A/N: Wow, been a while since the last update. Apologies, no excuses. I've been busy and don't see that changing. Anyway, I hope you all continue to enjoy; if my calculations are correct, there are about 4-5 chapters left in this story.

After the transfer of the mantle, Maeve took off, vanishing into whatever part of the Nevernever she'd come from, with only the admonition that, "Time is short, sweet Harry. Do Winter proud."

I raided Father Fraser's small bathroom to give Molly a healthy dose of Tylenol and some water. She was lying down again, pillows and blankets arranged to make her as comfortable as possible. The snowflake brand, Maeve's mark, had vanished, her skin healed. I was silently thankful I hadn't been given one. Molly's eyes were sunken and heavy, pretty much the way I figured mine had looked before the mantle passed. I handed the pills over with a glass.

"Thanks."

"Best I could do. The priests aren't known for their hook-ups."

She let out a weak laugh, then gulped down what she could. I sat on the edge of the bed. "You're always doing that."

"What?"

"The best you can. Always helping. Always trying to save me, specifically."

"Yeah, well, if I'd been better about that, you wouldn't be in this mess right now."

She sighed. "Not every problem is yours to fix, Harry. I'm an adult. But still… I owe you one."

"Actually, that's two you owe me, junior."

She half-smiled and it took a lot out of her. "We all do the best we can, I guess. Deal the best we can." She paused, looked me in the eye. "I know you don't love me."

Hadn't been expecting that. "Uh, Molly, I - "

"I mean, in that way. Not like I… Not the same way." Her eyes started fluttering. "It's pretty obvious how you feel. And about who." She yawned and squeezed my hand. "You need to go. There's not much time, and you have a fight to win."

I looked down at her, squeezed back. "Rest, Molls. I'll see you soon."

Her eyes were now closed. "Maybe. Hopefully. Go on. I'll be fine."

And she was out. I snagged the water glass and dropped it back on the nightstand. I looked down at Mouse. He stared right back. "If I tell you to watch her, you will, won't you?"

He looked at Molly, then back at me. He made a tiny little whining sound and tilted his head, but huffed at me.

"I knew you would." I looked at my apprentice again, worry starting to cloud my thoughts. She had to be protected, but then, so did every other person in this place.

You have a fight to win.

I shook my head. "But screw that. You and the Alphas are the closest thing I've got to a cavalry. Come on."

He huffed again, and it sounded much happier. I opened the door to the hall and, leaving it open just a little so Molly wouldn't have to wake up in the dark, we headed downstairs.

I could see several people walking by the bottom of the stairs, all of them looking like they were in a hurry. At the top of the stairs, there was a murmur in the air. By the middle of the stairway, it had grown to a din. By the time I was three steps from ground level, it was like being in a train station during rush hour. As Mouse and I reached the last step, Will, in a loose t-shirt and sweats, appeared.

"Harry." He stepped up a stair to avoid more traffic.

"Will. What did I miss?"

"Some Wardens and Guardsmen came busting in the front door about ten minutes ago, raised a ruckus."

I couldn't resist. "Could you describe the ruckus?"

That got a snort. "One of them was Warden Luccio. She went straight to the back door, and looked pretty worried. She dragged Mr. McCoy with her." He paused. "I think that demonstration you gave is finally starting to sink in. People are talking."

I nodded. "Good. They need to. I've got to go talk to Ana." I stepped down.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?" I looked back. He was staring at me, with his head tilted just a little to the side.

"Are you okay?"

"Why?"

"You seem… different."

I took a breath. "Come with me. I'll explain outside."

He fell in with me and Mouse, and we went past the back room, now a makeshift infirmary. I glanced in and saw Hendricks, Gard and Marcone all pushed close in one corner. I didn't know anyone else except for Sanya, and he was checking a splint on a man I didn't know. The others must have moved to the main area of the church. He didn't see me.

I pushed the back door open. As I came through, McCoy and Ana both glanced up. They were standing quite close together. Their only escort was Carlos, standing near the door, the remainder of his left arm covered in a bandage. I didn't see any demons or other twisted entities at the property line.

And I heard the sound of drums and distant, echoing bangs.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" I asked Ramirez.

He snorted. "Shouldn't you get your head out of your ass?" He offered a fist, and I bumped it.

"Hoss?"

"Sir. What's going on?"

He and Luccio exchanged a glance, then she turned and lifted an arm.

Literally.

"Is that - ?" I asked.

"A dead man's forearm, yes," she said. She was wearing gloves, thankfully. Mouse let out a short, deep growl at it.

"I'm probably going to regret this, but where'd it come from?"

"The demons all just suddenly withdrew about twenty minutes ago. I grabbed a few volunteers, and we went after some stragglers. We lost them, but we found a small group of reanimated corpses."

"Zombies."

"Yes."

"Everybody okay?"

"We got away cleanly." She looked at her grotesque trophy. "It almost wasn't clean, but we managed. We didn't find the drummer."

"Cowl's comin', hoss."

"Yeah. And so is the Transit. We might have three hours left. At the outside." I shook my head. "We either have to hit Schneider head on, disrupt him, hope we ruin his hold on the Transit spell, or we have to go after one of the other big bads."

