Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

father’s situation?” I thought. “With the walking stick? Were other things stolen? Is there anyone who can talk to me? Someone you could call and ask?”
    â€œLook,” he said slowly, as if he was waiting for the geas to stop him again, “there’s an antiquarian bookstore in the Uptown Mall in Richland. You might go talk to the man who runs it. He might be able to help you find out more about that stick. Make sure you tell him that I sent you to him—but wait until he’s alone in the store.”
    â€œThank you.”
    â€œNo, Mercy, thank you.” He paused, and then for a moment sounding a bit like the nine-year-old I’d first met, he said, “I’m scared, Mercy. They mean to let him take the fall, don’t they?”
    â€œThey were,” I said. “But I think it might be too late. The police are not accepting his guilt at face value and we found Zee a terrific lawyer. I’m doing a little nosing about in O’Donnell’s other doings.”
    â€œMercy,” he said quietly. “Jeez, Mercy, are you setting yourself up against the Gray Lords? You know that’s what the blind woman is, right? Sent to make sure they get the outcome they want.”
    â€œThe fae don’t care who did it,” I told him. “Once it’s been established that it was a fae who killed O’Donnell, they don’t care if they get the murderer. They need someone to take the fall quickly and then they can hunt down the real culprit out of sight of the world.”
    â€œAnd even though my father has done everything he can think of to dissuade you, you’re not going to back down,” he said.
    Of course. Of course.
    â€œHe’s trying to keep me out of it,” I whispered.
    There was a short pause. “Don’t tell me you thought he was really mad at you?”
    â€œHe’s calling in his loan,” I told him as a knot of pain slowly unknotted. Zee knew what the fae would do and he’d been trying to keep me out of danger.
    How had he put it? She’d better hope I don’t get out. Because if I got him out, the Gray Lords would be unhappy with me.
    â€œOf course he is. My father is brilliant and older than dirt, but he has this unreasoning fear of the Gray Lords. He thinks they can’t be stopped. Once he realized how the wind was blowing, he would do his best to keep everyone else out of it.”
    â€œTad, stay at school,” I told him. “There’s nothing you can do here except get into trouble. The Gray Lords don’t have jurisdiction over me.”
    He snorted. “I’d like to see you tell them that—except that I like you just as you are: alive.”
    â€œIf you come here, they will kill you—how is that going to help your father? Tear up that ticket and I’ll do my best. I’m not alone. Adam knows what’s up.”
    Tad really respected Adam. As I hoped, it was the right touch.
    â€œAll right, I’ll stay here. For now. Let me see if I can give you a little more help—and how far this damned geas Uncle Mike set on me goes.”
    There was a long pause as he worked through things.
    â€œOkay. I think I can talk about Nemane.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œUncle Mike said the Carrion Crow, right? And I assume he wasn’t talking about the smallish crow that lives in the British Isles, but the Carrion Crow.”
    â€œYes. The three white feathers on her head seemed to be important.”
    â€œIt must be Nemane then.” There was satisfaction in his voice.
    â€œThis is a good thing?”
    â€œVery good,” he said. “There are some of the Gray Lords who would just as soon kill everyone until the problems go away. Nemane is different.”
    â€œShe doesn’t like to kill.”
    Tad sighed. “Sometimes you are so innocent. I don’t know of any fae who doesn’t enjoy spilling blood at some level—and Nemane was one of the Morrigan, the battle goddesses of the Celts. One of her jobs was delivering the killing blow to the heroes dying in the aftermath of a battle to end their suffering.”
    â€œThat doesn’t sound promising,” I muttered.
    Tad heard. “The thing about the old warriors is that they have a sense of honor, Mercy. Pointless death or wrongful death is an anathema to them.”
    â€œShe won’t want to kill your father,” I said.
    He corrected me gently. “She won’t