Curses is a short story in the The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. It is set between Small Favor and Turn Coat. It can be found in the book Naked City.

Plot Edit

A man in an expensive suit named Donovin walks into Harry Dresden's office and asked him to remove a curse. Although Donovin is nonspecific, Dresden manages to guess that he is referring to The Billy Goat Curse on the baseball team the Cubs. Harry takes the case working out that keeping a curse active since 1945 would require recasting on a regular basis. Harry remembering that goats are sacred the the Welsh Fey court, known as The Tylwyth Teg. Harry, goes to a bar that he knows to be a hangout for Fey and changelings of the Tylwyth Teg. There he meets Jill a pseudonym for the Fey named Jili Ffrwtan who he convinces to take him to the Tylwyth king Gwynn ap Nudd. Harry and King Gwynn discuss baseball and the insult paid to Gwynn when he (in goat form) was asked to leave the game for smelling, as any authentic goat would when rained on. Gwynn confesses that he is no longer mad about the insult paid him and he only renews the curse because he believes it is in keeping with the true spirit of baseball, which Harry agrees with. Later, when explaining what happened to Donovin, Harry explains that baseball has become all about making money and only the Cubs hoping that this would be the year their team won year after year made them special. Donovin says he doesn't understand and Harry says that he didn't expect him to. Harry then attends a cubs game with Gwynn who suggests that one day the team will break though the curse.

Characters Edit

• Harry Dresden
• Donovin
• Bob
• Jili Ffwtan
• Big Red
• King Gwynn

External links Edit

• The Dresden Files short stories on jim-butcher.com