Free Jack Of Shadows by Roger Zelazny Page A

Bats, "for that of another was blotted out above it."
    "Perhaps the tutelary deity had second thoughts on the matter."
    "To my knowledge, this has never occurred before. But if you are one of the seven chosen, so be it. Hear me, though, before you move to essay your part of the Shield duty."
    He clapped his hands and a hanging stirred. Evene entered the room. She went and stood at her Lord's side.
    "While your powers may be necessary for this thing," he said to Jack, "do not think that they approach my own here in High Dudgeon. Soon we must strike lights, and there will be shadows. Even if I have underestimated you, know that my Lady has had years in which to study the Art and that she is uniquely gifted in its employment. She will add her skills to my own, should you attempt anything save that for which I brought you here. No matter what you believe, she is not a simulacrum."
    "I know that," said Jack, "for simulacra do not weep."
    "When did you see Evene weep?"
    "You must ask her about it sometime."
    She dropped her eyes as he turned his toward the altar and moved forward.
    "I'd best begin. Please stand in the lesser circle," he said.
    One by one, he ignited the charcoal within ten braziers, which stood in three rows of three, four and three each. He added aromatic powders, causing each to flame and cast smokes of different colors. Then he moved to the far side of the altar and traced a pattern upon the floor with the blade of an iron knife. He spoke softly and his shadow multiplied, recombined into one, swayed, grew still, darkened, and then stretched across the hall like an endless roadway to the
    east. It did not move thereafter, despite the flickering light, and grew so dark that it seemed to possess the quality of depth.
    Jack heard the Lord of Bats' whispered, "I like this not!" to Evene, and he glanced in their direction.
    Through the rolling smoke, by the flickering lights, within the circle, he seemed to take on a darker, more sinister appearance and to move with greater and greater assurance and efficiency. When he raised the small bell from the altar and rang it, the Lord of Bats cried, "Stop!" but he did not break the lesser circle as the sense of another presence, tense, watching, filled the hall.
    "You are correct with respect to one thing," Jack said. "You are my master when it comes to the Art. I am not so addled as to cross swords with you, yet. Especially not in your place of power. Rather, I seek merely to occupy you for a time, to assure my safety. It will take even the two of you some minutes to banish the force I have summoned here-and then you will have other things to think about. Here's one!"
    He seized a leg of the nearest brazier and buried it across the hall. Its charcoal was scattered among rushes. They began to burn, and flames touched the fringes of a tapestry as Jack continued:
    "I have not been summoned for Shield duty. With splinters from the table, charred in the
    flame of our dinner candle, I altered the entry in the Book of Ells. Its opening unto me was the spell you detected."
    "You dared break the Great Compact and tamper with the fate of the world?"
    "Just so," said Jack. "The world is of little use to a madman, which is what you would have had me; and I spit on the Compact."
    "You are henceforth and forever an outcast, Jack. Count no darksider as friend."
    "I never have."
    "The Compact and its agent, the Book of Ells, is the one thing we all respect-always have respected-despite all other differences. Jack. You will be bounded now to your ultimate destruction."
    "I almost was, here, by you. This way, I am able to bid you good-bye."
    "I will banish the presence you have summoned and extinguish the fire you have caused. Then I will raise half a world against you. Never again will you know a moment's rest. Your ending will not be a happy one."
    "You slew me once, you took my woman and warped her will, you made me your prisoner, wore me around your neck, set your Borshin upon me. Know