“They aren’t interested in trying to work anything out,” Will said. “I can go to the alderman’s office again.”
“They aren’t the only angry protesters in town,” I said. “Daley Plaza, Millennium Park, McCormick Place, Navy Pier, Midway—CPD is barely holding things together as it is.” I nodded toward the patrol caras it cruised slowly down the street, turned, and parked again, a way off. “That’s all they’ve got available. I’ve talked to Stallings, too. We’re small potatoes here. And we’re on our own.”
“It’s only a matter of time before they start setting things on fire,” Bear noted.
“We aren’t there yet,” I said.
“And if we wait until it goes that far,” Bear said, “then you’ll have a couple of choices. Neither of them good.”
“Stop them,” Will said, “or burn.” He looked sick. “This isn’t good, Harry. What if we give them what they want? Clear everyone out, just for a while, so they can cool off?”
“And go where?” I asked. “Send the people I’m protecting where? The refugee camps out in the suburbs and at the stadiums are overfilled and we’ve all heard about how bad the conditions there are.” I clenched my jaw. “Dammit, the people here are here because they had nowhere else to go. We haven’t harmed anyone. And this is my home. I’m not leaving.”
Bear shook her head. “Either you flee the territory, or you have to prove yourself strong enough to keep it. You aren’t doing you, your people, or any of that mob any favors by refusing to act.”
“They’ve been hurt and scared enough,” I said. “That’s why this is happening. Adding more to it isn’t going to fix anything.”
“Standing around while they burn this place to the ground isn’t going to fix anything, either,seidrmadr,” Bear said quietly. “You’ve got a little more time, I think. But sooner or later, they’re going to make you choose.”
I clenched my jaw and said nothing.
These were exactly the same people I’d spent my life protecting. The ones who didn’t have power like I did. The ones who were afraid of the powers of the night, and right to be.
I wasn’t going to raise my hand against them unless I was given no other choice.
“Oh,” Will said. “Um. Might as well hear it all at once. We got a letter. The federal HBGB task force wants to come do interviews and test for chemical residue at the castle. We’ve got to schedule a time forthem to come in before the end of May, and if we don’t, we might be evicted. Also, if we do, we might be evicted, at least while they clean up hazardous materials.”
“Which don’t exist.” I scowled. “I’m not leaving my home for a government mob, either.”
“Yeah,” Will said. “Well. You also can’t just keep them out, apparently. State and federal lawmakers have given them a pretty broad range of authority. Which is what some of the other protests are about, actually.”
I took some more deep breaths. “I am beginning to become annoyed.”
Bear snorted.
“Right,” I said. “Glass half full. Set it up toward the end of May. Could be we get burned down by then and then we won’t have to deal with a government inspection, too.”
Will took a notebook out of a pocket and wrote in it. “Heh. Right.”
Bear tilted her head slightly, frowned, and then walked down the length of the castle’s roof. She leaned into one of the crenels, staring down the street for a moment, then looked over her shoulder at me and called, over the chanting, “Dresden.”
“Now what?” I muttered, and Will and I walked down the length of the roof to join her.
Another group of protesters was coming down the street, maybe forty or fifty of them.
“Yippee, more of them,” Will said.
I frowned and peered for a moment. I recognized those people. Artemis Bock was at the front of the group, walking purposefully. His inner circle was gathered around him, and a bunch of the others were the crowd from McAnally’s. They, too, were carrying signs, though theirs were of a more peaceable nature. Several of them readCoexistspelled out with a bunch of religious symbology. Some were simply emblazoned with a peace sign. More saidHeal Together, and one readDo Not Throw Stones!
“It’s worse than more of them,” I groaned.
“Counterprotesters,” Bear confirmed.
Bock and his people came walking together down the sidewalk, singing some song with a call-and-response about seeing beauty, and filed together down the narrow sidewalk that started about two inches past the walls of the castle, taking up space there and turning to face the protesters across the street, putting themselves between that crowd and the castle.
“Oh God,” I said. “They’re here to help.”
“Um,” Will said. “What are we going to do?”
