"Michael Kane - 01 - Warriors Of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moorcock Michael)

Chapter Two

THE ASTOUNDING TRUTH

VARNAL is more real to me, even in my memories,
than ever Chicago or New York can be. It lies in a
gentle valley in the hills, which the Martians term
the Calling Hills. Green and golden, they are cov-
ered with slender trees and, when the wind passes
through them, they sound like sweet, distant, call-
ing voices as one walks past.

The valley itself is wide and shallow and con-
tains a fairly large, hot lake. The city is built
around the lake, from which rises a greenish steam,
a delicate green that sends tendrils curling around
the spires of Varnal. Most of Varnal's graceful
buildings are tall and white, though some are built
of the unique blue marble which is mined close by.
Others have traceries of gold in them, making
them glitter in the sunlight. The city is walled by
the same blue marble, which also has golden
traceries in it. From its towers fly pennants, gay
and multicolored, and its terraces are crowded
with its handsome inhabitants, the plainest of
whom would be a sought-after beau or belle in

Wynnsville, OhioЧor, indeed, Chicago or any other
great city of our world.

When I first came upon the city of Varnal, led
by that wonderful girl, I gasped in awed admira-
tion. She seemed to accept my gasp as the compli-
ment it was and she smiled proudly, saying
something in her then incomprehensible language.

I decided that I could not be dreaming, for my
own imagination was simply not capable of
creating such a vision of splendor and loveliness.

But where was I? I did not know then. How had
I got there? That I still cannot answer fully.

I puzzled over the second question. Evidently
the matter transmitter had had a fault. Instead of
sending me to the receiver on the other side of the
lab building it had sent me hurtling through
spaceЧperhaps through time, tooЧto another
world. It could not be EarthЧnot, at least, the