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Chapter Forty-nine

Thorsen kept ivenrun to catch up, a lot of locked gates, and the confusion we&039;d left in our wake They reached an died They did their best to revive Morgan, but his body had taken enough torment and lost too an had double-tapped the traitor&039;s head with Luccio&039;s pistol

They bundled me off to the infirone todebated-were caring for those wounded in the attack

After that, things fell into place without requiring ed to contain and banish thefrom the far reaches of the Nevernever, before it had killed s considered, it could have been a lot worse, but the fact that it had been the gathering of LaFortier&039;s former political allies who had been subject to the attack occasioned an enor that the Merlin had disregarded their safety, been negligent in his security precautions, etc, etc The fact that the attack had occurred while un LaFortier&039;s true killer was brushed aside There was political capital to be had

Basically the entire supernatural world had heard about LaFortier&039;s death, the ensuing h h there was never any sort of official state with Peabody, and that both of the their escape attempt

It was a brutal and callous way for the Council to save face The Merlin decided that it was ultierous for the wizards of the world if everyone knew that the Council responded to LaFortier&039;s th and power-ie, the immediate capture and execution of those responsible

But I knew that whoever Peabody had been in bed with, the people who had really been responsible knew that the Council had killed an innocent et the job done

Maybe the Merlin was right Maybe it&039;s better to look stupid but strong than it is to look smart but weak I don&039;t know I&039;e bears that strong a reseh school

The Council&039;s investigators worked ot to the sa the money, eventually The Council confronted the White Court with the information

Lara sent them the heads of the persons responsible Literally Leave it to Lara to find a way to get one last bit of er&039;s corpses She told the Council to keep theto six million in cash buys a lot of oil to pour on troubled waters

He ht have wound up with his brains splattered all over a desolate little hellhole in the Nevernever, but Peabody had inflicted one hell of a lot of dae of White Council paranoia had begun

The Merlin, the Gatekeeper, and Injun Joe investigated the extent of Peabody&039;s psychic infiltration In some ways, the worst of what he&039;d done was the easiest to handle Darao-to-sleep trance command, and it had been done so smoothly and subtly that it was difficult to detect even when theand knehere to find it

Ebenezar toldWardens had been loaded up with a lot h it was impossible for one wizard to know exactly what another had done Several of them, apparently, had been intended to become the supernatural equivalent of suicide boe was difficult, unpredictable, and often painful to the victi summer and autumn for a lot of the Wardens, and a iher for the members of the Senior Council, in my opinion, all of whom had alo back over their decisions for the past several years, and wonder if they had been pushed intoa choice, if it had been their own action, or if the aiven decision had been natural to the environht that it hadn&039;t left any lasting tracks For anyone with half a conscience, it would be a living night the Council in ti ht years

I wouldn&039;t be one of those guys for the world

I was in the infirot visits from McCoy, Ramirez, and Molly Mouse stayed at my bedside, and no one tried to ular presence, since he was prettyWardens I had helped train stopped by to have a word, though all of the nervous

Anastasia never visited, though Listens-to-Wind said she had come by and asked after me when I was asleep

The Gatekeeper caht When I woke up, he had already created a kind of sonic shield around us thatin privacy It e tin pails

"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly

I gestured at ed As Listens-to-Wind had proh, one running down throughfor an inch or so on h the le down overscars and beautyup now"

The quip didn&039;t make him smile He looked down at his hands, his expression serious "I&039;ve been working with the Wardens and administrative staff whose minds Peabody invaded"

"I heard"

"It appears," he said, choosing his words carefully, "that the psychic disruption to Anastasia Luccio was particularly severe I ondering if you ht explain it"

I stared across the darkened room quietly for a moment, then asked, "Did the Merlin send you?"

"I am the only one who knows," he said seriously "Or ill know"

I thought about it for a moment before I said, "Would ets treated?"

"Potentially If it seeht I need to heal her more quickly and safely"

"Give

"You have it"

"Before he died," I said, "Morgan told me that when he woke up in LaFortier&039;s roo the an had told ht

The Gatekeeper stared across the bed at the far wall, his face iuess he figured the Councilan innocent person to death"

He closed his eyes for a ht hand to his heart, his s"

"Like what?"

He held up his hand "In a e to Anastasia was quite extensive Not because she had been persuaded to do violence-that much came easily to her I believe her emotional attitudes had been forcibly altered"

"Emotional attitudes," I said quietly "You mean her and me?"

"Yes"

"Because she always believed in keeping her distance," I said quietly "Until recently"

"Yes," he said

"She never cared about ed his shoulders "There had to have been some kind of foundation upon which to build It&039;s entirely possible that she genuinely felt fond of you, and that sorown from it But it was forced into place instead"

"Who would do that?" I shook my head "No, that&039;s obvious Why would he do that?"

