October 1070

The Leanansidhe blinked slowly, her golden eyes glittering with confusion. "What are you doing?" she croaked.

"Threatening myself," I said.

As she stared at me as I had gone mad, I was quickly structuring my death curse in my head. I didn't really want to use it, obviously, but if I was going to threaten myself then I needed a coherent plan. I needed to get Elfleda out of the Nevernever, and I needed to do something about Bonea. Getting her out was probably going to be the easy part, as there was no reason to be careful with my head when pulling off a death curse, but getting her away from the Leanansidhe and Mab would be the trickier part. Still, spirits could travel pretty fast, so as long as I could retain enough awareness will her away, that part was handled.

But all of that wouldn't matter in the slightest if I couldn't also threaten the Leanansidhe with it. The question was how.

"And what do you believe this will accomplish?" the Leanansidhe asked slowly. "Do you think to threaten me with your death curse when you already possess the Sword of Love?"

I clicked my tongue. "Sort of. Actually, I'm just threatening you with my death. See, what the stalking and the interest and the interdict says to me is that Mab is interested. In me, being alive. I'm no use to her dead."

The Leanansidhe tried to cock her head to the side, a difficult action with the cord in the way. "I am well aware, wizard. But I have already told you that if you kill me, you will die. What does reversing the order change?"

I licked my lips. This next part relied on Bonea having the relevant information, on me being able to extract and use it properly before I died. But there was an upside to it: death curses generally needed less structure than regular spells. It was the idea that was important.

"Simple. You don't die," I said.

The Leanansidhe furrowed her brow in confusion.

I went on. "See, death can be pretty bad. But living long enough to see everything fall apart, living long enough to lose everything you had... that can be a lot worse. That's what I'm threatening you with. You can't stop me from killing myself. You can't stop me getting off my death curse, and empowering it as much as I can manage. From leaving too little to bring back. And most importantly, you can't stop me from calling your Queen with my dying breath. Her name's pretty simple after all, just one syllable, and I only need to say it one more time."

The Leanansidhe was silent, lips thinned into a line, eyes narrowed. Her hounds growled and shifted uncertainly around us. I adjusted my grip on Amoracchius, pressed its steel a little closer to my neck, enough to start bleeding. The Leanansidhe made a sound, and they stopped.

"Do you imagine you could bring my Queen's ire against me with your death?" she finally asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I do."

"I am her most valued servant, whereas you are but a recalcitrant mortal," she said.

"That's true. But when I'm done with you, we'll both be nothing," I replied. "Your value to her is tied to your power. Take that away, and what reason does she have to be merciful?"

The Leanansidhe's eyes widened. "You cannot do that."

"Can't I?" I asked. "With this sword at my neck, with all the power at my disposal, with my familiarity with Winter? Every time you've faced me, you've been unpleasantly surprised. And every time, I've had a reason to hold back, to pace myself, to not go all out. From where I'm standing right now, I don't see much reason to do so."

I took a deep breath and fought down a wince as the skin of my throat rubbed against Amoracchius, slightly widening the cut. "Let me tell you how I see this going down. I cut these arteries and start bleeding out. I get Elfleda out of here. I get the Sword out of here. I cripple you. And as my final act, I call the Queen. And then there's just you, standing alone, with little to no power, and nothing to show her for it but my corpse.

"Now, I know what you're thinking. 'Is he bluffing? Can he take away my power?'" I shrugged. "Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not entirely sure myself. But seeing as how I'm one of the strongest wizards in the world when it comes to raw power, with a lot of soulfire to back up what would be my last spell ever, and Amoracchius to ensure I got it off cleanly, I figure I can take everything from you. So you've got to ask yourself one question: 'do I feel lucky?'"

The Leanansidhe stared at me closely, narrowed eyes looking all over my face, searching for any sign I was bluffing. "That had the feel of a practiced speech," she noted quietly.

I shrugged my left shoulder. "Going out quoting Dirty Harry isn't a bad way to do it," I said.

The Leanansidhe slowly rubbed her lips together, her eyes falling to my throat, where a small trickle of blood was winding its way down my neck. "Do you love her?"

I blinked. "What? Who?"

"The woman hiding in your shield, the one you came to me to save. Do you love her?"

I furrowed my brow. "I don't see what that has to do with this."

"It has everything to do with this, Harry," she said, her tone still hoarse and quiet. "Tell me, wizard, do you truly love her, enough to die for her?"

