There was a specific Law of Magic against contacting them—Thou Shalt Not Open the Outer Gates. No one wanted to be the one suddenly suspected of opening ways for the Outsiders to enter the mortal world. The Wardens absolutely did not play around with violations of the Laws of Magic. Their entire purpose in life was to protect the Council—first from violators of the seven Laws, and then from everyone else.

I eyed the folded grey cloak on the table in front of me.

"I thought only mortal magic could call up Outsiders," I said quietly.

Luccio said quietly, "You are correct."

My stomach lurched a little. Someone had told the Red Court where to find the Council. Someone had blocked off their escape route to the Nevernever so strongly that the most powerful wizards on the planet had required a full day to open them again. And someone had begun calling up Outsiders in numbers, sending them to attack the White Council.

The Council is not what it was, Cowl had said. It has rotted from the inside. It will fall. Soon.

"The Wardens fell back to fight a holding action against the Red Court so that our wounded could escape to safety," Luccio reported, her crisp voice at odds with her weary eyes. "That was when they loosed the Outsiders upon us. We lost another twenty-three Wardens in the first moments of combat, and many more were wounded." There was silence while she took a long pull from her bottle, emptying it, then setting it down sharply on the table, anger flickering in her eyes. "If Senior Council members McCoy and Liberty had not come to our aid, we might have all died there. Even with them, we managed to hold them only long enough for the Gatekeeper and the Merlin to raise a ward behind us, to give us time to escape."

"A ward?" I blurted. "Are you telling me that they stonewalled an entire army of vampires and demons? With one ward?"

"You don't get to be Merlin of the White Council by collecting bottle caps," Ramirez said, his voice dry.

I glanced aside at Ramirez. He grinned at me and swigged beer.

"McCoy was injured," Luccio continued.

Ramirez snorted. "Who wasn't?"

Luccio snapped, "Carlos."

He lifted a hand in surrender and settled back onto his chair again, but his grin never faded.

"There were many injuries," Luccio continued. "But as the hospice in Sicily had been taken, we diverted the worst cases to a hospital we control in the Congo." She stared at her bottle for a moment. Her mouth opened, and then she closed it again. She closed her eyes.

Morgan frowned at her. Then he put a hand on Luccio's shoulder, looked at me, and said, "The vampires knew."

I got a sick, twisting feeling in my stomach. "Oh, God."