"Jack Vance - Demon Prince 05 - The Book Of Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

The Book Of Dreams
By Jack Vance
Book 5 in the "Demon Prince" Series


Chapter 1
From The Book of Dreams

Raise your eyes, stranger, to that age-worn rampart
which confronts all else there stand the paladins, stern,
grave, serene Each is one, each is all

At the center is Imrrur of the graces He controls certain
sleights of magic, he is master of ploys and plots and awful
surprises He is Immir the unpredictable and claims no sin-
gle color

At Immir's right hand stands Jeha Rais, who is tall in ma)-
esty and whose color is black He is sagacious and always
first to notice a far event, for which he construes eventu-
alities Then he points his finger, to direct the gaze of the
other paladins He is without qualm and advocates dcci
siveness Sometimes he is known as "Jsha the Inexorable "
He wears a black garment, supple and close as his skin, a
black cape and a black morion, fixed at the crest with an
orb of crystal in a silver star-blaze

At Immir's left hand stands Lons Hohenger, whose color
is the red of new blood He is the feroce, impulsive and
reckless, and ever reluctant to leave the slaying grounds,
though of all the paladins he can be most generous He
lusts after fair women and they deny him at great risk to
their dignity Should they make complaint or give chiding,
his redress is even more fulsome. When finally he lea\es

THE DEMON PRINCES

the bed their voices are still and they look longingly after
him.

Green Mewness stands beside Loris Hohenger. Expert in
skills is Mewness. He can fling a bridge or topple a tower;

he is patient, cunning, and if the road is closed to right and
left, he finds a way between. His memory is exact; he never
forgets a face or a name and he knows the ways of a hun-
dred worlds. Soft men of wealth think him ingenuous in his
dealings, to their ultimate consternation.

Yellow Spangleway is wry, astonishing, and ignores every