Turn Coat (The Dresden Files 11)

I wanted to scream at him, but he was right. More sirens had closed in on the park. We had to leave. I grabbed the handles to Morgan's chair, started for the portal, and said, "Let's go, people."

Dammit, Thomas, I snarled to myself. Where the hell are you?

Chapter Twenty

The portal in my hideaway opened three steps from the trail in the Nevernever, all right, but those three steps weren't handicapped-accessible. Molly and I each had to get under one of Morgan's arms and half carry him to the trail. I left Molly and Mouse with him, went back half carry him to the trail. I left Molly and Mouse with him, went back and got the wheelchair, and dragged it up the frozen slope to a path that was all but identical to the one I'd been on earlier.

We loaded Morgan into the wheelchair again. He was pale and shaking by the time we were finished. I laid a hand against his forehead. It was hot with fever.

Morgan jerked his head away from my fingers, scowling.

"What is it?" Molly asked. She had thought to grab both coats I'd had waiting, and had already put one of them on.

"He's burning up," I said quietly. "Butters said that could mean the wound had been infected."

"I'm fine," Morgan said, shivering.

Molly helped him into the second coat, looking around at the frozen, haunted wood with nervous eyes. "Shouldn't we get him out of the cold, then?"

"Yeah," I said, buttoning my duster shut. "It's maybe ten minutes from here to the downtown portal."

"Does the vampire know about that, too?" Morgan growled.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you'd be walking into an obvious trap, Dresden."

"All right, that's it," I snapped. "One more comment about Thomas and you're going body sledding."

"Thomas?" Morgan's pale face turned a little darker as he raised his voice. "How many corpses is it going to take to make you come to your senses, Dresden?"

Molly swallowed. "Harry, um, excuse me."

Both of us glared at her.

She flushed and avoided eye contact. "Isn't this the Nevernever?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Obviously," Morgan said at the same time.

We faced each other again, all but snarling.

"Okay," Molly said. "Haven't you told me that it's sort of dangerous?" She took a deep breath and hurried her speech. "I mean, you know. Isn't it sort of dumb to be standing here arguing in loud voices? All things considered?"

I suddenly felt somewhat foolish.

Morgan's glower waned. He bowed his head wearily, folding his arms across his belly.

"Yeah," I said, reining in my own temper. "Yeah, probably so."

"Not least because anyone who comes through the Ways from Edinburgh to Chicago is going to walk right over us," Morgan added.

Molly nodded. "Which would be sort of... awkward?"

I snorted quietly. I nodded my head in the proper direction, and started pushing the wheelchair down the trail. "This way."

Molly followed, her eyes darting left and right at the sounds of movement in the faerie wood around us. Mouse fell into pace beside her, and she reached down to lay a hand on the dog's back as she walked, an entirely unconscious gesture.

We moved at a steady pace and in almost complete silence for maybe five minutes before I said, "We need to know how they found out about you."

"The vampire is the best explanation," Morgan replied, his tone carefully neutral.

"I have information about him that you don't," I said. "Suppose it isn't him. How did they do it?"

Morgan pondered that for a time. "Not with magic."

"You certain?"

"Yes."

He sounded like it.

"Your countermeasures are that good?" I asked.

"Yes."

I thought about that for a minute. Then it dawned on me what Morgan had done to protect himself from supernatural discovery. "You called in your marker. The silver oak leaf. The one Titan-" I forced myself to stop, glancing uneasily around the faerie forest. "The one the Summer Queen awarded you."

Morgan turned his head slightly to glance at me over his shoulder.

I whistled. I'd seen Queen Titania with my Sight once. The tableau of Titania and her counterpart, Mab, preparing to do battle with each other still ranked as the most humbling and awe-inspiring display of pure power I had ever witnessed. "That's why you're so certain no one is going to find you. She's the one shielding you."

"I admit," Morgan said with another withering look, "it's no donut."

I scowled. "How'd you know about that?"

"Titania's retainer told me. The entire Summer Court has been laughing about it for months."

Molly made a choking sound behind me. I didn't turn around. It would just force her to put her hand over her mouth to hide the smile.

"How long did she give you?" I asked.

"Sundown tomorrow."

Thirty-six hours, give or take. A few hours more than I'd believed I had, but not much. "Do you have the oak leaf on you?"

"Of course," he said.

"May I see it?"

Morgan shrugged and drew a leather cord from around his neck. A small leather pouch hung from the cord. He opened it, felt around inside, and came out with it-a small, exquisitely detailed replica of an oak leaf, backed with a simple pin. He held it out to me.

I took it and pitched it into the haunted wood.

Morgan actually did growl, this time. "Why?"

"Because the Summer Queen bugged them. Last year, her goon squad was using mine to track me down all over Chicago."

Morgan frowned at me, and glanced out toward where I had thrown it. Then he shook his head and rubbed tiredly at his eyes with one hand. "Must be getting senile. Never even considered it."

"I don't get it," Molly said. "Isn't he still protected, anyway?"

"He is," I said. "But that leaf isn't. So if the Summer Queen wants him found, or if someone realizes what she's doing and makes her a deal, she can keep her word to Morgan to hide him, and give him away. All she has to do is make sure someone knows to look for the spell on the oak leaf."

"The Sidhe are only bound to the letter of their agreements," Morgan said, nodding. "Which is why one avoids striking bargains with them unless there are no options."

"So Binder could have been following the oak leaf?" Molly asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe."

"It is still entirely possible that the Summer Queen is dealing in good faith," Morgan said.