Life After Death
Chapter 10
"Harry Dresden is dead."
I had heard this proclamation so often over the past few days that I could not get the ringing words out of my mind even when I tried to sleep. Most times the words haunted me and kept me from relaxing except when my body reached a state of near exhaustion. Dammit Harry why did you have to die? Why the hell weren't you wearing your leather duster which might have stopped the bullets? Why didn't you train me for handling situations like this when you were gone? Why the hell didn't you push me harder when you saw I was getting lazy? Why the hell hadn't you just got a damn hotel room like any normal person would have done?
Why the hell did you leave me?
I miss you Harry…
My dad had left after about a two hour visit promising to intercept my mother so I could get some actual rest. He had been there when the doctor changed my bandages again and proclaimed that the wound in my leg was getting better but that there was some inflamed tissue that looked like it might be the start of an infection.
It was not that I could tell him that I was going out every night when I was supposed to be sleeping to instead run on the leg so I really had no choice but to let him inject me full of antibiotics and at the same time a slight sedative for the twinge of pain which put me into a more relaxed state. My last fully conscious thought was to release my chi healing to try and repair the remainder of my leg while I floated trying to find sleep. I figured if I was going to be facing off against a Black Court vampire or something potentially just as sinister and evil, I might need all the mobility at my disposal. But running and fighting was always a last resort for my type of magic. I had a completely different plan forming in mind for Mavra if I could find the necessary parties that I needed to pull it off in the first place.
The sun had not set yet by the time I finally drifted fully awake and I had to admit I was feeling much better if not yet totally refreshed. Dinner in the hospital was a disappointment as usual but I needed to stop for certain food item anyway to implement my plan so I would make sure I grabbed something that actually tasted good at the same time. That left me with more than an hour until dark I estimated before it would be late enough to leave my room and now worry about unexpected visits stopping by. And since I was feeling fairly strong I figured what the hell, I might as well put my time to good use.
The advantage of a hospital is the fact that it provides access to a host of ready materials that can be advantageous to the crafty and inventive wizard, or in my case the wizard apprentice. For example here in the hospital was a small chapel that just happened to have a ready supply of holy water that I would make sure to stop by and gather on my way out the door. Combine this with a few of the glass test tubes that many of the rooms seemed to have in storage and I had a ready backup defense for dealing with the Black Court if both my already cunningly devised plan and my more directly regular offensive measures failed me at the wrong moment.
The same locked cabinet drawer, yeah a little hex spell will disable a simple drawer lock, not only stored the glass vials I needed but also a ready supply of needles that I could use for another little 'operation.' After the attendant dropped off my imitation of dinner, which mysteriously found its way into the garbage rather than my stomach, I gathered up both the new leather duster and the Stetson I had in my closet that hid the shotgun and pistol that I would have no way of explaining if anyone were to inadvertently open it. Thankfully the average perky wizard apprentice also knew how to use magic to make the wooden doors swell so that they would not open to inquisitive busybodies or mothers while she was asleep!
The needles, hospitals called them 'sharps' for some blatantly obvious reason – like anyone who encountered on before would not realize that particular aspect of their construction, were the perfect tool for a bit of preventive magic. I've never been a drug addict for no other reason than the thought of injecting a needle into my arm on purpose made me shake in fear. Sure I had tattoos, but it's not like I had done this work to myself. But mom had insisted that all the kids in our family upon reaching teenager status would be trained in basic first aid which included needle injection work. Dad's ability to come home injured made this a wise precaution even before my own powers began to manifest and I started drawing similar unwanted attention from nasty things. Still I had never been forced to stick myself, at least not until now.
