Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page B

know how, or who did this,’ he said, staring into the distance. ‘Nor why. It may help the change occur. Or it may harm your father a great deal.’ Arch lapsed into one of his silences.
    She had read many books about World’s End, about the Wall, and other things she did not much understand. ‘You look concerned, Aziel,’ he said. ‘Don’t be. A new world is open to us, or shall be soon. And the war will very soon be won. The occasion is joyous. Whatever it does to Vous.’
    â€˜But what is on the other side? Are there people there, more rebel cities?’
    â€˜No, Aziel. I have seen things in the Hall of Windows. Things I won’t tell you of. Once we have mastered the new airs, all will be well.’
    â€˜Was it…? Arch. You do know who did it! Don’t you?’
    His face showed surprise. ‘How can you tell?’
    â€˜I don’t know, but I can. You know who did it. You can say who. I won’t tell anyone. Not Ghost or Nanny or anyone.’
    â€˜Very well. Aziel, do you know what Ghost really is? I shall tell you. Your father killed five of his friends, long before you were born. I shall not lie to you – I helped him plan it. They were a threat to us, to the smooth running of things. But your father had not before murdered with his own hands. That is, not outside the heat of battle. He’d only ever had others do such things for him. The deeds lingered in his mind, after. And in the airs, which are stronger here than elsewhere.’
    â€˜He felt guilty?’
    â€˜Yes. And with our rituals, as the change began, more power drew itself through him, around him, and interacted with his mind. Do you know what magic is, Aziel, at its most fundamental?’
    She thought of the little tricks Arch used to do to amuse her, recalled a bird made of light which clumsily fluttered around the room, until it ran into the wall and puffed into a burst of sparks. Even now an echo of childish delight reached through nearly ten years to touch her like a warm breeze. ‘You told me what magic is, but I forget the words you used.’
    â€˜Magic is loose reality. This chair I sit upon is fixed reality. You and I are fixed reality, though far more flexible and complex than the chair. Think of us standing in a river, as unformed clay floats past us. Mages can not only see the wet clay, we can grab it and shape it. Great mages, such as I, have big, fast hands. Faster than a blink. We make deliberate shapes, very carefully worked out beforehand, for mistakes are dangerous.
    â€˜But your father is not a mage. And even if he were, no man has ever had such power about him. Not the greatest wizard who ever lived. No man can hold such large amounts of it, let alone shape it by design. Far less than that which surrounds Vous now would slay him, but for my study and rituals. It was not easy, Aziel. It was centuries of work, often tedious, most of it very dangerous.
    â€˜Although the power surrounded him, he had no hands to shape it. Now, suddenly, it is almost like Vous has a hundred hands. All moving on their own around him, faster than he can see, let alone control. So he forms shapes he doesn’t intend. Even some which are terribly bad for him. And for us.’
    â€˜Is Ghost…?’
    â€˜Ghost is one such form, yes, though not a very dangerous one. Made long before you were born. Part of Vous was guilty, or fearful of – well, of ghosts. The ghosts of his own hands’ murders haunted him, as ghosts of the murdered are said to do. This fear consumed him in those days. I remember it. I tried to calm him, with the usual results. So he found a way to calm himself before the fear could consume him.’
    â€˜So he made Ghost by accident? And made it his friend, so he wouldn’t have to keep being afraid?’
    â€˜Yes. Even before the changes began, your father was a strange man.’ The Arch Mage seemed to realise the deformed side of