Battle Ground (The Dresden Files #17) - Jim Butcher Page 0,162
we can walk with our heads held high.
The fight for Chicago had gotten started when Ethniu attacked. But it was far from over.
“Baron?” Mab asked. “Can you maintain a functioning society within the city?”
“No one could,” Marcone replied. “However, I judge that, for now, the city will have a strong self-interest in maintaining its current power structure. That gives me what I believe is the most practical available leverage of the direction of events within it.”
“Do you have control or not?” Mab asked.
“Does a man in a canoe have control over the rapids?” Marcone replied.
“But you believe they can be navigated?” Mab clarified.
“To the limit of my foresight, yes. That makes no allowance for federal interests, however. My reach there is more limited.”
Mab contemplated the reply and then nodded. She considered Lara. “Can you nullify their involvement?”
Lara thought for a moment before answering. “On the political level, there’s more profit to be gained from engagement than nullification. On the practical level, however . . . there’s no way to keep the Librarians out entirely now.”
“A complication,” Vadderung said, in the wry tone of a man engaging in understatement.
Lara grimaced.
“Who are these Librarians?” Evanna asked.
“The Library of Congress, Special Collections Division,” Lara provided. “Also known as the Librum Bellum. Men in Black.”
“Government agents,” Evanna noted. “What danger do they pose?”
“They’re the eyes and ears,” Lara said. “They’re smart, skilled, dedicated, professional, they’ve got several centuries of collective knowledge through the Masons, and they will absolutely be coming to learn whatever they can. They are extremely dangerous.”
“Assuming they haven’t been here in the city all along,” Vadderung pointed out mildly. “Perhaps they’ve already identified each of us.”
Lara winced. “Optimist.”
Vadderung’s mouth twitched at a corner.
The Summer Lady cleared her throat and glanced at Mab, who nodded. Sarissa turned her gaze along the circle as she said, “Make whatever preparations you wish. But the truth is out. And spreading. All of these stratagems, from the mortal authorities or from us, can only delay that.”
“Sweet Summer child,” Lara murmured wryly.
Mab held up a slender hand as if to forestall bickering. “We must prepare for as many futures as possible, not merely the ones we prefer. If we can slow the mortals’ collective hand from striking until we have dealt with the Fomor, then it is worthwhile to attempt. If nothing else, it lets us focus upon a single foe at a time.”
I felt myself freeze for a moment at that.
Humanity.
A foe.
I glanced around. Yeah. No wonder there wasn’t a representative from the White Council here. Like it or not, they were pretty much the spokespeople for humanity at large, within the Accorded nations. A lot of wizards had family in the mortal world, close ties to it. Martha Liberty was still close with members of an extended clan of whom she was the founding matriarch, down in New Orleans, for example.
And . . . well, even I had Maggie. Friends. It mattered to me. The environment those people existed in, their society, it mattered to me.
Sarissa looked a little disturbed. But other than that, I realized that there was no one else in this room for whom that was true.
Stars and stones.
Ramirez hadn’t been wrong.
I was working with monsters.
But I wasn’t them.
I leaned forward slightly, as if preparing to take a step, and Mab said, “Ladies and gentlemen, my Knight requests audience. In light of his recent service to the Accorded nations, I believe it right and proper to grant it. Will anyone here gainsay me?”
Marcone suddenly looked more alert.
I gave him a little smile. I didn’t quite blow him a kiss. But I let him know it was coming.
“This should be interesting,” Vadderung murmured.
Mab turned to me and nodded, tilting her head in toward the center of the circle.
I shambled forward into it and felt the gazes of very dangerous people upon me.
And for the first time, I didn’t have any of the weight of the White Council backing me up.
It was just me. That was intimidating.
But it also meant that I had me on my side. And I liked the way that felt.
Don’t fight all of them, Harry, I thought. Fight one of them.
And I turned to Marcone.
“The Summer and Winter Courts care about balance,” I said. “And what the Accorded nations have done to Chicago has created a terrible imbalance. More than just the political and military consequences of our conflicts, we have violated the spirit of laws so old that they have never been written down. We were guests in Chicago.