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Chapter 6

I didn&039;t sleep long, but I did it well When my old Mickey Mouse windup alarht my way up from a deep place on the far side of dreahteen or twenty hours

It was another instance ofsoulfire on pure, instinctive reflex was a mistake - potentially a fatal one The extramortal well of power that soulfire offered was formidable in ways I understood only imperfectly I don&039;t know if it ainst the Red Court - though I had a hunch that it sure as H-E-double-hockey-sticks did - but I was dead certain that it had drawn upon y to do it If I pulled on it too y kinda y was indeed the sahton what actually happened when you got to the far side, I guess I have no idea And no mortal or immortal creature I had ever met had sounded like he knew for sure, either

I did know that powerful ey for working er Throw a destructive spell in the grip of a vast fury, and you&039;d get a lotfor your effort than if you did it while relaxed on a practice field The danger, of course, was that you could never really be sure how much effect such an emotion would have on a spell - whichcontrol of the energy Guys operating on htest mistake

Maybe the soulfire came from a similar place as the emotions Maybe you couldn&039;t have one without at least a little bit of the other Maybe they were all ether, like protein powder and skim milk in a health smoothie

Didn&039;t ht before left et a handle on the soulfire, I could literally kill rowled to myself

I sha room to find thatand was profaning breakfast in my tiny kitchen

She wore a simple outfit - jeans and a black T-shirt that read, in very small white letters, IF YOU CAN READ THIS, YOU&039;D BETTER HAVE BOUGHT ME DINNER Her golden hair was longer - she&039;d been letting it grow - and hung down to her shoulder blades in back She&039;d colored it near the tips with green that darkened to blue as it went down

I&039;in&039;," or "slammin&039;," or "hawt," since the cultural catchphrase cycles every couple of minutes But if you picked a word meant to be a ter woman, it was probably applicable For me, the effect was somewhat spoiled, because I&039;d known her since she was a skinny kid so bra, but that didn&039;t mean that I didn&039;t have an academic appreciation for her looks When she paid any attention, men fell all over her

Mouse sat alertly at her feet The big dog was very good about not taking food off the table or froerator, but he had drawn a line on the linoleuet to them first, they were his His brown eyes tracked Molly&039;s hands steadily Fro of his tail, she had probably already dropped things several times She was a soft touch where the pooch was concerned

"Morning, boss," she chirped

I glowered at her, but shas onto a plate next to bacon, toast, and solass of OJ into my hand

"Coffee," I said

"You&039;re quitting this week Re coffee"

I scowled at her through the coffeeless haze I di interested in staying healthy, and had gotten more so of late She was careful about what she ate, and had decided to pass that joy on to rabbed my breakfast I stalked over to the couch and said, "Don&039;t feed Mouse anything Not good for him"

Mouse didn&039;t twitch an ear He just sat there watching Molly and grinning

I drank orange juice, which I found a co to es were burned I ate it anyway, along with toast that was not quite done enough The grasshopper had talents, but cooking was not as are up," I said

She stood at the sink, scrubbing a pan, and looked up at ht about the matter carefully for a moment Molly was not much for combat It just wasn&039;t her field The next few days would certainly be hazardous for ot involved, they ht well be norance is safety" line of thinking in action I&039;d seen people die ouldn&039;t have if they hadn&039;t been told about the supernatural and its hazards, and I&039;d seen them die because they&039;d been forewarned, and it just wasn&039;t enough to really impress the scale of the threat upon them There was just no way to knoould happen

And because I had no way to knoould happen, I&039;d coht h to deny them the choice Molly was a part of ly, in one way or another The only responsible thing to do was to let her decide for herself how she wanted to live her life That included endangering it, if that hat she felt was appropriate

So, rasshopper

By the ti on the floor next to where I sat at the sofa, her blue eyes wide "Wow, Harry"

"Yeah," I said

"Wow"

"You said that"

"This changes everything"

I nodded

"How can I help?"

I hoped that she hadn&039;t just chosen to get herself killed "You tell me What&039;s the smart move, padawan?"

She chewed on her lip for a moment and then peered up at h?"

I drank the last s of o"

We took the Ways to Edinburgh, taking advantage of the weird geography of the spirit world to cover a lot more physical distance in the material world Only certain previously explored routes were safe and reliable, and you had to have some serious supernatural juice to open the door, so to speak, between the real world and the Nevernever, but if you could do it, the Ways were darned handy The Chicago-to-Edinburgh trip took us about half an hour

The headquarters of the White Council of wizards is a dull, dim, drafty sort of place - not unlike the insides of the heads of a great round, a network of tunnels, its walls covered in carvings of enuinely beautiful artistry The ceilings are kind of low for me in places Some of the tunnels are pitch-black, but ht without a visible source, which is an awfully odd look - sort of like one of those black lights that low

We passed two security checkpoints and walked for another fiveis this place?" Her subdued voice echoed down the e as the city above, and it has multiple levels Way ers over an elaborate carving in the stone as we passed it, a es and lines crisp and clean despite the se of centuries Her fingers left little trails in the light layer of dust coating the wall "Did the Council carve it out?"

