"Elric Saga - 03 - The Weird Of The White Wolf" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moorcock Michael)

of ordered matter, drifting in the sea of Chaos-stuff
as it had done for aeons.
In the morning, Earl Aubec of Malador extin-
guished the lantern which he had allowed to remain
alight, drew greaves and hauberk on to him, placed
his black plumed helm upon his head, put his broad-
sword over his shoulder and sallied out of the stone
tower which was all that remained whole of some an-
cient edifice.
His leathern-shod feet stumbled over stones that
seemed partially dissolved, as if Chaos had once
lapped here instead of against the towering Cliffs of
Kaneloon. That, of course, was quite impossible,
since Earth's boundaries were known to be constant.
Castle Kaneloon had seemed closer the night be-
fore and that, he now realised, was, because it was so
huge. He followed the river, his feet sinking in the
loamy soil, the great branches of the trees shading
him from the increasingly hot sun as he made his

way towards the cliffs. Kaneloon was now out of
sight, high above him. Every so often he used his
sword as an axe to clear his way through the places
where the foliage was particularly thick.
He rested several times, drinking the cold water of
the river and mopping his face and head. He was
unhurried, he had no wish to visit Kaneloon, he
resented the interruption to his life with Eloarde
which he thought he had earned. Also he, too, had a
superstitious dread of the mysterious castle, which
was said to be inhabited only by one human occu-
pant-the Dark Lady, a sorceress without mercy who
commanded a legion of demons and other Chaos crea-
tures.
He regarded the cliffs at midday and regarded the
path leading upward with a mixture of wariness and
relief. He had expected to have to scale the cliffs. He
was not one, however, to take a difficult route where
an easy one presented itself, so he looped a cord
around his sword and slung it over his back, since it
was too long and cumbersome to carry at his side.
Then, still in bad humour, he began to climb the
twisting path.
The lichen-covered rocks were evidently ancient,
contrary to the speculations of certain philosophers
who asked why Kaneloon had only been heard of a
few generations since. Malador believed in the gen-
eral answer to this question--that explorers had
never ventured this far until fairly recently. He
glanced back down the path and saw the tops of the