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.Murphy didn't fight back.I clenched my hands into impotent fists.Murphy was in very real danger of dying that night, even if she kept on breathing and her heart kept on beating.But she would have to be the one to save herself.The best thing I could do was nothing.The best thing I could say was nothing.I had some power, but it couldn't help Murphy now.Hell's bells, irony blows.Chapter FortyI'd been in a few caves that were the headquarters for dark magic and those who trafficked in it.None of them had been warm.None of them had been pleasant.And none of them had been professionally decorated.Until now.After a long, precipitous slope into the earth, the Raith Deeps opened up into a cavern bigger than most Paris cathedrals.To a degree, it resembled one.Lights played in soft colors on the walls, mostly shifting rosy hues.The cave was of living rock, and the walls had all been shaped by water into nearly organic-looking curves and swirls.The floor sloped very slightly up, to where a shift in the rock gave rise to an enormous carved chair of pure, bone-white stone.The chair had been decorated with flares and flanges and every kind of carved frivolity you could imagine, so that it sat at the center of all the carving like a peacock poised in front of its tail.Water fell in a fine mist from overhead, and more lights played through it, broken by the droplets into myriad spectra.To the right hand of the throne was a smaller carved seat—almost a stool really, like the ones you'd imagine lions or seals perching on during circus performances.To the left was a jagged, broken gap in the rock, and behind the throne, where more of the mist fell, was simply darkness.Though the stone was smooth, it undulated in regular, ripple-shaped rises toward the throne from where we entered the Deeps.Here and there along the rippled floor were groups of pillows and cushions, thick woven carpets, low, narrow tables set with wine and the kinds of finger foods that tended to get smeared about fairly easily."Well, it's subtle," I said to no one in particular."But I like it.Sort of The King and I meets Harem Honeys and Seraglio Sluts II."Raith strode past me and threw Murphy at a pile of pillows and cushions along one wall, the one farthest away from the entrance.She knew how to take a fall, and though the motion had been vicious and torn out some of her hair, she landed well, coming up to a shaky crouch.Bodyguard Barbie dragged my manacles and me over to the wall nearby and padlocked me to a steel ring in the wall.There was a whole row of such rings there.I tried to wiggle a little, testing the strength of the steel ring, but whoever built it knew what he was doing.No wiggle, no flexion of the ring where it joined the wall."Time?" Raith asked."Eleven-thirty-nine, my lord," the bodyguard reported."Ah, good.Still time." He walked over to a group of pillows in the far corner of the room, and I realized that they had been strewn around a little raised platform of stone.The platform was a circle perhaps ten feet across, and inside of it was a thaumaturgic triangle, an equilateral shape within the ring of the circle used in most ritual magic because it was easier for amateurs to draw a freaking triangle than a pentacle or a Star of Solomon.Thick incense wafted up from braziers around the circle, giving the cold air the sharp scent of cinnamon and some other, more acrid spice."Wizard, I believe you have met my assistants."Two women rose from the shadows within the circle and faced me.The first was Madge, Arturo's first wife, the disciplined businesswoman.She wore a white robe trimmed with scarlet cloth, and her hair was down.It made her look both younger and simultaneously lent her an overripe look, like fruit a day swollen and spoiled.Her eyes were no less calculating, but there was an edge of something there that I recognized—cruelty.The love of power, to the exclusion of the well-being of one's fellow beings.The second woman, of course, was Trixie Vixen.She looked awful and she didn't get up.I could see the thick bandages over her wounded leg as she sat quietly on one hip, the silk of her own crimson-trimmed white robe spread out in such a way that it normally would have revealed enticing curves of calf and thigh.Her eyes had the heavy, flickering look of someone on far too many drugs, and used to it.Thomas was chained to the floor in the center of the thaumaturgic triangle.He was naked, gagged, and his pale skin was covered with bruises and the stripes of being beaten with a slender cane.There was a low ridge of rock under his spine that arched his back off the floor, pinning his shoulders back and exposing his chest in such a fashion that he would be unable to move, even if someone should be leaning over him in order to cut out his heart."You're missing one," I said."Where's wifey number two?""Dear Lucille." Raith sighed."She was far too eager to please, and melodramatic about it to boot.I did not authorize her little attempt to poison you via blow dart, wizard, though I suppose I would not have been upset with her had she succeeded.But she was guiding the spell last night and had the incredibly bad taste to attempt to murder my daughter." Raith sighed."I very nearly felt obligated to you for saving her, Dresden.Lucille assured me that she had only the best of intentions and wanted to do all that she could to continue helping me.""So you sacrificed her for the curse this morning," I spat."No, he didn't," Madge said in a quiet, rather chillingly conversational tone."I did.The little bitch, I'd been dreaming about something like that for years.They're wrong about revenge, you know.All the movies.I found it quite fulfilling and rewarding, from an emotional standpoint.""I helped," Trixie protested."I helped kill her.""Bullshit," I said."You were right there holding a gun on me when Lucille died, you.you self-deluded, half-witted schlong-jockey."Trixie shrieked, lurched up, and started to throw herself at me.Madge and Raith caught her arms and let her thrash for a moment, until she was panting and drooping.They eased her back down."Be still," Raith said."That's quite enough from you."Trixie hit him with a sullen scowl."You don't tell me wh—"Madge slapped her.Hard.One of her rings left a long line of fine red droplets on Trixie's cheek."Idiot," she spat at Trixie."If you'd told the police his name instead of forgetting it for your pills and needles, the wizard would be in a cell right now.""What the fuck does it matter?" Trixie snarled, not looking up."He's had it now.It didn't make any difference [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]