Not wanting to hurt myself too badly I poked the needle into my index finger of my left hand, damn that hurt anyway, and slowly filled about half the syringe with my blood before the flow slowed down and I drew it out of my skin. I then turned the coat inside out and began to carefully poke the needle spot by spot through the inner liner leaving much less than a single drip of my red life fluid in its wake. Slowly over the course of an hour, and with two more sticks into two other fingers I completed a general protection rune that's purpose was basically to magically hardened the leather coat to make it resistant to things like knives, claws, and flying glass. Harry had said the purpose of this form of spell followed the old saying 'The more you bleed in practice, the less you bleed in combat.' I'd actually prefer not to bleed at all but since that option did not seem available I'd take this basic preventative defense.
I am not trying to compare this to the protections Harry had placed in his own coat to what I did from a hospital bed, for my own would last at best for just a few days until all the blood dried up and flaked away thereby breaking the magical power of the rune. To make this effect more permanent like Harry had accomplished would require stitching the coat with pure silver, copper, or a host of other less than common material threads that were each a protection against certain forms of magic. Even those had to be checked and repaired constantly because if the thread broke the rune was destroyed as well. I of course did not have those available at the moment so I worked with what I could get my hands upon.
I also had no illusions that this protection would provide and help against bullets either. Deflecting that type of force was not a simple matter of hardening since the force would still be present, but my shield bracelet had served me well in the past for this particular need. I had used up a significant number of those charges in my recent trip to Mexico but I still had two at my disposal for emergencies, which any time you are being shot at of course generally qualifies in my experience. Personally I preferred to avoid getting shot at in the first place so that was really the direction where I was going to expend all my efforts though I will have to start recharging the bracelet as well soon so that I am prepared for unlikely possibilities.
I cast a quick veil on the hat and coat when the cute orderly collected my dishes and made sure that I gave him every indication that my intent was to go back to sleep soon, hoping he would pass that word around and my room would remain undisturbed for the rest of the night. He had not been gone ten minutes before I was dressed and heading out the door, hidden under a veil myself, and with the three wards on my door in place. After my quick stop at the hospital chapel I was off for more pressing issues based upon my growling stomach. I figured it was going to be a busy night of looking for bad guys so I needed to get myself in the right frame of mind, not to mention getting some quick and tasty energy in my body. Thankfully there was a Dunkin Donuts just a few blocks away to meet this law enforcement need.
What was even more important was that in my drives past this place I noted there was also a payphone in the parking lot of the snack shop as well which provided me the opportunity to make a few calls that were coming due. I picked up the donuts, a pair of freshly made sandwiches, and a six pack of ice cold Coke first, drawing more than a few looks of suspicion by the other patrons and staff in the store by wearing the leather duster and hat as I made my stringent requirements for a dozen vanilla frosted with sprinkles.
Personally I am more into the chocolate frosted raspberry jelly filled but I figured either of the two calls I had to make could result in someone tracing the line and coming to check out where it was originating from so a certain level of sacrifice was required on my part. Being dressed as Harry Dresden might not be enough to convince those who actually knew him that he was still alive, but if the owner and customers reported the duster wearing guy had bought anything except for white frosted with sprinkles then those close to Harry would certainly be sure an imposter was at work.
I started by calling the number that Lara Raith had provided and after only two rings Justine's voice answered. "I assume this is Harry Dresden?" She questioned quite formally and precise which seemed to indicate to me that she was either not free to speak or was less that pleased to be talking with me at all. For safety I assumed the first rather than calling her on it. Whether that meant someone was in the room with her or as was more likely that Lara had this line tapped I did not know, but I figured keeping my conversation short was better anyway. I also was shocked to realize that this one phone line had obviously been dedicated solely to my use since Justine had properly identified who was calling and I knew that caller ID did not work for payphones.
"It is." I said hoping that illusionary sounds, in the trade we call them audible glamours, were not screwed up by technology of the telephone lines. Based on the static and screeching on the line I figured it really would not matter. "Do you have any information to pass to me yet?" I asked both hoping she would and would not in this case.
