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Chapter Twenty-three

I stood staring up at the brokenin stunned silence for a second "Harry," Thoo"

"No," I said "I&039; him"

"He&039;s probably dead already"

"If he is," I said "It won&039;t protect him from Grevane I won&039;t leave hiht?"

I shook rimace "Help me up"

He did I limped over to theand shouted, "Grevane!"

"Good evening," Grevane said, the rich, cultured tones of his voice aat my front door "My compliments to your contractor That door is really quite sturdy"

"I like my privacy," I called back "Is the mortician alive?"

"That&039;s a somewhat fluid terh for the ti"

My knees wobbled a little in relief Good If Butters was still all right, I had to keep Grevane talking Barely five uys had cut the phone lines to the whole boardinghouse, the neighbors would have heard the racket and watched the light show from my wards Someone was sure to call the authorities If I could keep Grevane busy long enough, they would arrive, and I illing to bet money that Grevane would rabbit rather than take chances this close to his goal "You&039;ve got him I want him"

"As do I," Grevane said "I presuler&039;s corpse"

"Yes," I said

"And I take it you also know"

"Yes"

He htful sound He was very near the broken , though I couldn&039;t see him "That presents a proble the Word with anyone I&039;m afraid it will be necessary for me to silence you"

"I&039;m the least of your worries," I called back "Corpsetaker and Li Xian took the information from me this afternoon"

There was a silence, broken only by the slow, steady pounding on my door

"If that had happened," Grevane said, "you would not be alive to speak of it"

"I got lucky and got away," I said "Corpsetaker sounded all hot and bothered about this Darkhallow thing you guys have planned"

I heard the angry sound of so the truth," Grevane said, "then it profitsto allow you and the mortician to live"

"That&039;s one way to look at it," I said "But you could just as easily say that it costs you nothing to do it, either Last night you wanted toto talk?"

"To what purpose?" he said

There was the shrieking sound of steel beginning to bend under stress One corner of the door, up at the top, bent in, letting in cold evening air

"Hurry," Tho fast"

"Give ive you the infor I have him already," Grevane said "I can extract the information from him myself"

"You could," I said, "if he knew it He doesn&039;t"

Grevane snarled soe I didn&039;t understand I heard scuffing shoes, then the sound of a slap and a dazed exclamation from Butters "Is that true?" Grevane asked him "Do you have the information about the Word?"

"Dunno what it is," Butters mumbled "There was a jump drive Numbers It was a whole bunch of numbers"

"What numbers?" Grevane snarled

"Don&039;t know Whole bunch Can&039;t remember them all Harry has them"

"Liar," Grevane said There was the sound of another blow, and Butters cried out

"I don&039;t know!" Butters said "There were too many and I only saw them for a sec-"

Another blow fell, this ti flesh

I clenchedme

"I don&039;t know, I don&039;t know, I don&039;t know" Butters said It sounded like he was crying

"Look at me," Grevane said "Look"

I closed my eyes and turned ine as happening Butters, probably on his knees, being held by a pair of zo Butters&039;s chin between his thu Butters&039;s eyes up to aze Grevane wanted to see the inside of Butters&039;s head, in a swift and harsh attempt to assess the truth

And Butters would be exposed to the corruption of a soul steeped in dark h-pitched little sound that rose rapidly, growing louder and louder until it was a wail of terror and nity in the sound No self-control I would never have recognized it as Butters&039;s voice if I hadn&039;t known he was out there But it was hi to take a breath until it wound down to a frozen, gurgling sound and died away

"Well?" asked another voice, one I did not recognize It rasped harshly, as if thecheap Scotch and cheaper cigars

"He doesn&039;t know," Grevane reported quietly, disgust in his voice

"You&039;re sure?" said the second voice I moved a bit to one side and stood up on tiptoe to peer out theI could see the second speaker It was Liver Spots

"Yes," Grevane said "He doesn&039;t have any strength to him If he knew, he&039;d answer"

"If you kill the mortician, you&039;ll have to kill me," I called "Of course, I&039;m the only one with the information, other than Corpsetaker

