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

open the floor and drop you a great dark distance. Can your charms avail
against this?"
Turjan halted in mid-motion, fixed his eyes upon Kandive's red and gold
face. Then he dropped his eyes sheepishly. "Ah, Kandive," he fretted, "you
have outwitted me. If I return you the amulet, may I go free?"
'Toss the amulet at my feet," said Kandive, gloating. "Also Laccodel's
Rune. Then I shall decide what mercy to grant you."
"Even the Rune?" Turjan asked, forcing a piteous note to his voice.
"Or your life."
Turjan reached into his pouch and grasped the crystal Pandelume had given
him. He pulled it forth and held it against the pommel of his sword.
"Ho, Kandive," he said, "I have discerned your trick. You merely wish to
frighten me into surrender. I defy you!"
Kandive shrugged. "Die then." He pushed the spring. The floor jerked open,
and Turjan disappeared into the gulf. But when Kandive raced below to claim
Turjan's body, he found no trace, and he spent the rest of the night in
temper, brooding over wine.
Turjan found himself in the circular room of Pandelume's manse. Embelyon's
many-colored lights streamed through the sky-windows upon his
shoulderтАФsapphire blue, the yellow of marigolds, blood red. There was silence
through the house. Turjan moved away from the rune in the floor, glancing
uneasily to the door, fearful lest Pandelume, unaware of his presence, enter
the room.
"Pandelume!" he called. "I have returned!"
There was no response. Deep quiet held the house. Turjan wished he were in
the open air where the odor of sorcery was less strong. He looked at the
doors; one led to the entrance hall, the other he knew not where. The door on
the right hand must lead outside; he laid his hand on the latch to pull it
open. But he paused. Suppose he were mistaken, and Pandelume's form were
revealed? Would it be wiser to wait here?
A solution occurred to him. His back to the door, he swung it open.
"Pandelume!" he called.
A soft intermittent sound came to his ears from behind, and he seemed to
hear a labored breath. Suddenly frightened, Turjan stepped back into the
circular room and closed the door.
He resigned himself to patience and sat on the floor.
A gasping cry came from the next room. Turjan leapt to his feet.
"Turjan? You are there?"
"Yes; I have returned with the amulet."
"Do this quickly," panted the voice. "Guarding your sight, hang the amulet
over your neck and enter."
Turjan, spurred by the urgency of the voice, closed his eyes and arranged
the amulet on his chest. He groped to the door and flung it wide.
Silence of a shocked intensity held an instant; then came an appalling
screech, so wild and demoniac that Turjan's brain sang. Mighty pinions
buffeted the air, there was a hiss and the scrape of metal. Then, amidst
muffled roaring, an icy wind bit Turjan's face. Another hissтАФand all was
quiet.
"My gratitude is yours," said the calm voice of Pandelume. "Few times have
I experienced such dire stress, and without your aid might not have repulsed