Dresden Files Reread - Grave Peril Chapter 16

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The chapter opens with a reflection on how very many people go missing every year, and how hard it is to
find people who don't want to be found. Harry doesn't know whether Lydia is villain or victim, but he needs to find her either way, to protect her or confront her, as the case may be. 

There's a pretty cool piece of magic here. Because Harry made both the talisman he gave Lydia and the shield bracelet, he can use the latter as a sympathetic link to the former. That makes a lot of intuitive sense, and it may also offer some additional context on why Harry seems to be unusual in the number of magical doohickeys he creates. Actually, it kinda helps explain why he thinks anyone would go to the trouble of sending Lydia to get the anti-possession bracelet away from him, too. It wouldn't just be to deprive him of the item itself. It's a link back to him, not quite as good as hair or nail clippings, for direct harm, but someone could use it to find Harry, or to disable all his magical gear, or even violently destroy it in ways that could hurt him. That's a substantial vulnerability, and it's not a huge surprise that most members of the magical community aren't prepared to take that risk. I note also that if Harry were feeling a bit more calculating than he usually is, he could start selling things like that bracelet, and other low-level charms, and equip himself with a way to track and/or inconvenience a lot of people who might either become problems or need his help at some point in the future, especially if he's willing to not be too picky about customers. 

Apparently, he has also taken the time to figure out a more dignified tracking spell than the one he was using back in Storm Front. Instead of setting himself up to follow like, the scent of grave dirt, he keys the spell to a tuning fork, which chimes more loudly when he's facing his target. That does mean he's just walking around holding a tuning fork, which probably looks a bit weird, but it's a city, so tolerance for harmless weirdness is pretty high, and it's not like he wouldn't look weird sniffing around like my housemates' dog when she thinks I might have dropped a potato chip.

We get a review of the difference between evocation and thaumaturgy, and how the latter is what Harry's really good at. I with we got to see more of Harry working with other wizards who aren't like, his apprentice. Harry feels like he isn't very good at evocation because there are only a few things he can reliably do with an appropriate degree of control, but most of what he uses evocation against are monsters that don't use magic the way wizards do, and while a couple of characters, like Morgan and I think McCoy, are supposed to be skilled evocators, we don't get much chance to see them in action, making this something of an informed flaw on Harry's part. The two really good evocators we do get to see work are Ivy, who is an outlier adn should not have been counted, and Molly, who is usually marked our for being good at "delicate" magic, not for being gifted at evocation as such, and who is in any case no longer human. 

Photo by Maxwell Ingham on Unsplash

The trees look all creepy and ominous, and so does the abandoned factory to which the tuning fork eventually leads Harry. This is like, the third chapter in which what should have been ordinary city scenes described like "the shadows of the trees...stretched out like black fingers creeping toward my throat." Either Harry is stressed enough that he's just interpreting everything in the most ominous way possible (by no means out of the question), or the turbulence in the barrier between worlds is causing such pervasive spooky vibes that it's affecting the appearance of the mundane landscape. 

Harry looks at the factory, and reflect that the smart thing here would be to call for backup. He has no idea who or what is in there, other than Lydia (and technically he only knows the talisman he gave her is there, not the girl herself), and going in not only alone but without anyone knowing where is went is...not a great plan. Of course, the really smart play here would have been to call Michael, Murphy, or both before he left the house, so they would at least know where to start a search if he failed to check in after, and give them the opportunity to meet him there should they be so inclined (and relative travel times permitting - I don't know how far Harry, Michael, or Murphy are from Wicker Park, and they might take longer to get there than he would, which is a real consideration). At this point, by the time he found a pay phone, called Michael, and Michael got there, it would be after sunset, making the expedition considerably more dangerous. If he can get in, perform an exorcism if necessary, and get out before the sun goes down, this could all be over, and that's understandably appealing. 

