"Philip Jose Farmer - Riverworld 4 - The Magic Labyrinth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

"It pains me to admit that I have not," Malory said.

"What? I was the greatest swordsman of my time, perhaps, no, undoubtedly, of
all times. There is no reason for me to be modest. I do not hide my light
under a bushel or, in fact, under anything. I was also the author of some
remarkable literary works. I wrote books about trips to the sun and to the
moon, very pointed and witty satire. My play, The Pedant Out-Witted, was, I
understand, used with some modifications by a certain Monsieur Moliere and
presented as his own. Well, perhaps I exaggerate. Certainly he did use much of
the comedy. I also understand that an Englishman named Jonathan Swift used
some of my ideas in his Gulliver's Travels. I do not blame them, since I
myself was not above using the ideas of others, though I improved upon them."

"That is all very well, sir," Malory said, forbearing to mention his own
works. "But if it does not make you overwrought, you could tell us how you
came here in that airship and what caused it to burst into flames."

De Bergerac was staying with the Malorys until an empty hut could be found or
he could be loaned the tools to construct one for himself. At this time,
though, he and his hosts and perhaps a hundred more were seated or standing by
a big fire outside the hut.

It was a long tale, more fabulous even than the teller's own fictions or
Malory's. Sir Thomas, however, had the feeling that the Frenchman was not
telling all that had happened.

When the narrative was finished, Malory mused aloud, "Then it is true that
there is a tower in the center of the north polar sea, the sea from whence
flows The River and to which it returns? And it is true that whoever is
responsible for this world lives in that tower? I wonder what happened to this
Japanese, this Piscator? Did the residents of the tower, who surely must be
angels, invite him to stay with them because, in a sense, he'd entered the
gates of paradise? Or did they send him elsewhere, to some distant part of The
River, perhaps?

I

12 I Philip Jose Farmer

"And this Thorn, what could account for his criminal behavior? Perhaps he was
a demon in disguise."

De Bergerac laughed loudly and scornfully.

When he had stopped, he said, "There are no angels nor demons, my friend. I do
not now maintain, as I did on Earth, that there is no God. But to admit to the
existence of a Creator does not oblige one to believe in such myths as angels
and demons."

Malory hotly insisted that there were indeed such. This led to an argument in