"Bisson, Terry - First Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bisson Terry)

remember every city he ravished?
Claude was not a boy friend. Not even, strictly speaking, a colleague, but a
divinity student from Yale. "Comparative religions. And I have discovered," he
said, "the oldest religion in the world. I think. As well as one of the
smallest. It's called Ger'abtщ, which means in Highland Wolof, first fire."
"Remember the monks at Ebtacan?" said Kay, laying her hand on Emil's wrist.
"This is the same deal. The entire purpose of the religion is guarding a fire."
"I remember," said Emil.
"Guarding a flame," said Claude. "I have interviewed one of the Ger'abtщ
priests, a defrockщ. A rebel, a runaway. I met him in Paris last year. He claims
that the flame they call Ger'abtщ is the first flame ever lighted by man. It
provides a chemin sans brisщ, an unbroken link from the first humans to today.
This flame is guarded and maintained by a secret priesthood high in the
Ruwenzori."
"The Mountains of the Moon," said Kay.
"Overlooking the Rift Valley," mused Emil.
"Exactemente," said Claude. "They have the location right. According to most
anthropologists, this is the area where man first evolved."
"Whatever that means," said Emil. "Speech, upright posture, tools ..."
"Fire," said Claude. "Whatever else you think, fire is key. It separates man
from beast."
"You believe them, then."
"Non, no, of course not." Claude lit another Galouise from his last. The
cigarettes so far formed an unbroken chain, like the Flame of Zoroaster, or
Ger'abtщ.
"But I do wish to find out how old the fire is," said Claude. "If it is, in
fact, several thousand years old, it changes our whole view of so-called
"animist" African religions and their--how shall I say it?--their gravitщs."
This man has a political agenda, thought Emil. But then who doesn't?
They made plans over dinner. Later, Emil found himself in a Plaza hotel suite
with Kay. She was, if anything, even more inventive and accomplished than
before. A memorable lover. Love without possession or even the desire for
possession--that was what it meant to share a woman with the richest man in the
world. It was as if the Tycoon lay alongside them. Oddly, it added to Emil's
pleasure.
"You know what he did with the Flame of Zoroaster?" Kay asked.
"Sure. He bought it and put it in the Met."
"He put it out first."
"What!?"
"He's a strange and driven man," Kay said "He feels this mystical connection
with Alexander. He has this thing about history, about breaking with the past at
the same time that you are recognizing it."
"But the whole damn point was that the flame was authentic! As soon as it's
dated again ..."
"Why would it be? Unless you do it. And you are on his payroll. So to speak."
She held her small breasts, one in each hand, like pomagranates.
"Are you going to stay the, night?"
**
The Ruwenzori from the air is a terrifying tangle of cloud and ice and stone.
Emil had discovered in his two years with the time gun that he was unsuited for