Part I Part 103 (1/2)

Billy pursed his lips thoughtfully. ”So you're taking us into a maze of lightless, rotting, precarious tunnels full of evil faeries and monsters.”

I nodded. ”Maybe leftover radiation, too.”

”G.o.d, you're a fun guy, Harry.”

”You're the one who wanted in on the action.” My fingers found a tiny groove in the wall, and when I pressed against it a small, flat section of stone clicked and retracted. The switch had to have triggered some kind of release, because the section of wall pivoted in the center, turning outward, and forming a door that led into still more dank darkness. ”Hah,” I said with some satisfaction. ”There we go.”

Billy pressed forward and tried to step through the door, but I put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. ”Hang on. There are some things you need to know.”

Billy frowned, but he stopped, listening.

”These are faeries. We'll probably run into a lot of the Sidhe, their n.o.bles, hanging out with the Winter Lady. That means that they're going to be dangerous and will probably try to entrap you.”

”What do you mean, entrap me?” Billy said.

”Bargains,” I said. ”Deals. They'll try to offer you things, get you to trade one thing for another.”

”Why?”

I shook my head. ”I don't know. It's in their nature. The concept of debt and obligation is a huge factor in how they behave.”

Billy lifted his eyebrows. ”That's why that little guy worked for you, right? Because he owed you for the pizza and he had a debt to you.”

”Right,” I said. ”But it can work both ways. If you owethem something, they have a conduit to you and can use magic against you. The basic rule is not to accept any gifts from them-and for G.o.d's sake, don't something, they have a conduit to you and can use magic against you. The basic rule is not to accept any gifts from them-and for G.o.d's sake, don'toffer them any gifts. They find anything other than an equal exchange to be either enticing or insulting. It isn't a big deal with little guys like Toot, but if you get into it with a Sidhe Lord you might not live through it.” them any gifts. They find anything other than an equal exchange to be either enticing or insulting. It isn't a big deal with little guys like Toot, but if you get into it with a Sidhe Lord you might not live through it.”

Billy shrugged. ”Okay. No gifts. Dangerous faeries. Got it.”

”I'm not finished. They aren't going to be offering you wrapped packages, man. These are the Sidhe. They're some of the most beautiful creatures there are. And they'll try to put you off balance and tempt you.”

”Tempt me? Like with s.e.x, is that what you're saying?”

”Like any kind of sensual indulgence. s.e.x, food, beauty, music, perfume. When they offer, don't accept it, or you'll be opening yourself up to a world of hurt.”

Billy nodded. ”Okay, got it. Let's go already.”

I eyed the younger man, and he gave me an impatient look. I shook my head. I don't think I could have adequately conveyed the kind of danger we might be walking into with mere words in any case. I took a deep breath and then nodded to Elidee. ”All right, Tinkerbell. Let's go.”

The tiny scarlet light gave an irritated bob and then darted through the concealed doorway and into the darkness beyond. Billy narrowed his eyes and followed it, and I went after him. We found ourselves in a tunnel where one wall seemed to be made of ancient, moldering brick and the other of a mixture of rotting wooden beams, loose earth, and winding roots. The tunnel ran on out of the circle of light from my amulet. Our guide drifted forward, and we set out to follow her, walking close together.

The tunnel gave way to a sort of low-roofed cavern, supported here and there by pillars, mounds of collapsed earth, and beams that looked like they'd been added in afterward by the dwellers in Undertown. Elidee circled in place a bit uncertainly, then started floating to the right.

I hadn't been following the little faerie for five seconds before the skin on the back of my neck tried to crawl up over my head and hide in my mouth. I drew up short, and I must have made some kind of noise, because Billy shot a look back at me and asked, ”Harry? What is it?”

I lifted a hand to silence him and peered at the darkness around me. ”Keep your eyes open,” I said. ”I don't think we are alone.”

From the shadows outside the light came a low hissing sound. The rest of my skin erupted in gooseflesh, and I shook my s.h.i.+eld bracelet clear. I lifted my voice and said clearly, ”I am the Wizard Dresden, Emissary of the Winter Court, bound to pay a call upon the Winter Lady. I've no time or desire for a fight. Stand clear and let me pa.s.s.”

A voice-a voice that sounded like a tortured cat might, if some demented being gave it the gift of speech-mewled out of the shadows, grating on my ears. ”We know who you are, wizard,” the voice said. Its inflections were all wrong, and the tone seemed to come from not far above the ground, somewhere off to my right. Elidee let out a high-pitched shriek of terror and zipped back to me, diving into my hair. I felt the warmth of the light around the tiny faerie like a patch of sunlight on my scalp.

