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

that creature of hell."
A hand lifted the amulet from Turjan's neck. After a moment of silence
Pandelume's voice sounded again from a distance.
"You may open your eyes."
Turjan did so. He was in Pandelume's workroom; amidst much else, he saw
vats like his own.
"I will not thank you," said Pandelume. "But in order that a fitting
symmetry be maintained, I perform a service for a service. I will not only
guide your hands as you work among the vats, but also will I teach you other
matters of value."
In this fashion did Turjan enter his apprenticeship to Pandelume. Day and
far into the opalescent Embelyon night he worked under Pandelume's unseen
tutelage. He learned the secret of renewed youth, many spells of the ancients,
and a strange abstract lore that Pandelume termed "Mathematics."
"Within this instrument," said Pandelume, "resides the Universe. Passive
in itself and not of sorcery, it elucidates every problem, each phase of
existence, all the secrets of time and space. Your spells and runes are built
upon its power and codified according to a great underlying mosaic of magic.
The design of this mosaic we cannot surmise; our knowledge is didactic,
empirical, arbitrary. Phandaal glimpsed the pattern and so was able to
formulate many of the spells which bear his name. I have endeavored through
the ages to break the clouded glass, but so far my research has failed. He who
discovers the pattern will know all of sorcery and be a man powerful beyond
comprehension."
So Turjan applied himself to the study and learned many of the simpler
routines.
"I find herein a wonderful beauty," he told Pandelume. "This is no
science, this is art, where equations fall away to elements like resolving
chords, and where always prevails a symmetry either explicit or multiplex, but
always of a crystalline serenity."
In spite of these other studies, Turjan spent most of his time at the
vats, and under Pandelume's guidance achieved the mastery he sought. As a
recreation he formed a girl of exotic design, whom he named Floriel. The hair
of the girl he had found with Kandive on the night of the festival had fixed
in his mind, and he gave his creature pale green hair. She had skin of creamy
tan and wide emerald eyes. Turjan was intoxicated with delight when he brought
her wet and perfect from the vat. She learned quickly and soon knew how to
speak with Turjan. She was one of dreamy and wistful habit, caring for little
but wandering among the flowers of the meadow, or sitting silently by the
river; yet she was a pleasant creature and her gentle manners amused Turjan.
But one day the black-haired T'sais came riding past on her horse,
steely-eyed, slashing at flowers with her sword. The innocent Floriel wandered
by and T'sais, exclaiming "Green-eyed womanтАФyour aspect horrifies me, it is
death for you!" cut her down as she had the flowers in her path.
Turjan, hearing the hooves, came from the workroom in time to witness the
sword-play. He paled in rage and a spell of twisting torment rose to his lips.
Then T'sais looked at him and cursed him, and in the pale face and dark eyes
he saw her misery and the spirit that caused her to defy her fate and hold to
her life. Many emotions fought in him, but at last he permitted T'sais to ride
on. He buried Floriel by the river-bank and tried to forget her in intense