Chapter 12

Faerie Circle

The grey Warden cloak felt unfamiliar on my shoulders, and I wasn't at all sure that I liked it. But it was done now. Besides, Captain Luccio had a point too. I had started a war and I had done almost nothing to help the Council fight it. It was time I started pulling my weight a bit.

We walked back to my apartment. The mood on the street was changing. This morning people had been matter-of-fact about the power outage. They'd laughed about it, been gracious to each other.

That had changed.

The mood wasn't dangerous yet, but it was getting there. It was near the end of the day, the power had not come on again and people were getting nervous. It didn't help that it was Halloween either. The weather had turned cold, with dark clouds moving in, threatening rain. Come nightfall, all that nervousness and fear would turn them nasty – nastier – which would fuel all the black magic the necromancers were about to work.

Even now, you could tell people were getting paranoid. They shouted at others in the streets for things as minor as not getting out of their way fast enough. It could very easily turn into looting and rioting.

I sensed her only a split second before she stepped out from the shadows, which meant that I was still getting my staff into position when she blocked our way.

'Don't move,' Kumori said. She was still in the Ringwraith get-up, hiding her face in the shadow of her hood, but I recognised the outfit and the voice.

'You already stole the skull,' I said, growing angry with the memory of it. I knew Bob was a valuable resource with vast reservoirs of knowledge, but he was also…. well, my friend of sorts. 'What else do you want?'

She glanced from Irene to Kai. 'Tell your associates not to do anything stupid.'

Irene took that moment to do something stupid. 'Black cloak, restrain Kumori.'

The cloak wrapped itself around her limbs so tightly, Kumori could have passed for a mummy. It forced her arms to her sides and her legs together. She stumbled, but regained enough balance not to fall.

Kumori turned her head, the only part of her that could still move, in Irene's direction. 'There is no need for that.'

'You just committed breaking and entering, assault, and burglary,' Irene reminded her.

'It was necessary,' Kumori said. 'Release me.'

'No, I don't think I will.'

'How about you tell us what you want,' I said. Not that I particularly wanted to hear it, but she had sought us out for a reason.

'The book,' she said. 'We still want your copy.'

So they had been looking for it. Turns out, hiding something in plain sight was more effective than I had thought. I couldn't help it, I smirked a bit. 'You raided my home and you still didn't find it?'

The silence that followed had a bit of a sulky quality to it.

'Answer's still no,' I said, just for good measure. 'It's my book, not yours.'

'You have no idea what you are involved in,' Kumori warned. 'You are in over your head. I tell you now, walk away.'

'Or you'll kill me?' I suggested. This wasn't my first time getting that particular offer after all. All these villains get so predictable after a while.

'You will regret it if you don't,' Kumori said. 'That is a fact, not a threat. Cowl has a certain amount of respect for you, but he will not treat you gently if you continue to involve yourself. If you stand in his way, he will kill you. He would prefer it if you stood clear.' She turned to Irene. 'As an agent of the Library, you should not be involved in this. Do you not pride yourself on your neutrality?'

Irene held her nerve. 'We pride ourselves on honouring our words too. I have given mine.'

Kumori looked at Kai. 'This is no matter for the Dragons,' she said.

Kai growled. 'It is not for you to tell me what I can be involved in,' he said, sounding every bit the haughty prince looking down on the peasant. 'But I'll make you an offer in return. The wizard is under my protection, as are those dwelling under his roof. If any harm comes to them by your hand or your master's, you will not live long enough to regret it.'

He didn't even need to break out the scales and claws to make me believe every word. Kumori couldn't move, but she tried to lean away from him as far away as she possibly could.

'That's our counteroffer,' I said. 'Walk away and we don't have to go after you.'

'I cannot do that,' Kumori said. 'I know what is at stake. I beg of you, retire from the field.'

'No.' Even if I did, these people would never let me sit at home. They'd defend against the chance that I changed my mind by making sure I was taken out permanently. 'I can't let you go through with the Darkhallow.'