"I am sorry Mr. Dresden but while Lady Raith was able to confirm the party in question is most assuredly currently in residence within the city at this time, that party does not appear willing to accept callers or politely communicate at this time." Justine said and I decoded that to mean Mavra was in town but the White Court had been unable to determine her exact location or at least have one of their agents return alive to confirm it. With the Red Court destroyed it made sense she would be cautious if not go to ground.
"Please try calling again tomorrow and hopefully the situation will have changed and I will have something more useful to report." She said in her formal business tone but that ended with an odd inflection that told me there was something more at play.
"I will." I answered as the phone crackled even harder. I was just about to hang up anyway when Justine's voice came through again obviously overcoming hesitation or throwing caution to the wind.
"Sir is there any message I should pass along to Ms. Raith or any of the family?" She asked; by which I knew she really meant could she tell Thomas that I had called and that I was truly alive. That was not something I thought would be a good idea right now.
"Not at this time." I said and hung up abruptly hoping she took it for a failure of the phone line more than the truth of me being rude and feeling more than a little awkward.
I immediately dialed the second number, this being the police of course since I had said I would check in on any new developments, and asked for Detective Stallings of Special Investigations. In this case the amount of static on the line was much less which probably means the phone lines and equipment at the station were much older than those used by the White Court. So who says crime, or being a life sucking succubus, does not pay?
"Stallings." He answered rather gruffly after a few moments as I obvious caught him in the middle of something else that had his attention. This was hardly news as the cops in SI were usually brain deep in one mystery or another and distractions only made it that much worse. I'd keep it short then for obvious reasons.
"It's Dresden." I said by way of a simple and direct introduction. "I'm checking on if you have anything further on that zoo issue we were talking about the other night."
He seemed to delay upon hearing my name. "I may but I'm not sure." He said. "Why don't we meet to talk about it? I can come to you if that is what you prefer." The way he said that, almost as sweet as the box of ring shaped sugar products I was holding set off every internal alarm in me. I did not know if Stalling had grown suspicious or been turned but something was certainly changed since the other night. Hell maybe the FBI had his line tapped looking for me based on the explosion from last night. It was not improbably one of those civilians on the scene reported a duster and hat wearing guy had been hanging around. Or for all I know maybe Karrin Murphy might be sitting right there in his office waiting for this call. One thing was for sure, something was definitely not kosher.
"Sounds like a good idea to me too." I lied but tried to sound calm and then paused long enough to make sure there was enough time for him to run a trace if that was what he was doing. I needed to know if he was still someone I could count on or if I was all alone in this. "Let me call you back in an hour or so with a location."
"I'll be waiting." He said as I hung up the phone and hightailed it over to my car noting that there were still a few customers and staff behind the Dunkin Donuts watching me or else incredibly intrigued by payphones which meant they would likely note what car I was driving.
"Yes you will, for a long time." I agreed aloud to Stallings last words and then got in my car calmly before my audience and drove away down the street away from the hospital, making a couple of turns to make sure no one was following me, then in a quiet area placed an illusion of an old yellow Camaro over my car in tribute to Transformers.
Now in this undercover vehicle I drove back and pulled across the street to the local drycleaners that was of course closed and dark at this hour, parked off to the side and turned my engine off so I could watch the Dunkin Donuts for a few minutes to see just what type of trouble I was now in. I figured at the worst I would wait fifteen minutes. If anyone was actually looking for me they would get here quickly I reasoned.
At the nine minute mark from first one direction then soon after the other the high pitched sound of rice rocket motorcycles came racing in my direction. In each case the bike left a brake trail of rubber as they wheeled into the parking lot with the payphone.
The first street racer I recognized even before the leather clad five foot frame of Karrin Murphy got off the bike, noted the location of the payphone, and ran into the Dunkin Donuts to question the employees. Karrin may have lost her badge but certainly not her instincts.
Less than thirty seconds later a second, even louder whine of a Kawasaki Ninja racing bike, probably the only solid white painted one in existence, screamed up from the other direction and stopped right next to Karrin's as she came out of the store.