"To keep tabs on you, perhaps," the Gatekeeper replied "Perhaps to have an asset in position to remove you, if it becaer Warden who never gave Peabody an opportunity to exploit you, since you never came to headquarters You&039;re also probably theWardens like to associate with you, generally, so there was every chance youamiss Taken as a whole, you were a threat to him"

I felt a little sick "That&039;s why she showed up in Chicago when she should have been back at headquarters helping with the ive Peabody forewarning if you should get closer to his trail, and to locate Morgan so that Peabody could an dead at the hands of White Council justice is one thing Had Peabody succeeded, killed Morgan, and gotten rid of the body, then as far as we knew the traitor would be at large in the world, and uncatchable It would have been a continuous stone around our necks"

"And a perfect cover for Peabody," I said "He could off whoever he wanted, and given the slightest excuse, everyone would assuan"

"Not only Peabody," the Gatekeeper said "Any of our enee of it the same way"

"And it also explains why he cae on the Council He probably thought that the fake inforo there to find out if his brainlock was holding" I shook h that Way since he already knew one out to Deot lucky"

"Also true," the Gatekeeper said "Though I would suggest that your forethought allowed you to an had not acted so quickly, things ht have been even worse Luccio would have stood accused as well, and neither of thean was bad enough-the Wardens would not have stood for both the Captain and her second to be placed under arrest It un a civil war all on its own"

"Morgan he loved Luccio," I said

The Gatekeeper nodded "He wore his heart on his sleeve for quite a while when he was younger But she never let anyone close In retrospect, it was a personality shift that should have been noted, though she kept her relationship with you discreet"

I snorted quietly "Easy to expect tahappy, it&039;s sort of hard not to be happy for them"

He smiled, a brief flash of warmth "Very true"

"So she&039;s I e"

"It&039;s already begun Her subconscious has been struggling against the bindings placed in herbefore, the fact that it was forced upon her will cause a backlash"

"Yeah," I said "Things got sort of tense between us, I guess, after this whole situation got going I ured we&039;d already broken up, but"

But this wasn&039;t a case of having loved and lost She had never loved me Madeline&039;s kiss, when she&039;d buried me in an avalanche of bliss while she took a bite from my life force, had proved that Anastasia hadn&039;t ever been in love Maybe she hadn&039;t ever really liked me Or maybe she had Or maybe it was all of the above

Whatever it had been, it was over now, before it could grow into anything else, and neither of us had been given much of a choice in the matter

I hadn&039;t expected it to hurt quite as much as it did

Rashid put his hand on ht you deserved to know"

"Yeah," I said,out a bitter little laugh

The Gatekeeper tilted his head

"I&039;ve been trying to work out why no one used ic on anyone at LaFortier&039;s murder"

"What is your conclusion?"

"You can&039;t do anything with ic that you don&039;t really, truly believe in," I said "So LaFortier rong So she used a knife Morgan could noSenior Councilofficer than he could have apologized for how he&039;s treatedfrom Anastasia He probably died confused, never had a chance to use a spell" I looked up at the Gatekeeper "It wasn&039;t so arcane, mysterious reason It was because everyone was human"

"In h"

I was gathering o back home when Ebenezar appeared in the doorway "Hoss," he said calured I would walk you home"

"Appreciated, sir," I told him I had already sent Mouse ho the Ways alone We started walking through the tunnels I was heartily sick of the, but I think you&039;d need so at White Council HQ

We hadn&039;t gone far when I realized that Ebenezar was taking a roundabout route to the Way, through tunnels that were largely unused and unlit He conjured a dih to let us see our way, and in the color least likely to be noticed

"Well," he said, "we filled LaFortier&039;s seat on the Senior Council today"

"Klaus the Toymaker?" I asked

Ebenezar shook his head slowly "Klaus didn&039;t say it, but I suspect the Merlin asked hiot the seat"

I frowned The seats on the Senior Council were awarded geriocratically Whoever had the most years of service in the Council was offered the position of leadership, though there was nothing that required a wizard to accept a seat when it was available "Who the hell is that? He&039;s not up at the top of the seniority list"

My rimaced "Aye A Greek, and an unpleasant bastard He&039;s lived all through southern Asia over the past couple of centuries Distinguished himself in the battle with that rakshasa raja the Council took on recently"

"I remember when it happened," I said "I heard it was pretty crazy"

Ebenezar grunted "He was LaFortier&039;s prot¨¦g¨¦"

I took that in, processing the logic "I thought that bloc had been appeased"

"When someone wants power, you can&039;t buy him off," Ebenezar said "He&039;ll take what you offer and keep on co And Cristos as much as told the Merlin that he and his allies would secede froet the seat"

"Jesus," I said quietly

He nodded "Might as well give the Red Court the keys to all our gates and let theet hurt"

"So the Merlin made a deal," I said

"Didn&039;t have a lot of choice Cristos&039;s people gained a lot of support after they lost so many at the trial He&039;d have taken a third of the Council with him"

"Screw the selection process, huh?"