We all paused, thinking.

"If we had more manpower, my vote would be for hitting the Red Court," McCoy said. "Not many of them are powerful enough to be holding something like this together. Plus we already know their weaknesses, we could deal with them. Zombies… they don't feel pain or fear, or a sense of self-preservation."

Carlos spoke up. "You're saying, no matter how hard we hit them, we'll get steamrolled."

"You remember what it was like four years ago," I said. "Imagine that, but without having to hide it all from the vanillas. No holding back."

Carlos shook his head. "That was a weird night. Don't suppose you could call up that dinosaur again? She was walking heavy artillery."

"Yeah, everybody loved Sue. That's not a bad idea, except the museum with her bones is on the wrong side of the Hellfire wall."

"Too bad we don't have any real heavy artillery," Will said. "And a hill."

We all looked at him. "What do you mean?"

He glanced at each of us, but then said, "You know. Lob bombs at them, from an elevated position. Wipe out large numbers at a distance. If they're bottle-necked, it's even better. It's an RTS strategy." At our blank looks, he clarified, "Real-time strategy game. When the AI – sorry, the artificial intelligence – is too stupid to path-find safely, or withdraw, they're pretty easy to wipe out. They just come at you in waves, and you mow them down, like zombies."

"Yes, the high ground is almost always where you want to be," Ana said.

"Of course, it's why castles always have towers," McCoy said. "But we don't have a castle."

Something started to click. It wasn't a plan, but an idea took root. "We need… we need an elevated position," I said, thinking out loud. "A defensible one, with good lines of sight. So why not a modern castle, like an office building?"

"Windows don't necessarily go all the way around, so you can see what's coming," Will said. "Lots of blind spots. And from a useful height, they won't open. You could smash a few, I guess. Or you could to shoot from the roof, but any building big enough to hold us all would probably be too tall to shoot from with any accuracy. And with all the civilians and wounded, splitting up into a bunch of office towers wouldn't be a good idea."

"And this church won't work?" Carlos asked.

"Not quite," Will said. "In the games, you need a castle or a fort, open on top, so catapults and things can launch over the walls. Same thing applies in real life, just like an office building; the church has a roof, so you can only see or shoot out the windows. You'd have to be up on the roof yourself to get 360o line of sight, and this roof isn't exactly flat."

"Right," I said. "We don't have catapults, but we do have a few wizards who can pack a punch. We just need a place they can punch from safely. A big building, with a low, flat roof. It would have to be a squat shape, like a warehouse. Or… have an open roof…" And the click completed: "A ballpark."

"Yes!" Will said, snapping his fingers. "You want to go to Wrigley?"

I shook my head. "Too far north. We'd have to march right past Cowl and his Thriller crowd, and it might be outside the Hellfire wall anyway. We need to get to Comiskey."

"You mean Cellular Park?"

"Yeah, that one."

He smiled. "The one with the parking lot?"

"Would you let that go?"

"Harry," Ana said, "There are twelve hundred of us, over three hundred of whom are wounded. Most with no weapon, no magic. Moving isn't practical."

I looked at her, then glanced to the northeast, where the beating sound was emanating from… and getting louder. "Cowl and his walking dead aren't demons; they won't be stopped by holy ground. They'll smash into this place like a battering ram, blow through the doors and windows. There won't be three hundred wounded. There'll be twelve hundred dead. And it'll happen soon. Could be an hour, could be minutes."

"He's right, Captain," McCoy said. "There are still vehicles. We load up everyone we can, and we move. See to the evacuation personally. That's an order."

Ana stiffened. "Yes, sir." She gave me a look, then headed for the door. "Warden," she said, and Carlos fell in with her, giving me a nod over his shoulder. Will closed the door behind them.

"All right, hoss," McCoy said. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry?"

"With you. Less than an hour ago, you were ready to topple over. Now you're standing straighter than any of us. What did you do?"

I glanced back at Will. "Told you," he said, and crossed his arms.

I sighed and looked back at McCoy. His eyes were sunken, his skin a little paler than usual. He shifted uncomfortably. He was tired. Exhausted. Like I was supposed to be.

I looked him right in the eye. "I got Molly out of her deal."

He stared back, and I saw the moment when comprehension dawned. He rocked back, his mouth falling open a little. "Oh, hoss."

"Wow," Will said. His voice was small.

"It's done," I said. "I'm the Winter Knight. But Molly's still alive."

"Hell's bells, how did you manage that?"

I shrugged. "Painfully. But I didn't go through all that just for her to die in a zombie tidal wave. While the civilians are moving, I'm going to try to get behind Cowl, slow him down. Take him out, if possible. Or at least disrupt his part of the Transit."

McCoy snorted. "Makes sense, in a suicidally stupid kind of way." He nodded, slowly. "Need some help?"

I thought for a second, tempted. Then I shook my head. "Much as I'd like to have you at my back, I think the civilians will need you more. The ballpark is in the area Mavra and the Jades controlled, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Reds have spread out. They'll need you more than I will."

