Knight of Shadows

I had no idea where I might be. Not that it really mattered if it brought me a breathing spell. I reached through the Logrus Sign for a great distance before I located a heavy blanket. Wrapping it about myself, I sank to a seated position upon the cave's floor. Then I reached again. It was easier to find a stack of wood and no trick at all to ignite a portion of it. I'd also been looking forward to one more cup of coffee. I wondered…

Why not? I reached again, and the bright circle rolled into view before me.

«Dad! Please stop!» came the offended voice. «I've gone to a lot of trouble to tuck you away in this obscure corner of Shadow. Too many sendings, though, and you'll call attention to yourself.»

«Come on!» I said. «All I want is a cup of coffee.»

«I'll get one for you. Just don't use your own powers for a while.»

«Why won't your action draw just as much attention?»

«I'm using a roundabout route. There!»

A steaming mug of some dark stoneware stood on the floor of the cave near my right hand.

«Thanks,» I said, taking it up and sniffing it. «What did you do with Jasra and Mandor?»

«I sent each of you off in a different direction amidst a horde of fake images flitting hither and yon. All you have to do now is lie low for a while. Let its attention subside.»

«Whose attention? What's attention?»

«The power that has Coral. We don't want it to find us.»

«Why not? I seem to recall your wondering earlier whether you were a god. What's for you to fear?»

«The real thing. It seems to be stronger than I am. On the other hand, I seem to be faster.»

«That's something, anyway»

«Get a good night's sleep. I'll let you know is the morning whether it's still hunting you.»

«Maybe I'll find out for myself.»

«Don’t go manifesting unless it's a matter of life or death.»

«That wasn't what I meant. Supposing it finds me?»

«Do whatever seems appropriate.»

«Why do I have a feeling you're keeping things from me?»

«I guess you're just suspicious by nature, Dad. It seems to run in your family. I've got to go now.»

«Where?» I asked.

«Check on the others. Run a few errands. See to my personal development. Check my experiments. Things like that. Bye.»

«What about Coral?»

But the circle of light which had hovered before me spun from brightness to dimness and vanished. An unarguable end to the conversation. Ghost was getting more and more like the rest of us - sneaky and misleading.

I sipped the coffee. Not as good as Mandor's, but acceptable. I began wondering where Jasra and Mandor had been sent. I decided against trying to reach them. In fact, it might not be a bad idea, I decided, to fortify my own position against magical intrusion.

I resummoned the Sign of the Logrus, which I had let slip while Ghost was transporting me. I used it to set wards at the cave mouth and about my situation within. Then I released it and took another sip. As I did, I realized that this coffee could not possibly keep me awake. I was coming off a nervous jag, and the weight of all my activities was suddenly heavy upon me. Two more sips, and I could hardly hold the cup. Another, and I noticed that each time I blinked my eyelids were closing a lot more easily than they opened.

I set the cup aside, drew my blanket more tightly about me, and found a relatively comfortable position on the stone floor, having become something of an expert on the activity back in the crystal cave. The flickering flames mustered shadow armies behind my eyelids. The fire popped like a clash of arms; the air smelled of pitch.

I went away. Sleep is perhaps the only among life's great pleasures which need not be of short duration. It filled me, and I drifted. How far and for how long, I cannot say.

Nor can I say what it was that roused me. I know only that I was somewhere else and the next moment I had returned. My position had changed slightly, my toes were cold, and I felt that I was no longer alone. I kept my eyes closed, and did not alter my breathing pattern. It could be that Ghost had simply decided to look in on me. It could also be that something was testing my wards.

I raised my eyelids but the smallest distance, peering outward and upward through a screen of eyelashes. A small misshaped figure stood outside the cave mouth, the fire's remaining glow faintly illuminating his strangely familiar face. There was something of myself in those features and something of my father.

«Merlin,» he said softly. «Come awake now. You've places to go and things to do.»

I opened my eyes wide and stared. He fitted a certain description… Frakir throbbed, and I stroked her still.

«Dworkin…?» I said.

He chuckled.

«You've named me,» he replied.

He paced, from one side of the cave mouth to the other, occasionally pausing to extend a hand partway toward me. Each time he hesitated and drew it back.

«What is it?» I asked. «What's the matter? Why are you here?»

«I've come to fetch you back to the journey you abandoned.»

«And what journey might that be?»

«Your search for the lady somewhere astray who walked the Pattern t'other day «