, boss I&039; up" I lit the last few candles, and Bob said, "So did you co on your new blasting rod?"

"No," I said "Bob, I&039;ve only got the one hand I can&039;t carve it with one hand"

"You could use a vise grip," the skull suggested

"I&039;ers burned and throbbed "I&039;et ready," Bob said "It&039;s only a matter of time before some nasty shows up and-"

I shot the skull a hard look

"All right, all right," Bob said If he had hands, the skull would have raised the ic"

"Stars and stones" I sighed "So I&039; et the new blasting rod done It&039;s not a big deal There&039;s just notit to cinders on e day"

"Harry?" Bob asked "Are your feet wet? And can you see the pyramids?"

I blinked "What?"

"Earth to Dresden," Bob said "You are standing knee-deep in de Nile"

I threw the matchbook at the skull It bounced off halfheartedly, and the few matches left in tumbled out at randorowled "We&039;ve got work to do"

"Yeah," Bob said "You&039;re right, Harry What do I know about anything?"

I glowered at Bob, and pulled up ot out a notebook and a pencil "The question of the hour is, what do you know about so called The Word of Keh his teeth, which is fairly iot no saliva to ith Orhim too much credit I ive ?"

"Not for certain," I said "But I have a gut instinct that says it has so to do with necro sound "I hope not"

"Why?" I asked

"Because that Kehtmare," Bob said "I otthat existed in a world of knowledge without ood-evil conflict, and as a result he had only vague ideas of where lines got drawn If Bob thought someone was evil, well Kemmler must have really pushed the envelope