S Stirling - The Council of Shadows

Harvey touched Adrian on the shoulder. Ellen fought down a slight pang; they'd been together for a long time before she met Adrian at all. It was illogical, but…

What was that old saying? The heart has its reasons that the mind knows not?

"Son, you should let that go," Harvey said, his voice quiet but compelling. "You can't help those two kids you remember, even if one of them was you. They're both dead. They became you, you and your sister. You both made your choices."

Adrian looked up at the Texan. "Harvey, I made the choices I did because of you. You took me out. Adrienne stayed behind and became…what she is. It was a close thing for me even so, sometimes, Harvey. Being good is hard for us. It's so easy for you humans-I've known a lot of bitterness, a lot of envy over that."

Ellen laid her hand on her husband's shoulder, beside that of his friend.

"You did manage it, darling."

"But…I had the opportunity. Adrienne never did; and the little girl I loved is dead, murdered by the thing she became. How can I leave the flesh of my flesh there, to lose them the same way?"

Ellen nodded. "You can't. And no child should be treated the way they will be."

Adrian sighed and looked down at his elegant, slender hands. "My parents will…love them, in their way."

"That makes things worse, not better. You can turn against an outright abuser. Someone who really loves you can lead you into the pit."

"And the children are Shadowspawn, Ellen. Purebreds, even more than I. Perhaps the purest-bred in twenty thousand years. Very powerful, hideously dangerous."

Ellen snorted. "Now, that's, well, racist. You aren't a bad man, Adrian. And you're extremely powerful and dangerous. There's no reason they have to be bad, no matter what they can do. You're vacillating. It isn't like you." More quietly. "They look so much like you. The boy was like seeing you at that age."

"Oh, Jesus," Harvey said wearily. "Do you two do this we-are-the-dyadic-unit thing all the time! "

Ellen flushed; she'd become very used to being alone with Adrian. Adrian's face firmed and lost the slightly wistful expression it had worn for an instant.

"And there is a nexus here, Harvey."

The Texan's face altered, going very still. A probability nexus was nothing to take lightly. The fact that they could seldom be pinned down in detail simply made that more essential. Nobody who had enough of the Power to Wreak at all doubted the existence of the precognitive ability, and Adrian had an awesome degree of it.

"What sort?" he said cautiously.

"I am not altogether sure, but a powerful one. Extremely powerful, and growing very rapidly; I can feel it looming out of the spray of futures, cutting across one path after another. And I am increasingly convinced that not doing this is black-pathed. When I try to invoke common sense and convince myself not to do it, cold winds blow. Both for me personally and for the world. It has been troubling me for some time; I think that was why I avoided thinking of the children as much as I could. Since Ellen mentioned them it has been forcing its way into my conscious mind."

One of the grizzled eyebrows went up. "You sure your feelings aren't pushin' you there?"

Adrian spread his hands. "No, I'm not sure of that at all," he said frankly. "But one can never be sure. Even with an overt Seeing, rather than just an intimation like this. It is enough to convince me, my old. And my subconscious has a lively sense of self-preservation. If the Power is prompting me to do this thing, despite the obvious risks, then there is some hideous danger involved in not doing it. We cannot know what the danger is, but it is there. And if we ignore the warning, we will find out the danger far too late."

" Or someone stronger than you is tweakin' it."

Harvey held up a hand as Ellen began to speak; she felt a little relief. Even now, parts of her brain screamed, This is crazy! at logic like that.

And that's after I've seen people turn into… well, not bats, but things with wings, and walk through walls.

"All right," Harvey said slowly. "I've got a powerful respect for your precog, Adrian. Plus we do have some downtime in a few months, and it is the best opportunity…which don't make it good. It's an unjustified risk before the Tbilisi thing. Though I can probably even sell it to Sheila Poison."

Adrian raised a brow and said to Ellen: "Did I mention her? The Brotherhood's executive for western North America?"

"Yes. Bigoted bitch was the term you used."

Adrian grinned. "I didn't think she altogether liked me," he said. "And I thought that she disliked me for my genes, which I can't help, rather than my actions, which I usually can. Doubly ironic because she has considerably more of the Shadowspawn inheritance than Harvey here. Projected self-loathing is one of the occupational hazards of the Brotherhood. Also a reason I, ah, resigned."

Harvey snorted. "She didn't like you, until you pulled off the Rancho Sangre thing. Hajime and the late unlamented Adrienne, that's quite a bit of counting coup. You got real chops with her now, son."

" We pulled that off."

"Yeah, it ain't hurt my chops with the organization either. There's not a person in the Brotherhood didn't cheer, which makes up for bein' a loose cannon, sorta. A little."

Ellen murmured. "Harvey Ledbetter, organization man?"

"Not so much. More like the Brotherhood's indispensible skunk," Harvey said. "But I think I can sell it to her. Say rescuin' a pureblood and raisin' him right worked with you, and there's no reason we couldn't do it again; and we should strike fast, because the younger we get 'em, the more likely it is to work out right. It'd make a powerful difference if we had more major mojo like yours on our side. I can bring her 'round…if I work at it for a while."

"Ah," Adrian said. "That is good!"

"And I'll go on the op, too, of course."

"No," Adrian said, shaking his head. "You were definitely made as the shooter during the fracas. Not the first time you'd killed them…remember how Hajime tried to make me give you up, by name? It takes a great hatred for them to notice a specific human that way."

Harvey grinned with happy ferocity. "I don't mind havin' that sort of rep. Still, I know the ground…"

"And it knows you, by now: Wreakings aimed at you specifically. I am fairly sure that the Tokairin would do so, and my parents. Farmer and Guha would do; they were covered by my penumbra and got out before anyone paid attention to them. Or any reliable Brotherhood muscle. And technical and logistic support, of course."

"That I think I can do, ol' buddy. Properly motivated, that is."

Ellen felt her skin prickle at something in Harvey's smile. "You want something for it," she said.

I didn't watch all that bargaining at the gallery for nothing.

Harvey leaned back and put a toothpick between his lips. "Tryin to quit," he said in explanation. "And yeah, I do want something."

"What?" Adrian said.

"A promise. I'm goin' along with this against my better judgment. I want a blank check for some operation sometime you think stinks. Solemn oath, Adrian, ol' buddy. I call in the favor and you go along with it, no questions, beginning to end."

Adrian hesitated, his eyes narrowing. Ellen remembered something he'd said once: that Harvey could be drastic sometimes.

You know, these guys really are terrorists in a way. I mean, they don't go out of their way to kill bystanders, but they don't seem to give much of a damn about it either, except for Adrian…and Adrian can play really rough too, I think. And they'll step on renfields like bugs. Which is fine in one way, but on the other hand that includes guys like Jose and his family, whom I mostly liked. Fighting the Bad Guys is more complicated than I thought, even when they are really-for-true evil