Mai tilted her head to one side. “How is Dresden involved in this matter?”
“He claims that he is attempting to establish Warden Morgan’s innocence in some sort of matter internal to the Council. As a gesture of goodwill to the Council and to help keep the peace within Chicago, I have instructed my brother to offer reasonably low-risk aid and assistance to Dresden.” She glanced at me. “He has abused my good intentions repeatedly. This time, he somehow involved my brother in his investigation, and Thomas was ambushed by the skinwalker.”
“And that is all?” Mai asked.
Lara glared at me again, and seemed to visibly force herself to take a moment to think. “He claims that a third party was behind Warden Morgan’s predicament, and attempting to set the Court against the Council. To my surprise, my own investigation did not immediately disprove his statements as lies. It seems possible that one of my financial managers may have been somehow coerced into embezzling the contents of a considerable account. Dresden claims the money was sent to an account that was made to appear to belong to Warden Morgan.”
Mai nodded. “Was it?”
Lara shrugged elegantly. “It is possible. My people are working to find evidence that will establish what happened more precisely.”
Mai nodded and was still for several seconds before she said, “Despite how carefully you have danced around the subject, you know exactly why we are here.”
Lara smiled very slightly.
“The tale Dresden tells us lacks the credibility of simplicity,” Mai continued. “Despite how carefully you have danced around saying the actual words, it seems that you wish us to believe that the White Court was not involved in the matter of LaFortier’s death. Thus, your story, too, lacks the credibility of simplicity.”
“In my experience, matters of state are rarely simple ones,” Lara responded.
Mai moved a hand, a tiny gesture that somehow conveyed acknowledgment. “Yet given recent history, the actions of a known enemy seem a far more likely source for LaFortier’s murder than those of some nameless, faceless third party.”
“Of course. You are, after all, wizards,” Lara said without a detectable trace of irony. “You are the holders of great secrets. If such a group existed, you would surely know of it.”
“It is possible that I am unfairly judging your people in accusing them of plotting LaFortier’s death,” Mai replied, her voice utterly tranquil. “You are, after all, vampires, and well-known for your forthright and gentle natures.”
Lara inclined her head, smiling faintly. “Regardless, we find ourselves here.”
“That seems incontrovertible.”
“I seek the safe return of my brother.”
Mai shook her head firmly, once. “The White Council will not exchange one of our own.”
“It seems to me,” Lara said, “that Warden Morgan is not in your company.”
“A transitory situation,” Mai said. She didn’t look at me, but I felt sure that the steel in her voice was aimed in my direction.
“Then perhaps a cooperative effort,” Lara said. “We need not allow the skinwalker to take the Warden.”
“Those who ally themselves with the White Court come to regret it,” Mai replied. “The Council has no obligation to assist you or your brother.”
“Despite the recent efforts made on your behalf by my King and his Court?” Lara asked.
Mai faced her without blinking and said nothing more.
“He is my blood,” Lara said quietly. “I will have him returned.”
“I appreciate your loyalty,” Mai said, in a tone that suggested she didn’t. “However, this matter of the skinwalker wishing an exchange is hardly germane to where we stand at the moment.”
“Actually,” I said. “It kind of is, Ancient Mai. I had someone tell Shagnasty where to meet me tonight. Depending on how he crosses the water, he could be here any moment.”
Ebenezar blinked. Then he turned his face to me, his expression clearly asking whether or not I was out of my damned mind.
“Wile E. Coyote,” I said to him soberly. “Suuuuuuper Genius.”
I saw him thinking and I recognized it when my old mentor got it, when he understood my plan. I could tell because he got that look on his face I’ve only seen when he knows things are about to go spectacularly wrong and he wants to be ready for it. He let his staff fall to rest against his chest and idly dug in a pocket, his eyes flicking across the woods around us.
I don’t know where Mai’s head was, or if she worked out anything at all. I had a feeling that she wouldn’t. Since her thought processes would all have to start from given assumptions that were incorrect, she didn’t have much of a chance of coming to a correct conclusion.
“All that means,” she said to me, “is that it would be wise to finish our business here and retreat from this place.”
“Sadly, I am reaching a similar conclusion,” Lara said deliberately. “Perhaps it is time for this meeting to adjourn.”
Behind her, one of her sisters shifted one hand very slightly.
Lightning flashed overhead, and thunder forced a pause into the conversation. The wind picked up again, and Listens-to-Wind suddenly lifted his head. His gaze snapped around to the north, and his eyes narrowed.
An instant later, I sensed a new presence on the island. More people had just touched down onto the far side of the bald hill where Demonreach Tower stood. There were twelve of them, and they began moving toward the hilltop at inhuman speed. White Court vampires, they had to be.
Seconds later, another pair of humanlike presences simply appeared in the woods four hundred yards away. And if that wasn’t enough, two more people arrived on the northwest shore of the island.
Mai took immediate note of Injun Joe’s expression and tilted her head, staring hard at Lara. “What have you done?” she demanded.
“I have signaled my family,” Lara replied calmly. “I did not come here to fight you, Ancient Mai. But I willrecover my brother.”
I focused on the two smaller groups, both of them pairs of new presences, and found that their numbers were growing. On the beach, many, many more pairs of feet had begun beating the ground of Demonreach, thirty of them or more. In the forest nearby, a presence that the island had never before encountered appeared, followed by more and more and more of the same.
There was only one explanation for that—the new arrivals were calling forth muscle from the Nevernever. I was betting that the pair on the beach was Madeline and Binder, and that he had begun calling out his grey men the moment his feet hit the ground. The two who had simply appeared in the forest had to have taken a Way and emerged from the Nevernever onto the island directly. It was possible a second summoning like Binder’s was under way, but I thought it far more likely that someone had gathered up support and brought it with them, through the Way.
Meanwhile, Mai and Lara were beginning to bare their claws.
“Is that a threat, vampire?” Mai said in a flat tone.
“I would prefer that you regard it as a truth,” Lara replied, her own tone losing the charm and conviviality it had contained in some measure throughout the conversation.
The Wardens behind me started getting nervous. I could feel it, both for myself and through Demonreach. I heard leather creak as hands were put to the grips of holstered guns and upon hilts of swords.
Lara, in response, rested her fingertips lightly upon her own weapons. Her two sisters did the same.
“Wait!” I snapped. “Wait!”
Everyone turned to look at me. I must have looked like a raving mad-man, standing there with my eyes half focused, looking back and forth out of pure instinct and force of habit as the island’s intellectus informed me of the rapidly transpiring events. The White Court reinforcements had bypassed the tower hill and were headed for the beach to support Lara—which was something, at least. Lara’s helicopter hadn’t dropped them up there specifically to look for Morgan. It must have come up low, from the north, using the terrain of the hilltop to mask the sound of its arrival.