I found a pay phone and jammed in some change, dialing Murph's cel. I screwed it up the first two times, my fingers still shaking from my encounter with Mab and Puck. I steadied my breath and pressed each number as slowly as I could and hoped my agitation didn't cause the thing to blow up. The third time was - mostly - the charm, as I was rewarded with a static filled connection.

"Murphy," came my friend's voice, "Is that you, Harry?"

"Yeah," I said, "How'd you guess?"

"What?" she said loudly over the crackling on the line, "Listen, We'll meet you at your place in twenty."

At least, I think that's what she said over all the crackling on the line. Being a wizard sucked sometimes, and being a wizard on a deadline with a faerie hit squad on his ass sucked much, much more. I extended my Wizard's senses enough to twig to any overt magical baddies around me and came up with nothing. That didn't necessarily mean they weren't there - the Sidhe could veil like nobody's business if they wanted to - but it was likely they wouldn't try anything in so public a place.

There was a roar all around me, and I'd started to shove my will into my shield bracelet before I realized that the Blackhawks had just scored a goal. Oh yeah, hockey game. Way to go, Dresden. Looking around, I saw a couple folks jabbing their fingers at their smartphones that my magic had just turned into very small, very expensive bricks.

I stumbled down the stairs to the ground floor, getting some more suspicious looks from security. I hit the push bar on the door and started off into the night, lengthening my stride and shoving my hands in my pockets. A couple minutes to get to the Beetle, then off to home. Then figure out why my mentor was throwing me to the proverbial wolves on this one. Could Oberon really turn the tide in the war? Were we really that bad off? Later, Harry, I scolded myself. There was no time for navel gazing when potential faerie hitters from Winter and Summer might be on my trail.

The Beetle was there where I left it, but it didn't take me long to see that I wouldn't be driving home. My poor car had been flipped over onto its roof, looking for all the world like its namesake having been upended by a malicious child.

"Well," I said aloud, "that's just great. I'd been meaning to check the brake line for faerie dust, and this sure beats getting down on my hands and knees to look for bombs. So who do I have to thank?"

A hulking figure emerged from the booth at the entrance to the lot, literally expanding to immensity as it did. Troll, likely Winter. Oh joy.

"Hiya Stretch," I said. "Nice trick. It's a wonder what steroids can do for a body these days."

"Wizard," it rasped, "Forgo thy task or die."

"You make a compelling argument," I said, "Can I get a moment to think it over?"

The large rubbery face folded itself into something like a frown as it tried to follow my words. When he opened his mouth to reply, I raised my lifted my hand, triggering all of the braided rings I wore on it. The kinetic force struck the creature smack in the kisser, sending it flying through the fence and into the street, where it narrowly missed a white sedan before skipping into a halt against a tree. It writhed in pain, skin sizzling from where the steel of the fence had bit into it.

"I think I'll take option C. Sorry, Stretch, but I need the job."

I began to turn back to my car when I felt a knuckle strike traveling at roughly three hundred feet per second hit me in the shoulder. The impact sent me spinning, and I fell against the Porsche, sliding between it and my poor upended Beetle. As I struggled to slam will into a shield, I felt a searing pain in my thigh, followed by an immediate wave of nausea. I gritted my teeth and poured energy through the focus on my wrist, a blue dome of force springing into existence in time to catch three more projectiles. I glanced at my thigh, at about nine inches of yew with bright purple fletching sticking out. It seemed to have hit muscle, but I didn't dare pull it out in case it had nicked an artery. Wizards may seem tough, and we heal a lot better than normal folks, but we'll bleed out just as well as anyone else.

Racking spasms of agony nearly made me lose my shield. My guts felt like they were being gashed by heated, jagged steel. Another wave of nausea hit, and I realized just what was in my leg - elf-shot. Which meant I was facing Summer's elves on top of Winter's troll. Better and better, Harry. The arrow had inflicted a magic sickness on me, and it might bring me low enough that they'd be able to finish me off. Not to mention the troll would be back in action at any moment - I could see it regarding the metal fence - and the hole I'd made with it - with hatred. Think, Harry, think. If I could get to the trunk of my car I'd be able to reclaim my foci, which would go a long way to evening up this fight. I wasn't even sure how many elves were bounding around out there. As I thought that, an arrow came flying in, sliding off my shield and right into the right front tire behind me.

"You better be paid up on your insurance!" I yelled. "Hey, Ernie! Why don't you and the rest of Keebler's union head back to your tree. You can pay off the car in Fudge Stripes. Maybe those Chips Deluxe with the M&Ms in 'em?"

A volley of six arrows came as a reply, one of which hit the Porsche, sinking into the front quarter panel. Another jarring impact from behind me where my duster protected me told me that they were moving to surround me., and I knew I wouldn't be able to shield against them all. I gritted my teeth against the fire in my abdomen, and tried to come up with some sort of evocation that I could pull off without my staff or blasting rod that would leave me coherent enough to take care of the returning troll.