The good news is that both Thomas, the second rider, and Murphy seemed surprised to find the other one there so they had obviously not been working together on this mutual stakeout of yours truly. The bad news is after just a couple moments of small talk it appeared that the idea of an alliance between the two of them seemed to go from a potential concept to actually be set in place. The absolutely worst news was that one or the other would know whose car 'Harry' was driving thanks to the witnesses and then were likely to realize the hospital was only a few blocks away. That meant they may decide to stop by and check up on my alibi once and for all. Since my dance card for tonight was rather full I had to prevent this rather obvious idea from being a viable option tonight.
What I needed was a quick distraction and a local restored GTO provided the perfectly timed opportunity. As I heard the growl of an engine drawing closer I pulled in magic on instinct and just as Murphy and Thomas's heads were turning to look I cast an illusion spell upon the car at a distance that made it look just like my own lovingly restored convertible Mustang. Of course there was also a dark figure in a leather coat behind the wheel and while the illusion might not have been my best ever, it lasted long enough for the car to turn out of sight up the street when I had to let go of the spell anyway. That proved to be enough however for the pair got on their bikes in hot pursuit.
"Good luck guys." I said moving my car to a less obvious area of the parking lot and dropping that illusion before stepping into the dark corner around the side of the building to put the next part of my plan, the part that required the donuts, into action. "I really hope you find Harry." I said meaning it but knowing that the chase the pair was on was not going to end in that result this night at least.
"That be a fine bit o trickery you performed there lass." A voice called out to me from the shadows but from a point much lower than I would normally have expected for an alley encounter. "I'd swear you have a wee bit of the Old Country blood in ya."
The little lady leprechaun sat on a foot tall toadstool, obviously also a magical creation as these are hardly native to Chicago alleys, puffing away on a pipe as if she had never heard of the American Medical Association or the warning labels on tobacco products. And how the heck did a girl in an emerald green dress who was less than two feet tall with red curly hair like Shirley Temple convince a clerk in a grocery store that she was old enough to buy tobacco in the first place?
"Actually I'm a wizard." I said stopping short a safe distance and looking at the Nevernever resident who was regarding me at the same time. Leprechauns tended to avoid people due to the whole 'give me your pot of gold' myth tied to their kind. Why she was here and what her purpose was in revealing herself likely meant there was more at play here.
"Actually you be Wizard Apprentice Molly Carpenter." She said with a rather cute wink that confirmed to me that this was not a complete meeting of chance.
"Any you are?" I asked hoping she would provide me a name to balance our accounts. Most magical beings are stingy in this sense though since their true name gives a wizard power over them so I was doubtful I'd get anything more than a laugh for my efforts.
"Not nearly so foolish as to give you my name so that I might become the unwitting agent of a human wizard like a certain dewdrop fairy named Toot has been convinced to." She said between puffs but without another draw on the elaborate pipe she blew forth a smoke ring that roughly resembled Harry's little general. The words had an undertone of steel to them but were delivered with a china doll smile.
"But of course to be polite I shall allow you to call me Sweet, short for Sweetie, which is what a rather young girl about seventeen years ago liked to call me when I came to play with her on the swing set that her knightly father had built for her." She smiled setting me back on my heels as I was suddenly awash in my own vague memories.
In the world I had to assume there were not many fathers who qualified as knights, and fewer still of those who had built their daughters a swing set. Memories of playing on this were mostly distant feelings and visions in my mind and I had no real memory of the leprechaun girl, only dolls, but such is the way with these beings in that they purposely make themselves vague in memories of children so that as adults they leave the little ones alone.
But I also remembered that about a year ago my mom made a comment as I was studying on some of my magic and practicing the words aloud that I was back to talking to myself just as I had as a little girl playing with my 'Sweetie doll.' When I had questioned her on this comment she merely said when I was two or three that she often caught me having long conversations with my dolls when playing out on the swing set and that both her and my father often reminisced on this as I grew older. I guess to my parents Sweet could look like a little girl's doll if she were not puffing on her pipe like she was now.
