Jim Butcher - Proven Guilty

I frowned. “What’s this?” I whispered to Fix.

“Shhh,” he said. “Pay attention. She’ll get there.”

“All I needed her to do was verify what we did.”

“Be patient,” Fix whispered. “She will.”

Lily glanced over her shoulder at me and winked. I twitched. It looked exactly like the gesture from the statue that might have been Mab atop the spire at Arctis Tor.

Lily turned to Morgan and said, “Warden Morgan. Your courageous defense of the Venatori and their retainers, and your assault upon the Red King, were feats she has never seen bettered. My Queen extends her compliments and congratulations to you, Warden, and to the Council you serve. Furthermore, she will not let such acts of daring and dedication go unremarked or unrewarded, and so she has bidden me bestow upon you this token.”

Lily held up a small, intricately detailed oak leaf of pure silver. She walked over to him and pinned the oak leaf to his grey cloak, just over his heart. “I name thee friend and esquire to the Summer Court, Warden Morgan. An you find yourself in peril near the realm of the Sidhe, once, and once only, you need but touch this device and call aloud upon Titania for aid.”

Morgan got an odd look on his face, as though he had tried to make several expressions at once and gotten stuck halfway there. His mouth opened, shut, and then he settled for a deep bow at the waist and replied, “I thank thee, your Highness.”

“What the hell is that?” I whispered to Fix.

The little guy grinned. “The Order of the Silver Oak is nothing to sneeze at. Hush.”

Lily smiled, laid a slender hand over the oak leaf in benediction, then walked back over to me. “Warden Dresden,” she said. “Your own contribution to the battle is every bit as admirable. My Queen has bid me-”

“His contribution?” the Merlin said, interrupting her.

I blinked at Lily.

“Dresden was not present at the battle,” the Merlin protested.

“Indeed not,” Lily said, turning while she spoke to address every wizard there with some of her words. “In the late hours two nights ago, Warden Dresden planned and led a small force in a raid upon Arctis Tor itself.”

A collective inhalation went through the room, and was followed by a nebulous buzz of murmurs and whispering. The Merlin’s poker face was too good to tell me anything about his reaction, but Morgan’s eyebrows went up.

“Warden Dresden and his team won through the defenders of the fortress and launched an assault of fire upon the icy wellspring at the heart of Arctis Tor. His actions disrupted the dispositions of the forces of Winter upon our borders, compelling them to retreat to the fortress to deal with the offenders. Once there, the flow of time through the region was slowed, creating an opportunity for our own forces to come to your aid.

“What is she talking about?” I whispered to Fix. “I didn’t know I was going there until I got there, and the only fighting left to do was all the fetches.”

“Mmmm,” Fix murmured back. “And yet not one word she’s said has been untrue.”

I snorted.

“In short, honored Merlin,” Lily continued, “and honorable members of the Council, had Dresden not attacked the lair of Mab herself, the mightiest fortress in Winter, had Dresden not stormed the gates of Arctis Tor, the battle would surely have been lost. Every soul who came safe home again from the battle owes his life to Harry Dresden and his courage.”

Silence fell.

She looked slowly around the circle, and let the silence emphasize her previous words far more ably than any speech. “It is for this reason,” she said after a moment, “that my Queen confers upon Warden Dresden status as friend and esquire of the Summer Court.” She turned to me and pinned another silver leaf over my heart, then laid her hand over it. She looked up at me and smiled. “You, too, may once call upon us at need. Well done, Harry.”

She stood on tiptoe and gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then turned to face the Merlin. “My Queen wishes you to know, honored Merlin, that, while glad to be able to go to the aid of the Council against the threat posed by the Red Court, Winter’s forces have returned to their original positions, and once again the forces of Summer must remain vigilant of our borders. Until that situation changes, she cautions you that Summer will be able to offer its allies only limited assistance.”

The Merlin was staring at me so hard that for a second I thought he hadn’t heard Lily’s warning. Then he blinked and shook himself a little. “Of course, your Highness,” he said. “Please convey to Her Majesty the gratitude of the White Council and assure her that even in these desperate times, her friendship will not be forgotten.”

She bowed her head again. “I shall do so. And so are my duties discharged.” She retreated back to her original position, beside Fix.

“Why,” I muttered under my breath, “do I get the feeling that Titania handing me a medal can’t possibly be as simple as it looks?”

“Because you can tell a hawk from a handsaw when the wind is southerly,” Lily murmured in reply. “But it offers you some benefit today.” She smiled at me. “Surely you didn’t actually expect a Summer Queen to do simply as you bid her and no more?”

I grumbled something under my breath, while the Merlin turned to confer quietly with Morgan. A general round of whispers rose up as the wizards took the opportunity to bandy rumors and theories around.

I found Molly’s cold, trembling hand and squeezed it again.

“What happened?” the girl asked me.

“Lily talked me up like I was a hero,” I said. “Everyone seems sort of shocked.”

“Can I take this off yet?” Molly asked.

“Not yet,” I told her.

“Harry,” Ramirez said, stepping over to me. “She’s not supposed to speak.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered to him, and lowered my voice to speak to Molly. “Pipe down, kid. Try not to worry. So far, so good.”

Which was true enough. I had managed not to look like an illiterate idiot, and Lily’s impromptu medal ceremony had tacitly established my fighting credentials as something comparable to those of the Council’s most capable soldier. It didn’t mean that Molly was out of the woods, but it would give me a solid foundation for presenting her case. My credibility was everything, and I had done all that I could to establish my presence before the Council.

The Merlin had been in the game a while, and he knew exactly what I was up to. He didn’t seem too happy about it. He beckoned the Council’s secretary, a dried-up old spider of a man named Peabody, and put his head together with the old man in whispered conference.

“Order,” the Merlin called after a moment, and the room settled down immediately. “Warden Dresden,” the Merlin said. “May we continue with your explanation for the necessity of this conclave?”

I stepped back into the circle, tugging Molly along with me until we were standing on the heavy bloodstain where the boy had been executed. There was a psychic remnant of the death there, a cold, quivering tension in the air, an echo of rage and fear and death. Molly shuddered as her feet came to rest atop the stained concrete. She must have felt it, too.

I had a sudden flash, a horrible image of the future, where Molly’s body lay in spreading scarlet a few feet from a black cloth bag, so bright and detailed that it almost replaced the reality before me.

Molly shuddered again and whispered, so softly that no one but I could hear, “I’m afraid.”

I squeezed her hand and answered the Merlin’s question in the manner prescribed by protocol. “I have brought a prisoner before the Council, one who has broken the Fourth Law. I have brought her here to seek justice, Merlin.”