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

strafing the caravanners' camp below.
When the bird had risen high enough, Enkidu glimpsed the island where
Gilgamesh had gone. It was beautiful and magical and colored like a rainbow;
in its center the mouth of a demon belched smoke and fire.
Enkidu felt remorse that Gilgamesh was not with him, in the belly of the bird.
But the caravan woman was telling him how lucky he was to be alive, and how
many wonders he would see when the bird reached its destination.
"And weapons, Enkidu, such as you have never had in your hands," said the
woman called Tanya.
"But what of Gilgamesh?" said Enkidu. "My friend Gilgamesh was to come back
for me, and we were to enter the city together."
"You're lucky you're alive, buddy," said a man whose torso was black to the
tops of his arms. "Stay away from drug runners in future. As for your friend,
Gil,"--the; man bared the perfect white teeth of the New Dead-
"Reassignments'll decide when and whether you hook up with him again, because
that's where you re going, Mister-Reassignments in New Hell." As he said this,
the man took out a pistol and began fondling it. Behind him, Enkidu could see
shifting lights and glowing oblongs, like windows into other worlds.
"Reassignments?" asked Enkidu with a frown.
"Nichols!" protested the woman from the caravan at the same time. Then she put
her hand upon Enkidu and began to soothe him, promising all and everything she
could do to make life better for him in a strange new land.
When Gilgamesh was put ashore by the dolphin-prowed boat of the Pompeiians, he
looked everywhere along the beach for Enkidu and did not find him. So
Gilgamesh trekked up the shore, toward the caravan's encampment, where Enkidu
surely must have gone.
Joy was in Gilgamesh's heart. He was anxious to find Enkidu and tell him of
die wonders he had seen.
Behind him, the boat awaited, compliments of Sulla, Pompeii's ruler, to bring
both heroes over the water to the city.
Gilgamesh had learned that Pompeii had not always been an island; parts of its
shoreline were now submerged, a danger to ships. This Sulla was a Roman who
had designated the city a colony for his war-weary veterans. There were many
heroes on the island, and people of magical inclination like Greeks and
Etruscans as well.
Quickly did Gilgamesh stride the distance to the camp, imagining the joy in
Enkidu's face when he told him of the warm welcome they would receive in the
city.
And when Gilgamesh told him another thing: this Sulla had said to Gilgamesh,
"Gilgamesh, great king of Uruk? What are you doing so far from home?"
In the eyes of this Sulla, a Roman of soldierly bearing with a head nearly
bereft of hair, had been no treachery, only a politician's caution.
Startled, Gilgamesh had replied, "What do you mean; Sulla? Uruk is lost to the
ages. I have not seen its streets or slept in its fortress since I... died
there." A sadness was in his voice, thinking of lost Uruk, the city of his
life.
At that, Sulla queried him piercingly until, satisfied that Gilgamesh spoke
the truth, he said, "I believe you, Gilgamesh. There is a false lord in Uruk,
then-or another lord, at any rate. My men are tired, hiding on this island, of
small squabbles and small adventures'.