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“They say you can know a man by his enemies, Dresden.” He smiled, and laughter lurked beneath his next words, never quite surfacing. “You defy beings that should cow you into silence. You resist forces that are inevitable for no more reason than that you believe they should be resisted. You bow your head to neither demons nor angels, and you put yourself in harm’s way to defend those who cannot defend themselves.” He nodded slowly. “I think I like you.”
He had a hearty laugh, like Santa Claus must have had when he was young and playing football.
“Butters,” I said. “Look at me.” He did, his eyes wide. “Polka,” I said, “will never die.”
She stared up at me with uncomprehending eyes, black blood staining her mouth. “Cattle. You are c-cattle.” “Moo,” I said. And I lifted my right hand. Her eyes widened further. She gasped a word I didn’t know. From the corner of my eye, I saw the Red King rise from his distant throne. I poured all that was left of my fury into my hand and snarled, “No one touches my little girl.” The explosion of force and fire tore a crater in the ground seven feet across and half as deep. Arianna’s broken, headless corpse lay sprawled within it. Silence fell over the ruined city.
“Fuego!” shouted someone on the walls—and for a second I was hit with a little sting of insult. Someone was shouting “fuego” and it wasn’t me.
I’ve heard that nature abhors a vacuum—though if that’s true, then I can’t figure why about ninety-nine zillion percent of creation is vacuum. But I do know that governments hate ’em, and always rush to fill them up. So do criminals. Which probably tells you more about human beings than it does about nature.
“Everything’s never in the open, son,” he responded. “There’re things we keep hidden from one another. Things we hide from ourselves. Things that are kept hidden from us. And things no one knows. You always learn the damnedest things at the worst possible times. Or that’s been my experience.”
“He’s Black Council,” I said. “Or maybe stupid,” Ebenezar countered. I thought about it. “Not sure which is scarier.” Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. “Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid’s everywhere, every day.”
“That’s the one thing all these dark beings and powers can’t do. Take away your ability to choose. They can kill you. They can make you do things—but they can’t make you choose to do ’em. They almost always try to lie to you about that. Don’t fall for it.”
But maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised: Even in Winter, the cold isn’t always bitter, and not every day is cruel.
