Dresden Files Collection 1-6 by Butcher Jim

Author:Butcher, Jim [Butcher, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-03-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Gulp.

“Me?” I said.Et la, LaFortier. Feel the bite of my rapier wit.

“Yes. Duke Ortega writes that you, Wizard Dresden, are considered a criminal by the Red Court. In order to end this conflict they wish to extradite you to an area of their designation for trial. A resolution that is, perhaps, distasteful, but may also be only just.”

He didn’t get the last word out of his mouth before several dozen wizards around the auditorium rose to their feet with outraged shouts. Others stood up to cry out against them, and still more against them. The room descended into a cacophony of shouts, threats, and cussing (among wizards, cursing is a different matter altogether) in dozens of languages.

The Merlin let people shout for a moment before he called out in a ringing voice, “Order!” No one paid him any attention. He tried once more, then lifted his staff and slammmed it down hard on the stage beside him.

There was a flash of light, a roar of sound, and a concussion that slopped the water in my glass up over the brim, spilling it on my flannel bathrobe. A couple of the wispier wizards were knocked down by the force of it—but in any case, the shouting ceased.

“Order!” the Merlin demanded again, in exactly the same tone. “I am well aware of the implications of this situation. But lives are at stake. Your lives and my own. We must consider our options with the utmost gravity.”

“What options?” Ebenezar demanded. “We are wizards, not a herd of frightened sheep. Will we give one of our own to the vampires now and pretend that none of this has happened?”

LaFortier snapped, “You read Dresden’s report. By his own admission, what the Red Court accuses him of is true. They have a just grievance.”

“The situation was clearly a manipulation, a scheme to force Dresden to those actions in hopes of killing him.”

“Then he should have been smarter,” LaFortier said, his tone flat. “Politics is not a game for children. Dresden played and was beaten. It is time for him to pay the price so that the rest of us may live in peace.”

Injun Joe put a hand on Ebenezar’s arm and spoke quietly. “Peace cannot be bought, Aleron,” he murmured to LaFortier. “History teaches that lesson. I learned it. You should have, too.”

LaFortier sneered at Injun Joe. “I don’t know what you are babbling about, but—”

I rolled my eyes and stood up again. “He’s talking about the American tribes losing their land to white settlers, dolt.” I figured Ebenezar would leave the insult out of the translation, but there were more stifled snorts from brown robes around the room. “And about Europe’s attempts to appease Hitler before the Second World War. Both attempted to purchase peace with compromise, and both got swallowed up bit by bit.”

The Merlin glared at me. “I did not recognize you, Wizard Dresden. Until you have the floor, you will refrain from such outbursts or I will have you removed from this meeting.

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