Turn Coat (The Dresden Files 11)

I could all but feel the soil shifting, settling slightly, as the island withdrew the water in the ground beneath those trees. It had the predictable side effect that I realized Injun Joe had been going for. Once the ground around the trees' roots had become arid, it began to leach water from the trees themselves, drawing it back out through the same capillary action that had brought it in. It flowed in from the outermost branches most quickly, leaving the structures behind it dry.

And brittle.

Tree branches began to break with enormous, popping cracks. A lot of branches broke, dozens, all within a few seconds, and it was like listening to packs of firecrackers going off. There was a sudden cacophony of thunder and gunfire that rose up from the docks below, and flashes of light that threw bizarre shadows against the clouds overhead.

I tried to focus on my other knowledge of the island, and I felt it-the surge in energy being released below, the increased flow of strange blood into the ground beneath the affected trees-blood that they drank thirstily, in their sudden drought conditions. The Wardens were moving forward, into the tree line. The vampires were racing ahead of them, their steps the light, swift stride of predators on the trail of wounded prey. Strange things were dying in the trees, amidst bursts of magic and flurries of gunfire.

A light rose over the island, a bright silver star that hung in the air for a long moment, like a flare.

Once he saw that, Injun Joe's shoulders sagged a little, and he let out a slow, relieved breath. "Good. Good, that's done for them." He shook his head and looked at me. "You're a mess, boy. Do you have any supplies here?"

I tried to sit up and couldn't. "The cottage," I blurted. "Molly. Thomas-the vampire." I looked toward the bushes where one loyal little guardian had bought me precious seconds in the thick of the fight and started pushing my way to my feet. "Toot."

"Easy," Listens-to-Wind said. "Easy, easy, son. You can't just-"

The rest of what he had to say was drowned out by a vast roaring noise, and everything, all my thoughts and fears, stopped making any noise at all inside my head. It was just... quiet. Gorgeously quiet. And nothing hurt.

I had time to think to myself, I could get to liking this.

Then nothing.

Chapter Forty-six

I heard voices speaking somewhere nearby. My head was killing me, and my face felt tight and swollen. I could feel warmth on my right side, and smelled the scent of burning wood. A fire popped and crackled. The ground beneath me was hard but not cold. I was lying on blankets or something.

"... really no point to doing anything but waiting," Ebenezar said. "Sure, they're under a roof, but it's leaking. And if nothing else, morning should take care of it."

"Ai ya," Ancient Mai muttered. "I'm sure we could counter it easily enough."

"Not without risk," Ebenezar said in a reasonable tone. "Morgan isn't going anywhere. What's the harm in waiting for the shield to fall?"

"I do not care for this place," Ancient Mai replied. "Its feng shui is unpleasant. And if the child was no warlock, she would have lowered the shield by now."

"No!" came Molly's voice. It sounded weirdly modulated, as if being filtered through fifty feet of a corrugated pipe and a kazoo. "I'm not dropping the shield until Harry says it's okay." After a brief pause she added, "Uh, besides. I'm not sure how."

A voice belonging to one of the Wardens said, "Maybe we could tunnel beneath it."

I exhaled slowly, licked my cracked lips, and said, "Don't bother. It's a sphere."

"Oh!" Molly said. "Oh, thank God! Harry!"

I sat up slowly, and before I had moved more than an inch or two, Injun Joe was supporting me. "Easy, son," he said. "Easy. You've lost some blood, and you got a knot on your head that would knock off a hat."

I felt really dizzy while he said that, but I stayed up. He passed me a canteen and I drank, slowly and carefully, one swallow at a time. Then I opened my eyes and glanced around me.

We were all in the ruined cottage. I sat on the floor near the fireplace. Ebenezar sat on the hearth in front of the fireplace, his old wooden staff leaned up against one shoulder. Ancient Mai stood on the opposite side of the cottage from me, flanked by four Wardens.

Morgan lay on the bedroll where I'd left him, unconscious or asleep, and Molly sat cross-legged on the floor beside him, holding the quartz crystal in both hands. It shimmered with a calm white light that illuminated the interior of the cottage much more thoroughly than the fire did, and a perfectly circular dome of light the size of a small camping tent enclosed both Morgan and my apprentice in a bubble of defensive energy.

"Hey," I said to Molly.

"Hey," she said back.

"I guess it worked, huh?"

Her eyes widened. "You didn't know if it would?"

"The design was sound," I said. "I'd just never had the chance to field-test it."

"Oh," Molly said. "Um. It worked."

I grunted. Then I looked up at Ebenezar. "Sir."

"Hoss," he said. "Glad you could join us."

"We waste time," Ancient Mai said. She looked at me and said, "Tell your apprentice to drop the shield at once."

"In a minute."

Her eyes narrowed, and the Wardens beside her looked a little more alert.

I ignored her and asked Molly, "Where's Thomas?"

"With his family," said a calm voice.

I looked over my shoulder to see Lara Raith standing in the doorway, a slender shape wrapped in one of the blankets from a bunk on the Water Beetle. She looked as pale and lovely as ever, though her hair had been burned down close to her scalp. Without it to frame her face, there was a greater sense of sharp, angular gauntness to her features, and her grey eyes seemed even larger and more distinct. "Don't worry, Dresden. Your cat's-paw will live to be manipulated another day. My people are taking care of him."

I tried to find something in her face that would tell me anything else about Thomas. It wasn't there. She just watched me coolly.

"There, vampire," Ancient Mai said politely. "You have seen him and spoken to him. What follows is Council business."

Lara smiled faintly at Ancient Mai and turned to me. "One more thing before I go, Harry. Do you mind if I borrow the blanket?"

"What if I do?" I asked.

She let it slip off of one pale shoulder. "I'd give it back, of course."

The image of the swollen, bruised, burned creature that had kissed Madeline Raith as it pulled out her entrails returned to my thoughts, vividly.