"Lisa Goldstein - Fools Road" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldstein Lisa)

They hurried toward the end of the corridor, some of them turning cartwheels
along the way. A stained glass window stood at the end of the hall, showing a
stately woman dressed in folds of reds and purples. A darker figure loomed
behind her, a beast or a shadow. They hurtled through the window, shattering it
into a thousand pieces, and fell outside.

She jumped after them. They landed together in the tangled branches of a tree, a
rain of ruby and topaz glass pattering all around them. They looked at each
other, wide-eyed, a gaggle of birds from no earthly bestiary, and then they
laughed and plucked the branches from their clothing. Carefully they climbed to
the forest floor, helping Amanda as they went.

And then they were all running away from the castle, darting among the boles of
the trees, calling to one another as they ran. Their voices grew fainter,
farther apart. "Wait!" someone shouted. "Stop! We're lost!"

They drew closer together, looking anxiously at the confusion of branches above
them. An owl screeched in the distance. In the dim light Amanda saw that their
clothes were fiddled with holes.

"This way," one said. "Toward the light."

"The light is the castle, you porridge."

"Toward the darkness, then."

"It's all darkness, except the castle."

They stood uncertainly. The owl's call sounded closer, and then the small brown
woman appeared before them. To Amanda it seemed as if she had been transformed
from the owl.

"I'll guide you out," she said. Her voice was soft and low. "But you must answer
my riddle first."

They looked at Amanda as if awaiting her decision. She shook her head. She
didn't know the answer; more, she didn't want to know. She felt the cold dread
again, and took a step back, away from the woman.

"You'll stay here, then," the woman said. "In the darkness, forever."

"But I don't know --"
"You lie in her, she lies in me," the woman said again. "Who am I?"

Amanda shivered as the answer came to her. "No," she said, taking another step
back. "No."

"Tell me," the woman said.