"Charles Stross - Merchant princes 02 - The Hidden Family" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

of me to try that here," she said slowly. "I really ought to cross over before I
try it again. If there's really a third world out there, how do we know there
isn't a fourth? Or more? How do we know that using it twice in succession brings
you back to die place you departed fromтАФthat travel using it is commutative? It
raises more questions than it answers, doesn't it?"

"YesтАФ" Brill fell silent.

"Do you know anything about this?" Miriam asked.

"No." She shook her head slowly. "I don'tтАФthey never spoke about the
possibility. Why should they? It was as much as anyone could do to travel
between this world and the other, without invoking phantoms. Would testing a new
sigil not be dangerous? If it by some chance carried you to another world where
wild animals or storms waited ..."

"Someone must have tried it." Miriam frowned. "Mustn't they?"

"You would have to ask the elders," Brill offered. "All I can tell is what I was
told."

"Well, anyway," Miriam rubbed her forehead again, "if it works, it'll be one
hell of a lever to use with Angbard. I'll just have to take mis one and cross
over to the other side before I try to go wherever its original owner came from.
Then try from there."

"Can you do that?" Brill asked.

"Yes. But just one crossing gives me a cracking headache if I don't take my
pills. I figure I can make two an hour apart. But if I run into something nasty
on the far side-тАФwherever this one takes meтАФI'll be in deep trouble if I need to
get away from it in a huriy."

Malignant hypertension wasn't a term she could use with Brill, but she'd seen
what it could do to people. In particular she'd seen a middle-aged man who'd not
bothered to follow the dietary guidelines after his HMO doctor prescribed him an
ancient and dubious monoamine oxidase inhibitor. He'd flatlined over the cheese
board at a birthday party, the glass of sparkling white wine still at hand.
She'd been in the emergency room when the ambulance brought him in, bleeding
from nose and eyes. She'd been there when they turned the ventilator off and
filled out the death certificate. She shook her head. "It'll take careful
planning."

Miriam glanced at the window. Snow drifted down from a sky the color of
shattered dreams. It was bitterly cold outside. "What I should do is go across,
hole up somewhere and catch some sleep, then try to cross over the next day so I
can run away if anything goes wrong. Trouble is, it's going to be just as cold
on the other side as it is here. And if I have to run

away, I get to spend two nights camping in the woods, in winter, with a