'And your alternative is what? Take the power yourself?'

That told me exactly what she thought about me. Time to correct her. 'No one takes the power.'

She scoffed.

'Walk away, Kumori,' I said. I studied her. Well, I studied the vast swathes of black fabric and tried to peer under her hood. She threw threats around like they were going out of fashion, but something about her was different from the rest of the Sociopath Squad. 'Why did you come to us?'

She startled.

So I pressed my advantage: 'I've met the rest of the Advanced Necromancy Club, and they're all about slitting throats and creating zombie armies. They don't ask people to get out of their way. So why did you?'

'Politeness costs nothing,' she said. 'Make no mistake, Dresden, if you persist in getting in our way, I have no reservations about killing you.'

'Again with the warning,' I pointed out. 'Why do you bother, Kumori? The rest of them, they're killers. They don't go out of their way to warn their enemies to please stop, because they don't want to kill them. You did. And that just doesn't jive with that crowd.'

'Is that what you think? That all necromancy is good for is death?'

'If the shoe fits,' Irene muttered.

That rubbed Kumori the wrong way. 'Necromancy draws on death, yes,' she said. 'But like any magic, it can be turned on its nature too. Death can be warded off. Life can be saved by that dark power, if one's will and purpose are strong. In the hands of those who see its potential, it can be used to end death!'

I supposed I should be glad that she at least acknowledged that mucking around with necromancy was dark stuff, but she was deluded if she thought I was going to buy into that. She may think she could do good with this, but it was still dark magic. And dark magic did things to the mind of the caster. Kumori may believe that she knew what she was doing and that she was in control of this, but in her own way, she was as unhinged as the Corpsetaker. Just less psychotically inclined.

Irene shook her head. 'It doesn't work,' she said. She waited until Kumori turned her head to look at her before she continued: 'You think this is the first alternate where people try to find a way around death? It never works. The best people can do is find ways to prolong their life, and the cost for that is never pretty, and the people who attempt it are somehow never the saints and do-gooders of the world either.'

I thought about the ravages of Alberich's soul and agreed with that whole-heartedly.

Kumori was unfazed. 'I do not measure my mission by the failures of others.'

There was no talking with people like that. 'We are done talking,' I said. 'Take our offer, Kumori.'

'I can't,' she said. 'Ours is a noble calling, Dresden.'

'You can tell yourself that as long as you don't look down to see the blood of the innocents you wade through.' I looked at where I thought her eyes might be. 'Last chance. Walk away. We will put an end to this. We are going to stop you. None of you are promoting yourselves to godhood.'

We walked past her and continued on our way.

'Remember my warning,' Kai reminded her as he passed. 'I will not forget.'

Kumori shivered, but she had enough courage left to call after us: 'You can't leave me here!'

'Yes, we can,' Irene said. 'Don't worry, it'll wear off eventually.'

We walked out of earshot before I asked: 'How long?'

'Long enough for us to get our things and relocate.' Irene grinned. 'There are a few plus sides to a chaos-infested world like this: it makes my commands stronger and last longer.'

We didn't delay. Nightfall was not that far away and I wanted to have Butters especially behind a decent threshold by then. My apartment had not been breached again, but Thomas pointed a shotgun at me just to be sure.

'Just us,' I said, although I understood the jumpiness.

He blinked at me. 'Harry?'

I frowned. 'Yes?'

'Did you steal a Warden's cloak?'

I had forgotten about the cloak during the confrontation with Kumori. Now I became uncomfortably aware of it. 'No.' As fun as it would be to wind up my brother, we didn't have the time for that. 'I got drafted.'

Thomas winced. 'That bad?'

'That bad.' The news about the state of the war had rattled me. 'There are only five Wardens here as reinforcements.' Because of course it would have been a bit too easy to have my people swoop in and save the day so that I didn't need to lift a finger.

