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Chapter 39

Sanya was guarding the door He swung it open wide for us, and studied Susan with a grin of appreciation "There are some days," he said, "when I just love this job"

"Co past him "We don&039;t have ether, took Susan&039;s hand, and kissed the back of it gallantly, the big stupidhead "You are beyond lovely, lady"

"Thank you," Susan said, s "But we don&039;t have

There was a quiet conversation going in the living rooh the door I paused there for a second, and looked around at everyone as going to help hter back

Molly was dressed in her battle coat, which consisted of a shirt of tightly woven metal links, fashioned by her mother out of titaniu Kevlar vests All of that was, in turn, fixed to one of several outer gar a htly against the back of her head - and back to its natural honey brown color - and a hockey helmet sat on a table near her She had half a dozen little focus items I&039;d shown her how to create, none of which were precisely intended for a fight Her face was a little pale, and her blue eyes were earnest

Mouse sat next to her, huge and stolid, and rose to his feet and padded over to give hed up his ears for a ed his tail, but made no more display than that, and his serious brown eyes told rave

Next casleeved black shirt, and a tactical vest, all of which could have been purchased froun store He was in thetwo sets of weapons: assault rifles, tactical shotguns, and heavy pistols He wore a machete in a scabbard on his belt A second such weapon rested in a nylon sheath on the table, next to a blade-sharpening tool kit He never looked up atthe pistol he&039;d finished cleaning

A small chess set had been set up on the other end of the coffee table froear My brother sat there, with Martin (and, once he had finished greetingexpensive-looking silk pants and a leather vest, both white A gun belt bearing a large-caliber handgun and a sith an inward-curving blade, an old Spanish falcata, hung over the corner of the couch, casually discarded He lay lazily back on the couch, his eyesthe move of his opponent

Murphy was decked out in black tactical gearThey don&039;t generally ear for people Murph&039;s size, so she couldn&039;t shop off the shelf very often She did have her own vest of Kevlar and mail, which Charity had made for her for Christmas the previous year, in thanks for the occasions when Murphy had gone out on a limb for them, but Murph had just stuck the compound armor to her tac vest and been done She wore her autoular little subun, the one that always ainst the wall nearby Murph was hunched over the chessboard, her nose wrinkled as she thought, and hts into a thicket of enemy pieces before she turned to ling

That was enough to set off everyone in the room except Martin, who never seemed to realize that there were other people there Molly&039;s titters set off Thorin

"Hah, hah, hah," I said, co into the roohed at Susan&039;s outfit I felt that the injustice of that was somehow emblematic of the unfairness in ht down and feed it rhetoric until the lightbulb over hter died away "I&039; after, did you?"

"Not so much," I said "Okay, listen up, folks Tie to find out about the site?"

Murphy told Thomas, "Mate in six," took a file folder from beneath her chair, and passed it to me

"You wish," Thomas drawled lazily

I eyed hies inside, color aerial and satellite photos of the ruins

"Good grief," I said "How did you get these?"

"Internet," Murphy said cal up and what security measures they&039;ll need to take, but before we can talk about an approach, we need to knohere we&039;re going to arrive"

I stroked a thue stored there Then I went through the maps until I found one of the proper scale, picked up a pen from the table, and drew an X on the map "Here It&039;s about five miles north of the pyramid"

Thomas whistled quietly

"What?" I asked him "You can&039;t do five miles?"

"Five le is a bit different, Dresden"

"He&039;s right," Martin said "And at night, too"

Thole," Sanya said, co over to study the her than the lower Amazon, not as bad as Carunted Thomas wrinkled his nose in distaste I tried to pretend that Martin had given ible infor the sa, Martin?" I asked him

"Two hours, bare runted Then I said, "We&039;ll see if Lea can&039;t do so"

The room went still

"Uodmother? That Lea?"

"Harry, you told erous," Molly said

"And I still have the scar to prove it," Thomas added

"Yes," I said quietly "She&039;s powerful and by any reasonable standard she&039;s insane and she&039;s currently pointed in the direction of our ene to use her"

"We&039;re using her, are we?" Sanya asked, grinning

"He told us what Toot said about Mab, Harry," Molly said softly

There was a long stretch of quiet

"You ie, I did" I looked around the room "I&039;m me until this is all over That was part of the deal But if there&039;s anyone here ants to bail on me and Susan, do it now Otherwise, feel free to keep your hter doesn&039;t have time for us to debate the ethics of a choice that isn&039;t any of your goddamned business anyway"

I looked around the roooes with us?"

Mouse sneezed

"I figured that," I told hied his tail

"Me, obviously," Martin said

Murphy nodded Molly did, too Then Thomas rolled his eyes

"Good," I said "Lea will probably have so to speed the trip," I said

"She&039;d better," Thomas said "Time&039;s short"

"We will be there in time," Sanya said confidently

I nodded Then I said, "And I have a favor to ask two of you"

I put the bag down and pulled Fidelacchius from where I&039;d tied it The ancient katana-style Sword had a smooth wooden handle that perfectly matched the wood of its sheath, so that when the weapon was sheathed it looked innocuous, appearing to be a slightly curved, sturdy stick of a good size to carry while walking The blade was razor-sharp I had dropped a plastic drinking straw across it as an experiment once The rate of fall had been all the exquisite weapon had needed to slice the straw neatly in half

"Karrin," I said, and held out the Sword

Sanya&039;s eyebrows climbed toward the roof

"I&039;vebeen offered that Sword before, Harry," she said quietly "Nothing&039;s changed since then"

"I&039;ht," I said quietly "I want to entrust it to you for this night, for this purpose This sasto be plenty to go around Take it up Just until irl is safe"

Murphy frowned She looked at Sanya and said, "Can he do this?"

