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

Ruddygore chuckled. "Yes, Joe, it's got 'people and stuff.'
It didn't at the start, but the angels implored the Creator, once
they'd gotten it set up, and He shifted a small group from your
world over to mine. From that first tribe come the populations
of today. And in the millennia that have passed since then,
they've developed into different races, different cultures, just
as on your Earth. Not quite as diverse, but diverse enough,
and this despite the fact that there are far fewer languages there
than on your Earth. It's not as important as you might think,

25

JACK L. CHALKER

that different language business. In your world almost all those
peoples to the south of your own country, and many in your
country, speak Spanish, I believe -- yet there are many cultural
differences among those peoples, and many countries that are
quite different from one another. Geography and isolation do
as much to make people diverse as language."

"You know a lot about our world," the woman noted. "Do
your people visit us?"

"Oh, my, no!" Ruddygore laughed. "If they did, they'd
soon be corrupted beyond belief. In fact, very few can cross
the Sea of Dreams, and none as of now can do it until and
unless / will it. You see, this is my ferry, and it's the only one.
Oh, others can see the Sea and others can try the crossing, but
it is tricky and dangerous. Impossible to cross, in fact, unless
you know exactly how to do it. Fail and you will merge with
the Sea, returning to the mind of the Creator -- and you, your-
self, will cease to exist. This is more than death. Your very
soul is swallowed and merged back into the primal energies
below us. You are gone in true death."

"You're telling us that there is a soul -- an afterlife?" the
woman pressed eagerly. "That's what it sounds like."

"Well, there is a soul, yes. Miss -- just what is your name,
anyway? We can't keep calling you 'that woman' all the time."

"Marjorie's my real name," she told them, "but mostly I
just go by the nickname of Marge."

"All right -- Marge," the sorcerer said, nodding. "At any
rate, yes, you have a soul. All the humans have souls, and a
few of the others. But as to the fate of those souls -- there are
a lot of things that can happen. Evil can destroy a soul -- outside
as well as internal evil -- and leave the body empty. The soul