"John DeChancie - Castle 08 - Bride of the Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dechancie John)

It works on magic."
Max finished drained the dregs of his Coke and crumpled the can. "Look, kid-"
"Don't call me that! I'm twenty-three years old."
"Sorry. Listen, buddy, I have a deadline. Got to get back to work. Can I just go right through there?"
Jeremy stabbed one last key on the keyboard and sat back. "Okay, you can go back now."
"It was very interesting, really," Max said. "Good luck in whatever it is you're doing."
"Thanks, but I think you'll be back."
"I might stop back at that. So long."
"See you in a bit."
Jeremy watched his client duck through the red curtain. Then he opened a drawer and rifled it, coming up
with a package of Twinkies. He put his sneakered feet up on the console, tore open the package, and
began to eat.
After a not inordinate length of time, Max came running back through the curtain, his face pale. He was
out of breath.
"That was quick," Hochstader said mildly.
"What . . , what happened . . ." Max puffed, "to the place where I work? It's . . . it's gone!"
"Well, the economy's in a terrible state."
Max took a minute to wheeze and hack, then yelled, "I looked all over the building! The name of my firm
isn't even on the directory! I looked in the phone listings. Fenton Associates doesn't exist! But you're still
here. Your office, this place-" Max looked around, then scratched his head. "Where the hell is this place,
anyway?"
"I told you," Jeremy said through the last bite of Twinkie. "It's in another world. This is Castle Perilous.
Look, let's go back into the office. I need a soda and there's no machine here. I'd have to go all the way
down to the dining hall. Come on."
Jeremy led the way back through the curtain.
Max followed. Back in the office, Max stopped and turned about, struck by the place somehow looking
subtly different. It was a little neater. Hadn't that computer been on a smaller table along the opposite
wall?
"Who moved the furniture?" Max asked vaguely.
"Wait a sec," Jeremy said. "I'll be back." He walked out the door, into the hallway of the office building.
Max sat on a rickety chair.
"Twilight Zone," he said, nodding. "I've found it. It's a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind.
It's all in my mind. I'm crazy. Crazy as a common loon."
Jeremy returned shortly, slurping a can of soda. "Okay, I guess I gotta explain things."
"Yeah," Max said. "What the bloody hell is going on?"
"Well, first you gotta understand about Castle Perilous." Jeremy sat at his microcomputer and threw one
leg up on desk. "I stumbled into the place a few years ago. I got into trouble, and I was going to, you
know, snuff it. I jumped off the roof of a building, but I didn't splatter in the alley like I was supposed to.
I went through a spacetime warp, or whatever you want to call it, and I wound up inside the castle."
"Castle," Max said dully.
"Yeah, it's this humongous castle, and it's in another world, see. Not our world, not Earth. Earth is just
one of the thousands of worlds that you can get to, by going through Castle Perilous. It's a gateway."
"Gateway," Max said, trying to follow.
"Yeah. You step through a door or a window inside the castle, and . . . jeez, you could be anywhere. On
an alien planet, or some goofy world where they fight with swords, or anywhere. It's a lot of fun, really,
living in the castle. I mean, it gets hairy sometimes, and things start shaking, and crazy aliens come
through every now and then and try to take it over. But Lord Incarnadine always chases 'em out, and
everything's-"
"Lord who?"
"Incarnadine. He's the king. The master of Castle Perilous, Lord of this and that. He's King of the Realms