Oh. That's what she meant.

I glanced over at Amoracchius, the soft thrum of the blade sounding like thunder from how close it was to my ear. That was what my threat was based on, and if I didn't have Amoracchius, I had nothing. That's why she used her last question like that, to check if I could carry through.

I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. I turned, enough to look over my shoulder at the glowing silver barrier, and Elfleda just inside. Then I looked back at the Leanansidhe. It took me a few seconds to finally reach the conclusion I'd been working towards since I charged in to fight the Leanansidhe.

"Yes," I said. "I do."

The Leanansidhe let out a long, slow sigh, and the fire in her hands and the air steadily dissipated, the cold settling in to replace it. I didn't let down my guard, and kept Amoracchius pressed to the side of my neck.

"Then go," she said.

"Call off your hounds," I replied.

The Leanansidhe gestured and the hellhounds growled and moved back, the marrowblooms crunching with every step. I didn't lower my shield as they backed up, though I did slowly turn and move to make sure they were all backing up, that there wasn't one hiding somewhere. Once they fell back I lowered my shield and started moving towards Elfleda. When I reached the barrier I put my right hand up against it and worked a little bit of power into it, into the tiny flaw I'd inserted.

The silver shield unraveled and collapsed, releasing Elfleda. She was standing there, eyes wide, breathing heavy. I don't know if I was much better.

I took her hand and moved towards the rift, keeping an eye on the Leanansidhe the entire way, slowly pulling the cord back as I walked. Once we crossed the rift and departed the freezing, downright creepy sea of flowers, I let go of Elfleda and slashed my hand down, intoning, "Instaurabos."

The rift sealed up, my cord disappeared, and I finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Ow," I said right after, as Amoracchius bit a little further into my neck. I lowered it and pressed my hand to the wound. "Ow ow ow."

I turned to look at Elfleda, who was staring at me as if this was her first time seeing me. I licked my lips nervously.

"Uhm..." I closed my eyes briefly. "In the backmost saddlebag on the right, there should be some bandages. Can you get them for me please?"

Elfleda nodded and moved towards Shadowfax, who was grazing a good twenty feet away from the site of the former rift. I stayed next to my staff, waiting, and thanked Elfleda when she came back. Then I took the smallest bandage, wiped Amoracchius clean of my blood, sheathed it, and only then did I start wiping and treating my neck wound.

When I was done, neither of us spoke for some time, a few minutes or so. In the end, it was Elfleda who broke the silence.

"Make like a tree and get out of here?" she asked, her tone quiet and questioning.

I took a deep breath. "Yeah, you're right, I said it wrong. Should've been 'make like a tree and leave.'"

Elfleda stared at me for another second, then snorted, then started laughing hysterically. I joined in, chuckling and smiling.

"You are... utterly incorrigible... aren't you?" she asked in between bouts of laughter.

"Quotes are serious business."

She shook her head, still laughing, and smoothed out her dress. Then she looked up at me, and her laughter quieted down, replaced by an expression I'd never seen on her face before: nervous uncertainty. "Did you mean what you said in there?" she asked.

"I did," I replied.

Elfleda pursed her lips. "Thank you," she said quietly.

I waited a bit before nodding. "Dealing with the assassination attempt and fighting the Leanansidhe wore me out. I'm tired. Let's go home."

"Yes, let's," she agreed.

I pulled my staff out of the ground and walked over to Shadowfax. I tried to get up first, take the reins, but Elfleda shook her head and took the lead, helping me up instead. If I were in better shape maybe I would have made a bigger issue about it, but as it was I shrugged and took her hand.

"Soulfire?" Elfleda asked as she gathered the reins and spurred Shadowfax into motion.

I let out a long sigh. "It's a long story, and a complicated subject."

"We have time."

"I guess we do."

It took most of an hour to get back to Berkhamsted. The guards gave me a look as we passed through the gates on account of my bandage, a mix of jealousy and amusement. We got Shadowfax settled in, left the saddlebags in the stable, and finally ended up outside the doors to my house, right under the sign proclaiming my business. I brought the wards down, opened the door, and then turned to face Elfleda, feeling an awkward mix of emotions.

"Well... good night," I said.

Elfleda looked at me and let out a long, disappointed sigh. Then she pushed me inside, closed the door, and I don't really remember much of what happened next.

Author's Note: Merry Christmas everyone.