Battle Ground (The Dresden Files #17) - Jim Butcher Page 0,92

arm throbbed and burned as they laid Murphy down atop a bier made of the cases the weapons had been stored in.

The warrior Sidhe saluted the body. Then they filed out.

It was only then I noticed that they were all female.

I looked at Murphy’s body lying on the crates. Except for all the blood, and the grey skin, she might have been asleep.

But she wasn’t asleep.

“I gotta go,” I said quietly. I wasn’t sure whom I was talking to. I suppose her death could have left a shade of some kind, but that wasn’t it. It took a little time for a shade to condense. After I had briefly participated in it, the whole afterlife thing had become even more confusing to me, not less. “Ethniu is almost here. Mab’s ready to make her play. I have to be there.”

One of her curls had fallen over her eye. I moved the curl back. It promptly fell over her eye again.

I smiled, through tears.

Even dead, I couldn’t make her do a damned thing.

I leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“I already miss you so much,” I said quietly. “Goodbye, Murph.”

I rose to leave and almost bumped into Mab, she was standing so close behind me.

I wavered and didn’t. One does not bump into the Queen of Air and Darkness. It simply isn’t done.

Mab stared silently at the body for a breath, her eyes unreadable. Then she looked searchingly up at me. She was at her human-disguise height, a little less than a foot shorter than me. The starlight in her hair was truly beautiful.

Silently, she reached out and took my left arm. She pushed the sleeve of my duster up, despite my discomfort, and studied the burn for a moment. Then she said, with a slow, quiet, ever so slightly jealous tone, “That must hurt.”

“It does,” I said.

She closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath.

When she opened them, it was all business again. “Can you fight?”

“Watch me.”

“I shall,” she said. “And you shall see something the world has not seen in many a year.”

“What’s that?”

“Mab at war,” she said simply. She glanced to one side. “Your little ones have found King Corb. He has come ashore upon the beach east of here and joined Ethniu. It is time.” She looked up at me. “When the moment is right, it must be you who calls out her name.”

I knew whom she was talking about. There was no need for explanation. “Why me?”

“She will answer you,” Mab said. “She has before.”

I exhaled. “Oh. Got it.”

“Good.” Mab touched my burned arm again and then withdrew her hand. “It is possible that I shall fall this night.”

“You’re immortal,” I said.

“Immortal. Not eternal. There is power here of the truly ancient world. It is enough to ensure the deed.” She narrowed her eyes. “Should I fall, I have one last command you would be wise to fulfill.”

I tilted my head.

“Kill Molly Carpenter,” she said calmly. “As quickly as possible.”

“Funny,” I said.

Mab stared at me.

Of course. She hadn’t been joking.

On a normal day, I would have been more upset. Today already hurt so much that I hardly noticed. Mab wanted me to kill someone. She usually did. It was sort of my job description.

I frowned dully at her. “Why?”

“As Winter Lady, she shows promise,” Mab said. “But she is not ready to become Mab. The consequences would be . . . unsettling. For both of you. Perhaps for all of Winter.”

I tried to think of the kind of situation that would unsettle Mab. My mind shied away from it.

“That’s not going to be an issue,” I said. “Because you aren’t going to get killed tonight. When I bury Murph, she’s going to be holding the shattered key to that Titanic bitch’s cell on Demonreach in her hands.”

Mab’s face blossomed into a carnivore’s sharp grin. “Not the Eye?”

“Fuck the Eye,” I said.

She actually lifted her hand to cover her mouth. But I saw her eyes . . . smile. It was damned eerie. “All upon the field tonight want that weapon. Your own White Council included. It is the primary reason they fight.”

I blinked.

I looked out at the ruddy haze outside and spat a curse.

Of course. That’s why everyone was fighting beside Mab. Not to honor the treaty, at least not for all of them. But to secure a weapon that would give them an enormous advantage over any of the other Accorded nations. One that could be a threat even to immortals like Mab. I