Jordans face went pale but he didnt respond in any way.
Your boss, kid, I said. Hes hurt a lot of good people. Killed some of them.
For a second I flashed back on a memory of Shiro. The old Knight had given his life in exchange for mine. Nicodemus and company had killed him, horribly.
I still owed them for that.
Something of that must have shown in my face, because Jordan took a step back from me, swallowed, and one of his hands slipped toward the sling of his shotgun.
If you were smart, I said, youd get away from this place. Comes time for the balloon to go up, Nicodemus is going to feed you into the meat grinder the second it becomes convenient for him. I dont know what hes promised you guysmaybe Coins of your own, someday. Your very own angel in a bottle. Ive done that. Its not all its cracked up to be.
Jordan, in addition to looking worried, also looked skeptical.
Not a lot of guys who pick up a Blackened Denarius manage to put it back down again, I guess.
Take it from me, I said. Whatever youve been toldthe Fallen are bad news. I nodded to him and walked past him. Karrin and Valmont hurried to keep pace with me as I descended toward the factory floor.
What was the point of that? Karrin asked.
Sowing seeds of discord, I replied.
Theyre fanatics, she said. Do you really think youre going to convince them of anything now?
Hes a fanatic, I said. Hes also a kid. What, maybe twenty-three? Someone should tell him the truth.
Even when you know he isnt going to listen?
That part isnt mine to choose, I said. I can choose to tell him the truth, though. So I did. The rest is up to him.
She sighed. If he gets the order, hell gun you down without blinking.
Maybe.
There are only ten goats in the pen today, she noted.
Yeah. The guards think something is in here with them, taking them.
They think? But they havent seen whatever it is?
Apparently not.
Karrin looked around the warehouse. At least eight or ten hard-looking men with weapons were standing with a clear view of the goat pen. I find that somewhat disturbing.
Yeah, I said. Tell me about it. Therere only so many ways to hide. Ill see if I can spot it.
Do you think it was here with us yesterday?
Yeah. Probably.
She muttered something under her breath. Thats not too creepy or anything. Cant you just wizard-Sightit?
I could, I said. A wizards Sight, the direct perception of magic with the mind, could cut through any kind of illusion or glamour or veil. But it had its drawbacks. But the last time I did that, I got a look at something that had me curled into a ball gibbering for a couple of hours. I dont think we can afford that right now. Ill have to use something more subtle.
Subtle, Valmont said. You.
I sniffed and ignored that remark, as it deserved.
Ah, Nicodemus said, as we reached the pool of light around the conference table. Mr. Dresden. Im glad to see you here on time. Will you have doughnuts?
I looked past him to the snack table. It was indeed piled with doughnuts of a number of varieties. Some of them even had sprinkles. My mouth started a quick impression of a minor tributary.
But they were doughnuts of darkness. Evil, damned doughnuts, tainted by the spawn of darkness . . .
. . . which could obviously be redeemed only by passing through the fiery, cleansing inferno of a wizardly digestive tract.
I walked around the table to the doughnut tray, eyeing everyone seated there as I did.
Nicodemus and Deirdre were present, looking much as they had yesterday. Binder and Ascher sat there, too, a little way down the table, speaking quietly to each other. Binder, in his dark, sedate suit, was eating some kind of pastry that didnt look familiar to me.
Ascher had a plate covered in the remnants of doughnuts that she was apparently struggling to redeem from the hellfire even now. She had changed back into her jeans-and-sweater look, and bound up her hair. A few ringlets escaped here and there and bounced slightly as she spoke. She gave me a small nod as I went by, which I returned.
Seated at the table a little apart from everyone else was an unremarkable-looking man who hadnt been there yesterday. Late thirties, if I had to guess, medium height, solid-seeming, as if he had more muscle to him than was readily apparent beneath jeans and a loose-fitting designer athletic jacket. His features were clean-cut, pleasant without being particularly handsome. He had a slightly dark complexion, and the right bone structure to pass for a resident just about anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, and in chunks of the rest of the world. His dark hair had a few threads of grey in it.
One thing about him wasnt averagehis eyes. They were kind of golden brown with flecks of bronze in them, but that wasnt the strange part. There was a sheen to them, almost like a trick of the light, a semi-metallic refraction from their surface, there for a second and then gone again. They werent human eyes. They looked human in every specification, but something about them was just off.
