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Chapter Eight

I paused just before I opened the shop&039;s door and walked outside It was one of those moments that would have had draot a radio jingle for so over the store&039;s aet

The trick was to figure out which h Noon, then walking outside was probably a fairly dangerous idea On the other hand, there was always the chance that I was still in the opening scenes of The Maltese Falcon and everyone trying to chase down the bird still wanted to talk tofor vital infor storm around the search for The Word of Kemmler

But just in case, I shook out my shield bracelet to the ready I took rip, curling theil-carved surface of the wood one by one

Then I called up ic comes from life, and especially froy that everyone can feel when an autumn moon rises and fills you with a sudden sense of bone-deep excite rushes past your face, full of the scents of life, and drowns you in a sudden flood of unreasoning joy The passion of s tears to your eyes, and the raw, bubbling, infectious laughter of s power of a stadiu "Hey!" in tiic

My ic comes from the same places And maybe froe So is lust And ood person I&039; to be up for canonization either Though in the past, I think maybe I was a better person than I am today In the past I hadn&039;t seen so many people hurt and killed and terrorized by the sa the world a nicer place, or at the least staying the hell away from it I hadn&039;t hted decisions, some of which had cost people their lives I had been sure of myself I had been whole

My stupid hand hurt like hell I had half a dozen really gut-wrenchingly good reasons to be afraid, and I was Worst of all, if Ito be the one to pay for it If that happened, I didn&039;t knohat I would do

I drew it all in, the good, the bad, and the crazy, a low buzz that coursed through the air and rattled the idols and candles and incense holders on their shelves in the store around lass door of the shop I saw ry blue light that trailed bits of heatless fire to the floor I pulled in the energy fro myself to defend, to attack, to protect, or to destroy I didn&039;t knohat the two cloaked figures wanted, but I wanted theht, I&039;d be willing to oblige them

I held my power aroundfor me on the sidewalk I took my time, every step unhurried and precise I kept an eye on them, but only in round and walked slowly, until the blue glow ofthe black look blue, darkening the shadows in the folds to hues too dark to have na theination, but I thought the pair of the stor-cold air that took its chill froan

"What do you want?" I asked them I borrowed frost froer of the pair spoke "The book"

But which book? I wondered "Uh-huh You&039;re a Schubert fan boy, aren&039;t you? You&039;ve got the look"

"Goethe, actually," he said "Give it to me"

He was definitely after a copy of der Erlking, then His voice was odd Male, certainly, but it didn&039;t sound quite hu buzz in it that made it warble, somehow, made the words slither uncertainly The words were slow and enunciated They had to be, in order to be intelligible

"Bite me," I answered him "Get your own book, Ke but disdain for the madman Kemmler," he spat "Have a care what insults you offer This need not involve you at all, Dresden"

That gave ant, powerful dark wizards is one thing Taking on ones who have done their ho else entirely It was ure noted it His not-huh

"Touche, O dark iving you my copy of the book"

"I am called Cowl," he said Was there a patient this evening Again I will ask it Givebuain do I answer thee Bite ure, warning in its tone

"Gee, letsound, and spread its arhtly, hands still low, by its hips The cold wind off the lake began to blow harder

"Thrice I ask and done," Cowl said, his voice low, hard, angry "Give ure took a step forward and said, in a female version of Cowl&039;s weird voice, "Please"

There was a second of shocked silence, and then Cowl snarled, "Kuue"

"There is no cost in being polite," said the smaller of the two, Kuive any hint at her foresture she ain and said,

"The knowledge in der Erlking is about to becoive us the book Simply destroy it here That will be sufficient I ask it of you, please"

I looked between the two of them for a moment Then I said, "I&039;ve seen you both before"

Neither of them moved

"At Bianca&039;s masquerade You were there on the dais with her" As I spoke the words, I becaures I&039;d seen back then had never shown their faces, but there was so in the way that Cowl and Kumori moved that matched the two shadows back then precisely "You were the ones who gave the Leanansidhe that athame"

"Perhaps," said Kumori, but there was an inclination to her head that ceded me the truth of ly screwed-up evening It&039;s been co back to haunt me for years," I said

"And will for years to conificance happened that night Most of which you are not yet aware"

"Hell&039;s bells," I coet sick of that I-know-and-you-don&039;t shtick In fact, it pisses me off even faster than it used to"

Cowl and Ku look, and then Kurief and pain, destroy the book"

"Is that what you&039;re doing?" I asked "Going around trashing copies?"

"There were fewer than a thousand printed," Kumori confirmed "Time has taken most of them Over the past month we have accounted for the rest, but for two here, in Chicago, in this store"

"Why?" I demanded

Cowl"Is it not enough that Kereat evil?"

"Are you with the Council?" I responded

"Obviously not," Kumori replied from the depths of her hood

"Uh- huh," I said "Seems towith the Council, rather than running around reinterpreting Fahrenheit 451 frowraith perspective"

"And it seems to me," Kumori answered smoothly, "that if you believed that their motives were as pure as they claim, you would already have notified them yourself"

Hello Now that was a new tune, so that the Council was bent and I was in the right I wasn&039;t sure what Ku to do, but it was smartest to play this out and see what she had to say "Who says I haven&039;t?"

"This is pointless," Cowl said

Kumori said, "Let me tell hi," Ku to if you keep dawdling," I said "I&039; my time"

She h "Can you believe, at least, that the contents of the book are dangerous?"

Grevane had seeh of his copy But I wouldn&039;t know for sure what the big stink was about until I had time to read the book myself "For the sake of expediency, let&039;s say that I do"

"If the knowledge inside the book is dangerous," Cowl said, "what makes you think that the Wardens or the Council would use it any more wisely than Kemmler&039;s disciples?"

"Because while they are a bunch of enor," I said "If one of the Wardens thought he ic, he&039;d probably cut off his own head on pure reflex"

"All of them?" Kumori asked in a quiet voice "Are you sure?"

I looked back and forth between the me that someone on the Council is after Kemmler&039;s power?"

"The Council is not what it was," said Cowl "It has rotted from the inside, and many wizards who have chafed at its restrictions have seen the ith the Red Court reveal its weakness It will fall Soon Perhaps before toee, why didn&039;t you say so? I&039;ll just hand you ht now"

Kumori held up a hand "This is no deception, Dresden The world is changing The Council&039;s end is near, and those ish to survive it must act now Before it is too late"

I took a deep breath "Norest we tp the Council&039;s house," I said "But you&039;re talking about necro to convince otten a yen to trot down the left-hand path They won&039;t touch the stuff"

"Ideally," Cowl said "You are young, Dresden And you haveto the advice of people ant to get so out of me," I said "Which includes car sales ht"

"Enough," Cowl said, anger ible "Give us the book"