Dresden Files War Cry #2
Butcher, Powers, Gomez
SPOILER ALERT!
I will most certainly be SPOILING!
We left our heroes inside of the house, last issue, with another wave of Red Court soldiers rushing to attack them. While the vampires haven’t directly attacked the house, Dresden begins to wonder. What exactly does the Red Court want? If they had just wanted the people in the house dead, they would have just set the house on fire by now. Taylor, the leader of the Venatori, swears she has no idea what they could want.
Before Dresden can push the issue, the Red Court is using their vampiric strength to throw rocks like bullets, frightening the Venatori, who are basically librarians. Harry, sends two of his young wards upstairs, where one of them, Meyers, takes a rock to the hand pulverizing it. The demoralizing nature of fighting an army of vampires at night, trying to simply survive until morning is clearly getting to everyone.
Just as Dresden is hit with a surprising blow to his own morale, the rock barrage stops and the leader of the vampires, Baron Bravosa, invites Dresden to parlay. Dresden tries to prolong the negotiation, but fails. The Baron offers him and his team safe passage to leave, but Dresden refuses. In only a few minutes the negotiation is over our beloved hero is shrugging off the threats thrown around by the Red Court leader.
In the ensuing barrage, Dresden looks for Ramirez. His second in command shows up in a big way, apparently he has found what the Red Court is after. Before the younger warden can lead Harry downstairs, Taylor, assault rifle in hand, bars their way. Or rather, she tries to bar their way, but an insistent and practical Dresden is hard to keep away from something he needs. The three of them descend into the basement and Dresden’s look of shock is palpable.
The thing in the basement is an Outsider. That’s right, a capital O outsider. Something from outside of reality that was never meant to be within ours. This particular outsider is called a Shoggoth. This particular flavor of outsider is drawn to and can only eat sentient life. With every life it consumes it grows larger.
We find out that this creature is bound to Taylor, and has been bound for quite sometime. Taylor never saw the wizards face who bound her to the creature, but he claimed to be part of the White Council of wizards.
Dresden’s only response is clearly a desperate one.
Dresden orders his troops to attack!
This issue was much better than the first, not because the first issue was bad, but because this issue increased suspense exponentially. With the interaction between Dresden and the Baron you have a traditional rivalry brewing. The injury to one of the wardens is the beginning of increased desperation. Finally, the introduction of the Shoggoth, the equivalent of a magical time bomb is HUGE. If I didn’t already know how the Red Court War turned out (read the book Changes) , I’d be on the edge of my seat! Next issue can’t come soon enough!
My rating 5 / 5
