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

of silk, velour, sateen, watching the play with amusement. On a terrace some
stood looking into a sunken pool where a pair of captured Deodands, their
skins like oiled jet, paddled and glared; others tossed darts at the
spread-eagled body of a young Cobalt Mountain witch. In alcoves beflowered
girls offered synthetic love to wheezing old men, and elsewhere others lay
stupefied by dream-powders. Nowhere did Turjan find Prince Kandive. Through
the palace he wandered, room after room, until at last in an upper chamber he
came upon the tall golden-bearded prince, lolling on a couch with a masked
girl-child who had green eyes and hair dyed pale green.
Some intuition or perhaps a charm warned Kandive when Turjan slipped
through the purple hangings. Kandive leapt to his feet.
"Go!" he ordered the girl. "Out of the room quickly! Mischief moves
somewhere near and I must blast it with magic!"
The girl ran hastily from the chamber. Kandive's hand stole to his throat
and pulled forth the hidden amulet. But Turjan shielded his gaze with his
hand.
Kandive uttered a powerful charm which loosened space free of all warp. So
Turjan's spell was void and he became visible.
"Turjan of Miir skulks through my palace!" snarled Kandive.
"With ready death on my lips," spoke Turjan. "Turn your back, Kandive, or
I speak a spell and run you through with my sword."
Kandive made as if to obey, but instead shouted the syllables bringing the
Omnipotent Sphere about him.
"Now I call my guards, Turjan," announced Kandive contemptuously, "and you
shall be cast to the Deodands in the tank."
Kandive did not know the engraved band Turjan wore on his wrist, a most
powerful rune, maintaining a field solvent of all magic. Still guarding his
vision against the amulet, Turjan stepped through the Sphere. Kandive's great
blue eyes bulged.
"Call the guards," said Turjan. "They will find your body riddled by lines
of fire."
"Your body, Turjan!" cried the prince, babbling the spell. Instantly the
blazing wires of the Excellent Prismatic Spray lashed from all directions at
Turjan. Kandive watched the furious rain with a wolfish grin, but his
expression changed quickly to consternation. A finger's breath from Turjan's
skin the fire-darts dissolved into a thousand gray puffs of smoke.
"Turn your back, Kandive," Turjan ordered. "Your magic is useless against
Laccodel's Rune." But Kandive took a step toward a spring in the wall.
"Halt!" cried Turjan. "One more step and the Spray splits you
thousandfold!"
Kandive stopped short. In helpless rage he turned his back and Turjan,
stepping forward quickly, reached over Kandive's neck, seized the amulet and
raised it free. It crawled in his hand and through the fingers there passed a
glimpse of blue. A daze shook his brain, and for an instant he heard a murmur
of avid voices . . . His vision cleared. He backed away from Kandive, stuffing
the amulet in his pouch. Kandive asked, "May I now turn about in safety?"
"When you wish," responded Turjan, clasping his pouch. Kandive, seeing
Turjan occupied, negligently stepped to the wall and placed his hand on a
spring.
"Turjan," he said, "you are lost. Before you may utter a syllable, I will