Something else about him bothered me, too . . .
Your boss, kid, I said. Hes hurt a lot of good people. Killed some of them.
For a second I flashed back on a memory of Shiro. The old Knight had given his life in exchange for mine. Nicodemus and company had killed him, horribly.
I still owed them for that.
Something of that must have shown in my face, because Jordan took a step back from me, swallowed, and one of his hands slipped toward the sling of his shotgun.
If you were smart, I said, youd get away from this place. Comes time for the balloon to go up, Nicodemus is going to feed you into the meat grinder the second it becomes convenient for him. I dont know what hes promised you guysmaybe Coins of your own, someday. Your very own angel in a bottle. Ive done that. Its not all its cracked up to be.
Jordan, in addition to looking worried, also looked skeptical.
Not a lot of guys who pick up a Blackened Denarius manage to put it back down again, I guess.
Take it from me, I said. Whatever youve been toldthe Fallen are bad news. I nodded to him and walked past him. Karrin and Valmont hurried to keep pace with me as I descended toward the factory floor.
What was the point of that? Karrin asked.
Sowing seeds of discord, I replied.
Theyre fanatics, she said. Do you really think youre going to convince them of anything now?
Hes a fanatic, I said. Hes also a kid. What, maybe twenty-three? Someone should tell him the truth.
Even when you know he isnt going to listen?
That part isnt mine to choose, I said. I can choose to tell him the truth, though. So I did. The rest is up to him.
She sighed. If he gets the order, hell gun you down without blinking.
Maybe.
There are only ten goats in the pen today, she noted.
Yeah. The guards think something is in here with them, taking them.
They think? But they havent seen whatever it is?
Apparently not.
Karrin looked around the warehouse. At least eight or ten hard-looking men with weapons were standing with a clear view of the goat pen. I find that somewhat disturbing.
Yeah, I said. Tell me about it. Therere only so many ways to hide. Ill see if I can spot it.
Do you think it was here with us yesterday?
Yeah. Probably.
She muttered something under her breath. Thats not too creepy or anything. Cant you just wizard-Sightit?
I could, I said. A wizards Sight, the direct perception of magic with the mind, could cut through any kind of illusion or glamour or veil. But it had its drawbacks. But the last time I did that, I got a look at something that had me curled into a ball gibbering for a couple of hours. I dont think we can afford that right now. Ill have to use something more subtle.
Subtle, Valmont said. You.
I sniffed and ignored that remark, as it deserved.
Ah, Nicodemus said, as we reached the pool of light around the conference table. Mr. Dresden. Im glad to see you here on time. Will you have doughnuts?
I looked past him to the snack table. It was indeed piled with doughnuts of a number of varieties. Some of them even had sprinkles. My mouth started a quick impression of a minor tributary.
But they were doughnuts of darkness. Evil, damned doughnuts, tainted by the spawn of darkness . . .
. . . which could obviously be redeemed only by passing through the fiery, cleansing inferno of a wizardly digestive tract.
I walked around the table to the doughnut tray, eyeing everyone seated there as I did.
Nicodemus and Deirdre were present, looking much as they had yesterday. Binder and Ascher sat there, too, a little way down the table, speaking quietly to each other. Binder, in his dark, sedate suit, was eating some kind of pastry that didnt look familiar to me.
Ascher had a plate covered in the remnants of doughnuts that she was apparently struggling to redeem from the hellfire even now. She had changed back into her jeans-and-sweater look, and bound up her hair. A few ringlets escaped here and there and bounced slightly as she spoke. She gave me a small nod as I went by, which I returned.
Seated at the table a little apart from everyone else was an unremarkable-looking man who hadnt been there yesterday. Late thirties, if I had to guess, medium height, solid-seeming, as if he had more muscle to him than was readily apparent beneath jeans and a loose-fitting designer athletic jacket. His features were clean-cut, pleasant without being particularly handsome. He had a slightly dark complexion, and the right bone structure to pass for a resident just about anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, and in chunks of the rest of the world. His dark hair had a few threads of grey in it.
One thing about him wasnt averagehis eyes. They were kind of golden brown with flecks of bronze in them, but that wasnt the strange part. There was a sheen to them, almost like a trick of the light, a semi-metallic refraction from their surface, there for a second and then gone again. They werent human eyes. They looked human in every specification, but something about them was just off.
Something else about him bothered me, too . . .
