And then Ebenezar's voice said, quite clearly and from no apparent source, "Damn your stubborn eyes, boy! Where have you been?"
I went rigid with surprise for a second. I looked around the interior of the limo, but no one had reacted, with the exception of my godmother. Lea sighed and rolled her eyes.
Right. The speaking stones. I'd stuck mine in the bag, but since I was holding it on my lap now, it was close enough to be warmed by the heat of my body to function. It was possible to send terse messages through the stones without first establishing a clear connection, as my mentor and I had done back toward the beginning of this mess.
"Damnation and hellfire, Hoss!" growled Ebenezar's voice. "Answer me!"
I looked from Sanya to my godmother. "Uh. I kind of have to take this call."
Sanya blinked at me. Thomas and Murphy exchanged a significant glance.
"Oh, shut up," I said crossly. "It's magic, okay?"
I closed my eyes and fumbled through the bag until I found the stone. I didn't really need to show up in my outlandish costume for this conversation, so I thought about my own physical body for a moment, concentrating on an image of my limbs and flesh and normal clothing forming around my thoughts.
"So help me, boy, if you don't—"
Ebenezar appeared in my mind's eye, wearing his usual clothing. He broke off suddenly as he looked at me and his face went pale. "Hoss? Are you all right?"
"Not really," I said. "I'm kind of in the middle of something here. What do you want?"
"Your absence from the conclave did not go over well," he responded, his voice sharp. "There are people in the Grey Council who think you aren't to be trusted. They're very, very wary of you. By missing the meeting, you told them that either you don't respect our work enough to bother showing up, or else that you don't have the wisdom and the fortitude to commit to the cause."
"I never saw the appeal of peer pressure," I said. "Sir, I'm finding a little girl. I'll come play Council politics after I get her home safe, if you want."
"We need you here."
"The kid needs me more. It's not as noble as trying to save the whole White Council from its own stupidity, I know. But by God, I will bring that child out safe."
Ebenezar's mostly bald pate flushed red. "Despite my orders to the contrary."
"We aren't an army. You aren't my superior officer. Sir."
"You arrogant child," he snapped. "Get your head out of your ass and get your eyes on the world around you or you're going to get yourself killed."
"With all due respect, sir, you can go to hell," I snarled. "You think I don't know how dangerous the world is? Me?"
"I think you're doing everything in your power to isolate yourself from the only people who can support you," he said. "You feel guilty about something. I get that, Hoss. You think you ain't fit for company because of what you've done." His scowl darkened still more. "In my time, I've done things that would curl your hair. Get over it. Think."
"After I get the girl out."
"Do you even know where she is?" Ebenezar demanded.
"Chichén Itzá," I said. "She's scheduled to be the centerpiece of one of the Red King's shindigs in the next couple of hours."
Ebenezar took a sharp breath, as if I'd poked him in the stomach with the end of a quarterstaff. "Chichén Itzá . . . That's a confluence. One of the biggest in the world. The Reds haven't used it in . . . Not since Cortés was there."
"Confluence, yeah," I said. "The Duchess Arianna is going to kill her and use the power to lay a curse on her bloodline—Susan and me."
Ebenezar began to speak and then blinked several times, as if the sun had just come out of a cloud and into his eyes. "Susan and . . ." He paused and asked, "Hoss?"
"I meant to tell you the last time we spoke," I said quietly. "But . . . the conversation wasn't exactly . . ." I took a deep breath. "She's my daughter by Susan Rodriguez."
"Oh," he said very quietly. His face looked grey. "Oh, Hoss."
"Her name's Maggie. She's eight. They took her a few days ago."
He bowed his head and shook it several times, saying nothing. Then he said, "You're sure?"
"Yeah."
"H-how long have you known?"
"Since a day or so after she was taken," I said. "Surprised the hell out of me."
Ebenezar nodded without looking up. Then he said, "You're her father and she needs you. And you want to be there for her."
"Not want to be there," I said quietly. "Going to be."
"Aye-aye," he said. "Don't go back to the Edinburgh facility. We think Arianna laced it with some kind of disease while she was there. So far there are sixty wizards down with it, and we're expecting more. No deaths yet, but whatever this bug is, it's putting them flat on their backs—including Injun Joe, so our best healer isn't able to work on the problem."
"Hell's bells," I said. "They aren't just starting back in on the war again. They're going to try to decapitate the Council in one blow."
Ebenezar grunted. "Aye. And without the Way nexus around Edinburgh, we're going to have a hell of a time with that counterstroke." He sighed. "Hoss, you got a damned big talent. Not real refined, but you've matured a lot in the past few years. Handle yourself better in a fight than most with a couple of centuries behind them. Wish you could be with us."
I wasn't sure how to feel about that. Ebenezar was generally considered the heavyweight champion of the wizarding world when it came to direct, face-to-face mayhem. And I was one of the relatively few people who knew he was also the Blackstaff—the White Council's officially nonexistent hit man, authorized to ignore the Laws of Magic when he deemed it necessary. The old man had fought pretty much everything that put up a fight at one point or another, and he didn't make a habit of complimenting anyone's skills.
"I can't go with you," I said.
"Aye," he said with a firm nod. "You do whatever you have to do, boy. Whatever you have to do to keep your little girl safe. You hear?"
"Yeah," I said. "Thank you, sir."
"Godspeed, son," Ebenezar said. Then he cut the connection.
I released my focus slowly until I was once more in my body in the back of the limo.