"You have been following me for my entire life?" I asked incredulously realizing that chance meetings were not really a possibility under these conditions. That meant there was a deeper background motive at play and the fact Sweet was female made me all the more suspect of exactly what was going on here.
"Not so much as you might think." She said tapping out her pipe and putting it away in a leather pouch in a pocket that could not possible hold it. "A rather nice fellow named Patrick once did my kind a favor and in exchanged asked us to keep an eye on those of the Church born with the gift of magic. Since it was my clan who settled into your city it fell to us to perform this little task to honor our people's pledge."
"This nice fellow would not have also banished all the snakes from Ireland now would he?" I asked thinking of how a snake might seem a rather formidable nemesis to ground based beings of the leprechaun's height. That would certainly have been reason enough for the leprechauns to honor Saint Patrick's request to watch over magical children of the Church.
"Aye, nasty things they had been too before he drove them away with his magic." She replied with a small shudder as if she had been there herself centuries ago. Of course since faeries did not age like humans I guess that was possible. The fact that Saint Patrick might also have been a wizard only made me shake my head at the odd magical related facts of history that neither teachers nor priests seem to pass on to their students.
"So Sweet, what brings you here this night?" I asked moving the conversation forward. Given their nature and longevity faeries would have no trouble merely conversing the whole night away without ever getting to the actual reason that brought them forth. Of course I had important things to do this evening so I had to get to the point of this meeting.
"I was merely going to inform you that your master's friend Toot will not be coming to your call this night." I paused and cocked my head at this obvious revelation. It had indeed been my intention to call upon the dewdrop faerie and hopefully convince him to scout for the pair of others I was looking for this night. But now I was being told that not only would my plan not succeed but that the little folk had even watched me close enough to guess what I was up to before attempting it.
"The Za Lord's Guard as they call themselves and their beloved general are in mourning for the loss of their beloved wizard commander and have sworn off pizza for a full cycle of the moon in his honor." Sweet replied and I knew this to be nearly a month. "In their state I doubt if they would even hear your call or if so, be willing to respond to any offer that you might make." The fact that a dewdrop faerie would remember an event for a full month put into perspective just how hard the little one's had been emotionally traumatized by these events as those of us in the human sized world were.
But even knowing their own suffering did not stop my own emotions from deflating just a little bit more at the unfortunately and untimely news. As I have said many times I am not Harry and I do not have at my disposal access to the wide variety of spells he did to get these types of jobs done. Harry probably had a way to track these others I needed this night even without using the faeries but if so, that was not a secret he had chosen to share with his apprentice before he had died. It looked like my own plans for this evening were dead before they even started.
"Still you won't be letting those fine sugared pastries go to waste now will ya Molly?" Sweet asked me as she eyes the orange and white bi-colored box of a dozen donuts that was slipping from my grip as I focused on other things. The look of hunger in her eyes was undeniable. And that gave me a quick idea of how I might rescue this evening after all.
"You would not want them now would you?" I asked trying to be as nonchalant as I could possibly be. The dangerous aspect of dealing with faeries is that if you accepted gifts from them they took that as you accepted an obligation for a service. Thankfully the reverse worked if you were the one offering the gift. This of course made the elder faerie types more suspicious of offerings even for things as simple as a donut. Based on Sweet's comment about knowing Saint Patrick I have to think that she certainly qualified as one of the elders.
"Suren yur not thinking to trap me as easily as poor Toot with his addiction to pizza?" She said with a smile but that same deadly undertone of seriousness as before. I should note that failed attempts to trap faeries are rarely looked upon as anything other than an insult to the attempted trapee. And leprechauns were notorious for playing rather mean pranks on those who tried to get the better of them. But hey perhaps I could use that bit of knowledge to my advantage.