I felt a lot less optimistic about this than I did after that phone call. I still had too few people at my back for comfort, I still hadn't found the Word of Kemmler, I didn't know where it was all going to happen tonight, I'd lost Bob, and my entire body ached.

'Only five?'

'And three of them are young.' They'd be capable or they'd have never been made Warden, but in terms of power and experience they were still maturing. That made them vulnerable, maybe even a liability. But Luccio would have known that. She had brought them because there was no one else. 'They've checked into a hotel to shower and change bandages.'

I took in the state of the room. A map of Chicago was spread out on the floor, with an area circled in red. Thomas caught me looking at it, and grinned. 'We found where they're going to do their ritual.'

I stared at him. 'How?' I'd been wracking my battered brains all day and I didn't have anything.

He grinned in brotherly superiority. 'Your landlady's phone was still working, so I called my sister.'

I blinked. 'She did you a favour?' Last I knew, Thomas was still out on his ear, cut off from the vampiric side of the family.

'Technically, she did you a favour.'

I wasn't aware she owed me any. 'Why did she do that?'

Thomas shrugged. 'I hinted that you might leak a certain secret if she didn't help you in your moment of need.'

'You blackmailed the de facto leader of the White Court?'

'Don't be ridiculous, Harry. You blackmailed the de facto leader of the White Court.' He gave me a virtuous look that was very out of place on his face. 'You've got some nerve to do that.'

If I survived this night, it was probably only so that Lara could kill me later. I'd have to worry about that tomorrow. And, if I got lucky, I could simply die tonight and avoid her vengeance altogether. 'She found out where it's going to happen? How did she do that?'

'She's not in Chicago,' Thomas reminded me. 'She has power and a ton of resources. She did some digging.' Or had someone do the digging for her. He pointed at the map. 'The Native American Center is having a display on tribal hunting and warfare going on at the moment. They've got lots of artifacts from other museums on loan.'

'That would have some hunter spirits attached,' I agreed. And old ones too. If they wanted powerful spirits, they wouldn't find much better.

I remembered something. 'Isn't that place on a college campus?'

The smile slid from my brother's face, which was answer enough in and of itself. 'Yes,' he confirmed.

I could just picture it too. Students trying to go crazy on Halloween, drinking too much, while a bunch of necromancers duked it out. It would be a bloodbath.

'I need you to take a message to the Wardens,' I said. 'They need to know this.'

He looked at me like I had grown a second head. 'Me?'

'They've been told to expect a messenger,' I said impatiently. 'You can leave your message at the reception. The Wardens don't need to see you.' In fact, it was better if they didn't. When it comes to vampires, Wardens have certain instincts.

And the last thing I needed was Morgan whispering in Luccio's ear about the company I was keeping and what exactly that said about my trustworthiness, not when we had something more important to focus on.

Thomas grimaced, but nodded. 'All right.' He jerked his head to the couch. 'What do you want to do with her?'

Bradamant sat on the couch, looking mutinous. Bringing her in might not have been my brightest idea.

'Yes, what do you want to do with me?' she asked, her tone sharp enough to cut glass.

I looked at Irene, who put a lot of effort into not showing her exasperation. With very mixed results. 'Why don't you go with Thomas?' she suggested. 'You can hand deliver the information if it's needed, if they don't want to take the message in reception.'

As long as it got her out of our hair, so much the better. Thomas suddenly looked quite exasperated and long-suffering, but I'd rather not have Bradamant breathing down my neck when I summoned the Erlking.

Besides, we wouldn't all fit in the Beetle anyway.

I wrote a message for the Wardens and sent Thomas on his way with Bradamant tagging along. Despite her being bound by Irene's instructions I did check if Die Lied der Erlking was still there before I let her leave. So I didn't trust her.

So sue me.

She glared at me as she left.

We didn't take much, but Butters insisted on taking his polka suit. He was holding it like his life depended on it.

'Can't we stay here?' he asked.

