White Night (The Dresden Files #9) - Jim Butcher Page 0,124

into the earth. From there, our way forward entered a torchlit tunnel, its walls also polished smooth, and from far below us came the music of echoing voices and sounds dancing through the stone, being subtly changed and altered by the acoustics as they came up from below.

It was a long, winding descent down, though the tunnel was wide and the footing steady. I remembered the nightmarish flight from the Deeps the last time I'd been there, while Murphy and I dragged my half-dead half brother all the way up before we'd been consumed in a storm of psychic slavery Lara was whipping up to take control of her father, and through him the White Court. It had been a close one.

Justine stopped about two-thirds of the way down, at a spot that had been marked with a bit of chalk on the floor. "Here," she said in a quiet—but not at all dreamy—voice. "We can't be overheard from here."

"What's going on?" I demanded. "How are you walking around like this?"

"It doesn't matter right now," Justine said. "I'm better."

"You aren't crazy, are you?" I demanded. "You nearly scratched my eyes out that one time."

She shook her head with a frustrated little motion. "Medication. It isn't… Look, I'm all right for now. I need you to listen to me."

"Fine," I said.

"Lara wished me to tell you what to expect," Justine said, dark eyes intent. "Right now, Lord Skavis is below, calling for an end to any plans for negotiations with the Council, citing the work of his son as an illustration of the profit of continuing hostilities."

"His son ?" I said.

Justine grimaced and nodded. "The agent you slew was the heir apparent of House Skavis."

Mouse might have been the one to do the actual killing, but the Accords regarded him as a mere weapon, like a gun. I was the one who had pulled the trigger. "Who is in charge of Malvora?"

"Lady Cesarina Malvora," Justine said, giving me a smile of approval. "Whose son Vittorio will be quite insulted by Lord Skavis's lies about all the hard work he and Madrigal Raith did."

I nodded. "When does Lara want me to make my entrance?"

"She told me that you would know best," Justine said.

"Right," I said. "Take me to where I can hear them talking, then."

"That's going to be a problem," Justine said. "They're speaking Ancient Etruscan. I can follow enough of it to give you an idea what—"

"It isn't a problem," I said.

Is it ? I thought toward Lasciel's shadow.

Naturally not, my host , came the ghostly reply.

Groovy , I thought. Thanks, Lash .

A startled second passed. Then she replied, You are welcome.

"Just get me to where I can hear them," I told Justine.

"This way," she replied at once, and hurried on down the passage, stopping not twenty feet shy of the main cavern. Even so close, I could see very little of the cavern beyond—though I could hear voices raised in speech that sounded strange and sibilant in my ears and English in my head.

"… the very heart of the matter," a rolling basso voice orated. "That the mortal freaks and their ilk stand on the brink of destruction. Now is the time to tighten our grip and neuter the kine once and for all." Lord Skavis, I presumed.

A strong and lazily confident baritone answered the speaker, and I recognized the voice of the remains of the creature who had killed my mother at once. "My dear Skavis," answered Lord Raith, the White King, "I can hardly say that I find the notion of a neutered humanity entirely appealing."

There was a round of silvery laughter, men and women alike. It rippled through the air and brushed against me like an idly ardent lover. I stood fast until it had gone by. Ramirez had to rest a hand on the wall to keep his balance. Justine swayed like a reed, her eyes fluttering shut and then opening again.

Skavis's deep voice resumed. "Your personal amusements and preferences aside, my King, the freaks' biggest weakness has always been the length of time it took them to develop their skills to the most formidable levels. For the first time in history, we have degraded or neutralized their many advantages altogether, partly due to the fortunes of war, and partly thanks to the resourcefulness of the kine in developing their arts in travel and communication. The House of Skavis has proven that we stand holding an unprecedented opportunity to crush the freaks and bring the kine