"Eternal Champion - 01 - The Eternal Champion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moorcock Michael)

I was falling away again. I thought I remembered laughter, sadness, pride. Then,
suddenly, more faces. I felt as if I witnessed the passing of everyone I had
known, down the ages, and then one face superimposed itself over the others-the
head and shoulders of an amazingly beautiful woman, with blonde hair piled
beneath a diadem of precious stones which seemed to light the sweetness of her
oval face. 'lolinda,' I said.

I saw her more solidly now. She was clinging to the arm of the tall, gaunt man
who wore the crown of iron and diamonds. King Rigenos.

They stood before an empty platform of quartz and gold and, resting on a cushion
of dust, was a straight sword which they dared not touch. Neither did they dare
step too close to it, for it gave off a radiation which might slay them.

It was a tomb in which they stood.

The Tomb of Erekose. My tomb.

I moved towards the platform, hanging over it.

Ages before, my body had been placed there. I stared at the sword which held no
dangers for me, but I was unable in my captivity to pick it up. It was my spirit
only which inhabited that dark place-but the whole of my spirit now, not the
fragment which had inhabited the tomb for thousands of years. That fragment had
heard King Rigenos and had enabled John Daker to hear it, to come to it; to be
united with it.

'Erekose!' called the king, straining his eyes through the gloom as if he had
seen me. 'Erekose! We pray.'

Then I experienced the dreadful pain which I supposed must be like that of a
woman experiencing child-birth. A pain that seemed eternal and yet was
intrinsically its own vanquisher. I was screaming, writhing in the air above
them. Great spasms of agony-but an agony complete with purpose-the purpose of
creation.

I shrieked. But there was joy in my cry.

I groaned, But there was triumph there.

I grew heavy and I reeled. I grew heavier and heavier, and I gasped, stretching
out my arms to balance myself.

I had flesh and I had muscle and I had blood and I had strength. The strength
coursed through me and I took a huge breath and touched my body. It was a
powerful body and tall and fit.

I looked up. I stood before them in the flesh. I was their God and I had
returned.