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

danger of that voice. It vibrated, it thrilled, it caressed. It rippled up and
down his answering nerves like fingers over harp-strings.
"Who are you, Earthman?" that lazy, nerve-strumming voice demanded. He felt,
as he answered, that she knew not only his name but much more about him than
he himself knew. Knowledge was in her eye, serene and all-inclusive.
' 'Northwest Smith," he said, a little sullenly.' 'Why have you brought me
here?"
' 'A dangerous man.'' There was an undernote of mockery in the music. "You
were brought to feed the dwellers of Vonng with human blood, but I think-yes,
I think I shall keep you for myself. You have known much of emotions that are
alien to me, and I would share them fully, as one with your own strong,
hot-blooded body, Northwest Smith. Aie-e-e"-the humming wailed along an
ecstatic upward note that sent shivers down the man's spine-"and how sweet and
hot your blood will be, my Earthman! You shall share my ecstasy as I drink it!
You shall-but wait. First you must understand. Listen, Earthman."
The humming swelled to an inarticulate roaring in his ears, and somehow his
mind relaxed under that sound, smoothed out, pliantly as wax for the recording
of her voice. In that queer, submissive mood he heard her singing,
"Life dwells in so many overlapping planes, my Earthman, that even I can
comprehend but a fraction of them. My plane is very closely akin to your own,
and at some places they overlap in so intimate a way that it takes little
effort to break through, if one can find a weak spot. This city of Vonng is
one of the spots, a place which exists simultaneously in both planes. Can you
understand that? It was laid out along certain obscure patterns in a way and
for a purpose
which are stories in themselves; so that in my own plane as well as here in
yours Vonng's walls and streets and buildings are tangible. But time is
different in our two worlds. It moves faster here. The strange alliance
between your plane and mine, through two sorcerers of our alien worlds, was
brought about very curiously. Vonng was built by men of your own plane,
laboriously, stone by stone. But to us it seemed that through the magic of
that sorcerer of ours a city suddenly appeared at his command, empty and
complete. For your time moves so much faster than ours.
"And though through the magic of those strangely matched conspirators the
stone which built Vonng existed in both planes at once, no power could make
the men who dwelt in Vonng accessible to use. Two races simultaneously
inhabited the city. To mankind it seemed haunted by nebulous, imponderable
presences. That race was ourselves. To us you were tantalizingly perceptible
in flashes, but we could not break through. And we wanted to very badly.
Mentally, sometimes we could reach you, but physically never.
' 'And so it went on. But because time moved faster here, your Vonng fell into
ruins and has been deserted for ages, while to our perceptions it is still a
great and thronging city. I shall show you presently.
' 'To understand why I am here you must understand something of our lives. The
goal of your own race is the pursuit of happiness, is it not so? But our lives
are spent wholly in the experiencing and enjoyment of sensation. To us that is
food and drink and happiness. Without it we starve. To nourish our bodies we
must drink the blood of living creatures, but that is a small matter beside
the ravenous hunger we know for the sensations and the emotions of the flesh.
We are infinitely more capable of experiencing them than you, both physically