"Lumley,.Brian.-.Titus.Crow.3.-.Clock.Of.Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

He saw Ngranek's peak, and the great face carven in the mountain's gaunt side. He saw the hideously thin and noisome outlines of horned bat-shapes with barbed tails, flapping not altogether vaguely about the mountain, and he knew that these were the night-gaunts that guard Ngranek's secret. Then, as some of them flew closer, he saw that which made him shudder horribly: they had no faces! But the bat-shapes did not acknowledge his presence,

and before they could draw too close he was rushed away again over the Peaks of Throk, whose needle pinnacles are the subject of many of dream's most awful fables. For these peaks, higher than any man might ever guess or believe, are known to guard the terrible valleys of the Dholes, whose shapes and outlines are often suspected but never seen. Then he soared down, down, and down, until his ears were filled with a vast rustling of Dholes amidst piles of dried-out bones . . . He knew then that this place he had swooped down to was none other than the Vale of Pnoth, into which ossuary all the ghouls of the waking world throw the remains of their nighted feastings; and he trembled violently as the rustling ceased momentarily
- almost expectantly - just as the chirruping of crickets
ceases at the tread of human feet.
But now the things de Marigny was experiencing were hastening one after the other through his mind at a dizzy pace, blurring as they went down upon his memory in fragmentary, erratic fashion. He was snatched up and out of the Dhole-infested Vale of Pnoth and away across dreamland in a frantic rush. In rapid procession he saw the oaken wharves of Hlanith, whose sailors are more like unto men of the waking world than any others in dreamland
- and ruined, fearsome Sarkomand, whose broken basalt
quays and crumbling sphinxes are remnant of a time long
before the years of man - and the mountain Hatheg-Kla,
whose peak Borzoi the Wise once climbed, never to come
down again. He saw Nir and Istharta, and the charnel
Gardens of Zura where pleasure is unattainable. He saw
Oriab in the Southern Sea, and infamous Thalarion of a
thousand demon-cursed wonders, where the eidolon Lathi
reigns. He saw all of these places and things and many more
... and then there came a terrific, sickening whirling of his soul - following which de Marigny found himself dizzy and utterly disoriented back in the throneroom of Kthanid the Eminence in Elysia.

Journey Into Dream
'But why?' de Marigny asked the great Being. 'Why did Crow go into Earth's dreamland, and how? And what possessed him to take Tiania with him? And where exactly are they? I need to know these things if I'm to -'
'Hold, man of Earth,' Kthanid cut him off. 'As to your
first question: I had thought to make that amply clear
in what I have shown you, but obviously I failed. Crow
went into Earth's dreamland to put an end to Cthulhu's
insidious fouling of the dreams of men. He went where
it was his birthright to go, just as it was his birthright to
enter into Elysia. He went because the Lords of Elysia
- which you know as Elder Gods, of which I am one -
cannot go there themselves. We would be just as alien in
your dreamland as is Cthulhu, and for that reason we will
not enter it. If ever the time arrives when we must enter
it, then the visit will be as brief as possible - as brief and
unobtrusive as we can make it. There are reasons other
than those I have mentioned, and one of them is this: the
gateway between Elysia and the world of Earth's dreams
has two sides. If we entered from Elysia, who can say
what might or might not follow us back through the gate
when we returned?
'As to why Titus Crow took Tiania with him, she would not let him go without her! And it will be to my eternal sorrow if aught of evil befall them, for it was I laid them to sleep here, and I assisted their dreaming minds across nightmare voids to your Earth and its dreamland.' As he spoke, Kthanid moved across the great hall to a small and curtained alcove. He drew aside the drapes to show

de Marigny the forms of a man and woman where they lay in crystal containers, their heads resting upon silken cushions.
As his spirit eagerly drifted forward, it was as much of a 'physical' shock as it could be to the disembodied de Marigny to gaze upon the recumbent form of the man with whom he had shared so many strange adventures . . . and upon that of Titus Crow's woman, the girl-goddess Tiania. Despite the fact that he knew what he had seen of them in Kthanid's crystal was only a dream manifestation of the two, nevertheless it was an eerie experience to see their living, breathing bodies here in the Hall of Crystal and Pearl. Recovering himself, he moved closer.
Crow's handsome, leonine face and his form were well enough known to de Marigny, but Tiania was very new to him, a stranger. He looked upon her, awed. Kthanid felt the awe of de Marigny and understood the emotions the Earthman must feel. He knew that no mortal man could look upon Tiania and not be moved. And he was right. Tiania's figure and face were indescribably beautiful. Her eyes were closed now in dreams that brought troubled lines to her pale-pearl brow, but de Marigny was almost glad that she slept this uneasy sleep. He felt sure that to gaze into her eyes would be to drown quite helplessly. He knew that he could never forget her, that he would know her wherever and whenever he saw her again.
Her hair was a lustrous emerald ocean, cascading down the spun golden strand of her cape, and her mouth was a perfect Cupid's bow of pearl-dusted rose, lips parted slightly to show the whitest teeth de Marigny had ever seen. The girl's face formed a slender oval in which arcing emerald eyebrows melted into the verdure of her temples. She had elfin ears like petals of rare blooms, and a nose so delicate as to go almost unnoticed. She radiated a distillation of the very Essence of Woman, human and yet quite definitely alien. She was a woman, yes, and

not a goddess - but certainly the stuff of the Gods was in her. And she was the same woman he had glimpsed in Kthanid's crystal, helplessly staked out on the steps of the ruby altar in the distant world of Earth's dreamland. And just as she lay here now in this strange casket, so she had lain on those basalt steps - side by side with Titus Crow.
De Marigny turned suddenly to Kthanid to implore: 'But why don't you just wake them up? Surely that would get them out of there?'
Seeming quite human now, or as human as he could in his alien form, the great Being shook his head. 'No, de Marigny, it cannot be done. I have at my command every physical and psychical means by which such a recovery could be attempted, but they cannot be awakened. Do you think I have not tried? Something has them trapped there in Earth's dreamland, a force which defies every attempt I make to recall them. Here their subconscious bodies lie, rapt in evil dreams from which I am powerless to rouse them. The problems are many, de Marigny, and they are rare. First there is this unknown force that binds them to Earth's dreamland. Then there is the fact that they are separated from Elysia by vast alien voids of dream and all the horrors such voids harbor, and finally -'
'Yes?'
'We do not know their exact location. The same force that binds them to dream prevents detailed observation. I cannot name the region in which they are trapped. And Earth's dreamland is vast, de Marigny, wide-ranging as all the dreams of men have made it.'
'Then where do I begin?' de Marigny asked, perplexed. 'When? How?'