"C. L. Moore - Julhi" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moore C. L)

Desperation flamed from her eyes suddenly and faded again, leaving her face
whiter than before. Her hands rose in a small, futile gesture and dropped to
her lap again. She shook her head.
"No-not wholly mad. She would never permit me even that escape, for then I
could not summon up the light and so open the window for her to look backward
into that land from which she came. That land-"
"Look!" broke in Smith. "The light-"
Apri glanced up and nodded almost indifferently.
"Yes. It's darkening again. Julhi will summon you now, I think."
Rapidly the illumination was failing all about them, and
the columned forests melted into dimness, and dark veiled the long vistas, and
presently everything clouded together and black night fell once more. This
time they did not move, but Smith was aware, remotely, of a movement all about
them, subtle and indescribable, as if the scenes were being shifted behind the
curtain of the dark. The air quivered with motion and change. Even under his
feet the floor was shifting, not tangibly but with an inner metamorphosis he
could put no name to.
And then the dark began to lift again. Light diffused slowly through it,
paling the black, until he stood in a translucent twilight through whose veil
he could see that the whole scene had changed about him. He saw Apri from the
corner of his eye, heard her quickened breathing beside him, but he did not
turn his head. Those columned vistas were gone. The limitless aisles down
which he had wandered were closed now by great walls uplifting all around.
His eyes rose to seek the ceiling, and as the dusk lightened into day once
more he became aware of a miraculous quality about those walls. A curious wavy
pattern ran around them in broad bands, and as he stared he realized that the
bands were not painted upon the surface, but were integrally part of the walls
themselves, and that each successive band lessened in density. Those along the
base of the walls were heavily dark, but the rising patterns paled and became
less solid as they rose, until at half-way up the wall they were like layers.
of patterned smoke, and farther up still bands of scarcely discernible
substance more tenuous than mist. Around the heights they seemed to melt into
pure light, to which he could not lift his eyes for the dazzling brilliance of
it.
In the center of the room rose a low black couch, and upon , it-Julhi. He knew
that instinctively the moment he saw her, and in that first moment he realized
nothing but her beauty. He caught his breath at the sleek and shining
loveliness of her, lying on her black couch and facing him with a level,
unwinking stare. Then he realized her unhumanity", and a tiny prickling ran
down his back-for she was one of that very
ancient race of one-eyed beings about which whispers persist so unescapably in
folklore and legend, though history has forgotten them for ages. One-eyed. A
clear eye, uncolored, centered in the midst of a fair, broad forehead. Her
features were arranged in a diamond-shaped pattern instead of humanity 's
triangle, for the slanting nostrils of her low-bridged nose were set so far
apart that they might have been separate features, tilting and exquisitely
modeled. Her mouth was perhaps the queerest feature of her strange yet somehow
lovely face. It was perfectly heartshaped, in an exaggerated cupid's-bow, but
it was not a human mouth. It did not close, ever. It was a beautifully arched
orifice, the red lip that rimmed it compellingly crimson, but fixed and