"Chalker, Jack L - DG1 - The River of the Dancing Gods" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalker Jack L)

JACK L. CHALKER

tore off a large chunk of bread, then sat down in a chair that
creaked under his great weight and settled back.

"We are heading across the Sea of Dreams," he told them
between large bites and swallowed.

Joe decided he might as well eat, too, and followed Ruddy-
gore's lead, except for taking some sliced meat as well and the
ale rather than wine. "I never heard of a Sea of Dreams," he
noted. "And it sure ain't in Texas."

Ruddygore chuckled, "No, Joe, it sure ain't. And yet, in a
way, it is very close to Texas -- and everyplace else, for that
matter. It is the element that connects the universes. It isn't
anywhere, really, except -- well, between."

The woman wandered out onto the deck for a moment and
stared down at the inky blackness. There was the strong feeling
of movement; wind blew her hair, wind with an unaccustomed
chill in it, but there was no sound of water, no smell of sea or
brine.

She shivered in the cold and came back in to join the others.
"That sea -- is that water?"

Ruddygore reloaded with meat and half a loaf of bread and
settled back. "Oh, no. But it has the consistency of water and
the surface properties of water, so you treat it that way. In
truth, I couldn't begin to explain to you what it actually is."
He thought a moment. "The best way to give you at least a
sense of it is to provide you with a little background."

Both passengers settled down. "Shoot," Joe invited him.

"Go back to the beginning. I mean the real beginning. The
explosion that created your universe and mine. Where was the
Creator before He created the universes?"

Joe shrugged. "Heaven?"

"But he created the heavens and the earth, also," Ruddygore
reminded them. "Well, I'll tell you where He was. Here. And
when He created your universe. He also created all the natural
laws, the rules by which it all operates, and He generally has
played by those rules, particularly in the past couple thousand
years or so. But when He created your Earth, there was a
backwash from all that released energy. As it surged from here