Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2)(214)

       
         
       
        

Magnus nodded. "The King is one of the few beings on this earth who could have kidnapped Malcolm from the prisons of the Silent City. He must not have wanted him to reveal their connection to the Council."

"But why didn't he take Annabel, too?" Livvy asked, a forkful of pie halfway to her mouth.

"Maybe because Malcolm had disappointed him by getting caught," said Mark. "Maybe he wanted to punish them both."

"But Annabel could have told on them," said Livvy. "She could have said Malcolm was working for the King."

"Not if she didn't know," said Emma. "There was nothing in the diaries Malcolm kept that mentioned who he was stealing the book for, and I bet he didn't tell Annabel, either."

"They tortured her," said Ty, "and she still couldn't say who it was, just that she had no idea. It must have been the truth."

"That explains why when he found out Annabel wasn't an Iron Sister, that he'd been lied to, Malcolm went to the Unseelie King," said Julian. "Because he knew him."

"So once the King wanted the book for necromancy," Cristina said. "Now he wants it so he can destroy Shadowhunters?"

"Not all necromancy is raising the dead." Magnus was gazing at the glass of wine by his plate as if there was some kind of secret hidden in its depth. "One moment," he said, and scooped up Rafe from the chair beside him. He turned to Tavvy. "Would you like to come with us? And play with Alexander and Max?"

After a glance at Julian, Tavvy nodded. The group of them left the room, Magnus gesturing that he would be right back.

"This is just one meeting," said Emma. "First we need to get the Council to believe that the Unseelie Court is an immediate threat. Right now they can't tell good faeries from bad and aren't interesting in trying."

"Which is where Kieran's testimony comes in," said Mark. "And there is some evidence-there's the blight Diana said she saw in Brocelind Forest, and the report from the Shadowhunters who said they fought a band of faeries but their weapons malfunctioned."

"It's not a lot to go on," said Livvy. "Especially considering Zara and her nasty little band of bigots. They are going to try to seize power at this meeting. They're going to try to grab the Institute. They couldn't care less about some vague faerie threat."

"I can make the Clave fear my father," said Kieran. "But it may take all of us to make them understand that if they do not wish for a new era of darkness, they must abandon their dreams of extending the Cold Peace." 

"No registering warlocks," said Ty. "No putting werewolves into camps."

"The Downworlders who have seats on the Council all know about the Cohort," said Magnus, returning without the children. "If it actually comes down to a vote about who heads the Los Angeles Institute, they'll have to bring in Maia and Lily, as well as me. We're entitled to vote." He threw himself down in the chair at the head of the table.

"That's still just three votes, even if you vote against the Cohort," said Julian.

"It's a tricky business," Magnus agreed. "According to Diana, Jia doesn't want Zara heading up the Los Angeles Institute any more than we do. She'll be hard to discredit at the moment-with her lie about killing Malcolm, she's pretty popular right now."

Emma made a growling noise low in her throat. Cristina patted her hand.

"Meanwhile what we have is the promise that the Queen will fight with us against a threat the Council is unlikely to believe in, and even then only if she gets a book that we don't currently have and wouldn't be allowed to give her if we did," Magnus said.

"Our bargain with the Seelie Queen is our business," said Julian. "Right now, we say that she's shown herself willing to cooperate under the right circumstances. Kieran's empowered to promise she'll help. He doesn't need to go into details."

"Brother, you think like a faerie," said Mark, in a tone that made Julian wonder if that was a good thing or not.

"Maybe the King wants to raise an army of the dead," said Dru hopefully. "I mean, it is a book of necromancy."

Magnus sighed, tapping a fingernail against his glass thoughtfully. "Necromancy is about doing magic that uses the energy of death to power it. All magic needs fuel. Death energy is incredibly powerful fuel. It's also incredibly destructive. The destruction of the land that you saw in Faerie, the blight in Brocelind-they are the scars left by terrible magic. The question remains-what is his ultimate goal?"