I&039;odhood are all about sharing with your fellow maniacs"

There was silence froo ahead and take me out," I said "Of course, when I lay downto make it that much harder for you to beat out Corpsetaker for the Darkhallow, but what&039;s life without a few challenges to liven things up?" I paused and then said, "Don&039;t be an idiot, Grevane If you don&039;t deal withyour own throat"

"Is that what you think?" Grevane said "Perhaps I will simply walk away"

"No, you won&039;t," I said "Because when Corpsetaker gets hishe&039;s going to do is find his nearest rival-you-and rip your pancreas out through your nose"

The door suddenly bent on a diagonal on the top half, folding it in as if it had been wax paper The door didn&039;t quite go down, but I could see dead fingers reaching up through it, trying to rip and tear the weakened section

"Harry," Thoht with apprehension He drew his saber and went to the door He hacked at dead fingers that appeared in the breach They spun through the air and landed on the floor, still bending and wriggling like bisected earthworms

"Make up your oes any further, I&039; in my power to kill you I can&039;t beat you We both know that But you won&039;t get the inforainst h to make you kill me"

"You would have me believe that you would simply commit suicide?" Grevane asked

"To take you doith me?" I replied "Oh, hell, yeah Count on it"

"Don&039;t listen to him," Liver Spots hissed "Kill him He knows he&039;s finished He&039;s desperate"

Which was true, da I needed was for soer flew past my head, and another bounced off , a long and yellowed fingernail ainstrattling in its frame

And then, just like that, it stopped Silence fell over the apartment

"What are your terms?" Grevane asked

"You release Butters to me," I said "You let us drive off with your sidekick in the car Once we&039;re away froive him the numbers and drop him off Mutual truce until sunrise"

"These numbers," Grevane said "What do they mean?"

"I don&039;t have a clue," I said "At least not yet Neither did Corpsetaker"

"Then what value do they have?" he asked

"Soure it out But if you don&039;t deal with me now, it sure as hell won&039;t be you"

There was another long pause, and then Grevane said, "Give e that you will abide by the terms"

"Only in return for yours," I said

"You have it," Grevane said "I swear it by my power"

"No," hissed Liver Spots "Don&039;t do this"

I lifted my eyebrows and traded a speculative look with Thomas Oaths and promises have a certain kind of power all their own-that was one reason they were so highly regarded as of the supernatural coy that went intoit feeds back on the pro deal Maybe it shows up as a little bad luck, or a cold or a headache or so or a wizard swears an oath by his oer, the effect is nificantly Too many broken oaths and proic, or even destroy the ability entirely I&039;ve never seen or heard of a wizard breaking an oath sworn by his oer It was one of the constants of the preternatural world

"And by my oer, I swear in return to abide by the terreement," I said

"Harry," Tho?"

"Saving our collective ass, I hope," I said

"You don&039;t actually think he&039;ll abide by it, do you?" Thomas whispered

"He will," I said, and as I said it I realized how confident I was that I was right "If he wants to survive, he doesn&039;t havepower He won&039;t jeopardize that now by breaking an oath sworn by his ic"

"You hope"

"Even if he decides to screw us, it&039;s good to keep hier we delay, theto show up He&039;ll back off before he faces that"

"But if the cops don&039;t show, you&039;re giving hihtht not be a bad thing I can&039;t beat hi to make it harder for either of them to concentrate on me"

Thomas exhaled slowly "It&039;s a hell of a risk"

"Oh, no A risk," I said "Well, ouldn&039;t want that, noould we?"

"No one likes a wiseass, Harry"

"Butters is counting on ot Do you have any better ideas?"

Thorimaced and shook his head

"Very well," Grevane called "How shall we proceed?"

"Pull your zombies back," I said As I did, I found a pen and a piece of paper, pulled out the folded piece of paper froo with theet in and drive off Once I&039;m a few blocks away, I&039;ll drop Liver Spots off with the nureed," Grevane said

We waited for a ?"

I went to the door and Listened I could hear so else I shook lanced at Thomas