Skin Game: Chapters 3-4

(Picture: Nicodemus meets Mab and Dresden in the penthouse. By 'Medusa Dollmaker.')

Chapter 3

Mab's boat sails into Belmont Harbor, and as soon as they dock, Dresden rushes to get onto the mainland as soon as possible.

[...] when we docked I hopped over the rail and onto the pier with a large duffel bag in one hand and my new wizard’s staff in the other. 

Mab descended the gangplank with dignity and eyed me. 

“Parkour,” I explained. 

“Appointment,” she said, gliding by me.

 They get into a car and drive to the Carbon and Carbide Building, a massive skyscraper on Michigan Avenue, one of Chicago's ritzier shopping streets. You might recognize it if you've seen Wanted or the recent Arrowverse crossover Elseworlds (in which the building was used as a base for Batman/Bruce Wayne). Dresden compares the building to a brassier version of the monolith from 2001:A Space Odyssey. He also identifies the building as the Hard Rock Hotel, which was accurate at the time of this book's publication in 2014, though that hotel did close a couple years ago and the building now holds the St. Jane Chicago Hotel. Long story short, it's a ritzy, expensive, and monumental building in a ritzy and expensive part of the city.

Dresden, Mab, and the Sidhe--who shapeshifter from sailors in sailing clothes to burly bodyguards with suits, buzz cuts, and earpieces--enter the building and they go into a waiting elevator. The elevator goes to the top floor... and then one more floor above that, only to then open into an exorbitantly furnished penthouse.

Floor-to-fourteen-foot-ceiling windows gave us a sweeping view of the lake and the shoreline south of the hotel. The floors were made of polished hardwood. Tropical trees had been planted throughout the room, along with bright flowering plants that were busy committing the olfactory floral equivalent of aggravated assault. Furniture sets were scattered around the place, some on the floor, and some on platforms sitting at various levels. There was a bar, and a small stage with a sound system, and at the far end of the loft, stairs led up to an elevated platform, which, judging from the bed, must have served as a bedroom.

There are also five human guards with shotguns near the elevator. A relatively young guard demands that Mab identify herself, but Mab just nods at Dresden, who uses an ice spell to form a layer of 'rime' (i.e., frost) on the goons and their guns. Dresden insults the guards and directs them to get their boss. The young guard hurries off behind a screen of trees, at which point Mab chastises Dresden for not just killing all the goons. Dresden says he won't kill just to make a point, and when Mab points out that he killed one of her Sidhe in the last book for talking back to him, Dresden clarifies that he won't kill humans to make a point. (This isn't an entirely fair comparison; the Sidhe he killed last book was threatening to keep killing humans for fun despite Dresden's order not to, whereas the guards here weren't trying to kill anyone. But neither Dresden nor Mab bring that up, so let's let that pass for now.)

Mab presses the point, saying she has no use for a squeamish knight, and manages to terrify Dresden in the process.

“Yeah, well,” I said, facing front again, “I’m only human.” 

Mab’s gaze remained on me, cold and heavy as a blanket of snow. “For now.” 

I didn’t shiver. I get muscle twitches sometimes. That’s all.

 The young guard comes back and invites Harry and Mab deeper into the penthouse. They follow him around the tree screen (without her guards, who remain by the elevator), and once they get to the other side Dresden comes face to face with two people. One of them, the owner of the penthouse, begins to speak, and Dresden listens to his voice:

[...] a man with a deep, resonant voice. I recognized it. That voice had once been smooth and flowing, but now there was a hint of rasp to it, a roughness that wasn’t there before, like silk gliding over old gravel. 

A man of medium height and build rose from his chair. He was dressed in a black silk suit, a black shirt, and a worn grey tie. He had dark hair threaded with silver and dark eyes, and he moved with the coiled grace of a snake. There was a smile on his mouth, but not in his eyes as he faced me.

This is Nicodemus Archleone, the 2000-year old demoniac, nigh-invulnerable leader of the Order of the Blackened Denarius, and arch-nemesis of the Knights of the Cross.

Dresden insults Nicodemus on account of his rougher voice. (Previously, Dresden worked out that while the 'grey tie' Nicodemus wears {actually the noose Judas used to hang himself} makes him invulnerable to any other weapon, it won't protect Nicodemus against itself... which meant that Dresden was able to actually hurt Nicodemus by strangling him with the noose back in Book 10. While Nicodemus got away thanks to his daughter, it seems Dresden did some damage the demoniac wasn't able to heal away.) Nicodemus plays this off, but then Dresden keeps going, joking that Nicodemus is getting so sloppy that he forgot to cut the tongue out of his young guard. (Nicodemus has a small army of goons whose tongues he cuts out to ensure they can't betray him).

