Footsteps approached and Molly appeared, carrying a plastic laundry basket full of children's clothing. She blinked when she saw us, but smiled and came over immediately. "What's that?"
"It's a map," I replied, like the knowledgeable mentor I was supposed to be.
She snorted. "I can see that," she said. "But a map of what?"
Then I got it. "Ley lines," I said, looking up at Luccio. "These are ley lines."
Molly pursed her lips and studied the paper. "Those are real?"
"Yeah, we just haven't covered them yet. They're...well, think of them as underground pipelines. Only instead of flowing with water, they flow with magic. They run all over the world, usually running between hot spots of supernatural energy."
"Connect the dots with magic," Molly said. "Cool."
"Exactly," Luccio said. "The only method that would have a chance of restraining the Archive's power would be the use of a greater circle-and one that uses an enormous amount of energy, at that."
I grunted acknowledgment. "It would have to be dead solid perfect, too, or she could break loose at the flaw."
"Correct."
"How much energy are we talking about?" I asked her.
"You might be able to empower such a circle for half an hour or an hour, Dresden. I couldn't have kept it up that long, even before my, ah"-she waved a hand down at herself-"accident."
"So it would take loads of power," I mused. "So how are they powering it?"
"That's the real question," she said. "After all, the Sign they raised at the Aquarium suggests that they have an ample supply."
I shook my head. "No," I stated. "That was Hellfire."
Luccio pursed her lips. "You seem fairly certain of that."
"I seem completely certain of that," I said. "It's powerful as Hell, literally, but it isn't stable. It fluctuates and stutters. That's why they couldn't keep the Sign up any longer than they did."
"To imprison the Archive, they would need a steady, flawless supply," Luccio said. "A supply that big would also be able to support a very complex veil-one that could shield them from any tracking spell. In fact, it's the only way they could establish a veil that impenetrable."
"Ley lines," I breathed.
"Ley lines," she said with satisfaction.
"I know of a couple around town, but I didn't realize there were that many of the things," I said.
"The Great Lakes region is rife with them," Luccio said. "It's an energy nexus."
"So?" Molly asked. "What does that mean?"
"Well, it's one reason why so much supernatural activity tends to happen in this area," I said. "Three times as many ships and planes have vanished in Lake Michigan as in the Bermuda Triangle."
"Wow," Molly said. "Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"Next summer I think I'll stick to the pool."
Luccio started tracing various lines on the map with a fingertip. "The colors denote what manner of energy seems to be most prevalent in the line. Defensive energy here. Disruptive force here, restorative lines here and here, and so on. The thickness of the line indicates its relative potency."
"Right, right," I said, growing excited. "So we're looking for an energy source compatible with the use of a greater circle, and strong enough to keep a big one powered up and stable."
"And there are four locations that I think are most likely," Luccio said. She pointed up toward the north end of Lake Michigan. "North and South Manitou islands both have heavy concentrations of dark energy running through them."
"There's plenty of spook stories around them, too," I said. "But that's better than two hundred miles away. If I were Nicodemus, I wouldn't want to risk moving her that far."
"Agreed. A third runs directly beneath the Field Museum." She glanced up at me and arched an eyebrow as her voice turned dry. "But I think you're already familiar with that one."
"I was going to put the dinosaur back," I said. "But I was unconscious."
"Which brings us to number four," Luccio said. Her fingertip came to rest on a cluster of tiny islands out in the center of the lake, northeast of the city, and the heavy, dark purple line running through it. "Here."
Molly leaned across me and frowned down at the map. "There aren't any islands in that part of Lake Michigan. It's all open water."
"Listens-to-Wind gave this map to me, Miss Carpenter," Luccio said seriously. "He's spent several centuries living in this general region."
I grunted. "I hear a lot of things. I think that there are some islands out there. They were used as bases for wilderness fighters in several wars. Bootleggers used them as a transfer point for running booze in from Canada, back in the Prohibition days. But there were always stories around them."
Molly frowned. "What kind of stories?"
I shrugged. "The usual scary stuff. Hauntings. People driven insane by unknown forces. People dragged into the water by creatures unknown, or found slaughtered by weaponry several centuries out-of-date."
"Then why aren't they on the maps and stuff?" Molly asked.
"The islands are dangerous," I said. "Long way from any help, and the lake can be awfully mean in the winter. There are stone reefs out there, too, that could gut a boat that came too close. Maybe someone down at city hall figured that the islands would prove less of a temptation to people if everyone thought they were just stories, and invested some effort in removing them from the public record."
"That wouldn't be possible," Molly said.
"It might be," Luccio responded. "The energies concentrated around those islands would tend to make people unconsciously avoid them. If one did not have a firm destination fixed in mind, the vast majority of people in the area would swing around the islands without ever realizing what they were doing."
I grunted. "And if there's that much bad mojo spinning around out there, it would play merry hell with navigational gear. Twenty bucks says that the major flight lanes don't come within five miles of the place." I thumped my finger on the spot and nodded. "It feels right. She's there."
"If she is," Molly asked, "then what do we do about it?"
Luccio tilted her head at me, frowning.
"Captain, I assume you already contacted the Council about getting reinforcements?"