So in he goes. The factory is dark and creepy. Aside from the Extremely Conspicuous White Van, it appears to be empty, but Harry has the sense that there's something in there with him. He stops, looks, and listens, but he must really be overworked or something, because he neither extends his wizards senses nor uses his pentacle to get some decent light on the area. Having failed to detect whatever set off his instincts, he doesn't directly dismiss them, but does proceed without investigating further. 

Lydia is, of course, in the van, wrapped in blankets, unresponsive, apparently drugged, and still wearing Harry's talisman, although it somehow contrived to get both burned and bloodstained since he gave it to her. Harry has just enough time to check Lydia's pulse and realize that this is super definitely a trap before Kyle the Tennis Vampire slams into him from the side. Harry blasts Kyle with his force ring, the first time we've seen it in action. Honestly, it's one of Harry's cleverest gadgets, for innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. The staff and rod are traditional wizarding gear, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that around your wrist is a good place for a protection charm that needs activation, or that it might be a good idea to put passive protection spells on the coat that you wear all the time anyway. But it takes some actual though, some imagination, to go "Hey, when I move my arm, that's a lot of energy serving no real purpose, maybe I could store this for later use" and it probably took serious work and research to figure out how to do it. 

Photo by Maxwell Ingham on Unsplash

Anyway, the blast of force tears the face off Kyle's flesh mark and throws him into the ceiling, giving Harry time to get out of the van and get his shield bracelet ready. There's some banter, which really only serves to let Harry find out that "Lydia" isn't Lydia's real name and give Kelly time to get into position. Harry's instincts seem finally to have gotten up to speed though, and he doges her. For reasons I don't remember, if they were ever given, Kelly is in a serious state of disarray, with blood all over her mouth and stains on her clothes, and when Harry asks why they took Lydia, she responds by asking Kyle to let her kill Harry because she's hungry. I say "asking", but the dialogue tag here is "moaned". Seriously, why are so many of Butcher's female villains, especially the less important ones...like this?

They exchange some more threats, and then Kyle throws a chunk of concrete at Harry's head, which he's only able to partially deflect with the shield bracelet. It hits his temple and sends him "spinning", so I think we can safely add a recent concussion to the list of things compromising Harry's judgement for the rest of this book. Kelly follows up, and Harry tries to fuego her with his blasting rod, but misses by a wide margin and slices into the wall instead. Incidentally, Kyle is still in his tennis whites, but Kelly has changed into what sure sounds like a superhero costume. White bodysuit, white boots and gloves, short white cape with a deep hood. I didn't really catch this until the cape is mentioned again at this point, and...what the hell? Mildly interesting precursor to Justine's white bodysuit in Turn Coat, but literally why is she dressed like this? 

Kelly...look, I know some of what I'm gonna have to talk about later in this book, so we're not gonna preview that here. Suffice it to say that she gets some saliva on Harry, thereby dosing him with narcotic vampire venom. Then the wall Harry hit with that fire blast collapses, letting the light in. It burns the shit out of Kelly, physically knocking her off of him, and we find out that vampire venom is phototoxic - if it's on your skin when you're exposed to sunlight, it burns you, although not as badly as the sun burns a vampire. Interesting. Also Harry seems to have cracked either a rib or his sternum when Kyle first attacked him, although he can't really feel it just at present. 

Photo by Eric Gonzalez on Unsplash.

Kyle grabs Kelly and books it out of there in the van. Harry takes a little longer to get moving, on account of the venom and the head injury and all, but likewise flees the scene, aware that it's getting dark now and he needs to go home. I really hope he doesn't actually take his car, though. He's in absolutely no shape to drive. 

Man, the trauma really just keeps on coming in this book. I might be taking on some intense new freelance work soon, which is good because the summer tutoring rush was less rushful than I'd hoped, and I need money in order to eat food and live indoors, but makes it harder than I'd like to predict how much blogging time I'll have in the next while. If you want more regular posts with less disruption from my other, uh, seven jobs, consider supporting me on Patreon. Until next time, be gay, do crimes, and read all the things!