"Can you?" Sanya asked, looking at uardian," I said calmly "Exactly what am I supposed to do with it if it is not my place to choose the Sword&039;s bearer to the best of my ability?"

Sanya considered that for a ave you the power of choice when they entrusted you with the Swords One of those things they see that sounds remotely related"

I nodded "Murph Used for the right reasons, in good faith, the Sword is in no danger You&039;re the only one who can know if you&039;re doing it for the right reasons But I&039;hter, Karrin Please"

Murphy sighed "You don&039;t play fair, Harry"

"Not for one second," I said "Not for so like this"

Murphy was quiet for a moment more Then she stood up and walked to me She took the Sword from my hand There was an old cloth strap fixed to the sheath, so that the weapon could be carried over one shoulder or diagonally across the back Murphy slipped the weapon on and said, "I&039;ll carry it If it seeht to me, I&039;ll use it"

"That&039;s all I can ask for," I said

Then I picked up A Sith a crusader-style hilt and a simple, rapped handle

And I turned to Susan

She stared at me and then shook her head slowly "The last tis," she said, "it burned me so bad I could still feel it three months later"

"That was then," I said "This is now You&039;re doing what you&039;re doing because you love your daughter If you stay focused on that, this Sill never do you harm" I turned the hilt to her "Put your hand on it"

Susan did so slowly, alainst her will She hesitated at the last ers closed on the blade&039;s handle

And that was all Nothing happened

"Swear to harood faith, to return your daughter safely houard the Sword and return it faithfully when that task is done And I don&039;t see any reason why you shouldn&039;t be able to wield it"

She met my eyes and nodded "I swear"

I nodded in reply and took htly froleaht as a mirror And when she moved to buckle it to her belt, the Sword fit there as ifto feel very shty will not feel slighted if I carry more, ah, innovative weaponry as well," Susan said She crossed to the table, slid one of Martin&039;s revolvers into her holster, and after a moment picked up the assault rifle

Sanya stepped forward as well, and took the tactical shotgun with its collapsible shoulder stock "If He exists, He has never givenvery well already"

Thoainst the Red King and his thirteenwell?"

Mouse sneezed

"Eight," Thomas corrected himself He rolled his eyes and said, "And the psycho death faerie makes it nine"

"It is like olas"

"Are you kidding?" Thoolas You&039;re" He squinted thoughtfully at Sanya and then at Martin "Well He&039;s Boroorn"

"Martin is so dour, he is more like Gimli" Sanya pointed at Susan "Her sword is orn wishes he looked that good," countered Thomas

"What about Karrin?" Sanya asked

"What - for Gimli?" Thomas mused "She is fairly - "

"Finish that sentence, Raith, and we thron," said Murphy in a calh," Tho to say &039;tough&039; "

Martin had gotten up during the discussion He came over to me and studied the map I&039;d marked Then he nodded As the discussion went on - with Molly&039;s sponsorship, Mouse was lobbying to clai the shortest, the stoutest, and the hairiest - Martin explained what they knew of the security measures around the ruins

"That&039;s e&039;re going in here," he said, pointing to the eastern-reat columns stood Once, they had held up soreat tele has sed the eastern end of it They&039;re only using torchlight, so alleries should be possible There will be considerable shadow to uards there," I said

"True We&039;ll have to silence thealleries, we&039;ll be within two hundred feet of the base of the te the ritual In the teot built on top of ley line confluences," I said, nodding I studied the map "A lot can happen in two hundred feet," I said "Evenfast"

Martin nodded "Yes, it can And, if our various intelligence sources are correct, there are more than a thousand individuals nearby"

"A thousand vaed "Many Many will be their personal guards Others, thehighest-ranking servants, I suppose you would call them They are like Susan and myself There may also be mortal foot soldiers, there to keep the sacrifices in line"

"Sacrifices, plural?"

Martin nodded "The ceremonies of the Red Court of old could last for days, with blood sacrifices ht be a hundred or two hundred others chosen to die before the ritual"

I didn&039;t shudder, but only by sheer force of will "Yeah Priht now"

"Yes," Martin said

"What we need," I said

"A diversion," Martin said

I nodded "Get everyone looking in one direction Then Susan, Lea, and I will hit the teet the kid Then we all run for Father Forthill&039;s sanctuary on holy ground"

"They&039;ll catch us long before we can cover that distance"

"You ever tried chasing a faerie through the woods at night?" I asked wryly "Trust me If we can break contact, we can make it a few miles"

"Why not retreat directly to the spirit world?" Martin asked

I shook my head "No way Creatures this old and powerful know all the tricks there, and they&039;ll be familiar with the terrain on the other side that close to their strong places I won&039;t fight theround unless there&039;s no other choice We head for the church" I pointed to the location of the church, in a small town only about two and a half miles from Chich¨¦n Itz¨¢

Martin smiled faintly "Do you honestly think a parish chapel ithstand the ?"

"I have to think that, Martin," I said "Besides, I think a parish chapel with all three Swords defending it, along with two members of the White Council and an elder sorceress of the Winter Sidhe, will be a tough nut to crack And all we have to do is one"

Martin ht work"