for Thomas, are we not?”
“Which is why we’ve come,” I said. “This can’t be a smash-and-grab run.”
Lara frowned. “Given the security around him, I don’t see any option.”
“Do you want a war with Svartalfheim? What happened to avoiding open conflict?”
She gave me a pained glower and looked abruptly away. “The equation changed when they moved my brother. I’ll be facing considerable in-house trouble if my own sibling is put to death. My enemies within the Court will use it as a justification to rally against me. If I can’t protect my own family, how can I protect them, et cetera.” She shook her head. “Allies outside the Court will also be watching. A quick conflict and a brokered peace could make my position stronger than it currently is.”
“So this is all about power,” Murphy noted.
“It is also about power,” Lara corrected her. “For people in positions like mine, power concerns are a constant. But Thomas is my only brother. He’s frequently vexing, but …” She shrugged. “I like him. Family isn’t something one discards lightly.”
I thought of the old man. “No, it isn’t,” I said quietly. “So what if I told you I thought we could get Thomas out clean, no bloodshed.”
“To what advantage?” she asked. “Etri’s people would track him and kill him. The Accorded nations will, theoretically, be honor bound to help.”
“I think I can keep him hidden,” I said. “From all of them.”
“Even your own people?”
“Especially those assholes,” I said.
Lara’s eyebrows climbed.
“If we do it smoothly enough,” Murphy said, “we can do this without violence and it will be a fait accompli. He’ll be out of their hands and unreachable. You’ll have time to talk things down. And since you’ll have done it without shedding more blood, there will be pressure from the Accorded nations for Etri to restore peace and resolve the matter via weregild.”
“A very steep weregild,” Lara noted.
“Still cheaper than slugging it out with the svartalves,” I said, “or slapping down another rebellion among your own people.”
Lara frowned, narrowing her eyes in thought for a full minute. Her chin bobbed up and down very slightly. “I take it Mab is fine with this?”
“Mab can be very creative about what she notices or doesn’t,” I said. “Particularly if the forms are observed correctly. The lack of bloodshed at what amounts to her party will go a long way toward pacifying her.”
“But she doesn’t know,” Lara pressed.
“She loaned me to you so that she wouldn’t have to know.”
Lara finished the last of her espresso. “ Meaning … that there might well be consequences for you in the aftermath.”
“Especially if we screw it up,” I said.
“If we attempt and fail,” Lara noted, “my position is even worse than if I do nothing.”
“He’s family.”
Her sapphire eyes met mine for a dangerous second and then turned to Murphy. “I take it this is your plan?”
“I don’t get weepy about who gets credit,” Murphy said. “As long as the plan gets results.”
Lara took a deep breath.
Then she said, “All right. Walk me through it.”
25
It’s not complicated,” Murphy said.
Lara tilted her head and said, “Please don’t assume I’m too thick to see the obvious options.”
“You’ve been in the building for meetings of the Brighter Future Society,” Murphy said. “I trained there on a daily basis for more than a year. With the guards.”
Lara arched an eyebrow. “I assumed you were watchdogging the imperiled families who were staying there.”
“I was,” Murphy said. “I was also learning everything I could about the place.” She snorted. “Marcone owns it. Keep your friends close.”
Lara’s smile was somehow both appreciative and predatory. “So you have information I didn’t when I was making plans.”
“The strong rooms are in the basement,” Murphy said.
“Only one way in and out,” Lara noted.
“That’s not the first problem to plan for,” Murphy said.
I nodded. “Before we go in, we need to set up a way out.”
I arrived at the reception on time, wearing my silver suit and my Warden’s cloak. It wasn’t the original, which I preferred, sort of. It was a dress cloak, made of shimmery grey silk of some kind, and it didn’t have any tears or burns or patches on it. Once again, I walked in with the Wardens and the members of the Senior Council, though this time Ramirez, dressed as I was, lagged a bit behind, leaning more heavily on his cane than the day before.
Predators would note that he was an easy target, isolated and falling behind like that, and this summit could be fairly described