"Doris Egan - Ivory 01 - The Gate of Ivory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Egan Doris)

Cormallon reached in and brought it out. He opened the case and spilled
the cards on the desk. "Shuffle them," he said, "stack them, do whatever it
is you do." When I had them shuffled and stacked neatly on the marble
desktop, I looked at him. "Now read them," he said.

I turned over the top card. It showed a man sitting in shadow, bound
and gagged. It was very realistic, with gradations of shade I'd never seen
before in a deck of cards. "I don't even know what they're supposed to
symbolize," I protested.

"When you're more used to them, you can tell me what they symbolize.
This one is The Prisoner. Go on; you're doing better than you know.''

I turned over the next one. It was an ancient water ship, with a smoke
stack; as I put it down a picture flashed through my mind of a different
ship, a modern pleasure vessel. I touched the card again, and this time I
was looking through a porthole into one of the cabins. Ran Cormallon was
stretched out on a bed, reading a notebook; a young woman sat
cross-legged on the carpet, her dark hair held back by a red jeweled pin. I
couldn't see what she was doing. I took my hand away from the card and
looked at Cormallon. "I don't suppose you've been on a boat recently.''

He smiled. "Go on. This time see if you can tell me something new."

"With a woman," I said slowly, "who pins her hair up with a red pin."

"Go on," he repeated. "The next card."

I turned over the next card and dropped it hastily. It felt hot. I looked at
the picture and saw an Ivoran house on fire, flames shooting up around
the white stone.

Cormallon was watching me closely.

"It's hot. I can't touch it."

"Try the next one."

I put my hand on the deck, then drew back in pain. "They're all hot,
gracious sir. I can't get near them."

He nodded, replaced the three cards in the deck with no apparent
difficulty and returned it to the drawer. "You can drop the 'gracious'тАж
since I'm to be your employer. ''

"You're taking it for granted, aren't you, that I'll take the job?'' Though
there was no doubt in my mind that I would. The money alone would have
decided me, and I was overwhelmed by what had just happened.

"If you hadn't already decided to take it, you wouldn't have been able to