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Chapter 49

Everything changed the night the Red Court died It made the history books

First, for the unexplained destruction of several structures in Chich¨¦n Itz¨¢ A thousand years of jungle hadn&039;t fest between practitioners who knohat they&039;re doing can leave city blocks in ruins It was later attributed to an extremely powerful localized earthquake No one could explain all the corpses - so techniques last used a hundred years before, some whose hearts had been violently torn from their chests, and whose bodies had been affected by some kind of nizable as human Fewer than 5 percent of them were ever identified - and those were all people who had abruptly gonein the past ten or fifteen years No explanation was ever offered for such a confluence of h theories abounded, none of them true

I could have screaht in with all the rest of the nuts Everyone knows that vampires aren&039;t real

Second, it made the books because of all the sudden disappearances or apparent outright murders of important officials, businesshout Latin A cartels took the rap for that one, even in the nations where they weren&039;t really strong enough to pull such tactics off Martial law got declared virtually everywhere south of Texas, and a dozen revolutions in eight or ten different countries all kicked off, seeht

I&039;ve heard that nature abhors a vacuuure why about ninety-nine zillion percent of creation is vacuuovernments hate &039;em, and always rush to fill them up So do cris than it does about nature Most of the nations in South America proper kept their balance Central A to claim the territory the vampires had left behind them

Finally, it ht of bad drea with activity, withabout the vivid and troubling dreanant women and mothers who had recently delivered had been hardest hit Several had to be hospitalized and sedated But everyone with a s at the tieneral theme was always the same: dead children The world in flalobe in an unstoppable wave, destroying anything rese order or civilization

I don&039;t remember what happened when the ritual went off There&039;s a blank spot in my head about two minutes wide I had no desire whatsoever to find out as there

The next thing I reie in my arms, wrapped up in the heavy feather cloak herquietly, but only in sheer reaction and weariness now, rather than terror The shackles lay broken on the ground behind ot the a fold of the cloak as a pillow, and I sat down on the top step, holding her, to see what I had paid for

The Red Court was dead Gone Every one of thee That, I thought, h, only lost the vampire parts of their nature The curse had cured them

Of course, it was the va and beautiful

I saw hundreds of people on the ground aging a year for every one of , for the most part It seemed that half-breeds caed to discipline their thirst for blood, and thus carried on for centuries, and those who had not been half-va Very few of the latter had ranked in the Red King&039;s Court It turned out thatfor the Fellowship, and many had already been killed by the Reds - but I heard later that more than two hundred others had been freed from their curse

But for me, it wouldn&039;t matter how many I&039;d freed in that instant of choice No h the number, it would need to be plus one to be square in my book

Inevitably, the Red Court had contained a febies, and after the ritual went off, they were ain They, and the other hu once the Grey Council broke open the cattle car and freed the prisoners The terror the Reds had inflicted on their victie, and the deaths the Reds and their retainers suffered as a result weren&039;t pretty ones I saw a matronly woman as all alone beat Alaet involved I&039;d had enough for one day

I sat and I rocked oded and spattered with blood, a contented snored the the the Blackstaff in his left hand, came to me sometime later He looked at the Leanansidhe and said, "Family business Please excuse us"

She smirked at him and inclined her head Then she stood up and drifted away

Ebenezar sat down next to me on the eastern steps of the tele around us, beneath us "Dawn&039;s about here," he said

I looked He was right

"Locals stay hidden in their houses until sunrise around here Red Court would meet here sometimes Induct new nobility and so on Survival trait"

"Yeah," I said It was like that a lot, especially in nations that didn&039;t have a ton of international respect So weird happens in Mexico; twenty million people can say that they saw it and no one cares

"Sun comes up, they&039;ll be out They&039;ll call authorities People will ask questions"

I listened to his stateree with any of them After a ht, and I said, "It&039;s tio"

"Aye, soon," Ebenezar said

"You never tolds in s I&039;ve made enehed "At leastnot until you were ready" He looked around at the remains of the Red Court "Reckon you ht about that while the sky grew lighter Then I said, "How did Arianna know?"

