"Janet Morris - Crusaders In Hell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris Janet E)

covered with hair. Enkidu would have been standing upright, like a man;
thinking canny thoughts, like a man.
But Gilgamesh had gone to the edge of the Sea of Sighs to greet the
magnificent boat with its dolphin's prow and scarlet sail that had come from
Pompeii. Gilgamesh had gone aboard the boat to secure passage to the city for
them both, leaving Enkidu to wait alone.
Long hours had Enkidu waited, and then gone back up the shore to where the
caravan made its camp. Gilgamesh, king of long lost Uruk, would come to find
Enkidu when he was ready. And then Enkidu must put the caravan woman by,
forget her ivory thighs and pomegranate lips, and go with Gilgamesh onto the
boat and into the wondrous city beyond.
Until then, Enkidu had it in his mind to make love to the woman upon her
flocked couch. But the dog of the woman had scratched at his spiked collar
with a clawed hind foot and bristled his brindle fur and barked harsh words at
Enkidu, while his mistress stayed inside her wagon, as if she heard nothing of
the argument taking place outside.
So now, as people scattered and hid their faces in the dirt while the dog
tucked his tail between his legs and his furry body underneath the wagon, only
Enkidu remained in the clearing to brave the buffeting wind and howling cries
of the black bird that descended upon them, scattering dust and scraps and
detritus in every direction.
Enkidu put a hairy arm over his hairy brow and squinted at this manifestation,
wishing that Gilgamesh, to whom all secrets had been revealed, was beside him
to read this omen.
Since Gilgamesh was not Acre, Enkidu did as he pleased in the face of the
unknowable: he straightened up his great body, like a wild beast protecting
its territory in the forest.
Enkidu spread his legs wide and crossed his mighty arms and leaned into the
gale come from this black bird from Heaven--or from some other Hell-and then
he waited.
Enkidu did not need Gilgamesh to tell him what was right. Enkidu did not need
the cowardly dog who whined behind the wagon wheels. Enkidu could protect this
woman, this dog, this caravan, this territory, by himself.
Privately, Enkidu wished he had a weapon, .for the bird was twice the height
of Gilgamesh and as long as three caravan wagons. But he did not have a
weapon, because Gilgamesh despised the weapons of the New Dead and Enkidu
loved Gilgamesh, whom the gods had decreed was wiser than he.
Not even Gilgamesh, Enkidu thought as the belly of the bird opened wide, would
have known this bird by name or what words to say to gain power over it.
Nor was Gilgamesh here, Enkidu reminded himself, wishing he was not wishing
his friend was here to tell him What to do as a man came out of the belly of
the bird whose awful breath was blinding and whose terrible roar was
deafening.
Because the bird's roar was so loud, Enkidu did not see or hear the woman come
out of her silk-topped wagon until she touched his arm.
He looked down at the woman whose red lips said, "Enkidu, come with me. Ask no
questions." Her hands tugged on Enkidu's mighty arm, pulling him toward the
bird out of which the man had come..
And that man was running toward them, gesticulating, yelling; "Tamara, come
on! Bring him or forget him. Time's up," in English.