Table of Contents
ALSO BY JIM BUTCHER
THE DRESDEN FILES
STORM FRONT
GRAVE PERIL
SUMMER KNIGHT
DEATH MASKS
BLOOD RITES
DEAD BEAT
PROVEN GUILTY
WHITE NIGHT
SMALL FAVOR
THE CODEX ALERA
FURIES OF CALDERON
ACADEMS FURY
CURSORS FURY
CAPTAINS FURY
Chapter One
I never used to keep close track of the phases of the moon. So I didnt know that it was one night shy of being full when a young woman sat down across from me in McAnallys pub and asked me to tell her all about something that could get her killed.
No, I said. Absolutely not. I folded the piece of paper, with its drawings of three concentric rings of spidery symbols, and slid it back over the polished oak-wood table.
Kim Delaney frowned at me, and brushed some of her dark, shining hair back from her forehead. She was a tall woman, buxom and lovely in an old-world way, with pale, pretty skin and round cheeks well used to smiling. She wasnt smiling now.
Oh, come on, Harry, she told me. Youre Chicagos only practicing professional wizard, and youre the only one who can help me. She leaned across the table toward me, her eyes intent. I cant find the references for all of these symbols. No one in local circles recognizes them either. Youre the only real wizard Ive ever even heard of, much less know. I just want to know what these others are.
No, I told her. You dont want to know. Youre better off forgetting this circle and concentrating on something else.
But
Mac caught my attention from behind the bar by waving a hand at me, and slid a couple of plates of steaming food onto the polished surface of the crooked oak bar. He added a couple of bottles of his homemade brown ale, and my mouth started watering.
My stomach made an unhappy noise. It was almost as empty as my wallet. I would never have been able to afford dinner tonight, except that Kim had offered to buy, if Id talk to her about something during the meal. A steak dinner was less than my usual rate, but she was pleasant company, and a sometime apprentice of mine. I knew she didnt have much money, and I had even less.
Despite my rumbling stomach, I didnt rise immediately to pick up the food. (In McAnallys pub and grill, there arent any service people. According to Mac, if you cant get up and walk over to pick up your own order, you dont need to be there at all.) I looked around the room for a moment, with its annoying combination of low ceilings and lazily spinning fans, its thirteen carved wooden columns and its thirteen windows, plus thirteen tables arranged haphazardly to defray and scatter the residual magical effects that sometimes surrounded hungry (in other words, angry) wizards. McAnallys was a haven in a town where no one believed in magic. A lot of the crowd ate there.
Look, Harry, Kim said. Im not using this for anything serious, I promise. Im not trying any summoning or binding. Its an academic interest only. Something thats been bothering me for a while. She leaned forward and put her hand over mine, looking me in the face without looking me in the eyes, a trick that few nonpractitioners of the Art could master. She grinned and showed me the deep dimples in her cheeks.
My stomach growled again, and I glanced over at the food on the bar, waiting for me. Youre sure? I asked her. This is just you trying to scratch an itch? Youre not using it for anything?
Cross my heart, she said, doing so.
I frowned. I dont know...
She laughed at me. Oh, come on, Harry. Its no big deal. Look, if you dont want to tell me, never mind. Ill buy you dinner anyway. I know youre tight for money lately. Since that thing last spring, I mean.
I glowered, but not at Kim. It wasnt her fault that my main employer, Karrin Murphy, the director of Special Investigations at the Chicago Police Department, hadnt called me in for consulting work in more than a month. Most of my living for the past few years had come from serving as a special consultant to SI, but after a fracas last spring involving a dark wizard fighting a gang war for control of Chicagos drug trade, work with SI had slowly tapered offand with it, my income.
I didnt know why Murphy hadnt been calling me in as often. I had my suspicions, but I hadnt gotten the chance to confront her about them yet. Maybe it wasnt anything Id done. Maybe the monsters had gone on strike. Yeah, right.
The bottom line was I was strapped for cash. Id been eating ramen noodles and soup for too many weeks. The steaks Mac had prepared smelled like heaven, even from across the room. My belly protested again, growling its neolithic craving for charred meat.
But I couldnt just go and eat the dinner without giving Kim the information she wanted. Its not that Ive never welshed on a deal, but Ive never done it with anyone humanand definitely not with someone who looked up to me.
Sometimes I hate having a conscience, and a stupidly thorough sense of honor.
All right, all right, I sighed. Let me get the dinner and Ill tell you what I know.
Kims round cheeks dimpled again. Thanks, Harry. This means a lot to me.
Yeah, yeah, I told her, and got up to weave my way toward the bar, through columns and tables and so on. McAnallys had more people than usual tonight, and though Mac rarely smiled, there was a contentment to his manner that indicated that he was happy with the crowd. I snatched up the plates and bottles with a somewhat petulant attitude. Its hard to take much joy in a friends prosperity when your own business is about to go under.
I took the food, steaks and potatoes and green beans, back to the table and sat down again, placing Kims plate in front of her. We ate for a while, myself in sullen silence and she in hearty hunger.
So, Kim said, finally. What can you tell me about that? She gestured toward the piece of paper with her fork.
I swallowed my food, took a sip of the rich ale, and picked up the paper again. All right. This is a figure of High magic. Three of them, really, one inside the other, like layered walls. Remember what I told you about magical circles?
Kim nodded. They either hold something out or keep it in. Most work on magic energies or creatures of the Nevernever, but mortal creatures can cross the circles and break them.
Right, I said. Thats what this outermost circle of symbols is. Its a barrier against creatures of spirit and magical forces. These symbols here, here, here, are the key ones. I pointed out the squiggles in question.
Kim nodded eagerly. I got the outer one. Whats the next?
The second circle is more of a spell barrier to mortal flesh. It wouldnt work if all you used was a ring of symbols. Youd need something else, stones or gems or something, spaced between the drawings. I took another bite of steak.
Kim frowned at the paper, and then at me. And then what would that do?
Invisible wall, I told her. Like bricks. Spirits, magic, could go right through it, but mortal flesh couldnt. Neither could a thrown rock, bullets, anything purely physical.
I see, she said, excited. Sort of a force field.
I nodded. Something like that.
Her cheeks glowed with excitement, and her eyes shone. I knew it. And whats this last one?
I squinted at the innermost ring of symbols, frowning. A mistake.