"Nah," I said "That would have been too much like work Rumor has it that it used to be the palace of the lord of the Daoine Sidhe That the original Merlin won it from him in a bet"

"Like, Merlin Merlin?" she asked "Sword in the stone and so on?"

"Sauy," I said "Doubt he was ic, founded the White Council, was custodian of one of the Swords and established a stronghold for the Council, too," Molly said "Heelse"

"He et their name splashed all over history and folklore don&039;t tend to be Boy Scout troop leaders"

"You&039;re such a cynic," Molly said

"I think cynics are playful and cute"

There was no traffic at all in the main corridor, which surprised me I mean, it was never exactly crowded, but you usually bumped into someone

I headed for Warden country There was a large dormitory set up for the enerally be confident of finding a surly, suspicious face It was also very possible that Anastasia Luccio, captain of the Wardens, was there The cafeteria and the administrative offices were nearby, so it was hands down the busiest part of the stronghold

Warden country and the cafeteria were both eh there was a deck of cards spread out on a table in one of the lounges "Weird," I muttered "All the checkpoints are business-as-usual or I&039;d think so"

Molly frowned "Maybe soot into the heads of the sentries"

"Nah They&039;re jerks, but they&039;re not incoet aith ery?" Molly asked

"Hey, we&039;re in the United Kingdom When in Rome"

We went across the hall to ad woman who sat at an old switchboard - the kind with about a s that had to be manually inserted and re headphones and spoke into an old radio microphone "No No, we have no word at this ti, you will be infored it in under another flashing light, and repeated her spiel I watched that half a dozen tiet her to notice us

She stopped and blinked up at rey woven sh her brown hair, which meant that she could be anywhere between forty-five and two hundred years old Her eyes flicked over me and then Molly, and I saw her body tense She eased her rolling chair a few inches back from us - like ardedfor a nice bell tower The switchboard lights blinked on and off steadily They were the old kind thatsounds as they did

"Ah," she said "Wizard Dresden I am quite busy"

"It looks like it," I said "Wizard MacFee, right? Where is everybody?"

She blinked at h I had spoken in Ewok "Why, they&039;re in the Senior Council&039;s residence hall It was the only place big enough for everyone ished to witness it"

I nodded pleasantly and tried to remain calm "Witness what?"

"The aestured at the switchboard "You haven&039;t heard?"

"Was sort of busy yesterday," I said "Heard what?"

"Why, the Red Court, of course," she said "They&039;ve sent an ae the cease-fire into a genuine peace They&039;ve sent no less than Duchess Arianna Ortega to ask for terms"

Chapter 7

I felt my stomach flutter around insidedirty As the Red Court envoy, of course she&039;d have soe about her people&039;s intentions There was no way in hell that this was a coincidence It was too perfect

If the Red Court was offering a return to the status quo - and older wizards love status quo, letto sweeten it to bootthe Senior Council would never authorize an action that would jeopardize such a peace Not for so of the White Council&039;s most famous maybe-psychotic problem child, Harry Dresden, and a half-vampire terrorist

Plenty of the people on the Council thought I should have been beheaded when I was sixteen It erous, which probably explained my popularity with theh, held the lion&039;s share of its influence and authority That set would be happy to take any reasonable excuse to leavein the wind, and Duchess Arianna clearly planned to give it to the me off

It wasn&039;t until then that I noticed that while ic, the raging cauldron inwith smooth, swift strides down a hallway, ht, and the runes and carvings of both were blazing with car

Soon toher sneakers forward across the stone floor, though she was clearly trying to stop me

"Harry!" she said desperately "Harry! You can&039;t!"

I turned

"Harry, please!" she all but screaie!"

It tookI did it, and took a slow breath

Molly leaned her forehead against ht "Please You can&039;t You can&039;t go in there like this They&039;ll kill you" I heard her sn a mouthful of terror "If we have to do it this wayat least let me veil you"

I closedacid But when I opened my eyes, the runes on the staff and rod were quiescent once lanced at Molly She looked up at me, her eyes reddened and afraid

"I&039;m okay," I told her

She bit her lip and nodded "Okay"

I leaned over and kissed her hair gently "Thank you, Molly"

She offered ain

I stood there for a o ofme "Sorry"

I stared down the hallway in front of hts "Okay," I said "Okay"

"Harry?" Molly asked

"This isn&039;t the tiht," I said

"Um," Molly said "Yes I mean, clearly"

"Don&039;t start," I told her "Okay So the duchess is here to play games" I clenched ain with a determined stride, and Molly hurried to keep up

