Servant of the Bones

"I lay in some dark place and the demons closed in on me, tearing at my invisible hair and body so that I dissolved and defeated them simply by slipping away and up, and then I made a right arm and a left arm and swept them aside, cursing them in their own tongues until they had fled.

"I tried to get my bearings; was I below the surface of the real earth? I didn't know. I had fallen into an ashy gloom, a fog, through which I could see nothing material. The spirits that fled from me or hovered near me were part of the pollution and density of this place.

"Then striding out of the fog there came a mighty spirit, shaped like a man as I was, smiling at me in cunning fashion, and immediately I sensed danger. He flew at me with both hands, fastening onto my neck, and then the demons closed in again. I fought him furiously, cursing him, and declaring him powerless, raiding off incantations galore to send him hence, and finally throttling him and shaking him until he was screaming for mercy; he lost his human shape; then he flew away, turned into a wisp of a veil as it were, and the demons fled.

" 'I have to get back to my Master,' I said. I closed my eyes. I called to my Master, and to my body that waited, and my clothes that waited, and then I woke up, sitting in the Greek chair in my Master's study, and he was at his desk, one knee raised with his foot on a footstool, tapping his fingers, and watching all.

" 'Did you see where I went and what I did?' I asked.

" 'Some of it. I saw you rise, but then you could go no higher, the spirits of the upper air wouldn't permit it.'

" 'So, they wouldn't, but they were kind. Did you see the light, way beyond them?'

" 'No, I didn't,' he said.

" 'That must be the light of Heaven,' I said, 'and down must come ladder, a stairway, yes, to the earth, but why not for all the dead, why not for all the paddled and angry?'

" 'No one knows. You don't require an answer from me. You can reason it out for yourself. But what makes you so sure there will be a ladder, a stairway for anyone? Is it the promise of the ziggurats, the pyramids? The legend of Mount Meru?'

"I thought a long time before answering. 'No,' I said. 'Though those are proofs of course, no, not proofs but indications. I know because of the faces of the higher spirits ... as they directed me to go down. There was no meanness in them; no evil; no wrath. They didn't shout like gatekeepers of a palace; they simply made it impossible for me to pass, and over and over they offered by gesture the way I was to go ... back to the earth.'

"He pondered that one in silence. I was too excited to be silent.

" 'Did you see that strong one who attacked me,' I said, 'the one who walked up to me as though he were my height and weight and was smiling, and then flew at me?'

" 'No. What happened?'

" 'I choked him and shook him and vanquished him and threw him away.'

"My Master laughed. 'Poor foolish spirit.'

" 'You're speaking to me?'

" 'I'm speaking sarcastically of him,' he said.

" 'But why didn't he talk to me? Why didn't he ask me who I was? Why didn't he greet me as a creature of equal power, you know, engage in some way other than battle?'

" 'Azriel, most spirits don't know what they're doing or why,' he said. 'The longer they drift the less they know. Hate is common to them. He tested his strength against you. Perhaps if he had vanquished you, he would have tried to enslave you among the invisible, but he couldn't do that. He knows nothing else, most likely, but com-st, dominance, and submission. Many human beings live in exactly Ae same way.'

'Oh, yes, I know,' I said.

" 'Go there, to the pitcher of water,' he said. 'Drink all of it. You can drink whenever you wish. Water will make your spirit body in any form stronger. That's true of all spirits and ghosts. They love water and crave the damp. Oh, but I told you this. Hurry up. I have something for you to do.'

"The water did taste wonderful and I drank an amount which a normal man could never have drunk. When I set down the pitcher I was ready for his command.

" 'I want you to retain your body and walk through the wall into the garden and then back again. You'll feel resistance. Ignore it. You are made of different particles from the wall, and you can pass among the particles of the wall without hurting it. Do it, do it over and over until you can walk through anything solid without hesitation.'

"I found this very easy. I walked through doors, I walked through walls three feet thick, I walked through columns. I walked through furniture. Each time I did feel the swirling particles which made up the barrier or the object, but the penetration was not hurtful and it took only will to override any natural instinct to bow or retreat.

" 'Are you tired?'

" 'No,' I said.

" 'All right, this is your first real errand for me,' he said. 'Go to the house of the Greek merchant Lysander in the street of the scribes, steal every manuscript out of his library, and bring them to me. You will take four trips to do it. Do it in the flesh and ignore anyone who sees you, remember that to make the scrolls pass through the wall, you have to put them inside your body, which includes now your robe. You have to envelop them in your spirit. If it is too hard, then go and come by doors. Anyone who strikes you . . . can't hurt you.'

" 'Do I hurt them?'

" 'No. Not unless they have some power to detain you. In general, their daggers and swords will pass right into you and do nothing. But if they take hold of the scrolls, which are material, you may have to knock them away. Do it ... gently, I suppose. Or ... as it suits you, depending on how much the person offends you. I leave it to you.'

"He lifted his pen and began to write. Then he realized I hadn't moved.

" 'So?' he asked.

" 'I'm to steal?'

" 'Azriel, my conscientious one, my newborn spirit, everything in the house of Lysander is stolen! He obtained it all when the Persians came through Miletus. Most of the library was mine. He is a bad man. You may kill him if you like. Doesn't matter to me. But get going and brine back all those books. Do as I say, and never question me on such matters.'

" 'Then you will never want for me to rob the poor man, or hurt the afflicted, or frighten the humble and the meek.'

"He looked up. 'Azriel, we have been over this ground. Your words sound like a variation on one of those pompous inscriptions at the feet of Assyrian Kings.'

" 'I didn't want to waste your time with lengthier questions,' I said. " 'I have no interest in anything but good behavior,' he said. 'Try to remember my lessons. I love even the pesty familiars I keep here to do my bidding, but Lysander is evil and steals and sells for profit, and cannot even read.'