He grunted and made a face, but he couldn't argue with me.

I turned to Will. "Like the man said, I'm about to do something stupid. I can't ask the Alphas to back me up."

Will just shook his head. "You know we're coming with you."

I smiled. "I figured, but I wouldn't speak for you. And your reservist is coming along." I patted Mouse's neck.

"What's the plan?"

"Mostly, I need you to draw attention while I sneak up behind the bad guys and throw trolls at him."

"That's your plan?" McCoy asked. "Where are you going to get trolls?"

I turned back to him. "It's not the worst plan I've ever come up with, sir. And the trolls are waiting for me to call. However, the whole thing does hinge on something."

"And what's that?"

I dug into a pocket, and pulled out the pouch containing the Black Key. "Can you show me a better way to use this? I'm sick of walking for hours before I get anywhere."

My grandfather smiled.

Thomas carried Molly, whose leg was splinted with duct tape and the pieces of a shattered cupboard door. She was out cold. I walked with them toward the church's main doors, moving slowly as the mass of humanity spilled out once again into the parking lot. We inched our way over to the confessional, where Will, Georgia and Mouse were waiting.

"It's probably cliché of me to ask at this point," my brother said, "but, are you sure about this?"

"I'd ask you to come, but I barely trust Lara, and you're the only one I really think can keep an eye on her. No one else can keep up with the Pooch Patrol, here." Billy raised his chin in pride. Georgia put a hand on his shoulder.

I looked back into the crowd to find Faith Astor working her way over to us, her aunt and uncle in tow, and her new friend Alex beside her. "Harry," she said when she got close enough, "aren't you coming?"

I shook my head. "Bad guy's coming over the horizon. I have to ride out and meet him."

"So, you're leaving us in the hands on amateurs?"

"Yes, actually. This is my brother."

She looked at Thomas, and I watched her eyes widen. "Oh, uh. Hi."

He flashed his trademarked winning grin. "Hi yourself."

"Uh, you're… uh, not as tall as Harry."

"I prefer to think he's not as good looking as I am."

"Yeah, I can see that."

I smacked him in the shoulder. "Enough of that."

"Faith," her aunt Jessica said, tugging on her shoulder, "we have to go." She glanced up at Thomas, did a double take, and just kind of paused, appreciatively.

"Right. Be careful, Mr. Wizard."

They stepped back, and Alex took a step closer. "Hey."

"Hey," I said. He looked a little confused.

"Look, I kind of want to thank you. You know, for showing us… everything. But at the same time, I kind of want to punch you in the face for the same thing."

I nodded in understanding. "I get that a lot."

He glanced at Faith, then raised a fist for me. I bumped it. "Take care, wherever you're going. There are people counting on you." Then he turned a walked away, pulling Faith and her aunt with him.

"He's kind of a Donny Downer," Thomas said.

"Yeah, but he's also willing to open his eyes," Georgia said.

"Too true," I agreed. "All right, where are the others?"

"Out back, waiting for us," Will said.

"Meet you out there?"

"Sure." The Bordens set off, moving against the now-thinning crowd. I turned to my brother again. "I'll see you soon."

"You'd better."

I looked at Molly, still asleep in Thomas' uncomplaining arms. "Take care of her."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't get all mushy on me, princess." I gave him my best glare, which he politely ignored. "Don't do anything suicidal."

"You mean more than usual?"

"Exactly."

"Deal." I hesitated.

"What's wrong?"

"It's - " I cut myself off. McCoy had promised to tell him, but that had been weeks ago…

"Harry? She's not getting any lighter."

Ah, hell. "McCoy's my grandfather."

"Your – but, I thought your dad was a vanilla."

"He was. McCoy is my maternal grandfather."

"Oh. Wait, that means - " It was his turn to cut himself off. His eyes got wide. "Now? You're laying this on me now?"

"He's been promising to tell you, but never seems to get around to it. And if this little jaunt goes wrong… you deserved to know."

"Yeah, okay, I mean, I guess, it's just… wow. Bit of a bomb to drop, bro."

"I know. I didn't want you to find out this way. Stars and stones, Thomas, I've been trying not to tell you for ages, because he said he would, but…"

"No, it's okay, Harry. It's fine. Just a lot to take in."

We were silent for a second. Then he snickered. "Did he really use the Force on Lara, out on the island?"

"Reached out his hand, lifted her off the ground in a death-choke, without even touching her. Or looking at her."

He whistled. "Awesome."

"I thought so."

"Okay. Live through this. We'll have a family re-union after."

"I'll be there."

"Hey, you want me to tell Fix? The whole Winter Knight thing seems like something he should know about."

I tried to nod and shake my head at the same time; it came out looking like a shiver. "I hadn't even… you know what? It doesn't matter. He'll figure it out when he sees Molly, anyway."

With a nod, he moved into the crowd and out the door. I headed along a wall towards the back of St. Mary's. A hand reached out and touched my elbow.

I started, head snapping around. "Elaine?"

She smiled, but the expression was strained. "I just wanted to say good luck."

"Yeah, you too. Save me a seat at the ballpark."

