Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files #8) - Jim Butcher Page 0,3
the war of the White Council against the Red Court of vampires. The war had been a whole lot of pussyfooting and fights in back alleys for several years, but last year the vampires had upped the ante. Their assault had been timed to coincide with vicious activity from a traitor within the Council and with the attack of a number of necromancers, outlaw wizards who raised the dead into angry specters and zombiesamong a number of other, less savory things.
The vampires had hit the Council. Hard. Before the battle was over, theyd killed nearly two hundred wizards, most of them Wardens. Thats why the Wardens had given me a grey cloak. They needed the help.
Before theyd finished, the vampires killed nearly forty-five thousand men, women, and children who happened to be nearby.
Thats why Id taken the cloak. That wasnt the sort of thing I could ignore.
Ive read the reports, I said. They say that the Venatori Umbrorum and the Fellowship of St. Giles have really pitched in.
Its more than that. If they hadnt started up an offensive to slow the vamps down, the Red Court would have destroyed the Council months ago.
I blinked. Theyre doing that much?
The Venatori Umbrorum and the Fellowship of St. Giles were the White Councils primary allies in the war with the Red Court. The Venatori were an ancient, secret brotherhood, joined together to fight supernatural darkness wherever they could. Sort of like the Masons, only with more flamethrowers. By and large, they were academic sorts, and though several of the Venatori had various forms of military experience, their true strength lay in utilizing human legal systems and analyzing information brought together from widely dispersed sources.
The Fellowship, though, was a somewhat different story. Not as many of them as there were of the Venatori, but not many of them were merely human. Most of them, so I took it, were those who had been half turned by the vampires. Theyd been infested with the dark powers that made the Red Court such a threat, but until they willingly drank anothers lifeblood, they never quite stopped being human. It could make them stronger and faster and better able to withstand injury than regular folks, and it granted them a drastically increased life span. Assuming they didnt fall prey to their constant, base desire for blood, or werent slain in operations against their enemies in the Red Court.
A woman Id once cared for very much had been taken by a Red Court vampire. In point of fact, Id kicked off the war when I went and took her back by the most violent means at my disposal. I brought her back, but I didnt save her. Shed been touched by that darkness, and now her life was a battlepartly against the vampires who had done it to her, and partly against the blood-thirst theyd imposed upon her. Now she was a part of the Fellowship, whose members included those like her and, Id heard, many other people and part-people with no home anywhere else. St. Giles, patron of lepers and outcasts. His Fellowship, while not a mil-blown powerhouse like the Council or one of the Vampire Courts, was nonetheless proving to be a surprisingly formidable ally.
Our allies cant challenge the vampires in face-to-face confrontations, Ebenezar said, nodding. But theyre wreaking havoc on the Red Courts supply chains, intelligence, and support, attacking from the mortal end of things. Red Court infiltrators within human society are unmasked. Humans controlled by the Red Court have been arrested, framed, or killedor else abducted to be forcibly freed of their addiction. The Fellowship and the Venatori continue to do all in their power to provide information to the Council, which has enabled us to make a number of successful raids against the vampires. The Venatori and the Fellowship havent appreciably weakened the vampires, but the Red Court has been slowed down. Perhaps enough to give us a fighting chance to recover.
Hows the boot camp coming? I asked.
Luccio is confident of her eventual success in replacing our losses, Ebenezar replied.
Dont see what else I can do to help, I said. Unless youre wanting someone to go start fathering new wizards.
He stepped closer to me and glanced around. His expression was casual, but he was checking to see if anyone was close enough to overhear. Theres something you dont know. The Merlin decided it was not for general knowledge.