As if it could read my mind, the huge creature had lumbered around to the lot's entrance, shoving aside cars like child's toys, although I noted he was careful to push only painted panels and avoided anything that might have been steel.

"Never thought I'd see a Winter Troll working with Summer, Stretch" I called out to him, "they usually have their own lackeys, don't they?"

"Kordosh not working with Summer." the troll snarled. Ah, I'd touched a nerve - maybe I had an opening.

"Sure looks like it to me. They keep me penned in with arrows and then you finish me off. It's almost adorable. I should feel honored, huh? That I could bring two warring families together like this?" I went for broke, and started to sing, "Winter and Summer, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-"

I was cut off by a roar. The troll had picked up some poor schlep's Mini Cooper, and was hoisting it over head. "Winter Queen said Wizard would try to trick Kordosh. Wizard is a fool! Now Kordosh will take Wizard's head back to the Queen of Air and Darkness."

"Nay, beast," came the piping voice of one of the elves. "We have been commanded to bring the Wizard to Summer, and shall not gainsay our Queen."

"Winter has claim on wizard. Wizard comes with Kordosh."

"Summer also has a grievance with the mortal. At his hand was the death of the Summer Lady. By sending thee to slay her vassal, Winter has withdrawn its aegis, and thus the vengeance of Summer is at hand."

Aegis? What the hell? I bit back the urge to vomit, partly from the effects of the elf-shot, and partly to think that the last several years of my life had been under Mab's twisted idea of protection. It didn't make sense - Summer had been gunning hard for me pretty hard last year, with elves like these trying to use my brother - disguised as me at the time - into a pincushion. But I was acting as Winter Emissary at the time, which made me free game, I guess. While Titania herself could not actively kill me during those times when I held no role for the Courts, she certainly could have made her displeasure known to her subjects. I could have - maybe should have, considering how annoyed Summer's Queen was with me - been pestered on a constant basis by fae seeking her favor.

"Kordosh cares not for Summer's claim."

"Then we have reached an impasse. Choose thine arbiter, and let us be done with it." Through the haze of my shield, I could see the elf climb the Beetle, walking along the axle, her bow ready and arrow nocked.

I could see a sickening smile spread over the rubberly lips of the troll. "Kordosh chooses." And with that , he lifted the Mini higher, apparently ready to smash it down on my car.

"Oh come on!" I exclaimed, "Haven't you guys read your Solomon? Clearly you're supposed to split me down the middle and give half to each Queen."

The elf on my car seemed to consider this. "An equitable alternative, " she said. "Be it amenable to thee, troll?"

"Half a wizard?" Kordosh screwed his face up in concentration, which - on top of the elf shot - nearly caused my lunch to come up. The troll dropped the car it was holding almost negligently. It landed on a Lincoln with a thunderous crash. "Half a wizard is acceptable."

The troll reached over and peeled the hood off the remains of the Mini. He folded it over and compressed the edge between two huge fingers, as if he were folding a crease on a paper airplane. The owner was probably regretting getting the carbon fiber option over sheet metal, or would if he could see what had happened to his car.

I fought a rising panic - where were the damn cops? I didn't need S.I., just a patrol car to scare off the faerie menagerie here. Response time by the United Center should have a couple of minutes, tops. I craned my neck to try to see behind Kordosh to the street and it seemed completely quiet. At this time in Chicago, that was unheard of. And speaking of unheard of, I realized I couldn't hear the normal sounds of the city. I focused my eyes as much as I could, and could barely make out the flicker of magical power - the illusion that the elves must have placed over the lot. My stalling tactics had been for naught, and I'd given an enraged troll the idea to bisect me. Great thinking, Harry. I was running out of options, and the elfshot was robbing me of my ability to concentrate. If I was going to survive, I was going to have to take a risk. Without my staff or blasting rod, I was going to have to just put everything I could spare. I couldn't use fire - were I to call fire here, and were fire to answer as it had so many years ago, I wouldn't survive the resulting conflagration. And my usual backup Force had already shown itself to be ineffective against Kordosh.

Earth magic wasn't my forte, nor did I have Ramirez's facility with water magic. Too bad, too, as one of his little disintegration beams would at least have a shot at taking out the troll. I was reasonably good with wind, but I'd have to trigger a localized hurricane in the parking lot to be sure to get everyone.

I shook myself. How was this possibly worth it? Surely Ebeneezer didn't want me to die over this. The war with the vampires may have been going badly, but was it that bad that I had to throw away my life for it? There was an equinox every year - two of them, in fact. Give me six months and maybe a couple other Wardens, or even Murph and the Alphas, and I could spring Oberon and fulfill my pledge to Puck. With the full force of the Sidhe behind us, the tide would turn, and we'd get payback on those bloodsucking sons of bitches. And I wouldn't have to drop Hurricane Dresden in downtown Chicago. Hell, maybe, now that they were working together, I could get Summer and Winter to join the war in lieu of me trying to free the lost King of the Sidhe.