We stood there a moment, silent. She looked uncomfortable. Her eyes danced back and forth, looking into each of mine. Then she smirked, reached up, grabbed my collar and pulled my face down. She kissed me.

And I kissed back. A bit.

But not a lot.

She pulled back, looking confused at first. Her tiny smile vanished.

"Elaine - "

She put a hand on my chest, not looking at my face. "Later, Harry. If we both survive." She turned and walked away, not looking back. After a second, I did the same.

Outside, the troops were gathered, and wearing their fur jackets, except for Will. The drum beat that necromancers used to replace the heartbeat of their raised minions was even louder. They couldn't have been more than a few blocks away now. "Okay!" I said. "The game plan is simple: you're drawing them southeast, trying to convince the horde that we all went that way. Some will buy it, some won't. If you get a chance, take some down, but carefully. Most of the bodies that are reanimated won't feel pain, and they'll be faster and stronger than the average, especially the older ones. Any questions?"

Will doffed his sweatpants as he asked, "What will you be doing? Just in case you need back-up."

"Once you're underway, I'll use a warp pipe to get in behind Cowl and unleash Winter," I finished. "I'll try to get his daughter to help, but I'm doubtful. Get a move on, and good luck."

Will just stared at me. "Warp pipe?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I have to stop reading your old video game magazines."

Billy grinned, shimmered, and was replaced by a large wolf. It wasn't dramatic, but it was kind of cool. He barked once then led the whole pack away, heading east, Mouse bringing up the rear. I hoisted my borrowed staff and set off to the north, hoping to find a place where I could observe the mass of moving dead until Cowl came into view.

If McCoy's instructions were correct, I just needed to be able to see my destination before ducking into the Black Hall; then the next door I came to would open as close as possible to my target. In theory, at least.

I jogged. The effects of Hell itself weren't as pronounced as they had been before; I didn't feel any sudden weight or loss of strength as I left St. Mary's grounds. Weakening the Transit had helped. I only hoped it was enough for all the civilians I'd left behind.

I followed the sound of the drumbeat, ever louder, as I moved around broken storefronts and abandoned cars, cracked apartments and uneven roads. I slowed as I came to a corner, hugging the brick of a strip mall. I glanced up, and found myself up beside a Burger King. I took it as a good omen.

The drum beat was so close now I could feel it in my feet, and maybe a little in my head. The dead could be just around the corner. I drew a breath, concentrated, and pulled a veil around myself. The already-dark world darkened more, but it happened more quickly than it should have, and I felt no weakness, no drain on my body. The power of Winter was flowing through me, and I felt a little chill run down my spine.

I shook my head; I'd deal with that situation later. If I survived this one.

I poked my head around the corner cautiously, despite the veil. It never hurts to be careful when dealing with the undead.

As Cowl's horde came into view, I realized I'd forgotten something, something that probably would have occurred to me earlier, if I hadn't been tired and distracted. Something that made perfect sense, since Cowl and Kumori - Klaus and Mathilde - didn't have to hide themselves or their cronies on this trip. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me," I said.

I'd forgotten that Lincoln Park Zoo was in their part of town.

There are a couple of reasons older bodies are favoured by necromancers; one is that the older ones are more powerful. They have more power poured into them during the raising; they're harder to raise, but once they're up and moving, they're stronger than living humans or recent dead.

Of course, 'stronger than living humans' doesn't really enter into consideration when you're working with a freaking elephant herd.

Several feelings and thoughts ripped through my mind when I saw three of the van-sized mammals marching down the street towards me: revulsion that Cowl had killed the animals, respect at how awesome the idea was, disgust with myself for thinking it was awesome, and relief that they weren't dinosaurs.

Then a little fear started to sink in, and I started backing away. A zombie elephant would crush a foolish wizard just as easily as a living one would – if not more so, being directed as it was by its raiser's will. "Lash," I whispered to myself, "what now?"

She stepped into my vision, staring at the elephants marching down the street. "I would suggest you run."

"Not a bad idea." I backed away a few more feet. I needed a door, a crossroads. Waiting for the Alphas to create a distraction was likely to get me crushed. I turned.

I stopped, if you'll pardon the pun, dead. There was another pack of pachyderms tromping down the street from the other direction. These were a little farther away, but rapidly closing the gap, nudging random things like cars out of their way without noticing. I was in a T-intersection; my choices were to retreat the way I'd come, thus defeating the purpose of coming this way in the first place, or to dash across the street and hide in the doorway of an old apartment building.

I chose to dash. I ran across the street, over a sinkhole and around a Toyota hatchback with four flat tires, then into the alcove of the building's twisted, hanging door. I stopped, not even breathing heavy after the sprint, and watched as both Hanniballian lines stomped towards the intersection, each finally stopping less than thirty feet from me.

I'd been so occupied with the elephants – each obviously undead, their eyes wide but glazed, jaws unmoving, trunks still – that I hadn't really noticed the infantry with them. There had to be 2000 or so of them, lined up, standing stock still, each and every one of them in some state of decomposition. Two thousand or so dead people, some who had died in the tumult of the last few days, others who had obviously been stitched back together from just a few bones and lots of necromantic energy.

