KNIGHT OF SHADOWS Read Free

I asked as I drew off my shirt.
    “No,” Mandor replied.   “I like to flatter myself in thinking that she would not want to miss this meal.   Nor, do I feel, would she want us to miss seeing her at her best, having so far seen her at something less than that.   And a possibility of gossip, confidences...” He shook his head.   “You may never have been able to trust her before and may never again.   But this meal will be a Time-out if I’m any judge.”
    “I’ll hold you to that,” I said as I splashed and lathered.
    Mandor gave me a crooked smile, then conjured a corkscrew and opened the bottles-“to let them breathe a little”-before he tended to himself.   I trusted his judgment, but I hung on to the Sign of the Logrus in case I had to duel with a demon or avoid a falling wall.
    No demons sprang; no masonry toppled.   I entered the dining room behind Mandor and watched him transform it with a few words and gestures.   The trestle table and the benches were replaced by a round table and comfortable-looking chairs-the chairs so situated as to provide a good view of the mountains from each.   Jasra had not yet arrived, and I was carrying the two wine bottles whose respiration Mandor found most appealing.   Before I could even set them down, Mandor conjured an embroidered tablecloth and napkins; delicate china, which looked as if it had been hand decorated by Miro; finely wrought silverware.   He studied the tableau a moment, banished the silverware, summoned a set with a different pattern.   He hummed as he paced and regarded the layout from various angles.   Just as I moved forward to place the bottles on the table, he summoned a crystal bowl filled with floating flowers as a centerpiece.   I took a step backward then as crystal goblets appeared.
    I made a small growling noise, and he seemed to notice me for the first time in a while.
    “Oh, set them there.   Set them there, Merlin,” he said, and an ebony tray appeared on the table to my left.   “We’d better check to see how the wine is holding up, before the lady arrives,” he said then, pouring some of the ruby fluid into two of the goblets.
    We sampled these, and he nodded.   It was better than Bayle’s.   By far.
    “Nothing wrong there,” I said.
    He rounded the table, went to the window, and looked out.   I followed.
    Somewhere up in those mountains, I supposed, was Dave in his cave.
    “I feel almost guilty,” I said, “taking a break like this.   There are so many things I should be tending to-
    “Possibly even more than you suspect,” he said.   “Look upon this less as a break than a retrenchment.   And you may learn something from the lady.”
    “True,” I replied.   “I wonder what, though.”
    He swirled his wine in his glass, took another small sip, and shrugged.
    “She knows a lot.   She may let something slip, or she may feel expansive at the attention and grow generous.   Take things as they’re dealt.”
    I took a drink, and I could be nasty and say my thumbs began to prickle.   But it was actually the Logrus field that warned me of Jasra’s approach along the hall outside.   I did not remark upon it to Mandor, since I was certain he felt it, too.   I simply turned toward the door, and he matched my movement.
    She had on a low over-one-shoulder (the left) white dress, fastened at the shoulder with a diamond pin, and she wore a tiara, also of diamonds, which seemed almost to be radiating in the infrared range amidst her bright hair.   She was smiling, and she smelled good, too.   Involuntarily I felt myself standing straighter, and I glanced at my fingernails to be certain they were clean.
    Mandor’s bow was more courtly than mine, as usual.   And I felt obliged to say something pleasant.   So, “You’re looking quite...elegant,” I observed, letting my eyes wander to emphasize the point.
    “It is seldom that I dine with two princes,” she remarked.
    “I’m Duke of the Western