Page 117 (2/2)

The Merlin came over to us, also in his formal robes and stole He looked like a wizard should look-tall, long white hair, long white beard, piercing blue eyes, his face seae and wisdom

Well With age, anyway

"Warden Dresden," he said He had the sonorous voice of a trained speaker, and spoke English with a high-class British accent "If you had some evidence that you felt would prove the boy's innocence, you should have presented it during the trial"

"I didn't have anything like that, and you know it," I replied

"He was proven guilty," the Merlin said "I soulgazed him myself I examined more than two dozen ht eventually recover their sanity He forced four others to commit suicide, and had hidden nine corpses from the local authorities, as well And every one of them was a blood relation" The Merlin stepped toward me, and the air in the rooer and his voice ru power "The powers he had used had already broken his mind We did as necessary"

I turned and faced the Merlin I didn't push out erent or challenging into er on my face, or slur any disrespect into ht h an ad on a est wizard on the planet And he had talent, skill, and experience to go along with that strength If I ever cah left of ht

But I didn't back down, either

"He was a kid," I said "We all have been He made a mistake We've all done that too"

The Merlin regarded me with an expression somewhere between irritation and conteic can do to a person," he said Marvelously subtle shading and emphasis over his words added in a perfectly clear, unspoken thought: You know it because you've done it Sooner or later, you'll slip up, and then it will be your turn "One use leads to another And another"

"That's what I keep hearing, Merlin," I answered "Just say no to black ic But that boy had no one to tell hiift and done so in time-"

He lifted a hand, and the siesture had such absolute authority to it that I stopped to let hi, Warden Dresden," he said, "is that the boy whobefore we discovered the da more nor less than ahorror and death on anyone near him"

"I know that," I said, and I couldn't keep the anger and frustration out of my voice "And I knohat had to be done I knoas the onlyto throw up again, and I closed th of ot my stomach under control and opened e the fact that we've just h to understand as happening to him"

"Accusing someone else of murder is hardly a stone you are in a position to cast, Warden Dresden" The Merlin arched a silver brow at e a firearm into the back of the head of a woman you merely believed to be the Corpsetaker fro her?"

I sed I sure as hell had, last year It had been one of the bigger coin tosses ofwizard known as the Corpsetaker had juinal body of Warden Luccio, I would havemember of the White Council

I hadn't been wrong-but I'd never never just killed anyone before I've killed things in the heat of battle, yes I've killed people by less direct means But Corpsetaker's death had been intimate and coldly calculated and not at all indirect Just un, and the limp corpse I could still vividly remember the decision to shoot, the feel of the cold er, the thunder of the gun's report, and the way the body had settled into a liround, the nificance of the event