"Whitley Strieber - Cat Magic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Strieber Whitley)

windswept ridges of old Stone.

For a moment nothing more happens, but that is only because the cat's eyes are shut tight.

As the shock wears off, it blinks, then begins to gaze.
Huge, golden cat eyes appear, hanging above an otherwise empty expanse of rock.

The cat glares down into the weave of Maywell's life, to see what fool has dared this conjuring.

BOOK ONE:
Godfather Death
The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And a crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.
тАФW. H. Auden, тАЬAs I Walked Out One EveningтАЭ

Chapter 1
The frog wanted desperately to hop. But it couldn't hop. It jerked, then jerked again. It stayed where it
was, clamped down tight. It flexed, tightened, jerked. The hot, dry hurting kept on. The frog worked its
tongue. Pain. It tried to move its head. Pain. Things were piercing it. Again and again it tried to hop. But it
stayed right where it was, in this hard white place with no leaves and no whirring wings and no sharp
delicious bugs to wrestle from the air.

It tried to hop.

Still, it did not move.

It tried. Tried. Tried.

It hurt, it had to move, it had to hop.

тАЬThere we goтАФnoтАФhell. Bonnie, the animal is still too slick.тАЭ

Painful, tormenting, scraping all over its back, hot and dry. It hopped hopped hopped.

тАЬThanks. Now. . . yeah!тАЭ

тАЬThat did it, George. The probe's well seated. I haw a good signal.тАЭ

тАЬOkay, Clark. Let's get started.тАЭ

On Stone Mountain the creatureтАФwhich was still only eyesтАФbegan spinning itself a cat body so it would
be ready as soon as the sun went down. Two sparrows, who saw something astonishing create its own
solid presence out of thin air, took flight, screaming in the silence. A raccoon stiffened and stared, and
mewed. What it saw had no taxonomic classification. No, indeed, for it belonged to a rare law, this
creature of mercy. Pacing now, it waited for the sunlight to rise away from the streets of the town. And
suffered along with the frog.

The frog understood nothing it saw around it. There were long strands sweeping out above its eyes. It