"Brian Lumley - Titus Crow 1 - The Burrowers Beneath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

we'll have to fix it for you to read the whole book! It's a dangerous task,
though, Henri. I've read it myself, some time ago, and was obliged to forget
most of what I learned - it was that or madness! In fact, I think we'd better
limit your research to selected sections from Henrietta Montague's
translation. Are you willing to help me in this?'
'Of course, Titus,' I answered. 'Just pass on your orders. I'll carry them out
as best I can, you know that.'
'Good, then that's to be your special task in this,' he told me. 'You can save
me a lot of time by correlating and summing up the whole Cthulhu Cycle, with
special reference to Shudde-M'ell in the mythology. I'll list certain other
books which I think might be helpful later. Right now, though, let's see what
Feery has to say on it.'
We were hardly to know it at that time, but things were not to be in any way
as Crow planned, for events yet to come would surely have confounded any plans
he might
have made. As it was, we could not know this, and so my haggard friend flipped
the leaves of Feery's often fanciful reconstruction of Alhazred's dreadful
book until he found the page he was looking for.
'Here we are,' he eventually declared, 'the passage entitled: "Ye Power in ye
Five-Pointed Star".' He settled himself in his chair and began to read:
'"Armour against Witches & Daemons, Against ye Deep Ones, ye Dools, ye
Voormais, ye Tacho-Tacho, ye Mi-Go, ye Shog-gaoths, ye Ghasts, ye Valusians, &
all such Peoples & Beings that serve ye Great Olde Ones & ye Spawn of Them,
lies within ye Five-Pointed Star carven of grey Stone from ancient Mnar; which
is less strong against ye Great Olde Ones Themselves. Ye Possessor of ye Stone
shall find himself able to command all Beings which creep, swim, crawl, walk,
or fly even to ye Source from which there is no returning. In Yhe as in Great
R'lyeh, in Y'ha-nthlei as in Yoth, in Yuggoth as in Zothique, in N'kai as in
Naa-Hk & K'n-yan, in Carcosa as in G'harne, in ye twin Cities of Ib and
Lh-yib, in Kadath in ye Cold Waste as at ye Lake of Hali, it shall have Power;
yet even as Stars wane & grow cold, even as Suns die & ye Spaces between Stars
grow more wide, so wanes ye Power of all things - of ye Five-Pointed
Star-Stone as of ye Spells put upon ye Great Olde Ones by ye benign Elder
Gods, & that Time shall come as once was a Time when it shall be known:
That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange Aeons even Death may die.'
"In Carcosa as in G'harne," I repeated when Crow had done. 'Well, there we
seem to have it!'
'Yes,' he answered drily, frowning at the open book, 'but I'm pretty sure that
this is a different version from the one in the Museum copy of the
Necronomicon. I wish to God Feery was still alive! I've often pondered his
knowledge regarding the Necronomicon - to say nothing of many another rare
book. Still' - he tapped with his
fingernail on the page with the relevant passage - 'there's part of your
answer at least.'
'So it appears that Shudde-M'ell was prisoned at G'harne.' I frowned. 'Which
means that somehow he managed to escape! But how?'
'That's something we may never know. Henri, unless - ' Crow's eyes widened and
his face went grey.
'Yes, what is it, Titus?'