26

She shrugged her shoulders and looked at the kitchen archway, from which some savory odors had started to waft out of. She turned back to me and said “It's not much of a stretch to think you were specifically targeted with the shade by someone. But I don't see why.” “You think he tried to put a hurt on me to get to you and Larry? That would really be the pits Fawn.”
She looked off into thin air momentarily as she thought about that. After a moment she shook her head. “I don't think so short stuff, if you are hurt or killed while on his grounds, he is responsible for your death, and if I'm remembering right, he would owe Larry and I something for your dying” she finished. “So I die he gets screwed?” I mused. A situation like that sure didn't make Cobb a very like person to have called up the shade. If I had been a bit slower to the door, it would have gutted me.
“Comes back to the question, why? What's the motive? who would want the whole service screwed up?” That made me think back to Judge Kaddas and his little conversation - I do not like ..... Mr. Cobb. We have crossed in the past, and now I find I have an opportunity to ruin a plan of his. Your knowing changes the situation beyond his ability to control, and he hates losing control of anything.”
Pretty thin to my thinking, but I told Fawn about it and she decided to look in on the Judge. Me, I got to go back to the books, but with a little equalizer. I can do spells of my own and one I do know is the circle of protection. I don't like casting spells as it takes me a long time to set up and invoke them, but now the time was worthwhile as I did not want another set of razor cuts along my back.
I ran a circuit of salt around the whole edge of the room, and then sat to focus and invoke. For charms I had a small piece of glass and a flashlight. My ability to concentrate was crap so it took me about thirty minutes to do a five minute spell. But once I was done, I felt the fuzzy hum of the spell. I went back to my books and started in on the one I had opened just before I got attacked.
I took a deep breath and placed the book back on the desk, and waited a moment. Nothing happened and I let my breath go. I had thought the shade might have been with the book, and if it had, my picking it up ought to have called it forth. The book was on dragon life-cycles, and some of the things I had read had been paraphrased from this text.
Dragons, it began, were conceived outside of the magic, and yet part of it. Zagyg speculated that dragons were the source, but later experiments.. and my ward suddenly pressed on me as the shade tried to get through. It's source was the book and when it materialized, the ward thrust it bodily out of the protected area, pushing it into the bookshelves. The shade struggled and pressed against the ward, but could not work its way to me, and if I left the circle or someone stepped in, it would break the enchantment and the shade would be free again in the room.
I sat for a moment and tried to decide what to do at this point. It couldn't get to me, so I took a moment to figure what to do. Running out into the room would break the enchantment and leave the shade free to continue guarding the book. Taking the book with me and reading it out in the main room was out of the question, and the shade would probably follow the book. Dispelling the shade would be the best solution, and although it would take time, I had time to use. I closed the book and threw it flat like a flying disc. It rotated and landed on the floor and skidded towards the corner furthest away from the room. The shade started for the book and I bolted for the door. I dove through the entrance and came up shaking, the shade was at the doorway, and I could feel it's focused gaze upon me. Then, like before, it vanished into the shadows.
I went and talked to Larry about dispelling the shade, and he showed me how to set the circle around the book, the incantations, and the finish. “You sure you want to do that alone short stuff? I'd be more than glad to help you, and shades can be pretty tough to handle alone, even when you know what you're doing.” “You saying that I don't Larry?” I asked him. He held up his hands in mock-surrender. “Okay, okay, I won't go with you. Just please be careful Fernie, I want you around to watch your niece or nephew grow up.”
I went and got the items I needed and went back to the Underhill entrance. Cobb was waiting for me again at the entrance and when he saw what I had in the backpack this time, his eyebrows went up and said “No, this will not be allowed.” “What won't be allowed?”, I asked him. He gestured at my backpack. “This, all of your items in where will not be allowed in. I will not have you casting human spells in my house.” “I already did that Cobb, and I plan on doing it again to get rid of that damned shade.”