Jaws hanging open, eyes – when they had eyes – staring, glassy. Some were wearing obvious burial clothes – slightly dirty suits and dresses. Some were wearing newer clothes, but bloodstained; obviously they'd never been buried. A few had no clothing, or even skin, and simply glowed a sickly green in a vaguely human shape. They stood roughly shoulder to shoulder, blocking the entire road.

Okay. I supposed I could bring out Winter's big guns right now, but even trolls were going to have their hands full with something the size of an elephant. Then there was the field of slack-jawed gawkers. Overpowering them just didn't seem like a good option.

I looked back and forth at the lines of walking dead, hearing the drum beat coming closer. Cowl, or at least his drummer, likely Kumori, would be here any second, then it was a straight charge down the street at St. Mary's. I could stop and wait for the Alphas to get into position, or I could act myself. But what the hell could I do that would be big enough that it wouldn't get me squished to death in less than a minute?

A tiny scratching sound just behind me made me turn. I looked down, and saw a thin rat scurrying across some debris before vanishing into a shadowy crack under a door in the lobby. I looked up and actually took in the building; it was dilapidated. Not just damaged in the earthquakes, but in rough shape before that. It was, to use the colloquialism, a rat trap.

I glanced back at the elephants, some of them now moving, just a little, as their living natures tried to assert themselves through the control the necromancers had placed on them. They were restless, and I thought, a little anxious.

Perfect.

I squeezed through the broken door, trying not to make too much noise. In a relatively clear spot on the floor, I dragged my staff in a circle through the dust, and invested the image with a little energy as it closed. I had to drop my veil in order to focus on my new working, but I was deep enough in shadow not to be worried. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and consulted silently with Lash for about ten seconds.

Then I started to shape a spell. As you might have guessed, I'm a big fan of fighting fire with more and bigger fire. But sometimes, that's just not an option. Sometimes, you need to fight a fire with a smaller fire; ask any firefighter burning out a break fire in a forest or grassy plain.

"Surrecti, surrecto, surrecta," I murmured. I repeated the incantation, then reached out with my right hand, breaking the circle and releasing the spell into the old building, while my left hand started quickly slapping my thigh.

After another five seconds, I heard a tiny scratching sound, followed by a massive one. Five more seconds, and about 100 tiny, vaguely glowing forms of mice and rats emerged from the floors and walls. Another 100 or so followed, and still more after that. I'd just literally raised my own army in less than a minute.

Hannibal had nothing on the Pied Piper.

It's a myth that elephants are afraid of mice. In truth, they're not really afraid of much at all – it comes with being the biggest of the big. But elephants do get restless and they do get angry. And given Cowl's usual MO, any aggressiveness in their natures would have been amplified during the raising.

I kept a steady beat on my leg with my hand as I poked my re-veiled head out the door. Still no sign from the Alphas. I was starting to worry. But the loud, powerful beat keeping the Alps-Crossers from freaking out on each other was very close now – maybe only a block away.

"You honestly believe this will work?" Lash asked, stepping into view again.

"Overpowering this army simply isn't going to happen. I needed to think smaller."

Now or never.

I focussed on the little helpers I'd recruited, and fed them my intentions; they dashed out into the street, and around and around the feet of the elephants.

The human zombies didn't even notice; they were firmly in thrall. However, the other reason necromancers prefer human corpses is that, once raised, they're easier to control. The imposed control was imperfect at best, because humans and most animals think differently. The best Cowl could really do was impose an intent, or an emotion. And thankfully, it looked like he'd tried for anger. Each of the elephants instantly began agitating.

When I had the great fortune to ride Sue the tyrannosaurus through Chicago, I'd only been able to guide her; outright control was iffy. So, I'd done the next best thing, and tried to channel her natural actions and emotions into what I needed. Basically, I'd suggested that she kill and eat zombies rather than living people. I hoped Cowl's control of the elephants was as tenuous, particularly with so many human dead to focus on.

It was just a little motion, a shuffling of feet, a slight shifting of weight, but they were obviously bothered by the Mighty Mice. Not enough to crack, but getting there. I poked my head out a little farther, looking towards the source of the beat.

The crowd on my left was parting like the Red Sea (Dead Sea? Thank you, I'll be here all week!) I could see over most of the dead-heads (Ba-dum-tish!) I could just make out a dark figure moving down the opened lane, from the shoulders up. His hood was up. Klaus Schneider. Cowl.

Would he sense my necromantic working? Hopefully not, or at least not until it was too late. In the meantime, I needed him to be near a door, or at least a wall. Getting behind him, even with the Black Hall, was impossible if he was flanked on all sides by his mindless soldiers. Oh, what I wouldn't have given for a sniper rifle at that moment. Or at least a few well-tossed sticks of dynamite. A distraction would help, immensely. "I'm getting worried," I whispered to Lash. "Where were the Alphas?"

Behind Cowl, the source of the drumming sound finally came into view. Up against the wall of my apartment building, I scrambled up on top of an old, empty newspaper dispenser, trying to be a quiet as possible, and holding against the wall as best I could; it was the only way the veil would be effective.

