Black Shade…

*

‘Montgomery’s Men’… ‘The law of unintended consequences’ …

The two phrases now ran in Sergeant Patrick’s mind like an insane tape loop…

As they ran, quicker and quicker, going nowhere, getting nowhere, a dark form grew in the corner of Patrick’s room.

Sergeant Patrick did not at first notice it for his lips were now following the lead of his mind, incessantly tripping over the two impossible phrases which merged with a third…

‘We let ‘em go!’… ‘Montgomery’s Men’… ‘The law of unintended consequences’ …

Perhaps it was a form of prayer?

‘Montgomery’s Men’… ‘The law of unintended consequences’ … ‘We let ‘em go!’

Or an invocation?

Eventually, inevitably, Patrick’s mind finally snapped as would the tape of an overused recording and the hum of sound now issuing from his lips became a blurted question, “How come Montgomery has Men?”

Two eyes of flame flickered open in the dark corner of Sergeant Patrick’s room.

“I thought you would never ask,” drooled the dark form from the corner.

Had Sergeant Patrick known anything about High Magic he would have been immediately alerted to the festering presence of the form that now inhabited his room.

He would not have asked it a direct question and he would not have been expectantly awaiting an answer to his question.

For thus, are lambs led to slaughter.

“Allow me to instruct you,” whispered the dark form from the corner.

Its voice sounded a little like laughter.

But Sergeant Patrick still had a choice.

A simple shake of the head would have sufficed and sent the dark form fleeing.

Instead, a mesmerized Patrick nodded his head, and was lost…