We proceeded to the White Council&039;s ostentatiatory

I know That isn&039;t a word But it should be If you&039;d seen the quarters of the Senior Council, you&039;d back me up

I strode down the hall and nodded to the squad of twelve Wardens on guard outside the chaeneration - apparently there were grown-up things happening on the other side of the large double doors, to which the children could contribute nothing but confusion

For once, the Council&039;s geriatocracy had worked in uard out here, he would certainly have tried to prevent eneral principles As it was, several of the doorkeepers nodded to s as I approached

I nodded back briskly and never slowed et in"

They hurried to open the doors, and I went through the down and stepped into the chambers of the Senior Council

I felt ie You could fit a Little League baseball field in it and have rooular central hall splayed out in front ofthrough it Marble steps at the far end swept up to a balcony that circled the entire place, which was supported by Corinthian columns of marble that matched the floor There was a quiet waterfall at the far end of the chaarden of living trees and plants and the chirp of the occasional bird

A platfore had been erected in thefro crystals, plus another mounted on a wooden podium that would, I took it, provide a near it The place was packed izards standing on the floor in athe balcony above, filling the place to its capacity

All in all, the ostentatiatory was so overdone that you couldn&039;t help but be ih round, ht

It wasn&039;t, though: There was a vae, beside the newest member of the Senior Council, Wizard Cristos He stood at the podiu the assembly The rest of the Senior Council, resplendent in their black formal robes and purple stoles, looked on with their hoods raised

"another example of hoe must meet the future with our eyes - and e," Cristos said He had a great speaking voice, a strong, sh the enore of the Council - which ought to tell you so toviolence and war, learning to coexist with its neighbors in peace, working together to find solutions to theirthem to devolve into bloodshed" He sray hair, a dark beard, and piercing dark eyes He wore his forner business suit beneath it

"It is for this reason that I requested a telephone conference with the Red King," he continued He used the English word for telephone, since there wasn&039;t a proper Latin noun for it It garnered a reaction fros were not done "And after speaking with him for a ti, andthe peace is in everyone&039;s best interests, and it is for this reason that I am pleased to present to you, wizards of the White Council, the Duchess Arianna Ortega of the Red Court"

Several wizards not far fro enthusiastically, and it spread haltingly throughout the cha into polite applause

Arianna stepped up to the podiueous I don&039;t eous I oddess The details almost didn&039;t matter Tall Dark hair Skin like ht sky She wore a gown of red silk, with a neckline that plunged gorgeously Jewels touched her throat, her ears Her hair was piled up on her head, occasional loose ringlets falling out Hers was a beauty so pure that it was nearly painful to behold - Athena heading out on a Friday night

It tookto realize that there was so beneath that beauty that I did not like at all Her loveliness itself, I realized, was a weapon - such creatures as she had driven men literally insane with desire and obsession More to the point, I knew that her beauty was only skin-deep I knehat lurked beneath

"Thank you, Wizard Cristos," the duchess said "It is a very great honor to be received here today in the interests of creating a peace between our two nations, and thereby finally putting an end to the abominable bloodshed between our peoples"

The Applause Squad started up again as Arianna paused People picked up on the cue faster this time Outside of the wizards who stood on the floor beneath the raised stage, the applause was still polite and halfhearted

I waited until it began to die before I released the door It closed with a quiet boom precisely in the moment of silence between the end of the applause and the duchess&039;s next statement

Nearly a thousand faces turned my way

Silence fell I could suddenly hear the little waterfall and the occasional twitter of a bird

I stared hard at Arianna and said, irl, vaaze with polite serenity for awith it a shadow of mockery It made my blood boil, and I heard my knuckles pop as they clenched harder at my staff

"Wizard Dresden!" Cristos said in sharp rebuke "This is neither the ti idiocy"

I was so impressed with his authority that I raised my voice and said, louder, "Give back the child you took froa, kidnapper and thief, or face me under the provisions of the Code Duello"

Murh the assembly like a rumble of thunder

"Wizard Dresden!" Cristos cried, aghast "This is an ambassador of an Accorded nation, promised safe conduct while she is here on a mission of peace This is not done!" He looked around the roorey-cloaked wizards standing not too far from me "Wardens! Escort this lance at theh, and they really didn&039;t like un&039;s ulp

I looked back at thelish, "You sure you want it to be like this, fellas?"

It ht it had, because half a dozen White Council hard cases stopped walking They traded looks with one another

I turned froe, and addressed the vampire "Well, thief?"

Arianna turned to Cristos and gave hientle smile "I&039;m sorry about this disruption, Wizard Cristos I&039;m not sure what this is about, but it&039;s quite clear that Wizard Dresden feels that he has been badly wronged by my people Bear in s contributed to this war&039;s beginning"

"I apologize for this outrageous behavior," Wizard Cristos said