It was a marching band. Not a school band; there were no uniforms, and none of the participants was high school age. But a least a dozen zombies were marching in step, holding a circle formation, banging on large, chest-carried drums in perfect sync. Clever. A zombie beating its own drum was a perpetual motion machine; it would keep beating until told not to, and the beat was what would keep it doing what it was told. So much for taking out a single drummer.

Kumori's hood was pacing right in the middle of the circle. There were four or five other bodies in there with her, but I couldn't make out any details. Survivors?

I checked on the animal contingent, and saw that the elephants were growing more restless. One of them even lifted a foot, but the mice scurried out of the way before the big guy could put it back down. Silently, I willed the vermin to start climbing the elephants' legs. Then to head into their ears. I really needed that distraction. The crowd was parting, letting Cowl and his entourage through. He was going to see the mice soon, and then my element of surprise would be lost.

There was a loud, reverberating howl, echoing down the streets and all around us. Everyone froze, except Cowl and Kumori, who both turned.

Now.

I told the little guys to start biting the big guys. Yeah, it was cruel, and yeah, I felt bad. And if I believed for even a moment that the elephants were actually feeling pain, I would have stopped; but according to a fellow by the name of Kemmler, the dead, even dead animals, have no physical sensation. That's why they can push themselves so hard and so fearlessly; they don't feel pain. But they do still have instinct, and right now, the elephants' instincts told them they were under attack and being swarmed.

The elephants broke. They started smacking into each other, dancing back and forth and side to side, knocking zombies over and swinging their trunks, trying to knock the mice and rats loose. Cowl spun back to the front. I saw him lift a hand towards the elephants, and the three near him did calm down a little. But not a lot. And the other three, all of about thirty feet farther away, didn't calm down at all. They continued to dance and fidget and crush everything near them. Zombies went down, broken and battered.

I stopped keeping the beat; the mice and rats had done what they needed to do, and this way they'd simply go crazy, attacking everyone until the energy I'd infused them with faded away. Considering the circumstances and who their available targets were, I could live with that.

Then, from behind the marching band, the howling started up again, closer. Close enough to see, actually. Crap. The Alphas had waited until they were close to start their distraction. I should have known; telling Mouse and the gang to stay away from danger was always futile. But now, they were throwing themselves right into it.

Well, they wouldn't let me get into danger alone; I could hardly let them jump in unsupported. I reached for my blasting rod, then remembered it had exploded last night. I took a second to shake my head at the fact that that had happened mere hours ago, then shrugged. I drew in my will, dropped the veil, and pointed my hand in Cowl's direction. His head snapped over to me.

"Fuego!"

I don't know whether it was the Winter Knight's mantle, or the lack of a focus, but the resulting firestorm that ripped itself from me was enormous. A wave of heat and explosive pressure swept out from my perch on the newspaper box, a semicircle of red hot death – or re-death, in this case – 60 feet across. That Toyota I mentioned earlier blew apart, pieces slicing into and impaling and decapitating zombies.

And I barely felt it. The power of Winter is hard for anyone to deny.

But Cowl did.

Zombies had been incinerated in that arc; the road itself and the Toyota were molten slag. Even one of the elephants had buckled and collapsed, crushing a few more walking dead, though the others just seemed to have got more riled up. But when the flame dissipated, I looked down where Cowl had been standing… and he still was standing. But then, I'd dropped a car on him once – also a Toyota, funnily enough – and he'd shrugged that off, too.

"Well," I heard him say over the tumult, "I was wondering when you'd get here." His voice was deep and heavily accented.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, sweetheart," I said.

He reached out a hand towards me, but I was already jumping off the paper box. While I was still in mid-air, I heard him shout, "Rigiss!" The bricks of the wall I'd just been standing in front of cracked and shattered. I landed and took three big steps towards the apartment building's broken door. I had to trust in McCoy's teaching, now.

I turned, throwing up a quick shield, just as Cowl pointed at me again. This time, he said nothing and no wave of force swept at me. Instead, the horde turned to me and started to box me in. I got my eyes focussed on the far end of the street, where Mouse and the Alphas were playing Whack-a-Zombie. I got my hand in my pocket, seized the Black Key, and threw myself through the doorway, tugging the door closed behind me, staff squeezed tight with my elbow.

Everything went quiet. I was standing in the Black Hall, that most marvelous of short-cuts, a smooth, straight cave of obsidian with veins of marble. I glanced from side to side and saw the infinite number of alcoves in the cave, each hiding a door leading to a crossroads. I'd learned a while ago that even the door of an apartment or hotel could be considered a crossroads, since it was almost invariably temporary housing for the people within.

I turned around. Even though the door to the apartment building was damaged and askew in its hinges in the real world, here on the Hall side, it fit the jamb perfectly. No, I don't know how that works, so I'll just say 'magic.' As usual, there was a window in the door, showing me the scene I'd just left behind. To the left, Cowl was just visible through the throng of his faintly glowing second-chancers, his hand held out in my direction.

