Butcher, Jim - Dresden Files 09 by White Knight TXT

Author:White Knight TXT [TXT, White Knight]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-05-17T05:20:17.562000+00:00

"She's dangerous in a different way than most," I said. "But I think her word is good."

"It is," Ramirez said firmly. "I saw that much."

"It's one of the things that makes her dangerous," I said, and headed for the limo. "Stay cool."

We walked over and I leaned down to see Lara in the back of the limo, seated on one of the dogcart-style seats, all poise and beauty and gorgeous gray eyes. She smiled at me as I looked in, and crooked a finger.

"Step into my limo," said the spider to the fly.

And we did.

*CHAPTER* Thirty-six

The limo rolled right past the enormous stone house that was the chateau proper. It was bigger than a parking garage, and covered with cornices and turrets and gargoyles, like some kind of neo-Medieval castle.

"We're, uh," I noted, "not stopping at the house."

"No," Lara said from the seat facing us. Even in the dark, you could see the glow of her luminous skin. "The conclave is being held in the Deeps." Her eyes glittered at me. "Less walking for everyone, that way."

I gave her a small smile and said, "I like the house. The whole castle-look thing. It's always nice to know you're living somewhere that could withstand a besieging army of Bohemian mercenaries if it had to."

"Or American wizards," she replied smoothly.

I gave her what I hoped was a wolfish smile, folded my arms, and watched the house go by. We turned down a little gravel lane and drove another mile or so before the car slowed and came to a stop. Bodyguard George got out and opened the door for Lara, whose thigh brushed against mine as she got out, and whose perfume smelled good enough to scramble my brain for a good two or three seconds.

Both I and Ramirez sat still for a second.

"That," I said, "is an awfully lovely woman. I thought I should let you know, kid, in case your inexperience had blinded you to the fact."

"Lying," Ramirez stated, blushing. "Evil."

I snickered and slid out of the car to follow Lara - and the three more bodyguards waiting for her - into the woods beside the gravel lane.

The last time I'd found the entrance to the Deeps, I'd been stumbling through the woods, focused on a tracking spell and tripping over roots and hummocks in the old-growth forest.

This time, there was a lighted path, with a red carpet, no less, leading down between the trees. The lights were all of soft blues and greens, small lamps that, upon a closer glance, proved to be elegant little crystal cages containing tiny, humanoid forms with wings. Faeries, tiny pixies, each surrounded by its own sphere of light, trapped and miserable, crouched in the cages.

Between each cage knelt more prisoners - humans, bound by nothing more than a single strand of white silk about their throats tied to a peg driven into the earth in front of them. They weren't naked. Lara wouldn't have gone in for anything that overt. Instead, they each wore a white silk kimono, accented with strands of silver thread.

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