Nicodemus smiles at that, unnerving Dresden. He then greets Mab, who says hello to both him as well as Anduriel, the demon possessing him thanks to his possession of one of Judas's 30 silver denarii. Anduriel--in his usual form as Nicodemus's shadow--inclines his head, and Dresden is further unnerved to see Nicodemus's shadow nodding without Nicodemus moving. Nicodemus then asks Mab to hold on for a moment while he takes care of something, and Mab, though clearly annoyed, assents.

Nicodemus orders the young guard, referring to him as "Brother Jordan," to step forward.

“You have completed the trials of the Brotherhood,” Nicodemus said, his voice warm. “You have the highest recommendation of your fellows. And you have faced a dangerous foe with steadfast courage. It is my judgment that you have demonstrated your loyalty and commitment to our cause beyond the meager bonds of any oath.” He reached up and put a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Have you any final words?”

Jordan, who seems sincerely honored by what's about to happen, thanks Nicodemus, who is pleased. Nicodemus then calls to the other person in the alcove.  This is Deirdre, the daughter of Nicodemus and another Denarian. She steps forward.

She was a young woman in a simple black dress. Her features were lean and severe, her body graced with the same slight, elegant curves as a straight razor. She had long, dark hair to go with black eyes that were a double of Nicodemus’s own, and when she approached Jordan, she gave him an almost sisterly smile. 

And then she changed. 

First her eyes shifted, changing from dark orbs to pits filled with a burning crimson glow. A second set of eyes, these glowing green, blinked open above the first. And then her face contorted, the bones shifting. Her skin seemed to ripple and then hardened, darkening to the ugly deep purple of a fresh bruise, taking on the consistency of thick hide. The dress just seemed to shimmer out of existence, revealing legs that had contorted, her feet lengthening dramatically, until they looked backward-hinged. And her hair changed—it grew, slithering out of her scalp like dozens of writhing serpents, flattening into hard, metallic ribbons of midnight black that rustled and stirred and rippled of their own volition.

Anduriel, still in the guise of Nicodemus's shadow, grows to cover an entire wall of the penthouse. Nicodemus asks all present to bear witness as Deirdre kisses Jordan... then bites off his tongue.

She eats Jordan's tongue as Jordan drops to one knee, bleeding but clearly fighting not to cry or otherwise look weak in front of his boss. Nicodemus kisses her (on her bloody lips, which grosses Dresden out even more than the eating-tongues thing), and Nicodemus congratulates Jordan on handling his initiation so well. He then sends him to the medic, calling him 'Squire Jordan' as he does so.

Dresden feels sick and thinks that Nicodemus just had a guy maimed solely because Dresden's taunting had annoyed him. Mab, however, wants to keep things moving. She states that she had once gotten Nicodemus to help her with something and thus owes him a favor, consequently, she will loan Dresden to him for a mission as a way to pay that favor back. Dresden tries to refuse, claiming that Nicodemus is a psychopath (at which point Nicodemus insists he's actually a sociopath) but Mab is adamant.

“I,” she said in a hard voice, “am perfectly serious. You will go with Archleone. You will render him all aid and assistance until such time as he has completed his objective.”

And that objective?

We’re going to rob a vault.”

[...] 

“Who?” I asked him. “Whose vault are you knocking over?” 

“An ancient being of tremendous power,” he replied in his roughened voice, his smile widening. “You may know him as Hades, the Lord of the Underworld.”

And that's when Dresden really beings to panic.

----

This chapter serves to set up much of the plot for the rest of the book. Now Dresden's got a mission, and it's up to him to figure out how to survive it.

One good thing here is how the book begins to set up plot and character arcs that will last the rest of the book. Take Jordan, for instance: much is made of his pride and joy in serving Nicodemus, and even though he doesn't come out with a speech about how much he loves working for the guy, Butcher does a good job of presenting in Jordan's mannerisms and actions just how faithfully he serves his boss. Jordan, despite being a relatively minor character, has very important roles to play later on, and this scene really sets up not just him but also some of the larger themes (like faith and family) in the rest of the book.

Dresden's relationship with Mab is fleshed out a little more, in that we see her giving him absolute orders with the confidence they will be obeyed. We haven't really seen this from Dresden before; even back when he was a Warden, he tended to treat orders as suggestions. This suggests Dresden is again in a different place than before and will need to adapt to survive.

