"MIchael Moorcock - The Dancers At The End Of Time 01 - An Alien Heat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moorcock Michael)

gardens and inviting from all over the world the most talented and the most amusing people to share the
summer months with her. To the Queen's court flocked great painters, writers, composers, sculptors,
craftsmen and wits, to display their new creations, to perform plays, dances and operas, to gossip, to
entertain their queen (who had probably been the mythical Queen Eleanor of the Red Veldt), their
patron.
Although in the meantime a few continents had drowned and others emerged, while various land
masses had joined together and some had divided, there had been little doubt in the mind of Liam Ty
Pam Caesar Lloyd George Zatopek Finsbury Ronnie Michelangelo Yurio Iopu 4578 Rew United that he
had found the site of the original court and established his own residence there and was thus able to style
himself, reasonably enough, the Duke of Queens. One of the few permanent landmarks of the world was
his statue of the Queen of the Red Veldt herself, stretching half a mile into the sky and covering an area of
some six miles, showing the heroic queen in her cadillac (or chariot) drawn by six dragons, with her oddly
curved spear in one hand, her square shield on her other arm and with her bizarre helmet upon her head,
looking splendidly heroic as she must have done when she led her victorious armies against the might of
the United Nations, that grandiose and ambitious alliance which had, in the legends, once sought to
dominate the entire planet. So long had the statue stood in the grounds of the Duke's residence that few
really ever noticed it, for the residence itself changed frequently and the Duke of Queens often managed
to astonish everyone with the originality and scope of his invention.
As Jherek Carnelian and his mother, the Iron Orchid, approached, the first thing they saw was the
statue, but almost immediately they took note of the house which the Duke must have erected especially
for this evening's party.
"Oh!" breathed the Iron Orchid, peering out from the cabin of the locomotive and shielding her eyes
against the light, "How clever he is! How delightful!"
Jherek pretended to be unimpressed as he joined her on the footplate, his opera cloak swirling.
"It's pretty," he said, "and striking, of course. The Duke of Queens is always striking."
Clad in poppies, marigolds and cornflowers from throat to ankle, the Iron Orchid turned with a
smile and wagged a finger at him. "Come now, my dear. Admit that it is magnificent."
"I have admitted that it is striking. It is striking."
"It is magnificent!"
His disdain melted before her enthusiasm. He laughed. "Very well, lushest of blooms, it is
magnificent! Without parallel! Gorgeous! Breathtaking! A work of genius!"
"And you will tell him so, my ghost?" Her eyes were sardonic. "Will you tell him?"
He bowed. "I will."
"Splendid. And then, you see, we shall enjoy the party so much more."
Of course, there was no doubting the Duke's ingenuity but as usual, thought Jherek, he had
overdone everything. The sky had been coloured a lurid purple as a background and in it swirled the
remaining planets of the Solar System тАФ Mars as a great ruby, Venus as an emerald, Herod as a
diamond, and so on тАФ thirty in all.
The residence itself was a reproduction of the Great Fire of Africa. There were a number of
separate buildings, each in the shape of some famous city of the time, blazing merrily away. Durban,
Kilwa-Kivinje, Yola, Timbuctoo and others all burned, yet each detailed building, which was certain to
be in perfect scale, was sculpted from water and the water was brightly (garishly, in Jherek's opinion)
coloured, as were the flames. There were flames of every conceivable, flickering shade. And among the
flames and the water wandered the guests who had already arrived. Naturally there was no heat to the
fire тАФ or barely any тАФ for the Duke of Queens had no intention of burning his guests to death. In a way,
Jherek thought, that was why the residence seemed to him to lack any real creative force. But then he
was inclined to take such matters too seriously тАФ everyone told him of that.
The locomotive landed just outside Smithsmith, whose towers and terraces would crumble as if in a
blaze and then swiftly reform themselves before the water fell on anybody. People shouted with delight
and giggled in surprise. Smithsmith seemed at present the most popular attraction in the residence. Food