How to read from single LOOKUP table into different variables?

[CuriousOne]

Currently I'm doing this in the following way:

FOR X=0 TO 17 step 2	'READ ARRAY INTO VARIABLE, ARRAY MEMBER CHAR=EEPROM OFFSET	
Y=topline[x]
Z=topline[x+1] 'READ  INTO VARIABLE AS TWINS
FOR I=0 TO 7	'HELPER LOOP FOR CHARACTER READING
READ Y+I,A 'READ EEPROM BYTES INTO VAR
READ Z+I,B
LCDOUT $FE,$80+i+c 'UPDATE Y POSITION
LCDOUT $FE,$80+x/2 'UPDATE X POSITION
if y=255 then a=0
if z=255 then b=0 'blanker for space display
LCDOUT a
LCDOUT b 'WRITE TO SCREEN
NEXT I
NEXT X

C=number of line*8 where text had to be displayed.

[CuriousOne]

Oh and I'll ask here. Is it possible to do bitwise shift between array members?
I'm adding some smooth scroll options to that display, and vertical scrolling is easy, since 1 byte = 1 vertical line of pixels. But for horizontal scrolling, 1 byte = 8 horizontal pixels, so scrolling is not that smooth. I remember, I was doing this on ZX Spectrum In Assembler, but forgot how