Mab and Nicodemus contrast nicely, with Mab being openly indifferent to Dresden--but perhaps not quite so much deep down, which we'll see more next chapter--while Nicodemus is much more affable and kind on the surface, only to reveal his soulless depths. With multiple bad guys, it's important that they have distinct personalities, so I support this.

As for Dresden snarking at Nicodemus, I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, this isn't the first time Dresden insulted a bad guy only for that bad guy to kill someone in response--he mouthed off to Kukulcan in Book 12, which led to Kukulcan murdering a prisoner on his sacrificial altar--and Dresden probably should have anticipated this. Dresden even thinks here he'll need to be more circumspect to prevent that from happening again.

On the other hand, Dresden mouthing off to and insulting powerful villains isn't just a core part of Dresden's character, it's one of the things that makes him appealing to the reader. None of us know mass murderers like Nicodemus (I would assume), but I suspect most of us have met our share of bullies, jerks, and abusive people who have some sort of power that renders them immune to consequences. The abusive boss, the horrible teacher, etc., are people that have just enough power to be as spiteful and tyrannical as they want, and nobody can criticize them or call them out without getting steamrolled. But Dresden will insult those people out anyway, heedless of the consequences. It's a core belief of his character that bad people should be called out, mocked, criticized, etc., and not just treated with deference and sycophantic obedience because they're strong. Nicodemus is so deadly that nobody can stand up to him; if he demands that he be treated with vast respect, politeness, and deference, everyone does because they don't want him to kill them. But Dresden stands against him and mocks Nicodemus for being evil, because Nicodemus is in fact evil and deserves to be called out on it. And it's a powerful thing for him to do.

But on the third hand, that works best when Dresden can ensure he alone takes the consequences. Which he can't here, both because Nicodemus is genuinely strong enough that he has power over his army of squires, and also because Mab is binding him. Hence Dresden deciding that, yeah, he should have been more cautious, that he screwed up by insulting Nicodemus into maiming Jordan, and that he shouldn't snark needlessly again.

All in all, I like the scene. It shows Dresden's character, while at the same time having him make a mistake, demonstrate that he's not infallible, and reinforce the idea that he's among some very dangerous people and in genuine trouble.

Chapter 4

Dresden begins to think, very hard and very fast, about his options.

My back might have been against a wall, but that was hardly anything new. One thing I’d learned in long years of spine-to-brick circumstance was that anything you could do to create a little space, time, or support was worth doing.

Done thinking, he tells Mab that they need to put a condition on Dresden's help. Specifically, Dresden wants someone else to go on the mission in order to watch his back. Mab asks why, and Dresden answers:

“Because Nicodemus is a murderous murdering murderer,” I said. “And if he’s picking a crew, they’re going to be just as bad. I want another set of eyes along to make sure one of them doesn’t shoot me in the back the second I’m not looking—you’re loaning out the Winter Knight, after all. You’re not throwing him away.”

Nicodemus objects, but Mab points out that when he did her a favor, he brought Deirdre along; symmetry requires that Nicodemus allow Dresden to bring someone along too. Nicodemus agrees but obliquely threatens Dresden, saying that he can't guarantee Dresden's safety. Mab says that she then can't guarantee Nicodemus's. Mab proposes a formal truce:

"Shall we agree to an explicit truce until such time as your mission is complete?” 

Nicodemus considered that for a moment before nodding his head. “Agreed.”

Nicodemus gives them a card where he'll expect Dresden and his companion to meet him that night. Dresden wants to argue about the mission more, but determines that doing it in front of Nicodemus wouldn't be wise, and so he returns to the elevator with Mab. They get in along with the Sidhe guards.

When the elevator reaches the ground floor, Dresden orders the Sidhe out first, threatening to kill them if they don't go. When they leave, Dresden uses his techbane powers to blow out the elevator controls and prevent the door from opening, then tells Mab he flatly refuses to work with Nicodemus and would in fact rather die than do so. Mab says that if Dresden doesn't obey then the parasite will--after bursting out of Dresden's head and killing him--go after Dresden's loved ones and kill them too, starting with his daughter Maggie. Dresden says they're protected, but Mab points out that the parasite is magically related to Dresden (in that it's the magical equivalent of his daughter), which means most of Maggie's magic defenses will let it pass. Dresden says he'll just go back to Demonreach and instruct the island's spirit to imprison the parasite... at which point Mab plays her trump card.

Mab’s smile turned genuine. It was considerably scarier than her glare. “Oh, sweet child.” She shook her head. “What makes you think I shall allow you to return?”

