"The Black Mirror"

by John Glasby
originally published The New Lovecraft Circle, Fedogan and Bremer 1996

Philip Ashmore Smith is dead - burned alive.  He left behind a diary.  PAS was heavily into the occult and supernatural, haunting the bookshops in search of rare occult tomes.  And a Dr. Alexander Morton has taken an ornamental black mirror from Smith's room, without permission of the cops, and tossed it down a mine shaft.    Independently wealthy, world-travelling student of the occult, pursuing the usual suspects.  Collected occult tomes and built himself a little astronomical observatory in an outbuilding on his isolated property.

Mainly he's in pursuit of info from The Zegrembi Manuscript,  a passage of which mentions Cthugha, his minions the jinnee, a black mirror which can be used to summon them, but, if used wrongly, will pull in Cthugha himself, and certain astronomical conditions which will allow Cthugha to return to earth (I guess).

Smith is searching for that black mirror and how to use it.

In Exeter, Smith's investigations lead to an encounter with a mysterious bookshop owner who gives him a parchment that allows him to translate the necessary information.  He is troubled by dreams of dark voids and fiery spheres (effective).

Apparently Zegrembi (wizard) caused the Great Fire of London in 1666 by screwing up use of the black mirror.  Dr. Morton starts to worry about Smith's appearance and well-being.  Smith comes to believe the black mirror is somewhere near his home.  The bookshop owner seems to be stalking him.  Or is that a hallucination?

Surprise! Zegrembi used to live in that farmhouse!  And he caused a lot of trouble (people fleeing screaming across the moors, being pursued by flaming demons, weird sounds from the earth, etc.  Eventually the folks stormed the house and burned all his papers.  But of Zegrembi they found no trace.  Smith finds a drawing of Zegrembi stuck between two pages of a book, and realizes he looks just like the shopkeeper.  In the attic (a well-described scene) he finds to the location of the black mirror.  He finds it buried in the woods.

The poor bastard summons up a jinnee and gets toasted by it.

Very traditional, and very derivative, particularly of the Derleth/Lovecraft collabs.  And still, maybe because it's so traditional and predictable, I enjoyed it.  Glasby manages to echo Lovecraft while still retaining his own cool, British style.  Certainly nothing great, but a fun read all the same.