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Horde Thief
Chapter 40
The call I'd been expecting came most of a week after our visit to Florida. I picked up the phone, ready to snarl something murderous if it turned out to be yet another attempt to sell me something I most definitely didn't need. Right up until I recognised the voice on the other end, and before they got past the first syllable.
"Hello Harry." I almost dropped the receiver as Anastasia Luccio's voice greeted me, sending my thoughts rushing down a maze of possibilities. We'd not talked in, stars and stones, it was years now. Why was she calling me? I mean, ok, I wasn't really going to complain, but it did leave me with a rather immediate question. How to address her?
"Ah, Captain," I began, and a laugh I hadn't realised I'd missed bounced down the slightly crackly line.
"That isn't how I signed my letter to you," she said, all but making the statement a question, and the wicked smile on her face was palpable. I somehow manged not to sputter out half a reply as I absorbed what she'd said, and as it did my expression softened into a smile of my own. One she'd know, just as I knew hers.
"Hello, Ana," I said, a touch ruefully, and she treated me to another rolling laugh, though this one was shorter. Anastasia and I had been, well, an item for a time. It had never been truly serious, but we'd made each other laugh, and enjoyed each other's company, deeply. Unfortunately, she'd been subtly pushed into the relationship by the mental influence of a spy on the White Council, something that had been discovered only after I'd revealed him. We'd never done anything she hadn't wanted to do, but hadn't been her making the choices. That had ended our relationship, though we'd remained allies, and even friends.
Except I hadn't actually talked to her since a few days before my death, and her letter to me had been the first contact we'd had since. She'd not been impersonal in her letter, but I'd still worried a little about the two years spent totally out of communication. That, well, wasn't what friends were meant to do. Then again, nobody has ever accused me of being a good judge of women. The utter trainwreck that had been my love life until a little less than a year ago was a rather powerful statement in support of that.
"They've decided, haven't they," it was the only reason that Anastasia would be calling me, though the fact that it was her doing so said several very interesting things.
"They have," there was an edge of deep satisfaction in the voice of the Captain of the Wardens, one I'd heard before after hard fought victories. "The Merlin knew that there's been a movement building in support of what this Mr Targaryen put forward," her pronunciation of Viserys' name was loaded with meaning, "but he and his allies have been put somewhat on the spot by the speed with which he's been moving. Thanks to your warning, we weren't."
It hadn't been easy getting that message through without others noticing it, but I'd done it. And thanks to that, when Viserys had outlined his request to the White Council, those who supported a more preventative approach to the Laws had been ready. I'd never have expected to have the Captain of the Wardens herself leading the charge on that, but knowing her as I did, I knew why she was. Regardless of how strong the White Council had exited the war with the Red Court, the Wardens were still stretched thin. Anything that could reduce that strain would be something she'd support.
"I'm glad I could help," I said, and I meant it. My bringing her attention to the Paranet had started her down this path, and I was just as invested in its success as she was. Possibly more so, but at the same time, it wasn't my political reputation on the line. Not that I really had one.
"Just deliver on what you promised," she replied firmly. "We won't get another chance like this, Harry, not now that we're out in the open. The only reason we were able to force this was thanks to your friend making the Merlin more focused on him as a danger than us. He tried to squash things, and because we were ready for it, we surprised him." Unsaid was the number of favours she must have called in to do so.
Anastasia had spent years building up support for this within the White Council's political networks, and as Captain of the Wardens her opinion carried considerable weight in matters pertaining to the Laws. And yet, she'd needed those years to prepare, and an outside individual sending the conservative sections of the Council into a figurative tailspin on the matter to actually get things to this point.
"He will," I had no doubt of that. "After Florida, I don't think he's willing to accept even the idea of failure. This is important to him, Ana. I don't know exactly why, but it's important." She made a noncommittal sound down the phone, but that was understandable. She hadn't met Viserys.
"Your report looks like it got very ugly," she said softly. "The meeting will take place in two days. Edinburgh." My thoughts jammed on the last word.
"What?" I didn't snap, but it was a close run thing. Edinburgh? Why – it hit me just before Anastasia continued, as if I hadn't said a word.
"The White Council of Wizards extends a formal invitation of audience to the being known as Viserys Targaryen. The affair shall be conducted under a pledge of hospitality from both sides, and with a guarantee of safe passage to and from the Halls of Edinburgh." She paused, and I could see the small quirk of a smile before she spoke again. "You told me he could speak with the best of them. That he got through to the members of the Senior Council like he did was proof enough of that. And if we want to end this now, before the Merlin can recover, this is how we do it."
A formal audience. The last time the Council had offered one of those had been to Duchess Arianna Ortega of the Red Court, just before the war with them had come to an abrupt and terminal end for her and all the rest of her kind. But she was right. With the Council not in any formal state of war, only continuous skirmishes with the Fomor, any vote on this would be one for the full membership of the body. The only way to call that together was a formal audience, and my already considerable respect for Anastasia rose again as I realised how difficult an invitation to Viserys must have been to arrange.
