"A. E. Merritt - Through the Dragon Glass" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merritt A. E)

Neither of us had uttered a word. There was a spell of silence upon me. I could not speak. There
seemed to be nothing to say. I felt a great rest and a great peace--as though I had come home. I walked
up the stairway and into the room above. It was dark except for a bar of green light that came through
the long and narrow window. Through it I saw the mountain and its moons. On the floor was an ivory
head-rest and some silken cloths. I felt suddenly very sleepy. I dropped to the cloths, and at once was
asleep.

"When I awoke the girl with the cornflower eyes was beside me! She was sleeping. As I watched, her
eyes opened. She smiled and drew me to her--"

"I do not know why, but a name came to me. 'Santhu!' I cried. She smiled again, and I knew that I had
called her name. It seemed to me that I remembered her, too, out of immeasurable ages. I arose and
walked to the window. I looked toward the mountain. There were now two moons on its breast. And
then I saw the city that lay on the mountain's flank. It was such a city as you see in dreams, or as the
tale-tellers of El-Bahara fashion out of the mirage. It was all of ivory and shining greens and flashing blues
and crimsons. I could see people walking about its streets. There came the sound of little golden bells
chiming."

"I turned toward the girl. She was sitting up, her hands clasped about her knees, watching me. Love
came, swift and compelling. She arose--I took her in my arms--"

"Many times the moons circled the mountains, and the mist held the little, tangled stars passing with them.
I saw no one but Santhu; no thing came near us. The trees fed us with fruits that had in them the very
essences of life. Yes, the fruit of the Tree of Life that stood in Eden must have been like the fruit of those
trees. We drank of green water that sparkled with green fires, and tasted like the wine Osiris gives the
hungry souls in Amenti to strengthen them. We bathed in pools of carved stone that welled with water
yellow as amber. Mostly we wandered in the gardens. There were many wonderful things in the gardens.
They were very unearthly. There was no day nor night. Only the green glow of the ever-circling moons.
We never talked to each other. I don't know why. Always there seemed nothing to say."

"Then Santhu began to sing to me. Her songs were strange songs. I could not tell what the words were.
But they built up pictures in my brain. I saw Rak the Wonder-Worker fashioning his gardens, and filling
them with things beautiful and things--evil. I saw him raise the peak, and knew that it was Lalil; saw him
fashion the seven moons and kindle the fires that are the fires of life. I saw him build his city, and I saw
men and women pass into it from the world through many gateways."

"Santhu sang--and I knew that the marching stars in the mist were the souls of the people of Rak which
sought rebirth. She sang, and I saw myself ages past walking in the city of Rak with Santhu beside me.
Her song wailed, and I felt myself one of the mist-entangled stars. Her song wept, and I felt myself a star
that fought against the mist, and, fighting, break away--a star that fled out and out through immeasurable
green space--"

"A man stood before us. He was very tall. His face was both cruel and kind, saturnine as Satan and
joyous as Apollo. He raised his eyes to us, and they were yellow as buttercups, and wise, so wise!
Ward, it was the face above the peak in the room of the Dragon Glass! The eyes that had looked at me
out of Wu-Sing's face! He smiled on us for a moment and then--he was gone!"

"I took Santhu by the hand and began to run. Quite suddenly it came to me that I had enough of the
haunted gardens of Rak; that I wanted to get back to my own land. But not without Santhu. I tried to
remember the road to the cleft. I felt that there lay the path back. We ran. From far behind came a