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

The sound of the door angrily flung ajar aroused him; he sat up to find the sun not yet arisen, and a
deputation led by the elder regarding him with horror and disgust.
The elder pointed a long quivering finger through the gloom. "I thought to detect heretical opinion;
now the fact is known! Notice: he sleeps with neither head-covering nor devotional salve on his chin. The
girl Zhiaml Vraz reports that at no time in their congress did the villain call out for the approval of
Yelisea!"
"Heresy beyond a doubt!" declared the others of the deputation.
"What else could be expected of an outlander?" asked the elder contemptuously. "Look! Even now
he refuses to make the sacred sign."
"I do not know the sacred sign!" Cugel expostulated. "I know nothing of your rites! This is not
heresy, it is simple ignorance!"
"I cannot believe this," said the elder. "Only last night I outlined the nature of orthodoxy."
"The situation is grievous," said another in a voice of portentous melancholy. "Heresy exists only
through putrefaction of the Lobe of Correctitude."
"This is an incurable and fatal mortification," stated another, no less dolefully.
"True! Alas, too true!" sighed one who stood by the door. "Unfortunate man!"
"Come!" called the elder. "We must deal with the matter at once."
"Do not trouble yourself," said Cugel. "Allow me to dress myself and I will depart the village never
to return."
"To spread your detestable doctrine elsewhere? By no means!"
And now Cugel was seized and hauled naked from the chamber. Out across the park he was
marched, and to the pavilion at the centre. Several of the group erected an enclosure formed of wooden
posts on the platform of the pavilion and into this enclosure Cugel was thrust. "What do you do?" he
cried out. "I wish no part of your rites!"
He was ignored, and stood peering between the interstices of the enclosure while certain of the
villagers sent aloft a large balloon of green paper buoyed by hot air, carrying three green fire-fans below.
Dawn showed sallow in the west. The villagers, with all arranged to their satisfaction, withdrew to
the edge of the park. Cugel attempted to climb from the enclosure, but the wooden rods were of such
dimension and spacing as to allow him no grip.
The sky lightened; high above burned the green fire-fans. Cugel, hunched and in goose-flesh from
the morning chill, walked back and forth the length of the enclosure. He stopped short, as from afar came
the haunting music. It grew louder, seeming to reach the very threshold of audibility. High in the sky
appeared a Winged Being, white robes trailing and flapping. Down it settled and Cugel's joints became
limp and loose. The Winged Being hovered over the enclosure, dropped, enfolded Cugel in its white
robe, endeavoured to bear him aloft. But Cugel had seized a bar of the enclosure and the Winged Being
flapped in vain. The bar creaked, groaned, cracked. Cugel fought free of the stifling cloak, tore at the bar
with hysterical strength; it snapped and splintered. Cugel seized a fragment, stabbed at the Winged Being.
The sharp stick punctured the white cloak, and the Winged Being buffeted Cugel with a wing. Cugel
seized one of the chitin ribs and with a mighty effort twisted it around backwards, so that the substance
cracked and broke and the wing hung torn. The Winged Being, aghast, gave a great bound which carried
both it and Cugel out upon the pavilion, and now it hopped through the village trailing its broken wing.
Cugel ran behind belabouring it with a cudgel he had seized up. He glimpsed the villagers staring in
awe; their mouths were wide and wet, and they might have been screaming but he heard nothing. The
Winged Being hopped faster, up the trail towards the cliff, with Cugel wielding the cudgel with all his
strength. The golden sun rose over the far mountains; the Winged Being suddenly turned to face Cugel,
and Cugel felt the glare of its eyes, though the visage, if such there were, was concealed beneath the
hood of the cloak. Abashed and panting, Cugel stood back, and now it occurred to him that he stood
almost defenceless should others drop on him from on high. So now he shouted an imprecation at the
creature and turned back to the village. All had fled. The village was deserted. Cugel laughed aloud. He
went to the inn, dressed himself in his garments, buckled on his sword. He went out into the taproom,