All of the necromancers knew where I lived, and some of them still thought I had something they wanted. My wards had proved no obstacle and my threshold barely deterred them. We needed somewhere I could put up a few wards and that had the kind of threshold that, if a wizard came in without being invited, he would leave his power at the door. And if something went wrong with my summoning, I wanted my friends somewhere the Erlking could not hurt them either.

'No,' I said. 'Murphy's house will be safer.'

'But it's not safe outside.'

No, it was not safe outside. We'd be moving targets until we were behind Murphy's threshold. But I'd rather be a moving target than a sitting duck.

'We could all die,' Butters said softly.

Yes, we could. But despite all of our disadvantages, I didn't think we would. Maybe I'm not that good with keeping my expectations in the realm of realism, maybe I just can't stand the idea of having the bad guys win or maybe I'm just a stubborn jackass who doesn't know when he's beaten.

Either way: 'We are not going to die.'

Butters stared at me. 'We are not?'

'We are not,' I said decisively. 'None of us are going to die. And you know why?'

Butters shook his head.

'Because,' I said, 'Bradamant is too annoying to die.' Although I would probably not have said that where she could hear. 'Thomas is too pretty to die.' He would laugh when he heard that, and then agree. 'Irene is too resourceful to die.' She straightened up. 'Kai is too scary to die.' He smirked. 'I am too stubborn to die. And you, Waldo Butters, are not allowed to die, because it is Oktoberfest and polka will never die.'

Butters blinked uncertainly.

I wasn't even sure what I was doing myself – I blamed the head injury – but I had started, so I might as well see it through. 'Repeat after me: polka will never die!'

'Polka will never die?'

'Polka will never die!'

'Polka will never die.'

'Polka. Will. Never. Die!'

'POLKA WILL NEVER DIE!'

I nodded, ignoring the looks from Kai and Irene that not so quietly wondered if I had perhaps gone insane. I looked at Mouse, but he hid his head under his paws as if he couldn't bear to look at it either.

Everyone is a critic.

'Time to go,' I said.

It was a very tight fit in the Beetle. With four adults, one giant dog and a polka suit, there was barely any room to breathe. Kai, who had most of Mouse on his lap, rolled down the window. Both Dragon and dog stuck their heads out to breathe.

We were not inconspicuous. If anyone wanted to follow us, they wouldn't have any trouble doing so. Maybe I should just have stuck with the SUV a little bit longer.

We were all relieved when we arrived at Murphy's house.

The streets looked empty. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, so most people would have fled inside. I saw candlelight through some of the windows.

'Were we followed?' Butters asked nervously.

Nothing moved in the street except us, so unless the necromancers were really good at veils, we weren't followed. 'No.'

I was lucky enough to have a standing invitation to Murphy's house – even if it was only to water her plants while she was away – so I got to take my power with me over the threshold. The threshold of her home was one of the strongest I'd ever encountered; that's what happens if the same house is in the family for a century. This place had seen a lot of living.

I put up a few wards all the same. This was not a time to skimp on security measures.

Irene looked around critically after we had lit a few candles. 'Not enough books for Library wards,' she said.

Murphy didn't have a lot of time for reading. We'd just have to hope Alberich was too preoccupied with his own preparations. I wasn't entirely sure he was even susceptible to wards and thresholds, and I didn't feel like finding out.

I had brought the things I needed for the summoning from my lab. Irene and Kai had both memorised the summoning, just in case. I'd rather do it myself, because the Erlking was no one to mess with. According to Hercule's book he was to the goblins what Mab was to the Sidhe: their ruler. And one didn't become a ruler of the Fae by collecting bottle caps. From what I'd read, this guy was in the same weight class as the Faerie Queens, and I would probably much rather hide in a corner than cross him.

I settled Butters in one of the comfortable chairs, with Mouse laying down at his feet. Kai helped himself to one of the swords on Murphy's wall. He held it like he knew how to use it, so I let him. I'd find some way to explain this to Murphy later.

If I lived that long.