"No I am offering them more as payment for you assistance in pulling off a pair of pranks on two others this evening." I said with a bit of a devious smile that immediately warmed the girl up to my idea. Being both a leprechaun and a female the idea of a little mischief made the offering of pastries all the sweeter still.
That certainly got her interest and her attention but she was not ready to jump in with both feet so to speak. "How about we discuss this like civilized people?" She said and with a wave of her hand the toadstool she was leaning on, as well as the ground around it in the alley began to bulge and reshape itself becoming in the end an asphalt table with two benches that left Sweet and I sitting at equal height, eye to eye, with the box of donuts lying there between us in obvious temptation. She tried to maintain her serious demeanor but her eyes travelled back and forth to the box every now and then obviously obsessed by what lay inside.
"Why don't you try one free of charge?" I said with a smile opening the box for her inspection. "That way you can make a valid assessment if the reward I offer is worth the challenge of my request."
"Well since you insist. Why don't you tell me it is you are looking for me to do while I take a taste?" She said as if trying to make her words sound like hesitation followed by reluctant acceptance. That tone however only lasted as long as it took her to cram the entire donut into her mouth, a feat I knew I was incapable of at six times her size, and without dropping a single sprinkle or leaving even a smudge of frosting on her lips. The sigh of contentment upon finishing it was nearly pornographic and almost had me blushing which is not something I do a lot.
"So I am looking for two people and I thought I could enlist Toot and his army of airborne faeries to help me locate them quickly." I said as she opened her eyes slowly in afterglow and began to softly giggle at the delight the frosty treat had given her.
"Mmmm, my clan could certainly help you with that if the price is right. We have contacts throughout the city that we could call upon as well." She said with half open eyes that wandered back to the still open carton now of eleven remaining donuts.
"Yes but I need to find them tonight." I said. "The sooner the better so that I can pull off my prank before sunrise."
"Are the ones you seek touched by magic?" She asked lazily in contentment.
"They are." I replied after a moment confirming to myself that both my targets indeed were.
"Then we can most likely locate them within this very hour." She replied as her hand began to reach for the box once more. "My kind is attuned to such things which is why we watch over those of your kind who are born with the proper spark."
"That fast?" I asked "Even though you cannot fly?"
"Teleporting is much more efficient than flying." She said with a sense of pride though her eyes never left the white frosted rings sitting before her. "We do not have to worry about crashing into birds and such."
I thought about the table before me and my last encounter with the first of the two I was seeking and decided to push the issue just a little bit more. "I'd also like your assistance in helping me prank the first one." I said now fully smiling and projecting a sense of naughty even though her eyes never even approached my own.
"What exactly are you asking me to do?" She asked as I casually slid the box closer to her.
"Why don't you have a bite, you look like you are starving, while I tell you what I have in mind for this night's entertainment." I said knowing she was going to agree in the end. I mean really, who can resist the idea of a free donut with sprinkles? Thanks for this knowledge Harry.
True to Sweet's word within an hour I was on the road in my Mustang heading for the location of the first individual I needed to talk to this evening. My negotiations with the leprechaun clan had required the additional purchase of another dozen donuts, many of these cinnamon coated or jelly filled this time since leprechauns all have their own tastes, but since the shop across the street had a drive though and I removed my disguise it was not like they were going to remember me making this purchase compared to Harry's early visit.
During the drive toward my destination Sweet would appear and disappear from the passenger seat in order to give me updates on what direction to go. It appeared that my target was on the move but the leprechaun clan had no trouble pacing and spying upon my quarry while relaying information through the network established by my new friend and liaison. Each time she appeared her spell was accompanied by a sound I assumed was a dying cat but which she quickly educated me was the proper sound of bagpipes playing. It only took three such appearances to get me not to swerve into oncoming traffic upon hearing the sound each time.
