Summer Knight (The Dresden Files #4) - Jim Butcher Page 0,48
the Summer Knight?"
My pencil fell out of my fingers and rolled on the table. "Whoa," I said. "Are you sure?"
"What do you think?" Bob replied, somehow putting a sneer into the words.
"Uh," I said. "This means trouble. It means "
"It means that things with the Sidhe are more complicated than you thought. Gee, if only someone had warned you at some point not to be an idiot and go making deals."
I gave the skull a sour look and recovered my pencil. "How much trouble am I in?"
"A lot," Bob said. "The Knights are entrusted with power by the Sidhe Courts. Theyre tough."
"I dont know much about them," I confessed. "Theyre some kind of representative of the faeries, right?"
"Dont call them that to their faces, Harry. They dont like it any more than youd like being called an ape."
"Just tell me what Im dealing with."
Bobs eyelights narrowed until they almost went out, then brightened again after a moment, as the skull began to speak. "A Sidhe Knight is mortal," Bob said. "A champion of one of the Sidhe Courts. He gets powers in line with his Court, and hes the only one who is allowed to act in affairs not directly related to the Sidhe."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that if one of the Queens wants an outsider dead, her Knight is the trigger man."
I frowned. "Hang on a minute. You mean that the Queens cant personally gun down anyone who isnt in their Court?"
"Not unless the target does something stupid like make an open-ended bargain without even trying to trade a baby for"
"Off topic, Bob. Do I or dont I have to worry about getting killed this time around?"
"Of course you do," Bob said in a cheerful tone. "It just means that the Queen isnt allowed to actually, personally end your life. They could, however, trick you into walking into quicksand and watch you drown, turn you into a stag and set the hounds after you, bind you into an enchanted sleep for a few hundred years, that kind of thing."
"I guess it was too good to be true. But my point is that if Reuel was the Summer Knight, Mab couldnt have killed him. Right? So why should she be under suspicion?"
"Because she could have done it indirectly. And Harry, odds are the Sidhe dont really care about Reuels murder. Knights come and go like paper cups. Id guess that they were upset about something else. The only thing they really care about."
"Power," I guessed.
"See, you can use your brain when you want to."
I shook my head. "Mab said something had been taken, and that Id know what it was," I muttered. "I guess thats it. How much power are we talking about?"
"A Knight of the Sidhe is no pushover, Harry," Bob said, his tone earnest.
"So were talking about a lot of magic going AWOL. Grand theft mojo." I drummed my pen on the table. "Where does the power come from originally?"
"The Queens."
I frowned. "Tell me if Im off track here. If it comes from the Queens, its a part of them, right? If a Knight dies, the power should snap back to the Queen like it was on a rubber band."
"Exactly."
"But this time it didnt. So the Summer Queen is missing a load of power. Shes been weakened."
"If everything youve told me is true, yes," Bob said.
"Theres no more balance between Summer and Winter. Hell, that could explain the toads. Thats a serious play of forces, isnt it?"
Bob rolled his eyelights. "The turning of the seasons? Duh, Harry. The Sidhe are closer to the mortal world than any other beings of the Nevernever. Summers had a slight edge for a while now, but it looks like theyve lost it."
"And here I thought global warming was due to cow farts." I shook my head. "So, Titania loses a bunch of juice, and naturally suspicion falls on her archenemy, Mab."
"Yeah. It is kind of an archenemy-ish thing to do, you have to admit."
"I guess." I frowned down at my notes. "Bob, what happens if this imbalance between the Courts continues?"
"Bad things," Bob said. "It will mess around with weather patterns, cause aberrant behavior in plants and animals, and sooner or later the Sidhe Courts will go to war with one another."
"Why?"
"Because, Harry. When the balance is destroyed, the only thing the Queens can do is to blow everything to flinders and let it settle out into a natural distribution again."