I traded a look with Billy and turned toward the source of the voice. ”Who are you?”

”A servant of the Winter Lady,” the voice replied from directly behind me. ”Sent here to guide you safely through this realm and to her court.”

I turned in the other direction and peered more closely toward the sound of the voice. The werelight from my amulet suddenly gleamed off a pair of animal eyes, twenty feet away and a few inches from the floor. I looked back at Billy. He'd already noted the eyes and turned to put his back to mine, watching the darkness behind us.

I turned back to the speaker and said, ”I ask again. Who are you?”

The eyes s.h.i.+fted in place, the voice letting out an angry, growling sound. ”Many names am I called, and many paths have I trod. Hunter I have been, and watcher, and guide. My Lady sent me to bring you thither, safe and whole and well.”

”Don't get mad at me, Charlie,” I snapped. ”You know the drill as well as I do. Thrice I ask and done. Who are you?”

The voice came out harsh and sullen, barely intelligible. ”Grimalkin am I called by the Cold Lady, who bids me guide her mother's Emissary with safe conduct to her court and her throne.”

I let out a breath. ”All right,” I said. ”So lead us.”

The eyes bobbed in place, as though in a small bow, and Grimalkin mewled again. There was a faint motion in the shadows outside my light, and then a dull greenish glow appeared upon the ground. I stepped toward it and found a faint, luminous footprint upon the ground, a vague paw, feline but too spread out and too thin to be an actual cat's. Just as I reached it, another light appeared on the floor several feet away.

”Make haste, wizard,” mewled Grimalkin's voice. ”Make haste. The Lady waits. The season pa.s.ses. Time is short.”

I moved toward the second footprint, and as I reached it a third appeared before us, in the dark, and so on.

”What was that all about?” Billy murmured. ”Asking it the same thing three times, I mean.”

”It's a binding,” I murmured in reply. ”Faeries aren't allowed to speak a lie, and if a faerie says something three times, it has to make sure that it is true. It's bound to fulfill a promise spoken thrice.”

”Ah,” Billy said. ”So even if this thing hadn't actually been sent to guide us safely, you made him say so three times would mean that he'd be obligated to do it. Got it.”

I shook my head. ”I wanted to make sure Grimalkin was on the level. But they hate being bound like that.”

From ahead of us, the faintly glowing eyes appeared briefly, accompanied by another mewling growl that sent a chill down my spine.

”Oh,” Billy said. He didn't look any too calm himself. His face had gone a little pale, and he walked with his hands clenched into fists. ”So if Grimalkin had good intentions to begin with, wouldn't that make him angry that you needlessly bound him?”

I shrugged. ”I'm not here to make friends, Billy. I'm here to find a killer.”

”You've never even heard of diplomacy, have you?”

We followed the trail of footprints on the ground for another twenty minutes or so, through damp tunnels, sometimes only a few feet high. More sections of the tunnel showed evidence of recent construction-if you could call swirling layers of stone that seemed to have been smoothed into place like soft-serve ice cream ”construction.” We pa.s.sed several tunnels that seemed entirely new. Whatever beings lived down here, they didn't seem too shy about expanding. ”How much further?” I asked.

Grimalkin let out amrowl ing sound from somewhere nearby-not in the direction of the next footprint, either. ”Very near, n.o.ble Emissary. Very near now.” ing sound from somewhere nearby-not in the direction of the next footprint, either. ”Very near, n.o.ble Emissary. Very near now.”

The unseen faerie guide was good to its word. At the next glowing footprint, no other appeared. Instead, we came to a large, elaborately carved double doorway. Made of some black wood I could not identify, the doors were eight or nine feet high, and carved in rich bas-reief. At first I thought the carvings were of a garden theme-leaves, vines, flowers, fruit, that kind of thing. But as I walked closer to the door, I could see more detail in the light of my glowing amulet. The forms of people lay among the vines. Some sprawled amorously together, while others were nothing more than skeletons wrapped in creeping roses or corpses staring with sightless eyes from within a bed of poppies. Here and there in the garden one could see evidence of the Sidhe-a pair of eyes, a veiled figure, and their hangers-on, little faeries like Toot-toot, leaf-clad dryads, pipe-wielding satyrs, and many, many others hiding from the mortals' views, dancing.

”Nice digs,” Billy commented. ”Is this the place?”

I glanced around for our guide, but I didn't see any more footprints or any feline eyes. ”I guess it must be.”

”They aren't exactly subtle, are they?”