Free Changes by Jim Butcher Page B

we’ve thrown at them yet.”
    “Um,” Molly said, “what if they’re serious about making peace?”
    Everyone looked at her, and my apprentice visibly wilted beneath the Merlin’s gaze.
    “It might happen,” she said.
    Langtry smiled faintly. “The leopard cannot change his spots, Miss Carpenter. Sheep can befriend a hungry wolf only briefly. The Red Court is all savagery and crocodile tears. If they make peace, it is only because they need the time to replenish themselves before fighting anew.”
    “Really old things get set in their ways,” I confirmed to Molly, my tone including Langtry as a matter of course. “Always hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
    Molly chewed her lip thoughtfully and nodded.
    Langtry eyed me and said, “Need I explain why I have explained, Dresden?”
    “Maybe you’d better,” I said. “I mean, you didn’t use illustrations or anything, Professor.”
    Langtry inhaled, briefly closed his eyes, and then looked away from me.
    “Um?” Molly said, frowning.
    “We want the Red Court to attack, if that is their intention,” I told her. “We want the Red Court to think their trick is working. We want them to be overconfident. Then when they hit us, we hit them back so hard and fast that they don’t know it’s coming until it’s over.”
    “No,” Langtry said. “So they never knew it was coming. Period. We will no longer wage a war with that filth, cold, hot, or otherwise. We’re going to destroy them, root and branch.” He lifted his chin slightly as his voice turned to frost. “We’re going to exterminate them.”
    Silence followed. The fire crackled cheerfully.
    I felt my hands clench into fists. “But you need them to expose themselves first. And that,” I whispered, “is why you’re going to ask me to lay off Duchess Arianna.”
    “Don’t be absurd,” Langtry said in a calm, quiet voice. “I am not asking you. I am ordering you to desist, Warden Dresden.”
    “And let the child die,” I said.
    “In all probability the child is already dead, or else turned,” Langtry said. “And even if she still survives, we must face a cold truth: Uncounted billions now living and yet to be born will be saved if we stop the Red Court from feeding on humanity ever again .” His voice became even colder. “No one life, innocent or not, is worth more than that.”
    I said nothing for several long, silent seconds.
    Then I stood up. I faced the Merlin for a moment. I could feel the obdurate, adamant will that drove the man, and made his power the greatest well of mortal magic on the face of the earth.
    “You’ve got it backward, you know,” I told him quietly. “No life is worth more than that? No, Merlin. No life is worth less.”
    His expression never changed. But his fingers tightened slightly on his staff. His cold blue eyes touched lightly upon Molly, and then returned to me.
    The threat was plain to see.
    I leaned over close to his ear and whispered, “Go ahead, Arthur. Try it.” Then I straightened slowly away, letting every emotion and every thought drain out of my expression. The tension in the air was thick. No one moved. I could see Molly trembling where she sat.
    I nodded slowly at the Merlin.
    Then I said in a quiet, clear voice, “Grasshopper.”
    Molly stood up immediately.
    I kept myself between the girl and Langtry as we walked to the door. He didn’t offer any challenge, but his eyes were arctic and absolute. Behind him, Luccio gave me a single, tiny, conspiratorial nod.
    Hell’s bells. She’d known who she would be working against all along.
    Molly and I left Edinburgh behind and headed back home to Chicago.

9
    I watched out for trouble all the way back to Chicago, but it didn’t show up.
    The trip from Edinburgh would be a difficult one if limited by strictly physical means of transport. Wizards and jet planes go together like tornados and trailer parks, and with similarly disastrous results. Boats are probably the surest means of