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A duel would mean a fair fight, and I hate fair fights. In the words of a murderous Faerie Queen, they’re too easy to lose.
‘I wouldn’t burden any decent system of faith by participating in it.’
‘So. You get handed a holy sword by an archangel, told to go fight the forces of evil, and you somehow remain an atheist. Is that what you’re saying?’
‘Yeah, but I’m not agnostic. Just nonpartisan. Theological Switzerland, that’s me.’
In this corner, one missing Shroud, one impossibly and thoroughly dead corpse, one dedicated and deadly vampire warlord, three holy knights, twenty-nine fallen angels, and a partridge in a pear tree.
I hate cryptic warnings. I know, the whole cryptic-remark concept is part and parcel of the wizard gig, but it doesn’t suit my style. I mean, what good is a warning like that? All three Knights and the population of Chicago would die if I didn’t get involved – and my number would be up if I did. That sounded like the worst kind of self-fulfilling crap.
‘No trouble,’ he said. ‘Sleep is god. Go worship.’
Amen, brother.
Mickey Mouse woke me up, my alarm jangling noisily, his little hand on two and the big hand on twelve. I wanted to smack the clock for waking me up, but I reined in the impulse. I’m not against a little creative violence now and then, but you have to draw the line somewhere. I wouldn’t sleep in the same room with a person who would smack Mickey Mouse.
‘Three blind men were shown an elephant. They touched it with their hands to determine what the creature was. The first man felt the trunk, and claimed that an elephant was like a snake. The second man touched its leg and claimed that an elephant was like a tree. The third man touched its tail, and claimed that the elephant was like a slender rope.’
And so, not knowing what the universe means, I can only try to be responsible with the knowledge, the strength, and the time given to me. I must be true to my heart.’
Tigers with full stomachs wear smiles like Marcone’s when they’re watching baby deer play.
‘Thus do I strike a blow for anarchy whenever the mood takes me,’
A girl after my own heart, Anna Valmont had a quick reply. She shot him some more.
I threw on a puppet’s Transylvanian accent. ‘Count as high as you vant, but you von’t get one, one detonator, ah, ah, ah.’
The blood on their hands does not make it right to bloody my own. My choices are measured against my own soul. Not against the stains on theirs.’
‘The woman, the Fellowship woman. She is yours?’ I felt my lip lift away from my teeth. Cassius’s eyes gleamed. ‘She bled prettily, didn’t she? The next time I catch her, you won’t be there to disrupt my conjuration. I’ll let the snakes eat her. Bite by bite.’ I stared at him. Cassius smiled again. ‘But there is mercy for me, is there not? Forgiveness. Indeed, God is great.’ I turned away from him again and said, very quietly, ‘People like you always mistake compassion for weakness. Michael and Sanya aren’t weak. Fortunately for you, they’re good men.’ Cassius laughed at me. ‘Unfortunately for
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‘What do you think you’re doing?’ He gasped. ‘You can’t . . . you won’t . . .’ I leaned down and twisted his false priest’s collar, half choking him. ‘The Knights are good men. I’m not. And I won’t lose a second’s sleep over killing you.’
Shiro died. There was nothing pretty about it. There was no dignity to it. He’d been brutalized and savagely murdered – and he’d allowed it to happen to him in my place. But when he died, there was a small, contented smile on his face. Maybe the smile of someone who had run his course without wavering from it. Someone who had served something greater than himself. Who had given up his life willingly, if not gladly.
Mister Dresden is a diplomatically challenged individual. He should be in a shelter for the tactless.’
It isn’t good to hold on too hard to the past. You can’t spend your whole life looking back. Not even when you can’t see what lies ahead. All you can do is keep on keeping on, and try to believe that tomorrow will be what it should be – even if it isn’t what you expected.