Ebenezar shook his head "A dinner Maggie - ie - asked me to a dinner She&039;d just taken up with that Raith bastard Arianna was there Maggie didn&039;t warn me They had soht I was just Maggie&039;sto do with it Said she shouldn&039;t want it, either And we fought"

I grunted "Fought like family"

"Yes," he said "Raith missed it He&039;s never had any family that was sane Arianna saw it Filed it away for future reference"

"Is everything in the open now?" I asked

"Everything&039;s never in the open, son," he responded "There&039;re things we keep hidden fros that are kept hidden fros no one knows You always learn the das at the worst possible times Or that&039;s been eant Murphy told me what happened"

I felt my neck tense "She saw it?"

He nodded "Reckon so Hell of a hard thing to do"

"It wasn&039;t hard," I said quietly "Just cold"

"Oh, Hoss," he said There was more compassion in the words than you&039;d think would fit there

Figures in grey gathered at the bottom of the stairs Ebenezar eyed theo, looks like"

I nudged ht them here For me"

"Not sochild "For her"

"What about the White Council?"

"They&039;ll get things sorted out soon," he said "Ah for the it"

"Aye"

"He&039;s Black Council," I said

"Or ht about it "Not sure which is scarier"

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted "Stupid, Hoss Every time Only so et uppity on occasion Stupid&039;s everywhere, every day"

"How&039;d Lea arrange a signal with you?" I asked

"That," Ebenezar said sourly "On that score, Hoss, I think our elders ran their own game on us"

"Elders?"

He nodded down the stairs, where the tall figure with the reen lightning Once it was formed, the space beneath the arch shiures at the bottom of the stairs looked up at us

I frowned and looked closer Then I realized that the metal head of the staff was a blade, and that the talla spear Within the hood, I saw a black eye patch, a grizzled beard, and a brief, grim smile He raised the spear to me in a motion that reminded me, somehow, of a fencer&039;s salute Then he turned and vanished into the gate One by one, the other figures in grey began to follow hirunted "That&039;s his name this tioes to the wall And in et bad" He pursed his lips "He doesn&039;t give recognition like that lightly, Hoss"

"I talked to hio," I said "He told un in my hand for me and showed ht Merlin, you know The original Merlin"

"How&039;d Merlin make out?" I asked

"No one&039;s sure," Ebenezar said "But froo in his sleep"

I snorted

The old ht hand to pull his hood up over his face He paused and then looked at me "I won&039;t lecture you about Mab, boy I&039;ve ains myself, sometimes" He twitched his left hand, which was still lined with black veins, though not as much as it had been hours before "We do e think we must, to protect e can"

"Yeah," I said

"She ht lean on you pretty hard Try to put you into a box you don&039;t want to be in But don&039;t let her She can&039;t take away your will Even if she can ain, but there was bedrock in his voice "That&039;s the one thing all these dark beings and powers can&039;t do Take away your ability to choose They can kill you They can s - but they can&039;t make you choose to do &039;em They almost always try to lie to you about that Don&039;t fall for it"

"I won&039;t," I said I looked up at him and said, "Thank you, Grandfather"

He wrinkled up his nose "Ouch That doesn&039;t fit"

"Graainst his chest

I smiled a little "Sir"

He nodded at the child "What will you do with her?"

"What I see fit," I said, but gently "Maybe it&039;s better if you don&039;t know"

Both pain and faintly anation showed in his face "Maybe it is See you soon, Hoss"

He got halfway down the stairs before I said, "Sir? Do you want your staff?"

He nodded at et you a new blank"

I nodded back at him Then I said, "I don&039;t knohat to say"

His eyes wrinkled up even more heavily at the corners "Hell, Hoss Then don&039;t say anything" He turned and called over his shoulder, "You get in less trouble that way!"