There was one minor hiccup when Sweet paid out one her relatives a bit early with his pastry and instead of waiting he immediately consumed it and lost the target in what can only be called a sugar high state of drunkenness. Since Sweet promised me none of her clan drove cars I did not consider reporting them for possible DUSS; driving under sugar shock, to the guys over in Special Investigations.
Our course led us to one of those new upscale shopping strip malls that had cobblestone streets and catered to upper class clientele by ensuring their prices were ten to twenty five percent higher for the same goods than at Target or if purchased online. Of course people chose to shop here for the ambience and so not to be crowded in the indoor mall stores, or at least that is what they said. I thought it was silly but hey, I cast spells and sugar addict leprechauns so who was I to judge?
I parked my car a distance away from my target's location incase my quarry had eyes out watching and threw up a veil over myself before making my way to where he had last been reported. As I suspected he was not alone this evening and had a few of 'helpers' on nearby rooftops keeping watch for the authorities or perhaps your local Chicago Warden. Thankfully none seemed to see through my veil and I closed on my target without sounding an alarm. It was time to see if that second dozen donuts I bought was going to pay off for me. But hey, never let it be said that I let a moment pass without offering the appropriate theme music. Of course still looking like Harry meant I had to lean toward the classics.
There was a crowd milling around outside the store with the broken window. The fact that there was no alarm going off at this break in was further proof that someone with magical talent was close and likely shorted out the high tech system that this particular jewelry store likely had. A few dozen more beings were milling about inside scooping up the various baubles that caught their boss's attention. Probably the oddest thing about them is how they all looked exactly alike in their grey suits. But I had seen Binder's summoned minions before so this did not even give me pause. Maestro if you would be so kind to turn up the music…
"We don't need no education…"
The lead in scream of guitars and the immortal lyrics made all of the grey men pause and stare dumbfounded as the noise they were not suspecting originated from everywhere around them at once. I wondered if the grey men were familiar with this particular song as it sort of described them fairly well. I have a feeling there are not too many concerts played in the realms of the Nevernever and therefore the concept of blaring music was first seen as some sort of attack or warning of such an event to shock them into immobility like an eagle cry did to a rabbit.
"We don't need no thought control…"
I have to say this for the grey men, they did not get paralyzed for long. As the second line completed they began to nervously shuffle and swarm around looking for a source of this sound. Like bees or hornets they did not attack each other and I wondered for a moment if I could pull off an illusion of being one of their own and get away with it based on this. But that would perhaps be something for another time and place to test out if I lived through this encounter and the rest of this night. I had a mission to perform here and needed to remained focused on that.
"No dark sarcasm in classroom…"
As the crowd of grey men began to expand outward seeking the source of the music those inside the building began to filter out as well filling in the spaces the others were leaving open behind them. Either there were more inside than I had first estimated, or Binder was at work summoning even more reinforcements as he took count of the situation and realized that the song was not some mere random event.
"Teacher leave those kids alone…"
I saw him emerge behind another wave of his summoned troops, with even more coming behind him. By this point the swell was half the distance to me and I wondered if the song would finish up in time. Thankfully this greater expansion also slowed the group as they stood shoulder to should so nothing, say like a veiled wizard apprentice, could sneak between their lines. That's okay I was counting on this.
"Hey teacher, leave those kids alone…"
Binder paused and began taking account of the situation himself and his troops hesitated as he tried to sort out what was taking place. I give him this, he was smart enough to even look up, which most people tend to forget in a panic occasionally to their dismay.
He was not really a wizard, merely a human who had been naturally gifted to perform one type of spell, in this case summoning spirit beings from some odd part of the Nevernever. As these spirits were hive like creatures, they formed the same grey man bodies upon appearing in our world. According to Harry's memories relayed by the spirit of his mother, he could summon hundreds of these beings if given the time to do so. That made for a rather formidable army. I had no intention of giving him that kind of time.
"All and all you're just another brick in the wall."