Ebenezar gri but tradition Oh, the Merlin uarantee you it was arranged behind the scenes, Hoss" He shook his head "The Senior Council has issued official positions on LaFortier&039;s assassination"

"Let unman"

He frowned at that for a moment, and then nodded "Oh, Kennedy Yes It was an act of individuals est the presence of an organized conspiracy There is no Black Council"

I stared blankly at Ebenezar "That&039;s stupid"

"Daht," he said "But they had a majority The Merlin, Cristos, Mai, Martha Liberty, and the Gatekeeper"

I shook ?"

Ebenezar shrugged "He&039;s never been easy to read And I&039;ve known him since I was sixteen years old Two or three explanations come to mind"

"Like, maybe he&039;s Black Council"

Ebenezar walked for several steps in silence Then he said, "Aye"

"Or ot to him harder than we all think," I said

"Is he slipped the Senior Council let hie them us But we&039;re all too crusty to bend more than that"

"What then?"

"Well, Hoss," he said, "try&039;s worried about the consequences of officially acknowledging the Black Council"

I felt a little chill glide over the nape of h people knew that the Black Council was real, they wouldn&039;t line up to fight them They&039;d join"

"Everyone loves a winner," Ebenezar said "And we haven&039;t been looking too good lately People are afraid Cristos is building his influence on it"

I stopped in my tracks and all but threw up on the cold stone floor

Ebenezar stopped, putting his hand on my arm, and frowned in concern "What is it, boy?"

"Sir," I said, hearing my voice shake "When Peabody came to the island"

"Yes?"

"He wasn&039;t alone Someone else came with hi for a long minute

"That&039;s only one explanation, Hoss," Ebenezar said "It&039;s not even a calculated estiuess"

There was no conviction in his voice, though Ebenezar felt the sa that left ht Besides We were talking in whispers in an out-of-the-way corridor of our own da was seriously wrong with the White Council, I don&039;t knoould

"They&039;re inside," I whispered

My ravely

"That&039;s why they whacked LaFortier To get their own ainst the wall and shook my head "They won"

"They won the round," he said "Fight isn&039;t over"

"It is for Morgan," I said

"But not for you," he said with harsh intensity "Morgan thought that saving your life orth losing his own" Ebenezar took a deep breath Then he said, very quietly, "Hoss, it ain&039;t over So about it"

I looked at hi?"

"It&039;s just a few, for now Some wizards Some key allies People we knoe can trust I&039;ot to take this fight to the eneoals Shut theht fire with fire, eh?"

Ebenezar stry has necessitated another"

"And got himself a twofer with a side order of irony," I said "If the Black Council finds out about us, they&039;re going to jump for joy They&039;ll expose us, call us the Black Council, and go on their merry way"

" &039;Us&039; already, is it?" His eyes glea, if the White Council finds out, they&039;re going to call it sedition They&039;ll execute us"

See what I ht about it for a minute "You know that in every objective sense, we&039;rea Black Council of our own"

"Aye"

"So where does that leave us?"

"With pure hearts and good intentions," he answered "Our strength shall be the strength of ten"

I snorted loudly

Ebenezar s to have hty dark alleys And doing it in hty questionable company Maybe we should think of ourselves as a Grey Council"

"Grey Council," I said We started walking again, and after a few otten darker and nastier, even in just the past few years Do you think e do willyou do," Ebenezar said "That the only alternative is to stand around and watch everything go to hell" His voice hardened "We&039;re not going to do that"

"Daht we&039;re not," I said

We walked the rest of the way to Chicago together

Murphy drove ht her up on most of what had happened on the way

"You&039;re holding out on me," she said, when I finished

"Solanced at me as she drove and said, "Okay"

I liftedto deal with some scary people, Harry," she said quietly "And people are trusting you with secrets I get that"

"Thanks, Murph"

She shook her head "I don&039;t know, Harry It ot so that intersects with my responsibilities I&039; I should know" She shrugged "I don&039;t knoe could ever patch so like that up"

"I hear you," I said

She shook her head "I never really cared for Morgan But I wish it hadn&039;t ended that way for hiht about that for aa difference He took out the traitor who had gotten hundreds of wizards killed He kept higed "A lot of Wardens have gone down lately As exits go, Morgan&039;s was a good one" I sht have had to apologize to o"

"He had courage," Murphy admitted "And he had your back"

"Yeah," I said

"Did you go to his funeral?"

"No one did," I said "Officially, he was corpus non gratus But we had a kind of a wake, later, unofficially Told stories about him and came to the conclusion that he really was a paranoid, intolerant, grade-A asshole"

Murphy suys like that They can still be part of the faone"

I sed "Yeah"

"Tellyourself"

"No," I said, honestly "I just wish so I&039;d done had made more of a difference"