"Jim Theis - The Eye of Argon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Theis Jim)

fist and shaped into a smooth oval mass.
Encircling the marble altar was a congregation of leering shamen.
Eerie chants of a bygone age, originating unknown eons before the memory of
man, were being uttered from the buried recesses of the acolytes' deep
lings. Orange paint was smeared in generous globules over the tops of thw
Priests' wrinkled shaven scalps, while golden rings projected from the
lobes of their pink ears. Ornate robes of lusciour purple satin enclosed
their bulging torsos, attached around their waists with silvered silk
lashes latched with ebony buckles in the shape of morose mis-shaped skulls.
Dangling around their necks were oval fashoned medalions held by thin gold
chains, featuring in their centers blood red rubys which resembled crimson
fetish eyeballs. Cushoning their bare feet were plush red felt slippers
with pointed golden spikes projecting from their tips.
Situated in front of the altar, and directly adjacent to the copper
pail was a massive jade idol; a misshaped, hideous bust of the shamens'
pagan diety. The shimmering green idol was placed in a sitting posture on
an ornately carved golden throne raised upon a round, dvory plated dias; it
bulging arms and webbed hands resting on the padded arms of the seat. Its
head was entwined in golden snake-like coils hanging over its oblong ears,
which tappered off to thin hollow points. Its nose was a bulging
triangular mass, sunken in at its sides with tow gaping nostrils. Dramatic
beneath the nostrils was a twisted, shaggy lipped mouth, giving the
impression of a slovering sadistic grimace.
At the foot of the heathen diety a slender, pale faced female, naked
but for a golden, jeweled harness enshrouding her huge outcropping breasts,
supporting long silver laces which extended to her thigh, stood before the
pearl white field with noticable shivers traveling up and down the length
of her exquisitely molded body. Her delicate lips trembled beneath soft
narrow hands as she attemped to conceal herself from the piercing stare of
the ambivalent idol.
Glaring directly down towards her was the stoney, cycloptic face of
the bloated diety. Gaping from its single obling socket was scintillating,
many fauceted scarlet emerald, a brilliant gem seeming to possess a life
all of its own. A priceless gleaming stone, capable of domineering the
wealth of conquering empires...the eye of Argon.

-4-

All knowledge of measuring time had escaped Grignr. When a person is
deprived of the sun, moon, and stars, he looses all conception of time as
he had previously understood it. It seemed as if years had passed if time
were being measured by terms of misery and mental anguish, yet he estimated
that his stay had only been a few days in length. He has slept three times
and had been fed five times since his awakening in the crypt. However,
when the actions of the body are restricted its needs are also affected.
The need for nourishmnet and slumber are directly proportional to the
functions the body has performed, meaning that when free and active Grignr
may become hungry every six hours and witness the desire for sleep every
fifteen hours, whereas in his present condition he may encounter the need
for food every ten hours, and the want for rest every twenty hours. All