"Jack Vance - The Sorcerer Pharesm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

The Sorcerer Pharesm
Jack Vance
Like Dunsany and Clark Ashton Smith, Jack Vance (b. 1916) delights in exotic language. His
work is firmly in the tradition of both writers, most notably in the stories that he has set in the
earth's last years. These first appeared in The Dying Earth (1950) and were continued in The Eyes
of the Over-world (1966), Cugel's Saga (1983) and Rhialto the Marvellous (1984). The following is
one of the Cugel stones, which form part of a connected series. Cugel is a crafty but at times
naive thief who is caught while trying to burgle the manse of the wizard Iucounu. Iucounu
despatches Cugel to the far side of the earth on a quest, after inserting into him the monitor, Firx,
which ensures that Cugel will return. The stories follow Cugel's attempts to complete the wizard's
quest and get back home.

THE MOUNTAINS WERE BEHIND: THE DARK DEFILES, the tarns, the echoing stone
heights - all now a sooty bulk to the north. For a time Cugel wandered a region of low rounded hills the
colour and texture of old wood, with groves of blue-black trees dense along the ridges, then came upon
a faint trail which took him south by long swings and slants, and at last broke out over a vast dim plain. A
half-mile to the right rose a line of tall cliffs, which instantly attracted his attention, bringing him a haunting
pang of deja-vu. He stared mystified. At some time in the past he had known these cliffs: how? when?
His memory provided no response. He settled himself upon a low lichen-covered rock to rest, but now
Firx, the monitor which Iucounu the Laughing Magician had implanted in Cugel's viscera, became
impatient and inflicted a stimulating pang. Cugel leaped to his feet, groaning with weariness and shaking
his fist to the south-west, the presumable direction of Almery. "Iucounu, Iucounu! If I could repay a tenth
of your offences, the world would think me harsh!"
He set off down the trail, under the cliffs which had affected him with such poignant but impossible
recollections. Far below spread the plain, filling three-quarters of the horizon with colours much like those
of the lichened rock Cugel had just departed: black patches of woodland; a grey crumble where ruins
filled an entire valley; nondescript streaks of grey-green, lavender, grey-brown; the leaden glint of two
great rivers disappearing into the haze of distance.
Cugel's brief rest had only served to stiffen his joints; he limped, and the pouch chafed his hip. Even
more distressing was the hunger gripping his belly. Another tally against Iucounu who had sent Cugel to
the northern wastes on a mission of wanton frivolity! Iucounu, it must be allowed, had furnished an amulet
converting such normally inedible substances as grass, wood, horn, hair, humus and the like into a
nutritious paste. Unfortunately - and this was a measure of Iucounu's mordant humour -the paste retained
the flavour of the native substance, and during his passage of the mountain Cugel had tasted little better
than spurge, cullion, blackwort, oak twigs and galls, and on one occasion, when all else failed, certain
refuse discovered in the cave of a bearded thawn. Cugel had eaten only minimally; his long spare frame
had become gaunt; his cheekbones protruded like sponsons; the black eyebrows which once had
crooked so jauntily now lay flat and dispirited. Truly, truly, Iucounu had much to answer for! And Cugel,
as he proceeded, debated the exact quality of revenge he would take if ever he found his way back to
Almery.
The trail swung down upon a wide stony flat where the wind had carved a thousand grotesque
figures. Surveying the area Cugel thought to perceive regularity among the eroded shapes, and halted to
rub his long chin in appraisal. The pattern displayed an extreme subtlety - so subtle indeed, that Cugel
wondered if it had not been projected by his own mind. Moving closer, he discerned further
complexities, and elaborations upon complexities: twists, spires, volutes; discs, saddles, wrenched
spheres; torsions and flexions; spindles, cardioids, lanciform pinnacles: the most laborious, painstaking
and intricate rock-carving conceivable, manifestly no random effort of the elements. Cugel frowned in
perplexity, unable to imagine a motive for so complex an undertaking.
He went on and a moment later heard voices, together with the clank of tools. He stopped short,
listened cautiously, then proceeded, to come upon a gang of about fifty men ranging in stature from 3