"Philip Jose Farmer - WOT 2 - The Gates of Creation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

"He lives upon the fruit of the islands, the birds and fish and other sea-things he can catch. He
eats them raw, and he kills the natives and eats them when he gets a chance. Not that they don't
deserve their fate. They are the sons and daughters of other Lords who, like Theotormon, were
craven. They lived out their miserable lives upon this planet, had babies, raised these, and then
died.

"Urizen did to them as he did to Theotormon. He took them to Appirmatzum, made them into loathsome
shapes, and brought them back here. Our father thought that surely the monstering of them would
make them hate him so much they would then test the trap-door planets, try to get into
Appirmatzum, and revenge themselves. But they were cowards all. They preferred to live on, even in
their stomach-turning metamorphosis, rather than die as true Lords."

Wolff said, "I have much to learn about this little arrangement of our father. But how do I know
that I can trust you?"

Again Vala laughed. "All of us who have fallen into Urizen's traps are upon this island. Most of
us have been here only a few weeks, al-though Luvah has been here for half a year."

"Who are the others?"

"Some of your brothers and cousins. Besides Rintrah and Luvah, there are two other brothers, Enion
and Ariston. And your cousins Tharmas and Palamabron."

She laughed merrily and pointed at the red sky and said, "All, all snared by our father! All



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gathered together again after a heartrending absence of millennia. A happy family reunion such as
mortals could not imagine."

"I can imagine," Wolff said. "You still have not answered my question about trust."

"We have all sworn to a common-front truce," Rintrah said. "We need each other, so we must put
aside our natural enmity and work together. Only thus will it be possible to defeat Urizen."

"There hasn't been a common-front truce for as long as I can remember," Wolff said. "I remember
Mother telling me that there had been one once, four thousand years before I was born, when the
Black Sellers threatened the Lords. Urizen has performed two mira-cles. He has trapped eight Lords
all at once, and he has forced a truce. May this be his downfall."

Wolff then said that he would swear to the truce. By the name of the Father of all Lords, the
great Eponym Los, he swore to observe all the rules of the peace-agreement until such time as all
agreed to abandon it or all were dead but one. He knew even as he took the oath that the others
could not be relied upon not to betray him. He knew that Rintrah and Vala were aware of this and
trusted him no more than he did them. But at least they would all be working to-gether for a
while. And it was not likely that any would lightly break truce. Only when a great opportunity and