My grandfather kept going down the stairs, walking with quick, sure strides He vanished through the doorway of lightning

I heard steps behindin the entrance of the te from its strap on the other She looked tired Her hair was all co here and there She studied htly, and came down to where I sat

"Hey," she said, her voice hushed "You back?"

"I guess I am"

"Sanya orried," she said, with a little roll of her eyes

"Oh," I said "Well Tell him not to worry I&039;m still here"

She nodded and stepped closer "So this is her?"

I nodded, and looked down at the sleeping little girl Her cheeks were pink I couldn&039;t talk

"She&039;s beautiful," Murphy said "Like her mother"

I nodded and rolled one tired and co shoulder "She is"

"Do you want sohtened on the child, and I felt myself turn a little away fro her hands "Okay"

I sed and realized that I was parched Starving And, , I eary Desperately, desolately tired And the prospect of sleep was terrifying I turned to look at Murphy and saw the pain on her face as she watched me "Karrin," I said "I&039;m tired"

I looked down at the child, a sleepy, warer shelter and coht my heart would break Break more Because I knew that I couldn&039;t be what she needed That I could never give her what she had to have to stand a chance of growing up strong and sane and happy

Because I had made a deal If I hadn&039;t done it, she&039;d be dead - but because I had, I couldn&039;t be what she deserved to have

Never looking away froirl&039;s face, I whispered, "Will you do me a favor?"

"Yes," Karrin said Such a si htened and my vision blurred It took me two tries to speak "Please take her to Father Forthill, e get b-back," I said "T-tell him that she needs to disappear The safest place he has That I" My voice failed I took deep breaths and said, "And I don&039;t need to knohere T-tell him that for me"

I turned to Murphy and said, "Please?"

She looked atBut she had a soul of steel, of strength, and her eyes were steady and direct "Yes"

I bit irl over into her arht But then, she wouldn&039;t

"God," I said, not two full seconds later "Molly Where is she?"

Murphy looked up at irl ently to soothe her back to sleep "Wow You were really out of it You didn&039;t see the helicopter?"

I raked through ht "Ulanced at me and then away "After," she said more firmly, "Thomas found a landline and ht out there on the lawn less than an hour later Lifted hiht out"

"Mouse?"

Murphy snorted gently "No one illing to tell hio with Molly"

"He takes his work seriously," I said

"Apparently"

"Do we know anything?" I asked

"Not yet," Murphy said "Sanya&039;s ave Thoeant Murphy," the Leanansidhe said quietly as she glided back over tothe number"

Murphy eyed her, then looked at h on his mind already"

I frowned

"Not like that," Murphy said sternly "Ugh I wouldn&039;t have let hio with her if he&039;d seemedall weird"

"Yeah," I said "Yeah Mouse wouldn&039;t have, either, would he"

"He was in no danger of losing control,"prospect be accidentally devoured"

Sanya appeared, jogging around the lower end of the pyra at his side - and Amoracchius, still in its sheath on Susan&039;s white leather belt, hung from his shoulder

I stared at the belt for aup the stairs, od to be sure that Amoracchius was still on his shoulder

"Next time," LeaHe turned to me "Thomas called He seemed surprised it was me Molly is on navy cruiser on maneuvers in Gulf of Mexico She will be fine"

I whistled "How did?" I narrowed my eyes

"Lara?" Murphy asked quietly

"Got to be," I answered

"Lara has enough clout to get a navy chopper sent into another country&039;s airspace for an extraction?" Murphy kept on rocking Maggie as she spoke, see it "That&039;sscary"

"Yeah," I said "Maybe she sang &039;Happy Birthday, Mister President&039; "

"Not to be rude," Sanya said, "but I saw some people coood tilanced over his shoulder and frowned "Who left that lightning door there?"

"I arranged that," Lea said lightly "It will take you directly back to Chicago"

"How&039;d you e that?" I asked

The Leanansidhe sry little smile on her lips, and folded her hands priressively"

Isound

"After all, your quest ie ht it iven to understand that the little ones are quite fragile"