"Child Of The Stones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

УA foolish piece of deception, nothing more.Ф

УA deception you were unable to see through, although Miranda managed it well enough. Of the three of us, who has the most of what you call СpowerТ?Ф

УI broke your wards. I laid the trap.Ф

УWhich did not quite catch me. You have the book, and you have me. Why not let the girl go? She has no part in this foolishness.Ф

УI can look after myself,Ф Miranda said.

УI wish it was true,Ф I told her.

We passed through Hackney, driving beneath the flyovers of the motorway junction beyond Victoria Park to an industrial estate named after ShakespeareТs gloomy, haunted prince. Donny Halliwell heaved out of the Jaguar and unlocked the gate.

УThe man in charge of the security of this place is one of Mr HalliwellТs associates,Ф Cagliostro said. УRemarkably easy to bribe. We will not be disturbed.Ф

He drove past long low brick sheds housing businesses that mostly had something to do with the motor trade, and stopped the Jaguar beside a fence that, sagging in front of a strip of weeds and straggling elder trees, ran along the boundary of the industrial estate, at the edge of the junction with the Hereford Union Canal and the navigational cut of the River Lea. Menaced by Donny HalliwellТs gun, Miranda and I scrambled through the narrow belt of scrub to the towpath.

УChristТs cross was made from elder wood,Ф Cagliostro said, as he followed us. УAnd Judas hanged himself from an elder tree. A nice symmetry, donТt you think?Ф

УMore likely he hanged himself from a fig tree,Ф I said, Уsince fig trees are native to his country and elder trees are not. Still, if you believe in that kind of thing, elder wood is said to be a protection from witchcraft. I find the idea encouraging.Ф

The air was hot and close, thick with the smell of open water and fecund vegetation. To the west, the low clouds were breaking up, and the sun burned in the middle of a ragged patch of blue sky. On the dual carriageway that was elevated beyond a snaggled sprawl of roofs, fugitive shards of sunlight gleamed on the roofs of speeding cars and trucks. Cagliostro, holding the briefcase in one hand, turned a full circle, taking in the view of the backs of industrial buildings and brick walls on the other side of the canal. It was one of those mournful, scruffy places that belong to no one except the dead, but there were no revenants there - not so much as the smallest imp.

УA quiet place,Ф he said. УI have made sure that we will not be disturbed, too. Any walkers or cyclists will discover that they have a pressing need to turn back if they approach too closely.Ф

He set the briefcase between his feet, reached inside his jacket, lifted out a white mouse by its naked tail, and tossed it to the ground. It ran off along the towpath, cheeping like a sparrow. He smiled when he saw my dismay and said, УI believe you have already met the entity my little sacrifice will summon. Shoot him.Ф

Donny Halliwell stirred like a man jerked out of sleep, raised his little pistol and fired. The bullet punched me in my left thigh. It passed straight through the meat without hitting bone, but even so I felt as if I had been struck with a red-hot poker. I grabbed the spot reflexively, lost my balance, and fell on my backside amongst dry weeds.

УYou should have sold me the book,Ф Cagliostro said. УI made you an excellent offer, and I would have honoured it. I even had another sacrifice marked out for this business. But you were too stubborn, Mr Carlyle, and it has brought you to this.Ф

УSo that was why you were at the cafe,Ф I said. It was a small consolation that I had saved its kindly owner.

УBut instead you walked in, with the girl. You were trying to help her, but later that night she betrayed you and made a bargain with me. And now I have the book, and I have you, and I have her. Miranda, I will make good my promise to teach you something useful. Find four branches of elder wood, each about as thick as your thumb. Break them off and use your knife, the one you think I do not know about, to sharpen the broken ends into points.Ф

УWhat for?Ф

УBecause I tell you to.Ф

They stared at each other. Miranda was searching for any revenant she could use against him, but apart from something with a cold remorseless hunger that was flowing towards us from the west, none were within reach.

УHe wishes to stake me out,Ф I told Miranda. УAs a sacrifice to the thing that has taken up residence in this stretch of water. The thing that took your pet two nights ago. Can you feel it draw near?Ф

УVery good, Mr Carlyle,Ф Cagliostro said.

УYou hope to make it more powerful, and then bind it with incantations from the Stenographia. I should warn you that it will not work.Ф

УThe book has puissance.Ф