"Katherine Kurtz - Adept 01 - The Adept" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

under his eyebrows and carefully set the notebook on the table between them.
"I don't think you really need my help in extracting meaning from this experience. Do you?"
Peregrine bit his lip, clearly groping for words. "No. No, I suppose I don't. But - " He shook his head
impatiently, then said in a rush, "Adam, I was brought up to be a good Presbyterian. It isn't easy for me to
reconcile notions of reincarnation with Christianity."
"And yet, Christianity itself embraces a multitude of different interpretations of the same basic story," Adam
responded. "Otherwise, we shouldn't have all the different denominations of Christians, who all think their way
of approaching God is best."
"Then, you think the two are compatible?" Peregrine asked doubtfully.
Adam shrugged. "That's a matter of conscience, for you to decide. My own feeling - and I say this as a
committed Christian, and having dined with my bishop only last week - is that Christianity quite possibly
embraces far greater and more universal truths than are generally accepted and taught in its various
churches."
This rather pointed observation reduced Peregrine to wide-eyed silence. After a long moment, he said slowly,
"This is crazy. You're a psychiatrist, yet you're telling me that you believe my delusion is no delusion at all,
but the truth."
"I didn't say that," Adam replied. "But if it makes you any more comfortable, accept that the illusion of past
resonances - past lives, if you will - is a useful metaphor for utilizing some seventh sense for which we have
no adequate explanation at present. In a word, if it works, use it."
Goggle-eyed, Peregrine simply stared at him for a moment, taking it all in. Then he nodded slowly.
"I think I understand what you're saying," he murmured. "Somehow, it even makes sense - of a sort."
"Intuitive sense?" Adam asked, smiling.
"Maybe. But you're right about one thing: whether it's real real or only seems real, it's better than anything I've
been able to come up with to explain what's happening to me." He fingered the notebook on the table
between them, then looked up again.
"So let's assume that I have had several other lives before this one, just for the sake of argument. If the same
is true of you," he continued in the same reflective tone, "then what I was seeing the other night, when I tried
to draw you, was - resonances of your past?" He looked to Adam for confirmation.
"Somewhat over-simplified," Adam agreed, with a wry half-smile, "but essentially correct, as far as it goes."
Peregrine assimilated this. After a pause he asked, "Do you ever find yourself seeing shadows of my past
lives?" "Not spontaneously, if that's what you mean." "Why not?"
"For one thing," Adam said, "I suspect that it's because I've developed the ability to limit my temporal
perspective as well as expand it. For another, that isn't where my major talents lie."
Before Peregrine could demand a fuller explanation, Adam squared his shoulders briskly and set his cup and
saucer aside.
"Are you a horseman, by any chance?" The sudden shift of subject took Peregrine totally by surprise.
"I beg your pardon?" "Do you ride?"
Blinking, Peregrine said, "I used to be quite keen when I was at school. Why?"
"As I think I may have mentioned," Adam said, "I've had a crew doing some badly needed clearance work up
at Templemor Tower, during the past week. There's a chap coming by this afternoon - an archaeologist from
Ancient Monuments. Before I give him the go-ahead to carry out a survey of the ruins, I'd like to take a good
look at what's been done so far. I was planning to trek out there on horseback later this morning, and it
occurred to me that you might like to come along, do some sketching. I think we can kit you out in some of
my nephew's breeches and boots - he's about your size - if you think you'd be interested."
Peregrine was studying Adam with amazement tinged with suspicion. "Is this going to be another
experiment?" he asked.
Adam threw back his head with a laugh. "So much for the subtle approach. Yes, it's going to be another
experiment. I assume you've got a pocket sketchbook? Good, then bring it along. I'll tell you what I have in
mind, once we're on our way."
John, the ex-Household Cavalry trooper who looked after Adam's horses, had Adam's favorite grey gelding