Dresden, enraged that Mab would essentially take all his loved ones hostage to force his cooperation, calls her a bitch. So Mab slaps him. Hard.

Her arm moved. Her palm hit my left cheekbone, and an instant later the right side of my skull smashed into the elevator door. My head bounced off it like a Ping-Pong ball, my legs went rubbery, and I got a really, really good look at the marble tile floor of the elevator. The metal rang like a gong, and was still reverberating a couple of minutes later, when I slowly sat up. Or maybe that was just me.

She then tells Dresden that she welcomes his suggestions, questions, and comments, but he is never to forget that she is Mab and will not be judged by him. (This scene reminds me of the famous one in Kill Bill when O-Ren kills a gang boss who insults her and then gives a similar speech).

Dresden continues to complain, at which point Mab sighs and tells him to think. He knows that she isn't just going to get him killed off for no reason, so surely he should be able to figure out what Mab really wants. Dresden turns this over in his head for a while, slowly realizing that Mab doesn't seem as mad as he expected about his disobedience, and then gets it.

“Your precise instructions,” I said slowly, “were to go with Nicodemus and help him until such time as he completed his objective.”

“Indeed,” Mab said. “Which he stated was to remove the contents of a vault.” She leaned down, took a fistful of my shirt in her hand, and hauled me back to my feet as easily as she might heft a Chihuahua. “I never said what you would do after.” 

I blinked at that. Several times. “You . . .” I dropped my voice. “You want me to double-cross him?” 

“I expect you to repay my debt by fulfilling my instructions,” Mab replied. “After that . . .” Her smile returned, smug in the shadows. “I expect you to be yourself.”

Dresden clarifies that Mab does want to stop Nicodemus. He then points out that he has his hands tied by the whole 'help Nicodemus until he actually completes the plan' part of that, as well as by Nicodemus being generally dishonorable.

“You know he’s not going to honor the truce,” I said quietly. “He’s going to try to take me out somewhere along the line. He’s going to betray me.” 

“Of course,” she said. “I expect superior, more creative treachery on your part.” 

“While still keeping your word and helping him?” I demanded.

Mab says that, yes, that's about the size of it. Dresden is responsible for scrupulously upholding Mab's world; he is to obey Nicodemus's orders and help him rob Hades' vault until the robbery is completed or until Nicodemus first breaks the truce. Once the vault is robbed or the truce broken, she wants him to somehow screw up Nicodemus's plan anyways. If he does this, she pledges to get the parasite out of his head without killing him.

Mab then goes to the elevator doors (which now have a huge dent the size of Dresden's head in them), and they open despite Dresden ruining the controls. As she leaves, Dresden complains about how he's stuck in a crew of powerful enemies with his hands tied. He asks if she really thinks he can survive that, and they drop the book title.

[Dresden asks] “I’m working with my hands tied, and you expect me to survive this game?”  

“If you want to live, if you want your friends and family to live, I expect you to do more than survive it,” Mab said, sweeping out. “I expect you to skin them alive.”

----

I don't have too much to say about this chapter. I love the interaction between Harry and Mab, since it reinforces both Harry's weak position as well as his desperate attempts to find a way out of this mess without doing anything unconscionable. Mab's manipulation of him is brutal but perfectly in character, and the threat to Maggie provides a good justification for Harry actually going forward instead of letting the parasite kill him or trying to find another way out.  (It also subtly emphasizes how confident Mab is in her power; the last time someone threatened Maggie, Dresden wiped out the entire species of that bad guy, and yet Mab is perfectly willing to make this threat and risk Dresden's revenge anyways... so presumably she's very confident in her ability to squish Dresden should she need to)

Dresden getting an ally onto Nicodemus's crew is also some great development. Over the 15 books in the series, Dresden develops from a relatively impulsive, thoughtless fighter to someone who is more able to use strategy and forethought. Here he's able to think fast enough to realize that he might be able to get somebody else onto the crew, and he realizes that this is the best thing he can ask for. Early-series Dresden would... well, he might have just attacked Nicodemus then and there, which would have been suicide, or maybe he would have asked for a weapon or magic spell or something. But now Dresden knows what he needs more than anything else, and that's an ally he can count on having his back.  I love little things like this which show Dresden's character development, and there's plenty of that in this book.

This chapter serves well to list out the basic plot of the book. Dresden is stuck on Nicodemus's heist crew, and he has to help Nicodemus while also setting up Nicodemus's betrayal. This is definitely going to be a twisty book, and I can't wait to take you all through the rest of it.

----

Next time: Dresden gets his ally, and then they go to meet the crew of bad guys.