Except I'd given my word. My word. I'd gone back on deals with the Sidhe before, and it had nearly gotten one of the three Swords of the Cross unmade. Who knows what mischief Robin Goodfellow would visit upon me and my friends? And it was one thing for Mab and Titania to join forces to maintain their thrones, and quite another to wage a war that wasn't an actual physical threat to them. And six months might be too late - for me, for the Council, for the displaced X-men.

Crap.

I began to draw in my will, pushing aside the pain and nausea. I had one chance at this.

Two large hands reached in, and casually shoved aside the Beetle and the Porsche next to it. "Now let Kordosh split wizard even. No fight later over Winter and Summer getting cheated." He raised his improvised blade.

I dropped my left hand - and my shield - and raised my right. I began to speak the words of power.

And leaned forward and puked my guts out.

My preciously gathered will seemed to pour out into the pavement along with the remains of my lunch, forming a foul smelling puddle in front of me.

The troll looked at my predicament, and laughed, a chilling sound even worse than the earlier roar of anger. "Wriggle not, Wizard," he said, in a twisted approximation of offering advice.

Then I was on my back as elves lassoed my hands and pulled them back, several of them on each line. Other squads of elves repeated the process for my feet, and they stretched me tight.

"Strike true, troll," said their leader. "We shall hold the mortal steady."

This wasn't happening. I was Harry Dresden. I had slain Faerie Queens. I had ridden on Zombie Dinosaurs. I had deposed the King of the White Court of Vampires. I had assaulted freaking Arctis Tor. I was not going to get cut in half by a two bit troll and a bunch of tiny Legolas wannabes. This was not how Harry Dresden dies.

"Colossus, special!" came a voice, just as the folded hood started its descent.

Shadowcat came flying through the body of the troll, her hands reaching out under my shoulders and pulling herself tight against me. Her momentum pulled us both forward - and down, into the ground, just as the troll's makeshift axe thudded into the space where my head had been moments before.

"Don't squirm," she said, wincing in pain from the impact. "You do not want me to lose my grip right now."

Kordosh was looking at the gouge he'd made in the parking lot, momentarily confused. He looked up at where Kitty and I lay and roared, gobs of spittle crossing the distance and sliding through our phased forms. As such, he did not notice the armored form of Colossus race up behind him and let loose a tremendous hook at back of the troll's misshapen head.

Knocking it clean off.

"Holy crap," I managed, as I watched it fly over my head, trailing tiny, burning little trolls in its wake. The rest of his body collapsed to the ground, the open neck also burning from contact with Colossus's organic steel fists. The elves took one look at his face and just vanished, likely popping back to the Nevernever. "Yeah," I managed, getting a grip on my stomach, "Run away! You know you don't want a piece of the guy made out of cold iron!"

Colossus looked a little puzzled, looking at his metallic hands. He then shrugged, "Close enough, I suppose." He glanced back at the deflating body of the troll, as thousands of tiny versions of Kordosh continued to pour out of the wound, many being set aflame where his fist had made contact. "That is..."

"Revolting. Disgusting. Repugnant," came Karrin's voice. "Yeah, I know. Brings back wonderful memories of the Astor case, doesn't it, Harry?"

"Yeah," I bit back on some bile that was threatening to come up. I turned my head to the woman who still had me in a fairly tight embrace. "Now, I appreciate the save, but if you're going to get this cozy, Miss Pryde, you're going to have to buy me dinner first."

The X-man pulled herself to her feet. Well, she seemed to plant her feet a little bit below the ground while still sliding her hands to grasp my arms, all the while maintaining contact and our phased state. "Just try to get up," she said. "Don't think about the ground right now and concentrate on getting vertical."

I did as she asked, and my boots found something like purchase several inches beneath the parking lot. I followed her instructions and took one step, and then another, climbing the nothingness until we were both up and out, whereupon she let go and my heels dropped a couple inches onto the blessed solidity of the parking lot. And then I dropped some more, down to my hands and knees, coughing and gagging.

"God, Harry," exclaimed Murph, "You'd been shot! With a freaking arrow!"

"Tell me about it," I managed. "You got wheels?"

"Snagged a rental," she said. "My Harley wasn't going to haul around tall, dark and shiny. I'll send you the bill later. Now come on, we'll get you back to your place. We can give Butters a call on the way and get that thing out of you. Unless you need to throw up some more?"

I dragged my sleeve weakly across my chin. "If I do," I coughed out, "You'll be the first to know."

I passed out before she could object.