"Jack Vance - Green Magic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

success. He found no direct reference to cycles beyond the purple; the demon refused even to speculate.

Fair was by no means discouraged; if anything, the intensity of his interest increased. He reread the
journal, with particular care to the justification for purple magic, reasoning that McIntyre, groping for a
lore beyond the purple, might well have used the methods which had yielded results before. Applying
stains and ultraviolet light to the pages, Fair made legible a number of notes McIntyre had jotted down,
then erased.

Fair was immensely stimulated. The notes assured him that he was on the right track, and further
indicated a number of blind alleys which Fair profited by avoiding. He applied himself so successfully
that before the week was out he had evoked a sprite of the green cycle.

It appeared in the semblance of a man with green glass eyes and a thatch of young eucalyptus leaves in
the place of hair. It greeted Fair with cool courtesy, would not seat itself, and ignored Fair's proffer of
coffee.

After wandering around the apartment inspecting Fair's books and curios with an air of negligent
amusement, it agreed to respond to Fair's questions.

Fair asked permission to use his tape-recorder, which the sprite allowed, and Fair set the apparatus in
motion. (When subsequently he replayed the interview, no sound could be heard.)

"What realms of magic lie beyond the green?" asked Fair.

"I can't give you an exact answer," replied the sprite, "because I don't know. There are at least two more,
corresponding to the colors we call rawn and pallow, and very likely others."

Fair arranged the microphone where it would more directly intercept the voice of the sprite.

"What," he asked, "is the green cycle like? What is its physical semblance?"

The sprite paused to consider. Glistening mother-of-pearl films wandered across its face, reflecting the
tinge of its thoughts. "I'm rather severely restricted by your use of the word 'physical'. And 'semblance'
involves a subjective interpretation, which changes with the rise and fall of the seconds."

"By all means," Fair said hastily, "describe it in your own words."



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 Green Magic

"Well, we have four different regions, two of which floresce from the basic skeleton of the universe, and
so subsede the others. The first of these is compressed and isthiated, but is notable for its wide pools of
mottle which we use sometimes for deranging stations. We've transplanted club-mosses from Earth's
Devonian and a few ice-fires from Perdition. They climb among the rods which we call devil-hair--" he
went on for several minutes but the meaning almost entirely escaped Fair. And it seemed as if the
question by which he had hoped to break the ice might run away with the entire interview. He
introduced another idea.