The weather went from nasty to foul the minute I stepped outside into Murphy's backyard to prepare the summoning circle. The rain drenched me in moments.

'Did you call the storm early?' I asked.

'No need,' Kai said. 'This is natural, or fuelled by the necromancers' workings.' He gave me a searching look. 'Do I need to make it worse?'

'Later,' I said. 'Save it for the Darkhallow.'

He nodded. 'Do you need my help?'

'Watch my back.'

I wasn't sure we'd really shaken off any pursuit. At least three parties were still after Die Lied der Erlking. And they all knew I had it. As far as I knew some of them might think I had the Word of Kemmler as well. I could practically feel the target on my back.

Kai stepped back and did as I asked. Irene stood watching us from the backdoor, ready to assist Kai and me if needed, while being within reach of Butters too if something went wrong there. We were taking no chances here.

It was a bit of an improvised circle, with barbed wire being the main ingredient, but it was enough iron to hold the Erlking. And possibly to annoy him. From what I'd read, he was not the kind to appreciate the humour of being held in his pasture with barbed wire, like cattle. Insult to injury, in his mind.

But he wasn't going to appreciate iron in the first place.

I made sure to lay out everything I needed as precisely as I could. I checked and I doublechecked. It was as good as I could make it.

'Ready?' Kai asked.

'Ready,' I confirmed.

The sun had set. I had, for once, timed it near to perfection.

I knelt and, to my surprise, Kai did the same.

'Two are better than one,' he said, jaw set stubbornly. It seemed he too had timed his decision perfectly; I didn't have the time to argue about it.

I hadn't seen it coming. Kai hadn't made a secret of his dislike for the Fae. It was one of the things he had been most vocal about. But here he was, at the edge of a summoning circle, prepared to help me summon one of the beings he most despised.

I wasn't sure I had the right words for this type of situation.

'Thank you,' I said. I would need most of my strength to keep the Erlking trapped. Having another along to help was no excessive luxury.

I just wasn't exactly used to not having to do everything alone.

We both took a deep breath and began the summoning. I knew the poem inside out, and so did Kai. Our voices rose and fell in unison, complementing and building the power. My knowledge of Dragons and their power was sketchy at best, but I knew they had a lot of it. The amount power that Kai poured into the summoning matched mine almost exactly, but I had the feeling that he was holding back, trying not to outdo me and not wrest control of the ritual away from me.

We called up the Erlking.

And he came at our bidding.

One moment the circle was empty. The next it was not.

The Erlking was so tall that even I had to tilt my head back to look him in the eye, and that doesn't happen often. The Erlking cleared eight feet with ease, and the stag horns on his helmet made him look even taller.

But it wasn't his height that made him imposing. The height was only the start of it. Something in his very being commanded respect, even fear. I couldn't see much of his face because of the helmet, but through the slit I could see his eyes, glowing amber.

He regarded us for a moment.

Release me. It is time. His voice was in our heads. There was no storm and thunder to drown him out, so we received the message as clearly as we would have if we had been in a silent room.

Kai and I both straightened up at the same time, as if we had agreed it, though we hadn't. 'No,' we said, as in unison as we had when we summoned him. The joint denial rang clear as a bell.

He looked at us again, sizing us up. Me he dismissed, but his eyes lingered on Kai, who responded by folding his arms over his chest. He stared back with the air of the teacher staring down a naughty child in the playground.

Dragon. You know the thrill of the hunt. Release me and join me.

Kai's expression shifted from annoyance to outright disdain. 'I will not release you,' he said. 'You are bound by our will. In this circle is where you shall remain.'

I am no beast to be lured and trapped!

Ah, so he had noticed the barbed wire.

The words were full of compulsion, and temptation. For a moment I could feel what it was like to run free with the Hunt, the strength, the power, the thrill, the chase. I knew that it was the Erlking's doing that these things evoked only joy and a hungry wanting in me, but even so, wresting myself free from those thoughts took a moment.

Kai seemed to hesitate, but in the end he let me sort myself out.

