Turn Coat (The Dresden Files 11)

Injun Joe nodded. His broken arm had been splinted with a field dressing and wrapped in medical tape. The Wardens had probably brought their own gear. "I saw the very end of your fight. Which is why I felt it appropriate to give the creature the same treatment." He shook his head. "It took a lion's courage for the little one to do what he did. I already went looking for him."

I felt a little bit sick. "Was he...?"

Listens-to-Wind smiled faintly and shook his head. "Knocked senseless for a while, and wounded by blackberry thorns, though his armor protected him from the worst of it."

I found myself barking out a short little laugh of relief. "That armor? You're kidding."

He shook his head. "Worst thing hurt was his pride, I think." His dark eyes sparkled. "Little guy like that, taking on something so far out of his weight class. That was a sight to see."

Ebenezar snorted. "Yeah. Wonder where the pixie learned that."

I felt my cheeks coloring. "I didn't want to do it. I had to."

"You picked a good fight," Listens-to-Wind said. "Not a very smart fight. But that old ghost is as close to pure evil as you'll ever see. Good man always stands against that."

"You had it on the run," I said. "You could have killed it."

"Sure," Listens-to-Wind said. "Would have been a chase, and then more fight. Might have taken hours. Would have made the old ghost desperate. It would have started using innocents as shields, obstacles, distractions." The old medicine man shrugged. "Maybe I would have lost, too. And while it was going on, spiders would be eating fat old hill-billies and picking their fangs clean with their bones."

Ebenezar snorted. "Never would have happened. I don't much care for vampires, especially not those White Court weasels, but I'll say this much for them. They can fight, when they have a mind to. After the first rush, those bugs were a lot more careful."

"Yeah," I said. "They didn't have much of a spine when they tried to stop me on the trail to Edinburgh."

Both of the old wizards traded a look, and then Injun Joe turned back to me. "You got jumped by spiders going through the Way?"

"Yeah," I said. I thought about it and was surprised. Had it happened so recently? "Two days ago, when I came to Edinburgh. I told you about it. The killer must have had some kind of watch put on the Chicago end of the Way, to get them into position in time to intercept me." I let out a weary little snigger.

"What's so funny?" Ebenezar asked.

"Nothing," I said. "Just appreciating irony and getting punchy. I guess he didn't want me letting the Council know where Morgan was."

"Sounds like a reasonable theory," Injun Joe said. He looked at Ebenezar. "Got to be somebody at Edinburgh. Cuts the suspect pool down even more."

Ebenezar grunted agreement. "But not much. We're getting closer." He exhaled. "But it won't do Morgan any good." He stood, and his knees popped a couple of times on the way. "All right, Hoss," he said quietly. "I guess we can't put this off any longer."

I folded my arms and looked at Ebenezar evenly.

The old man's face darkened. "Hoss," he said quietly, "I hate this as much as you do. But as much as you don't like it, as much as I don't like it, Ancient Mai is right about this. The real killer will know that Morgan is innocent-but the other powers won't. They'll only see us doing business hard and quick, like always. Hell, it might even get the real killer enough confidence to slip up and make a mistake."

"I told Morgan I'd help him," I said. "And I will."

"Son," Injun Joe said quietly, "no one can help him now."

I ground my teeth. "Maybe. Maybe not. But I'm not giving him to you. And I'll fight you if you make me."

Ebenezar looked at me and then shook his head, smiling sadly. "You couldn't fight one of your little pixie friends right now, boy."

I shrugged. "I'll try. You can't have him."

"Harry," said a quiet voice, weirdly mutated by the shield.

I looked up to see Morgan lying quietly on his pallet, his eyes open and focused on me. "It's all right," he said.

I blinked at him. "What?"

"It's all right," he said quietly. "I'll go with them." His eyes turned to Ebenezar. "I killed LaFortier. I deceived Dresden into believing my innocence. I'll give you a deposition."

"Morgan," I said sharply, "what the hell are you doing?"

"My duty," he replied. There was, I thought, a faint note of pride in his voice, absent since he had appeared at my door. "I've always known that it might call for me to give up my life to protect the Council. And so it has."

I stared at the wounded man, my stomach churning. "Morgan..."

"You did your best," Morgan said quietly. "Despite everything that has gone between us. You put yourself to the hazard again and again for my sake. It was a worthy effort. But it just wasn't to be. No shame in that." He closed his eyes again. "You'll learn, if you live long enough. You never win them all."

"Dammit," I sighed. I tried to put my face in my hands and had to flinch back as my right cheek touched my skin and began to burn with pain. I still couldn't see out of my right eye. "Dammit, after all this. Dammit."

The fire popped and crackled and no one said anything.

"He's in a lot of pain," Listens-to-Wind said quietly, breaking the silence. "At least I can make him more comfortable. And you need some more attention, too." He put a hand on my shoulder. "Take the shield down. Please."

I didn't want to do it.

But this wasn't about me.

I showed Molly how to lower the shield.

We got Morgan settled into a bunk on the Water Beetle and prepared to leave. Molly, troubled and worried about me, had volunteered to stay with Morgan. Listens-to-Wind had offered to show her something of what he did with healing magic. I grabbed some painkillers while we were there, and felt like I could at least walk far enough to find Will and Georgia.

Demonreach showed me where they were sleeping, and I led Ebenezar through the woods toward them.

"How did Injun Joe know about me claiming this place as a sanctum?" I asked.

"Messenger arrived from Rashid," Ebenezar said. "He's more familiar with what you can do with that kind of bond. So he went up to find you and get you to take those trees out from under the bugs."

I shook my head. "I've never seen anyone do shapeshifting the way he did it."