"Are you my contact for this, Captain?" I asked, deliberately formal.
"I am, Warden." Luccio confirmed. "You are directed to deliver this invitation to Mr Targaryen post-haste, and to convey his reply back to me so that proper arrangements can be made."
"Then I will do as the Council commands," I let the hard tone fade into a more personal one. "Thanks, Ana."
"Just be right." And she hung up. I looked down at the phone for long enough that it clicked to a dial tone, then shook my head to clear the wild thoughts from it. An audience, stars and stones. That might just be enough. And if anything was going to let Viserys really cut loose with the fire I'd seen building inside of him ever since Florida, that would be it. He'd not stopped his work with Molly and I, but his focus had drifted elsewhere, onto the approaching meeting with the White Council I guessed.
I checked the time, I had a lesson with Naomi today, going through the basic motions like I'd done with Molly. Naomi was, for now, far more amenable to listening and doing what she was told than my first apprentice ever had been, and the quiet girl had somehow ended up dubbed a member of the extended family by Maggie. If she was an older sister or a cousin apparently depended on some arcane confluence of the day of the week and other factors that was entirely beyond me. If I left now, given the traffic, I'd be there with some time to talk to Viserys.
Doing it over the phone would have been easier, but at the very least I owed it to Viserys to take this personally. And, of course, I'd be going there anyway. Maggie was out with the Carpenters today, Karin was busy with Chicago Alliance work, and Bonnie would be fine on her own. Still, I'd make sure she knew I was going.
"Bonnie," I called, putting down the phone and walking upstairs to where my less corporeal daughter was happily devouring a stack of magazines. Not literally, honest. "I'm going to be heading out early today, is that ok?"
She made an odd little sound, and then her eyelights flicked over to me. "Naomi's lessons are today." She chirped. "So something you need to talk with Viserys about?"
"Yes," I smiled. "Will you be ok until Karin gets back?" We weren't living together, not technically, but Karin was at my home a lot, now.
"Of course." Bonnie told me, blissfully unconcerned. "I've got more to read."
"Alright then. Tell Karin I'll be back normal time, ok?"
"Yes, dad." The words were still a little hard to process in the context of my being one, but I was getting there. After nine months or so, maybe, but that still counts. I headed out.
***
Traffic in Chicago has never been exactly sane, but at least the massive hearse I had now, courtesy of…someone in Winter, wasn't about to be run over by a modern SUV. It was more likely to do the running over itself. I'd had some covert adjustments made to the monstrous car, mundane measures but still effective. I couldn't make the vehicle bombproof, maybe, but I could make sure that the next time a bunch of armoured pixies tried to kill me in it, they'd have a much harder time of it. And it even ran smoothly. Most of the time.
I pulled up the drive of Viserys' home, the dark blue monstrosity growling up the drive. I was sure an ancient Cadillac with a flame motif in electric purple on the side was entirely unsuspicious and normal for the Gold Coast. Hells bells, for all I knew it might be. I parked on the gravel in front of the house, and let the car click and cool for a second before stepping out, wondering if it would be Kessa or Daor today. The two very similar women were Naomi's caretakers when Viserys was away, but the purple eyes and pale hair that matched Viserys himself made me wonder exactly what they were. He'd not come here with anyone else, so they had to be servitors of a sort, though whatever they were, Viserys clearly trusted them around a child.
Given what he'd gone through to save and then protect the child, and that he was making sure she wasn't growing up an orphan captive to the system that had been less than good to myself, I wasn't in much of a mood to argue. Even given the detached, protective menace that both of the apparent women radiated around their charge.
"Harry?" Viserys came out through the doors to the place as I walked up the steps, dressed more casually than I'd seen him. Of course, it could all just be a veil, but there was something quite odd about seeing him dressed in jeans and an undershirt. "I thought your lesson with Naomi wasn't for another twenty minutes?"
"It's not," I told him, coming to a stop and leaning forward whilst pitching my voice low. It never hurt to be careful. "The Council called. They've come to a decision."
"Ah," his eyes flashed with something very hard. "Please then, come in."
A short walk to his office followed, and I laid it out for him. What Anastasia had told me, what she specifically hadn't, and what she'd managed to do.
"The White Council doesn't given out invitations like this lightly, Viserys," I explained, finishing up. "And if it's been extended then they're going to be meeting anyway, probably to discuss this matter. From what Luccio said, the Merlin would probably win that vote without something changing it, but," I paused, and Viserys smiled that same, dangerous smile that I'd last seen on his face when he'd been about to drop the remains of the Fomor's last American stronghold into the Atlantic.
"But there is something to change it." He nodded. "Thank you, Harry. When you get home, tell Captain Luccio that I accept. I can work with this."