The Erlking didn't like that. You yourselves are predators. Why would you call me if not to join me?

'To prevent another from calling you up and setting you free,' I answered. Chicago had enough to deal with without the embodiment of the Hunt loose on the streets. In a way, he was perhaps the best representation of chaos. The Queens of Faerie, as inhuman and strange as they were, followed some set of rules. Their roles demanded that of them. They had duties and obligations. For the Erlking, there was only the wild abandon of the hunt, chaotic and unpredictable.

Why?

'Because your presence would bring suffering and death to those I would protect.' Chicago was my city, its people in many ways my responsibility, at least when the trouble came from my side of the street.

I sensed confusion and, worse, indifference from the Erlking. Man suffers. Man dies. It is how things are.

'No,' said Kai. 'Suffering is inflicted. So is death when it comes before its time. Man is not your plaything, Fae.'

The Erlking laughed. It was the first sound he made that was in the physical world as well as in my head, and now I felt a sliver of the fear his prey must feel when the Wild Hunt was after it: the cold, the dread, the despair. You think yourself better, Dragon? Does humanity not bend under the yoke you enforce? Do you not think they would kill to break free and run unrestrained?

Kai looked uncomfortable for a moment, but he didn't budge. He stared the Erlking down. 'Man is not your plaything. You don't run free tonight.'

The Erlking looked from Kai to me and back again. Hunters, he addressed us, as if we were in some way the same, thrice I ask and done. Release me!

He was already putting the pressure on. If I had been on my own, I would have been straining to contain him. My makeshift circle of barbed wire and hastily grabbed tokens was only very minimal help. Of itself, it could not hold a being as powerful as the one we had summoned.

But I was not alone. Kai was beside me and he was doing a lot of the heavy lifting, channelling his strength and will into the circle along with my own. I could feel it, interweaving with mine, strengthening the binding and holding it in place.

I had on occasion worked magic with other wizards, but it had been a while ago. Most of what I did, I did alone. Sometimes I had friends, but as welcome as they were, they were not usually on my level. But I wasn't alone now. I had forgotten what a comfort it could be to have someone at your back who was of equal strength or stronger, instead of my opponent seeking to bring me down. I hadn't realised how much I had missed that.

Not that Kai's way of working magic was anything close to human. His magic had a solid, unchangeable quality to it, with a side dish of inevitability, like the tide. It would do what it would, and no one could change it.

Not even the Erlking.

'Thrice I say and done,' I said, planting my feet, preparing to do my bit. 'We will not release you!'

Here came the true contest of power. The Erlking assaulted our defences with a kind of wild power that was as unpredictable and unrestrained as he was by nature. He lashed out, throwing everything he had and then some at the confines of the circle.

But we held him.

Until we didn't.

The storm was so loud that we didn't hear him until it was too late. Irene cried out a warning and I glimpsed movement that shouldn't be there from the corner of my eye. By the time I turned my head around, Kai already fell to the ground, having been hit over the head with what looked like a piece of lead piping.

I sent a blast of energy at his assailant before he could get to me, but it forced me to take my attention off the circle. Kai's strength was no longer there to help me, and with both its sudden absence and my own distraction, the Erlking broke free with a shriek of triumph and a shower of golden light as he smashed the magical energies that held him bound.

He had no interest in me. He had another goal. There was no sign that I could see, but suddenly there was a black steed in Murphy's backyard, and the baying of hounds eager to be released filled the air. The Erlking mounted his steed, sneered at me and took off, his hunting buddies following behind him.

The Wild Hunt was loose in my city.

One of my allies was not moving.

And in the flashing lightning I could see the eyes of his attacker for the first time: fevered, mad, hungry for power.

I would have known them anywhere.

They belonged to Alberich.

Do four adults, one big dog and a polka suit fit into a Beetle? Probably not. Kindly suspend your disbelief on that matter.

Next time: one thing's for sure: Murphy's backyard might never be the same again.

Reviews would be welcome.