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

'Well,' he slowly answered, 'I have a lot of faith in Alhazred, even in
Feery's version. It's a monstrous thought, I know, but nevertheless it's just
possible that the answer lies in what I've just read out: ". . . so wanes ye
Power of all things - of ye Five-Pointed Star-Stone as of ye Spells put - "'
'Titus!' I cut him off. 'What you're saying is that the spells of the Elder
Gods, the power of the pentacle is past - and if that's true . . .'
'I know,' he said. 'I know! It also means that Cthulhu and all the others must
likewise be free to roam and kill and . . .'
He shook himself, as if breaking free from some monstrous spider's web, and
managed a weak smile. 'But no, that can't be - no, we'd know about it if
Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Yibb-Tstll, and all the others were free. We'd have
known long ago. The whole world . . .'
'Then how do you explain -'
'I make no attempt to explain anything, Henri,' he brusquely replied. 'I can
only hazard guesses. It looks to me as though some years ago, anything up to a
century ago, the spells or star-stones - whichever applies in Shudde-M'ell's
case - were removed from G'harne by some means or other. Perhaps by accident,
or there again, perhaps purposely ... by persons in the power of the Great Old
Ones!'
'Maliciously or inadvertently - by "persons in the power
of the Great Old Ones" - these I can understand,' I said, 'but accidentally?
How do you mean, Titus?'
'Why! There are all kinds of natural accidents, Henri. Landslips, floods,
volcanic eruptions, earthquakes - natural quakes, I mean - and any single one
of them, occurring in the right place, could conceivably carry away the
star-stones keeping one or more of these diverse horrors prisoned. This all
provided, of course, that in Shudde-M'ell's case star-stones were the only
prisoning devices!'
Listening to the occultist my mind suddenly whirled. For a moment I actually
felt sick. 'Titus, wait! It's ... too fast for me ... too fast!' I made a
conscious effort to calm myself.
'Look, Titus. My whole concept of things, everything, has turned upside down
for me in one afternoon. I mean, I've always had this interest in the occult,
the weird, the macabre, anything out of the ordinary, and at times it has been
dangerous. Both of us, over the years, have experienced hideous dangers - but
this! If I admit the existence of Shudde-M'ell - a lesser deity in a mythology
which I believed could never exercise over me anything more than a passing
interest - which now' - I glanced in loathing fascination at the box on the
desk - 'it seems I must admit, then I must also believe in the existence of
all the other related horrors! Titus, until today the Cthulhu Cycle of myth,
granted that I've looked pretty deeply at it, was quite simply myth;
fascinating and even, yes, dangerous -but only in the way that all occult
studies are dangerous! Now-'
'Henri,' Crow cut in. 'Henri, if you feel that this is something you can't
accept, the door is open. You're not involved yet, and there's nothing to stop
you from keeping out of it. If you do decide, however, that you want to be in
on this thing, then you're welcome - but you should
know now that it may well be more dangerous than anything you ever came up
against before!'
'It's not that I'm afraid, Titus; don't misunderstand,' I told him. it's