The crowd of zombies was frozen in mid-lumber towards my door, not moving. It was a relief to see them stopped, but still weird. And the elephant that was stomping on the re-animated mice and people, one leg lifted, trunk swinging. It was like looking at a panel in a comic book, but 3-D.

I shook my head and turned away. Now, I just had to hope I was lucky, and McCoy knew what he was talking about.

I hurried to the next door on my right. I looked through the window and saw the Alphas and Mouse, moving in an almost dance-like manner, jaws open and paws splayed, some jumping, some landing, a couple simply moving. It was oddly beautiful. I took a moment to look beyond them, at the bodies scattered about, at the now-tiny forms of the elephants in the distance, and everything in between. I had the time, after all.

"What are you looking for?" Lash asked.

I glanced over my shoulder at her, where she had projected her image. "Just trying to see what my next move should be. They're holding their own, for the moment."

"No," she said. "They will be boxed in within minutes. Look to the right again." I did, frowning. There was a small group of dead walkers, seemingly moving away from the gang. "Now to the left." I looked that way, and saw the same thing; a small group of dead, not quite a dozen, were moving away from my four-legged friends. I looked into the crowd again; while the majority of them were charging head-on into the fight, the flanks were pointing in a slightly different direction. And those two groups were going to grow.

"You're right. It's a classic pincer maneuver. They'll be surrounded in a couple of minutes." I hoisted my staff. "If only there were some stupid but plucky wizard around who could lend them a hand."

I took a deep breath and threw the door open, jumping in to the street. As always, the wave of sound was the first thing that hit me, but this time, it wasn't as distracting as usual. I saw a few leaping hounds complete their jumps, saw open jaws clamping shut, saw zombies that had been frozen in mid-fall crash to the ground.

I turned to the left, pointed my staff, and snarled, "Forzare!" One jaw of the pincer blew back, over a dozen dead bodies lifted off their feet, flying through the air with the greatest of ease. I spun 180 degrees, and repeated myself. So did the dead trapeze.

Something shimmered beside me, and I turned to see Will crouching and breathing hard. I ducked beside him. "Hey, Harry."

"Will. Nice weather we're having."

He shook his head at me. "How much longer you need?"

"If the plan works, about two minutes."

He nodded and leapt back into the fray, changing suits as he went. I turned to follow Mouse as he ripped through two more zombies. "Mouse! Two minutes!"

He paused exactly long enough to glance at me and bark, then he was ripping a glowing femur away from someone who needed it to walk. I smiled, popped off a few more blasts of force to the south side of the street, and got ready to move.

I turned back to the door I'd jumped out of – a temp agency, of all things – and got my hand on the Black Key, then looked over my shoulder for the calm in the middle of the storm. The elephants had finally calmed down, though there were now only 4 of them standing. I saw Cowl, now standing on top of a zombelephant, calmly observing everything. As I watched, that elephant began to march forward, Cowl swaying gently on top of it. Then I saw Kumori and a few others – those maintaining the Transit, I'd have put money on it – huddling against a wall, and pulled open the door.

Silence greeted me. Without pausing, I clicked the door shut and dashed to the next alcove. I looked through the window, and got a shock. There was a semi-circular clearing, about seven or eight people across, a wedge held by the tightly-packed drummers. The mass of zombies were squeezing around them. The drummers themselves were frozen in mid-swing; none of them had drumsticks or mallets; they were pounding on the big drums with their bare hands. As with the rest of the horde, they weren't entirely solid, with large portions of their bodies supplemented or replaced by glowing green constructs of energy.

The thing that shocked me, though, was the one living person – one of the Transiteers – who was looking right at me. It wasn't Kumori, who was focussed on the fight; it wasn't Cowl, whose zombelephant had already marched past this clearing. It was a short woman I'd met just a couple of years ago; her name was Abbi. She was a clairvoyant, able to see a few seconds into the future. She'd looked up at the door I was about to come through, and she was smiling.

It was unnerving, to say the least. Kind of like a slasher-movie poster, where the killer is looking straight at you, or seems to be. Only in this case, it was a kind, pleasant lady. I didn't recognize the others, but I'd have bet that they were all low-level practitioners.

The rest of the Transiteers had their heads down, some with their hands up, trying to block out the scene around them. Their clothes were all dirty and torn, what skin I could see covered in scratches and cuts and bruises. I shook my head, took a breath, and shoved the door open. The booming of fire and the march of feet flooded my ears, along with a cry of, " – ster Dresden!"

All five of the other Transiteers and Kumori looked at me. "Hi, Abbi!"

"Dresden?"

"And hello to you too, Kumori," I said, grabbing her shoulder and kneeling down, pulling her with me. "Or Mathilde, or whatever you want to be called." Her hood flopped back.

"What are you doing?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing."

She looked around at the little group, who had also all crouched near us. "Don't stop! He'll notice!" she hissed.

They all looked away, scared. They started chanting in what Lash told me was ancient Sumerian. I doubted they had any idea what they were saying.

"Couldn't talk him out of it, huh?"

"I delayed him as long as I could," she said. "You have to leave. Get farther away. He still wants you alive."

"Yeah, I know. Think I might have figured out why, too."

