"Lumley, Brian - Necroscope - The Lost Years Volume 2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

'Say it?' She wasn't thinking straight -- couldn't not now that she was in his arms again.
'Call me yere wee man, and put everything right' he told her. Put it right, even if it isn't.
Well, and she would have to switch him on if she wanted to use the phone in his presence. Else there'd be things she said to Auld John that he wouldn't understand.
'Harry, mah wee man,' she said -- and at once felt him reel a little, the sway of his upper body...
...As the full moon blazed down and ike great wolf lifted his head in tribute, howling from a throat that pulsed with the power of his song.
Then B J. felt Harry tighten up a little in her arms, and released him. 'It's all right,' she said, fixing him with those hypnotic eyes of hers. 'But I have to call Auld John.'
Harry nodded. To see how he is, yes?'
She nodded. 'And then we can talk.'
'Real talk?'
It's always real, Harry, always! For me, anyway. But BJ. knew what he meant, and said: 'Real talk, yes.'
She leaned towards him and gave him a quick kiss, and he didn't try to draw back. But neither did he respond. Then BJ. sat at the side of the bed, and phoned Auld John...
At his cottage in Inverdruie, Auld John was just done wrapping his wrist when the phone rang. His bleddy wrist! Man, if only his wounds would heal like the Wee Mistress's. But they wouldnae. He still had scars frae three months ago, where on Bonnie Jean they'd be quite invisible by now.
And the telephone was ringing, even as he tied a knot and tugged it tight with his teeth. This would be the Wee Mistress hersel' no doubt. But it wasnae his fault he'd no called. He'd been down and out for twenty-four hours, aye. A full nicht and a day. And even now he wasnae feelin' too guid.
'John Guiney,' he barked into the phone, using a strong voice to disguise the fact of his physical weakness. 'Wha' is it?'
'It's me, John,' the Wee Mistress's voice came back, and he could almost taste the relief in it. 'I was worried -- you didn't call me.'
'Ah would'a done it this minute!' John protested, trying not to whine. 'But it's no gone easy wi' me, Bonnie Jean. The climb took it
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out'a me. And Him up there...oh, but He was a hungry yin, lassie!'
'John, are you all right?' She was anxious now.
'Ah am the noo,' he told her. And: 'Hush, hush now. Ah'm well enough. But He bled me good. No, no -- it was mah own stupid fault like a bleddy auld fool, Ah fell asleep! And it was Himsel' shoutin' in mah head who woke me. Then mah wound -- it wouldnae heal, and the climb down was sheer mлnfer/That's why Ah've slep' like the big bairn Ah am this day and a half, and missed callin' ye. Forgive me, lass, for a bleddy fool.'
BJ.'s sigh, and: 'Nothing to forgive, John, as long as you're all right. But you sound so weary!'
'So Ah am, but never ye fear. Ah'm stoked tae the brim on guid broth. Another nicht shid see me fine and dandy. And down inside Ah feel stronger than ever. For think, Bonnie Jean, just think! It's mah blood that sustains Him the noo!' But a moment later the excitement ebbed from his voice. 'Excep'...' And he paused.
'Except?' she prompted him. 'Is there something, John?'
Trembling, Auld John sat down with the telephone. 'Bonnie, He wasnae pleased. No, not this time, and far worse than last. Ah tol* Him a' ye said Ah shid; it wouldnae do. He spoke tae me -- in mah head, ye ken -- and oh He was angry! No so much wi' ye as wi' they others, they Ferenczys and Drakuls! But angry anyway. Ah could feel it boilin' in Him! And it's the Wee Mistress He needs, no this auld sod -- if yell excuse mah language.'
'What did you tell him? What did he get from you?' BJ.'s tone was anxious again; John could almost hear her heart pounding.
'Why, only what ye'd tol' me!' He trembled again, his old head swimming in a sudden dizzy bout 'Excep' ye ken Ah didnae tell Him anythin' much, but He took it right out o' mah head.'
"Yes, yes,' (he sensed BJ.'s nod of understanding). 'But what did he tell you?'
'Oh, Ah've a message for ye, be sure,' John answered. 'No more putting it off, Bonnie Jean, no any more. Neither Ferenczys, Drakuls, disaster, nor even death -- nothin's tae stand in yere way. Yell attend Radu in person next time, or it's over and He's done wi' ye! As for yere wee man, that Harry Keogh -- he's tae be wi' ye. Aye, for he's verra important, that yin.'
For a moment there was silence on the line, only a faint crackle of static in Auld John's ear. He could hear a log hissing sap in his grate, and the wind in the eaves. Then at last BJ.'s voice again, but faint as a whisper. Will he...is he...does he think hell be up?'
'Eh? The great wolf? Up, ye say? No, no, that wasnae mah meanin'. Six months, He said. But that's why He must see yere Harry next time, so that He may know the way of it But Ah'm no the clever yin, Bonnie Jean, as well ye ken. Ah wasnae too sure what He meant...'
No, but on the other end of the line Bonnie Jean believed she understood only too well what the dog-Lord meant! Sitting beside her, drawn and hollow-eyed, Harry Keogh might well have understood it, too, if he'd heard. He hadn't however, and:
'Don't worry about it, John,' she told her old friend. 'I can sort things out.' And she was at once concerned again, for him: 'But what about the climb? Was it really that bad?'
'Oh, aye, but Ah took the easy route up, and killed a fine beast along the way for His creature. That yin's...well, he's comin' on, ye ken?'
Tes,' she agreed. 'I know...'
Auld John heard the dubious note in her answer, very much as his query had sounded dubious. 'Lassie, is a' well?'
'As well as it can be.' she answered. And before he could question that, too: 'John, we have -- He has -- enemies here. I hope you were careful not to be followed. Are there any strangers up your way? Have you noticed anything odd?'
'No one, and nothin',' he answered. 'But ye know me. Ah'm no the one tae take chances. Why, even when Ah answer the door, mah gun goes wi' me! Ah reckon it was sheer luck they picked ye up that time. And as for mahsel' -- why, Ah'm just a cranky old gillie, as anyone hereabouts will be pleased tae confirm!' And sensing her grin, he smiled. Then she said:
Take care, John. Well talk soon. But don't you call me, 111 call you. Look after your...wound. Make sure it heals.'
'Oh, it will. But it was only mah duty, ye ken...'
And after he heard the click as she put the phone down, Auld John sat and listened to the purring receiver in his hand, and stared at his bandaged wrist where a thin red line was showing through even now. His duty, aye -- but it hadnae gone unappreciated. And then he remembered what else Radu had told him, which he hadn't dared repeat to Bonnie Jean:
You are second in line, John, after the Wee Mistress. Ah, but she is only a lassie after all, and weak as all women are. I fear that when my time comes she may bend, or even break. So mark these words, which are for you alone: keep my secrets and serve me well, John, as your ancestors before you. And who can say?'...One day you could be first in line!
The dog-Lord's promise! It ran through Auld John's veins like wine and sang to him! It gave a new meaning to existence, and was well worth every extra drop of life's blood that he'd let flow down the funnel to the great hound-like thing in the vat. Worth, too, the lie he'd been obliged to tell B J. -- but that had been on the orders of Radu himself, and who was Auld John to defy Him in His high place?
Aye, for Radu was quickening and He had needed that extra drop
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