Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files #8) - Jim Butcher Page 0,61

of the carved wooden columns, and the flowers wrought into the wood upon them twitched and then burst into sudden blooms of living color.

Everyone there, myself included, stopped breathing for a second.

Mac recovered first. Lily, he said, and bowed his head to her. Good to see you.

She smiled warmly at his use of her name. Mac, she replied. Do you still make those lemonade ice cubes?

Two, Fix said, grinning more broadly. He offered his arm to Lily, and she laid her hand upon it, both gestures so familiar to them that they didnt need to think about them anymore. They came over to the table, and I rose politely until Fix had seated Lily. Then we mere menfolk sat down again. Mac came with drinks and departed.

So, Fix said. Whats up, Harry?

Lily sipped lemonade through a straw. I tried not to stare and drool. Um. Ive been asked to get in touch with you, I said. After the Red Courts attack last year, when they encroached on Faerie territory, we were kind of expecting a response. We were wondering why there hadnt been one.

We meaning the Council? Lily asked quietly. Her voice was calm, but something just under its surface warned me that the answer might be important.

We meaning me and some people I know. This isnt exactly, ah, official.

Fix and Lily exchanged a look. She nodded once, and Fix exhaled and said, Good. Good, I was hoping that would be the case.

I am not permitted to speak for the Summer Court to the White Council, Lily explained. But you have a prior claim of friendship to both myself and my Knight. And there is nothing to prevent me from speaking to an old friend regarding troubled times.

I glanced back and forth between them for a moment before I said, So why havent the Sidhe laid the smack down on the Red Court?

Lily sighed. A complicated matter.

Just start at the beginning and explain it from there, I suggested.

Which beginning? she asked. And whose?

I felt my eyebrows arch up. Hells bells, Lily. I wasnt expecting the usual Sidhe word games from you.

Calm, remote beauty covered her face like a mask. I know.

Seems to me that youre a couple of points in the red when it comes to favors given and received, I said. Between that mess in Oklahoma and your predecessor.

I know, she said again, her expression showing me less than nothing.

I leaned back into my chair for a second, glaring at her, feeling that same old frustration rising. Damn, but I hated trying to deal with the Sidhe. Summer or Winter, they were both an enormous pain in the ass.

Harry, Fix said with gentle emphasis. She isnt always free to speak.

Like hell she isnt, I said. Shes the Summer Lady.

But Titania is the Summer Queen, Fix told me. And if youll forgive me for pointing out something so obvious, it wasnt so long ago that you murdered Titanias daughter.

What does that have to do with anything, I began, but snapped my lips closed over the last word. Of course. When Lily had become the Summer Lady, she got the whole packageand it went way beyond simply turning her hair white. She would have to follow the bizarre set of limits and rules to which all of the Faerie Queens seemed bound. And, more importantly, it meant she would have to obey the more powerful Queens of Summer, Titania and Mother Summer.

Are you telling me that Titania has ordered you both not to help me? I asked them.

They stared back at me with faerie poker faces that told me nothing.

I nodded, beginning to understand. You arent permitted to speak officially for Summer. And Titanias laid some kind of compulsion on you both to prevent you from helping me on a personal level, I said. Hasnt she?

Had there been crickets, I would have heard them clearly. Had my table companions been statues, Id have gotten more reaction from them.

Youre not supposed to help me. Youre not supposed to tell me about the compulsion. I followed the chain of logic a step further. But you want to help, so here you are. Which means that the only way I could get information out of you is to approach it indirectly. Or else the compulsion would force you to shut up. Am I close?

Cheep-cheep. If it went on much longer, theyd have to worry about inbound pigeons.

I frowned a little and thought about it for a minute. Then I asked, Theoretically speaking, I said,