Read Online He Who Shapes by Roger Zelazny - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Roger Zelazny
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all.
For one instant this was true. He turned the big clock in the
sky backward, smiling as he dozed. Another instant and he was
awake again, and unsmiling.
The universe had taken revenge for his presumption. For one
reknown moment with the helplessness which he had loved
beyond helping, it had charged him the price of the lake-
bottom vision once again; and as he had moved once more
toward the wreck at the bottom of the worldlike a swimmer, as
unable to speakhe heard, from somewhere high over the
Earth, and filtered down to him through the waters above
the Earth, the howl of the Fenris Wolf as it prepared to devour
the moon; and as this occurred, he knew that the sound was as
like to the trump of a judgment as the lady by his side was
unlike the moon. Every bit. In all ways. And he was afraid.
Ill
". . . The plain, the direct, and the blunt. This is Winchester
Cathedral," said the guidebook. "With its floor-to-ceiling
shafts, like so many huge treetrunks, it achieves a ruthless
control over its spaces: the ceilings are flat; each bay, separated
by those shafts, is itself a thing of certainty and stability. It
seems, indeed, to reflect something of the spirit of William the
Conqueror. Its disdain of mere elaboration and its passionate
dedication to the love of another world would make it seem,
too, an appropriate setting for some tale out of Mallory . . ."
"Observe the scalloped capitals," said the guide. "In their
primitive fluting they anticipated what was later to become a
common motif . . ."
"Faugh!" said Rendersoftly though, because he was in a
group inside a church.
"Shh!" said JiU (Fotlockthat was her real last name)
DeVille.
But Render was impressed as well as distressed.
Hating Jill's hobby though, had become so much of a reflex
with him that he would sooner have taken his rest seated
beneath an oriental device which dripped water on his head
than to admit he occasionally enjoyed walking through the
arcades and the galleries, the passages and the tunnels, and
getting all out of breath climbing up the high twisty stairways
of towers.
So he ran his eyes over everything, burnt everything down by
shutting them, then built the place up again out of the still
smouldering ashes of memory, all so that at a later date he
would be able to repeat the performance, offering the vision to
his one patient who could see only in this manner. This
building he disliked less than most. Yes, he would take it back
to her.
The camera in his mind photographing the surroundings,
Render walked with the others, overcoat over his arm, his
fingers anxious to reach after a cigarette. He kept busy ignoring
his guide, realizing this to be the nadir of all forms of human
protest. As he walked through Winchester he thought of his last
two sessions with Eileen Shallot. He recalled his almost
unwilling Adam-attitude as he had named all the animals
passing before them, led of course by the one she had wanted to
see, colored fearsome by his own unease. He had felt pleasantly
bucolic after honing up on an old botany text and then
proceeding to Shape and name the flowers of the fields.
So far they had stayed out of the cities, far away from the
machines. Her emotions were still too powerful at the sight of
the simple, carefully introduced objects to risk plunging her
into so complicated and chaotic a wilderness yet; he would
build her city slowly.
Something passed rapidly, high above the cathedral,
uttering a sonic boom. Render took Jill's hand iri his for a
moment and smiled as she looked up at him. Knowing she
verged upon beauty, Jill normally took great pains to achieve it.
But today her hair was simply drawn back and knotted behind
her head, and her lips and her eyes were pale; and her exposed
ears were tiny and white and somewhat pointed.
"Observe the scalloped capitals," he whispered. "In their
primitive fluting they anticipated what was later to become a
common
For one instant this was true. He turned the big clock in the
sky backward, smiling as he dozed. Another instant and he was
awake again, and unsmiling.
The universe had taken revenge for his presumption. For one
reknown moment with the helplessness which he had loved
beyond helping, it had charged him the price of the lake-
bottom vision once again; and as he had moved once more
toward the wreck at the bottom of the worldlike a swimmer, as
unable to speakhe heard, from somewhere high over the
Earth, and filtered down to him through the waters above
the Earth, the howl of the Fenris Wolf as it prepared to devour
the moon; and as this occurred, he knew that the sound was as
like to the trump of a judgment as the lady by his side was
unlike the moon. Every bit. In all ways. And he was afraid.
Ill
". . . The plain, the direct, and the blunt. This is Winchester
Cathedral," said the guidebook. "With its floor-to-ceiling
shafts, like so many huge treetrunks, it achieves a ruthless
control over its spaces: the ceilings are flat; each bay, separated
by those shafts, is itself a thing of certainty and stability. It
seems, indeed, to reflect something of the spirit of William the
Conqueror. Its disdain of mere elaboration and its passionate
dedication to the love of another world would make it seem,
too, an appropriate setting for some tale out of Mallory . . ."
"Observe the scalloped capitals," said the guide. "In their
primitive fluting they anticipated what was later to become a
common motif . . ."
"Faugh!" said Rendersoftly though, because he was in a
group inside a church.
"Shh!" said JiU (Fotlockthat was her real last name)
DeVille.
But Render was impressed as well as distressed.
Hating Jill's hobby though, had become so much of a reflex
with him that he would sooner have taken his rest seated
beneath an oriental device which dripped water on his head
than to admit he occasionally enjoyed walking through the
arcades and the galleries, the passages and the tunnels, and
getting all out of breath climbing up the high twisty stairways
of towers.
So he ran his eyes over everything, burnt everything down by
shutting them, then built the place up again out of the still
smouldering ashes of memory, all so that at a later date he
would be able to repeat the performance, offering the vision to
his one patient who could see only in this manner. This
building he disliked less than most. Yes, he would take it back
to her.
The camera in his mind photographing the surroundings,
Render walked with the others, overcoat over his arm, his
fingers anxious to reach after a cigarette. He kept busy ignoring
his guide, realizing this to be the nadir of all forms of human
protest. As he walked through Winchester he thought of his last
two sessions with Eileen Shallot. He recalled his almost
unwilling Adam-attitude as he had named all the animals
passing before them, led of course by the one she had wanted to
see, colored fearsome by his own unease. He had felt pleasantly
bucolic after honing up on an old botany text and then
proceeding to Shape and name the flowers of the fields.
So far they had stayed out of the cities, far away from the
machines. Her emotions were still too powerful at the sight of
the simple, carefully introduced objects to risk plunging her
into so complicated and chaotic a wilderness yet; he would
build her city slowly.
Something passed rapidly, high above the cathedral,
uttering a sonic boom. Render took Jill's hand iri his for a
moment and smiled as she looked up at him. Knowing she
verged upon beauty, Jill normally took great pains to achieve it.
But today her hair was simply drawn back and knotted behind
her head, and her lips and her eyes were pale; and her exposed
ears were tiny and white and somewhat pointed.
"Observe the scalloped capitals," he whispered. "In their
primitive fluting they anticipated what was later to become a
common
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