"... frankly, they make Isabel Kabra look like Mother Teresa" - Fiske Cahill, Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Dan Cahill was bored. Just sitting around and talking was not something he particularly enjoyed, especially when he was sitting around and talking with a bunch of relatives who had tried to kill him and his sister, Amy. But here he was, seated at a table with Amy; their distant cousins Ian and Natalie Kabra; Sinead, Ned, and Ted Starling; Hamilton Holt; and Jonah Wizard. Double-crossing Uncle Alistair was also part of the group. Just a few weeks ago this meeting would have seemed impossible, but this unlikely collection of Cahills had gathered for very important purpose: to devise a strategy for defeating the Vespers.
Although not much was known about this shadowy group, Amy and Dan's great-uncle Fiske Cahill, the brother of their late grandmother Grace, had warned them just how dangerous they could be. As the group talked, Amy recalled Fiske's forbidding words: "... frankly, they make Isabel Kabra look like Mother Teresa." As far as Amy was concerned, Isabel Kabra was the most evil and dangerous person in the world. She couldn't imagine anyone more dangerous. Even her own two children, Ian and Natalie, were terrified of her.
Speaking of Isabel...
"Hello, darlings. Did you miss me?" asked the chilling voice of Isabel Kabra.
The response of the Cahills was not exactly what Isabel had expected.
"Not now, Isabel," Dan told her. "We're busy with more important things right now." Couldn't anything interesting happen at this meeting? Maybe he would throw a spitball at Ian and see what color the cobra's face turned when his fancy clothes got ruined. It was a good thing Dan just so happened to be have some paper on him. Because that was exactly the kind of thing Dan would be carrying around with him. Paper. In case he wanted to... well, he didn't really like to write that much...
Isabel was shocked. "What could be more important than me? How is that possible? You're all just going to ignore me like I don't present a threat at all? Like I don't deserve notice? Aren't you even going to ask why I'm not in jail right now?"
"You're a threat, all right. You're just not the most important one right now. So, yeah, we're just going to blow you off," Hamilton told her. "Where were we?" He turned to Alistair. "I think you were saying something about thinking the Vespers have a stronghold?"
Alistair coughed. "It is merely a theory of mine, but I believe it is correct. If all four branches... er, five," he corrected with a glance at Amy and Dan, "have strongholds, then I believe it would make sense for the Vespers to construct their own."
There were some nods around the table.
Isabel, meanwhile, would not be ignored. "How can you blow me off like that?" Isabel asked, still fuming. "I killed your parents!" she said, looking at Dan and Amy. "I tried to kill you, too! Multiple times!" They decided not to waste time responding to the dangerous murderer and continued discussing the Vespers. Isabel turned toward Ian and Natalie.
"And I am your parent! You can't blow off you own mother!"
"Well, one might say that you can't shoot you own daughter, " Ian told her coldly. "Yet, apparently, you can."
"Yo, that was not cool, yo" Jonah added. The others all nodded their agreement and resumed their conversation. Isabel just stood there, seething, and wondered how those miserable idiots could ignore someone as dangerous as Isabel Kabra.
Quote of the Day: "Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is remind each other we're related, for better or for worse...and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum." - Hermes, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan