"Julian May - Diamond Mask" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

great peace. He knew that the paradoxical being who had haunted him since he was five years
oldтАФthe person whom he both loved and fearedтАФhad meddled once again with his mind, short-
circuiting emotions that would have interfered with Its plans.
The lava cave the Ghost had brought him into was the site of ancient mysteries sacred to the
local Hawaiians, all but inaccessible to foot travelers. None of the hikers or birdwatchers or
botanical hobbyists who came to the Alakai Swamp dared to visit the place. It was
kapuтАФforbiddenтАФand said to be protected by powerful operant Hawaiians claiming descent from the
kahuna magicians of ancient Polynesia.
Rogi had entered Keaku Cave only once before, not quite fifty-nine years ago. On that day in
the fall of 2054, just after the Human Polity had finally been granted full citizenship in the
galactic confederation, he and the teenaged Marc Remillard and young Jack the Bodiless had flown
to the Alakai in a rhocraft, accompanied by the kahuna woman Malama Johnson. Their mission was to
remove the ashes of the boys' mother that had been sequestered in the cave a year earlier
according to Malama's solemn instructions. Rogi and the boys had found the interior of Keaku Cave
mysteriously decorated with leis of gorgeous island flowers and fragrant berries. The box
containing Teresa Kendall's ashes was as clean and dry as it had been when they left it.
Sitting in the cave now, knowing that the unseen Lylmik Overlord lurked close at hand, the
old man seemed once again to smell the anise scent of mokihana. He remembered Marc, a stalwart
sixteen-year-old, and Ti-Jean, apparently only a precocious toddler, on their knees beside the
small polished pine box holding their mother's remains. They had asked Rogi to carry the urn to
their waiting rhocraft, since he had been her protector during the greatest crisis of her life.
Teresa's ashes had been scattered over the green tropical ridges and canyons on a day of
resplendent rainbows. In the years that followed, Jack the Bodiless returned often to the island
of Kauai, visiting his great friend Malama and eventually making his home there, bringing his
bride to the place he loved more than any on Earth. But Marc Remillard had never set foot on the
island again.
"Are you glad?" Rogi asked abruptly. "Glad it's almost over?"
The Ghost's reply was slow in coming:
I had feared that I was fated to live until the very consummation of the universe.
Fortunately, it didn't come to that, even though God knows I richly deserved it.
тАЬTommyrot! You sincerely believed that the Metapsychic Rebellion was morally justified. Hell,
so did I! Back then, lots of decent people had serious doubts about Unity. Maybe not to the point
of going to war, butтАФ"
My principal motive for leading the Rebellion had nothing to do with the Unity controversy. I
instigated an interstellar war because the Milieu condemned my Mental Man project ... because it
rejected my vision for accelerating the mental and physical evolution of humanity. With me, Unity
was only a side issue.
Rogi looked up from the fire in surprise. "Is that a fact! You know, I never was too sure
just what that Mental Man thing was all about."
The Ghost's tone was ironic: Neither were most of my Rebel associates. If they had known,
they might not have followed me.
"And the Mental Man project wasтАФwas so wrong thatтАФ"
Not wrong, Rogi. Evil ... There's a considerable difference. It took me many years to
recognize how monstrous my scheme actually was, to understand just what kind of galactic
catastrophe my pride and arrogance might have brought about.
"It didn't happen," Rogi said very quietly.
No, said the Ghost, but there remained a grave necessity for me to atone, to make up for the
damage I had done to the evolving Mind of the Universe. My sojourn in the Duat Galaxy was a
partial reparation, but incomplete. The evil had taken place here, in the Milky Way. The Duat