The Council of Shadows Read Online Free Page A

and Adrian had used this place before. Mostly for prolonged recoveries and convalescence, after missions for the Brotherhood during his years fighting the Council.
    â€œIt’s pronounced Ikkhh —”
    He repeated the name as a rapid series of gargling gutturals and rough breathing.
    Mountains ran north and south from here, blue and dreaming in the Mediterranean summer warmth that brought odors of rock and citrus and stone pine through the open French doors that gave onto the balcony terrace. She shivered a little; places like this made the contrast between how the world seemed and how she now knew it really worked all the more dreadful. With an effort she cast the thought away.
    Besides her native coal-country Pennsylvania English, Ellen could speak fair French and some Italian; those were the legacy of an undergraduate degree in art history from NYU. And a little Spanish, from years spent in Santa Fe. Adrian was fluent in over a dozen languages that she knew of.
    â€œShow-off,” she said sweetly, and kicked him in the ankle under the table. “And don’t repeat it in Tibetan.”
    â€œMerde alors!” he yelped, startled. Then he smiled: “I thought that it was you who enjoyed pain, chérie .”
    She smiled back. “What can I say . . . I swing both ways when it comes to lovely hurting. That’s why it’s called sado masochism, dear.”
    Then more seriously: “Anyway, what does it mean? Ikhwan al-Fajr al-Aswad? ” she added, trying to get the throaty sounds right.
    â€œIt’s Arabic,” he said. “For Order of the Black Dawn.”
    â€œYou’re right, that’s blatant. That’s an elevated finger to the whole planet. The secret conspiracy of evil that runs the world is actually announcing its meetings to the news services?”
    â€œThey do want everyone to know . . . at least, every one of the people who are supposed to attend. Many of whom are both eccentric and hermetic recluses, or quite mad.”
    â€œWhy not send an e-mail around?”
    Adrian chuckled. “My sweet, people don’t change much after their twenties. And many of the ones attending this affair were born before the First World War, and intend to live . . . well, exist . . . forever.”
    â€œOf course they don’t change. They’re dead .”
    â€œOnly technically.”
    Ellen laughed ruefully herself. “I remember Adrienne saying something about the Old Ones disliking technology, or at least any technology that didn’t involve shoveling coal into a boiler.”
    â€œExactly. Also this announcement, it is a boast. They draw closer to the day they need not be secret. When they can rule as demon-gods once more.”
    â€œWhy in Arabic? I thought French was the Council’s official language.”
    â€œA slight unblatancy or minor disguise,” he said. “That’s the Arabic version of the original . . . Ordre de l’Aube Noire . It’s the term the al-Lanarki clan uses, too. Probably one of them thought it was amusing; they have an odd sense of humor.”
    â€œOdder than yours?” Ellen said sardonically. “In which I include your disreputable relatives, my love.”
    â€œMy ancestors thought they were magicians and loup-garou , before they ferreted out the truth. The al-Lanarkis thought they were ghilan , until the Order of the Black Dawn contacted them and showed them how to reconcentrate the genes. It shows in their . . . subculture, you might say. As the Tōkairin thought they were Ninja sorcerors.”
    â€œGhilan?”
    â€œThe translation would be . . . ghouls, roughly.”
    â€œEch,” she said. “Graveyards and corpses and that?”
    â€œNot quite. The ghÅ«l of the East is not exactly the ghoul of the West. It is a thing that can assume the guise of an animal, lures unwary travelers into the desert wastes to slay and devour them. GhÅ«l rob graves, drink blood, and