I dropped the veil and stood there in my new duster and hat with my illusionary staff resting comfortably upon my shoulders. Grey men are not overly emotional beings but my sudden appearance out of nothingness still set those closest to me off screaming alert with their weird babbling that passed for conversation.
"All in all you're just another brick in the wall."
I let the music die as Binder turned my direction following the cacophony of other worldly voices that were calling out to him in alert. Even from a distance I could see his eyes widen in sudden shock at my appearance before him.
"Dresden?" He questioned in obvious shock at seeing someone he had not expected to.
"If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding." I said setting the butt of my staff on the ground in my left hand. "How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?" I let the words hang in the air and actually enjoyed the feeling of nervousness that emanated from him and was reflected in all his summoned followers.
"Oy mate I heard you had bit it." Binder said with a little bit of tension in his voice. Made sense to me that he would not come back into town after Harry had let him leave unless he had was fairly confident that Harry was dead. Unfortunately for him that little miscalculation, as far as he knew, was going to cost him.
"I thought we had a deal Binder." I said without offering a threat beyond the tone of my voice.
"Aye we did." He shuffled from foot to foot which was sort of comical for someone who had thrown back more than his share of pints in his time based upon his waist coat. Why he thought a sky blue three piece suit would look anything but ridiculous on him, regardless of whether it had been tailored or not, was also beyond my comprehension at the moment. Pinstripes might have provided a look of slimming. This suit just made him look like a giant pillow come to life.
"You see Dresden word on the street is that you had met a terrible fate and I came here to check it out." He said as his eyes darted to the left and the right. For most people that might be an indication that he was looking for a direction to flee but for Binder that was merely a subtle order for his forces to spread out more and be ready in case violence was required.
"Don't even try it." I warned him without making a hostile move except a slight shake of my head.
"Look mate, as I sees it we can both go our own way here tonight." Binder said building up his own courage as more of his forces came to his call from the rooftops and his army swelled in size. The ones I had left behind me he made sure to pull close to him so I did not do anything rash because I felt trapped. It was a small statement of respect between us. "You are certainly no one I'd chose to tangle with but I doubt even you can handle this many of me boys even with your fancy spells." The army swelled by half a dozen more as he spoke these words.
"You are probably correct." I said lifting my staff just about six inches from the ground and making him pause. A wizard's staff being moved is like a handgun barrel slowly pointing in your direction; it deserves a level of inherent respect regardless of what you may think of the person who is holding it at the time.
"Harry…" He began to distract me as his army started to surge toward my direction at a mental command to take me down before I could let loose with my magic.
I cracked the end of the staff back on the ground and the magic I planned executed exactly as I had hoped even though I had not called it up. All around the jewelry shop the cobble stone streets suddenly buckled and knocked those grey men in the lead from their feet creating tripping hazards and delays for the ones that followed behind them. Summoned spirits without bodies do not have the years of dexterity on two legs as real people would have it seems. But the spell had not merely been a simple minor earthquake. Instead it had a much more specific effect in mind.
The leprechaun spell that Sweet and her cousins performed transformed the cobble stone street around us into a giant circle rising up to the three foot level, with me just on the outside of it. I lowered my hand and scraped it on the edge of the top brick closest to me to provide a quick drop of blood and suddenly the magic circle was sealed tight. No new magic would be flowing within the confines of that area until I let go of this particular spell, which of course I had no intention of doing.
And with two hundred or more magical beings within the circle already, it only took a second or two for them to use up all the natural magic that the grey men required to keep their forms while in our world. For the second time in my life I had pulled off the same trick on Binder and his army of spirits was suddenly two hundred splatters of ectoplasm staining the area inside of the circle. I kept the staff on the ground as if I was maintaining the spell and pulled the sawed off shotgun from under my coat and one handedly pointed it in his direction. For the record holding a shotgun, even one sawed off, one handed at a target is not a simple act.
"Now what say we talk." I said with a smile as Binder realized that he had absolutely nowhere to run.