“…status and the power grab? You can stop trying, Laird. It’s not working anymore. Not really.”
“I think I’ll do what I can,” he said.
“It’s a simple choice. Family or power?”
“Family is power,” Laird said. “And corrupt powers make for a broken family, as the Thorburn line has demonstrated so well.”
“Sounds like you’re dodging the question. I guess you can’t admit to your kid that you don’t give a damn about him.”
“No, Thorburn, that isn’t it at all. I’m buying time. Even-”
Evan fluttered by.
I heard gunshots and flinched.
“…Damn. Even small amounts for exorbitant prices, like that.”
“Pretty stupid, firing a gun with Duncan at swordpoint here.”
“Don’t hurry to use up your bargaining chips, Thorburn,” Laird called out. “Your situation isn’t as favorable as you think.”
I remained silent.
“If you want to peek your head out and see, you’ll get the picture. I swear no harm will come to you from us.”
I did.
My heart sank.
The plan was fucked. Laird was right. Even knowing how to deal with it, I’d let him buy time. Reinforcements had arrived.
Conquest stood in the swirling snow, tall among the various dolls and young Behaims, triumphant over the crumpled bodies of Rose’s summonings.
7.06
“I do believe this will end here,” Conquest said. His voice, inhuman as it was, carried.
“I’m hoping it won’t!” I had to raise my own voice to be heard over the wind and distance. It was hard to tell with the snow covering everything and the confusing effect of the snowfall itself, but I was pretty sure they were standing in the middle of the street. Half the street, a lawn, and a bit of house separated us.
“I offered you a peek,” Laird called out. “You might want to duck back behind cover before you’re no longer peeking and you’re staring.”
I did.
“Conquest is here?” Maggie asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
We could say his name now. We wouldn’t be forming any connection and cluing him into anything he didn’t already know.
“Okay, well, we knew he might come,” Maggie said.
“I’d hoped for more time,” I said. “We need to take down Laird first. This mixes things up.”
“Just a bit.”
Rose appeared in the glass window of a cabinet. “Corvidae didn’t get a chance to do anything. He was ready to, but it didn’t go that far.”
I nodded. “Conquest is here.”
“We don’t have Laird?”
“No.”
“Shit.”
“Well put,” I said.
I felt connections shift, heard the muffled crunch of footsteps on snow, and called out, “Stay put, Laird!”
Silence and stillness followed.
“Seems we have a bit of a standoff,” Laird said.
“Seems so,” I answered. “A bit like bank robbers with hostages, isn’t it?”
“I was thinking something along those lines,” Laird said.
Cold air flowed into the room through the shattered window. Duncan’s house thrummed with the furnace working in overdrive.
“Does that make you the hostage negotiator, Laird?” I asked.
“Maybe,” Laird said.
Meaning no. I’d called him out on whether he’d choose power or family first. He had his kid, nieces and nephew with him, and everything he said mattered. Being careless and throwing away Duncan’s life could look careless. But he couldn’t commit to anything either. Not with the lord of Toronto looming just behind him.
He’d cornered himself in a way. Us too, but the situation he’d put himself in was the leverage I was most interested in.
If he decided on the full-on offensive, then he risked Duncan dying, he risked losing the trust of his family. They’d probably get me in the process and win the fight, but would he do something?
He’d come to Toronto to bail Duncan out. He was willing to use his family as pawns, but he hadn’t done anything to make me believe he didn’t care about them on some level.
When the chips were down, did he value reputation and power more, or did he value family?
I had to be strategic here, use what I had.
How did this play out?
Laird could give up, too cold and unable to take action, Conquest could lose patience.
The former put Conquest at the helm, the latter put Conquest and Laird at odds. They might even fight.
It was more likely that they had tricks up their sleeves.
I heard more snow crunching.
“Stay put, Laird!” Maggie called out. “I will put a sword through this man’s throat!”
“I’m not moving,” Laird said. “Sending the kids around to watch the exits. I’ve ordered them not to enter or try anything.”
“Call them back,” I said.