"James E. Gunn - The Magicians" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gunn James E)

hands of glory
hemlock, henbane, black hellebore, Indian hemp
coriander, liquor of black poppy, fennel, sandalwood
aconite, belladonna, peyote, virgin papyrus, mercury
 magic sieves (for coscinomancy)

The list went on and on like the offerings of a chemist's shop or an old-fashioned country store
located in Transylvania. Maybe, I told myself comfortingly, these people were illusionists, and the ads
were a kind of extended practical joke, tracing the ancestry of these prestidigitators back to their
medieval predecessors, the alchemists, the sorcerers, the witches and warlocks.... This was a
professional organization for stage magicians. The names they used were their stage names. That was
what it was, I told myself. That was what it had to be.
But I didn't like the explanation. It didn't explain too many things.
I turned back to the list of the day's activities. Something was wrong with it, but I couldn't figure
out what it was. Then I realized. It was a two-day meeting, but the program covered only one page, and
it was headed October 30. Where was the program for October 31? I searched through the booklet in
vain for another page before I decided that my booklet must have been defective. I read the list of the
day's activities:

OCTOBER 30
10:30 SPELL and GREETINGS by the MAGUS
10:45 WITCHCRAFTтАФA DERIVA T1ON
10:50 SAFETY IN NUMBERS: THE COVEN
11:00 CONTAGIONтАФWHY SPELLS ARE CATCHING
11:30 IMITATIONтАФTHE SINCEREST FORM OF SORCERY
12:00 CALCULUS: THE HIGH ROAD TO BETTER FORMULAE
12:30 POSSESSIONтАФNINE POINTS OF THE LORE
1:00 Recess
3:00 PRACTICAL USES FOR FAMIL1ARS
3:30 THE ELEMENTS OF THE ART (with examples)
4:00 ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S CORBIE
4:30 LYCANTHROPYтАФA DEMONSTRATION

The item about lycanthropy stopped me. Sweat was dripping down my sides and the sweat was
cold. I knew what lycanthropy was. It was people turning into werewolves. And these people were going
to demonstrate it. They were crazy, all of them, and the sooner I was out of this place the happier I was
going to be.
"You don't belong here," someone said softly into my left ear.
I looked around. Ariel was sitting beside me, her head close to mine. In other circumstances I
might have enjoyed it. Now I drew back a little. "You're telling me!" I said, and then quickly changed it
to, "I mean, why do you say that?"
"It doesn't take genius to figure that out. You didn't know Solomon, our Magus. You walk
around staring at everything as if you had never seen it before. And I happen to know that Gabriel is
dead."
I shivered. I had assumed the name of a dead man, and I felt as if someone had measured me for
a coffin. "Did he waste away?" I asked. My voice was shaky.
"No, he was hit by a car while he was crossing a street." She looked as if she were concerned
about my welfare. "But you don't need to be alarmed. I don't think anybody else knows about his death.
It only happened two days ago."
"That isn't what I was alarmed about," I said. I was wearing a dead man's card; maybe it wasn't