"Then you must get away!"

"I can't leave him to chase down all the civilians!"

"Then lead him away! He'll have to chase you!"

"Sounds like a great game, but time isn't on my side. When the Transit completes - "

"I know."

"So help me. Help me stop him!"

Her eyes moved to her father, still standing on his zombelephant. I couldn't see the Alphas from where I was crouched, but I hoped they were making their withdrawal. I watched Kumori's face. I watched her eyes drop, and by the time she turned her head back to me, I knew what her decision was. "You can't. Or won't."

"He's all I have." Her voice was quiet, hard to hear over the din.

"Okay, then. If that's the way it has to be. All of you, stop chanting."

They did.

"No! No, you can't!" Kumori said. Her face took on a little panic.

"Just did. Through the door!" I said over my shoulder.

They scurried.

"He - "

"I know. But at the moment, I'm all they have."

She looked down again. I turned to go, still in a crouch. I reached the door, Abbi and the others just inside what turned out to be a post office. She looked at me, and said, "No!" reaching out a hand. The others grabbed her and pulled her back.

I froze, which was about the worst thing I could have done. About a second later, one of the drummers stopped pounding, dropped its drum, and grabbed me by the neck, heaving me up, lifting me off my feet. I said "Gurk!" and got one hand on a wrist, then started smacking the dead man in the face with my staff. It was a panic motion; I could barely breathe.

My toes just barely touched the ground, and getting them there eased the panic. I turned my eyes to Kumori, whose hand was held up in a strange three-finger gesture I didn't recognize. Her hood was back up. The rest of the drummers continued to swing. "Don't do this," I wheezed.

"Your death would end father's plans."

"No. He'd go after the other." Replacing the air I'd used to say all that was a slow process. "I have to stop him." Big breath. "Besides. The rest of the Circle wants me dead."

There was a pause.

"That… is reason enough to keep you alive." She twisted her hand and the zombie let me go. I dropped and started breathing again, only seeing stars for a moment. I turned to the survivors, still huddling inside the post office. "Go," I said. "Hide. Get out of sight!"

Abbi nodded before I had finished speaking, and turned away, leading the others into the shadows. One of them tried to object, but Abbi cut him off before he started: "If Mr. Dresden says we go, then we go!" Then she dragged him away.

I turned back to Kumori. Her shoulders were slack, her head hung low. "Thank you," I said.

"Do what you must," she said.

I stood up straight, just in time to see the mass of the horde stop moving down the street; the Alphas were clear. I wouldn't let myself think that they might have been dead. Kumori faded into the crowd, the drummers parting just enough to let her through.

I found the zombelephant Cowl had been riding, but he wasn't on it anymore. My eyebrows creased in the light as I looked for him… Then I realized the light was getting brighter again. The people maintaining the Transit had stopped chanting, so the power holding Chicago in Hell was weakening. I glanced up, saw the slight brightening of the sky as it took on a much-less red and much-more blue tinge.

I barely saw the black spot in time to dodge out of the way. Cowl hit the ground like a dropped bowling ball, shattering the concrete of the sidewalk and throwing out a shockwave that knocked me and all the drummers down, along with 50 or 60 other zombies. I plowed into a few myself, which broke my fall nicely.

I clambered to my feet and looked around. Cowl was straightening up, his hands out to his sides. "Dresden," he said. "There's no need for this."

"You mean you'll give up and leave?"

His hands came together and his hood shook from side to side. "You do not change much, do you?"

I thought of Chauncey and smiled. "Just in all the ways that matter."

He reached up and pulled his hood back. I remembered Klaus as a portly little man, looking a lot like a mall Santa. That had been faked. Cowl, as he was now, was taller, straighter, leaner. Still had a beard, though. He kind of looked like Santa's evil twin. "I had hoped you would work with me," he said.

"Never a chance," I said.

"Yes, I suppose that was a pipe dream." He tilted his head, a look of concentration on his face.

There was a groaning sound. I looked to my right, down the street. There, the surviving zombelephants and fully half of his zombie horde still stood, untouched by the earlier scuffle. They all started moving, shuffling slowly but in sync, heading down the cross-street. Heading for St. Mary's.

"What about now, Dresden? With a thousand living at risk? Will you help me?"

Equal parts rage and terror washed through me. "You can't!"

"Living, dead. It makes little difference to me. But to you… I'm willing to be reasonable."

"Reasonable?" I stabbed a finger at him and found myself walking in his direction. "Reasonable would be you crying off, right now, before I shove one of those elephants up your zombie-loving ass!"

His eyes twitched. That was all. Then pieces of the road itself cracked and exploded around my feet, hands made of asphalt and gravel wrapping themselves around my ankles.

Without thinking, I swept a hand at them, muttered "Expius," and watched them crumble to dust. I barely broke stride.

His eyebrows jumped and I stopped walking, about twenty feet away. "You've grown stronger," he whispered.

"It's like I said, Klaus: Just in all the ways that matter."

We both froze. We stared at each other. Nothing moved. Everything went silent except for the wind.

I half-expected a tumbleweed to blow past.

Then it was on.