"Jack Vance - The Dying Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

universe, the other a gay exuberance.
T'sais found her voice.
"How is this, witch? You bear my semblance, yet you are not me. Or has the
boon of madness come at last to dim my sight of the world?"
T'sain shook her head. "I am T'sain. You are my twin, T'sais, my sister.
For this I must love you and you must love me."
"Love? I love nothing! I will kill you and so make the world better by one
less evil." She raised her sword again.
"No!" cried T'sain in anguish. "Why do you wish to harm me? I have done no
wrong!"
"You do wrong by existing, and you offend me by coming to mock my own
hideous mold."
T'sain laughed, "Hideous? No. I am beautiful, for Turjan says so.
Therefore you are beautiful, too."
T'sais' face was like marble.
"You make sport of me."
"Never. You are indeed very beautiful."
T'sais dropped the point of her sword to the ground. Her face relaxed into
thought.
"Beauty! What is beauty? Can it be that I am blind, that a fiend distorts
my vision? Tell me, how does one see beauty?"
"I don't know," said T'sain. "It seems very plain to me. Is not the play
of colors across the sky beautiful?"
T'sais looked up in astonishment. "The harsh glarings? They are either
angry or dreary, in either case detestable."
"See how delicate are the flowers, fragile and charming."
"They are parasites, they smell vilely."
T'sain was puzzled. "I do not know how to explain beauty. You seem to find
joy in nothing. Does nothing give you satisfaction?"
"Only killing and destruction. So then these must be beautiful."
T'sain frowned. "I would term these evil concepts."
"Do you believe so?"
"I am sure of it."
T'sais considered. "How can I know how to act? I have been certain, and
now you tell me that I do evil!"
T'sain shrugged. "I have lived little, and I am not wise. Yet I know that
everyone is entitled to life. Turjan could explain to you easily."
"Who is Turjan?" inquired T'sais.
"He is a very good man," replied T'sain, "and I love him greatly. Soon we
go to Earth, where the sky is vast and deep and of dark blue."
 "Earth. ... If I went to Earth, could I also find beauty and love?"
"That may be, for you have a brain to understand beauty, and beauty of
your own to attract love."
"Then I kill no more, regardless of what wickedness I see. I will ask
Pandelume to send me to Earth."
T'sain stepped forward, put her arms around T'sais, and kissed her.
"You are my sister and I will love you."
TтАЩsaisтАЩ face froze. Rend, stab, bite, said her brain, but a deeper surge
welled up from her flowing blood, from every cell of her body, to suffuse her
with a sudden flush of pleasure. She smiled.