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

thrust the net into Cugel's ear, where it swiftly engaged itself with the nerve of consonant expression.
"Now," said Pharesm, "you need listen to a strange language for but three minutes when you become
proficient in its use. And now, another article to enhance the prospect of success: this ring. Notice the
jewel: should you approach to within a league of TOTALITY, darting lights within the gem will guide you.
Is all clear?"
Cugel gave a reluctant nod. "There is another matter to be considered. Assume that your
calculations are incorrect and that TOTALITY has returned only 900,000 years into the past: what then?
Must I dwell out all my life in this possibly barbarous era?"
Pharesm frowned in displeasure. "Such a situation involves an error of 10 per cent. My system of
reckoning seldom admits of deviation greater than 1 per cent."
Cugel began to make calculations, but now Pharesm signalled to the black disc. "Back! And do not
again move hence!"
Sweat oozing from his glands, knees quivering and sagging, Cugel returned to his place.
Pharesm retreated to the far end of the room, where he stepped into a coil of gold tubing, which
sprang spiralling up to clasp his body. From a desk he took four black discs, which he began to shuffle
and juggle with such fantastic dexterity that they blurred in Cugel's sight. Pharesm at last flung the discs
away; spinning and wheeling they hung in the air, gradually drifting towards Cugel.
Pharesm next took up a white tube, pressed it tight against his lips and spoke an incantation. The
tube swelled and bulged into a great globe. Pharesm twisted the end shut and shouting a thunderous spell,
hurled the globe at the spinning discs, and all exploded. Cugel was surrounded, seized, jerked in all
directions outward, compressed with equal vehemence: the net result, a thrust in a direction contrary to
all, with an impetus equivalent to the tide of a million years. Among dazzling lights and distorted visions,
Cugel was transported beyond his consciousness.

Cugel awoke in a glare of orange-gold sunlight, of a radiance he had never known before. He lay
on his back looking up into a sky of warm blue, of lighter tone and softer texture than the indigo sky of
his own time.
He tested arms and legs and, finding no damage, sat upright, then slowly rose to his feet, blinking in
the unfamiliar radiance.
The topography had changed only slightly. The mountains to the north were taller and of harsher
texture, and Cugel could not identify the way he had come, or - more properly - the way he would come.
The site of Pharesm's project was now a low forest of feathery-light green trees, on which hung clusters
of red berries. The valley was as before, though the rivers flowed by different courses and three great
cities were visible at varying distances. The air drifting up from the valley carried a strange tart fragrance
mingled with an antique exhalation of moulder and must, and it seemed to Cugel that a peculiar
melancholy hung in the air; in fact, he thought to hear music: a slow plaintive melody, so sad as to bring
tears to his eyes. He searched for the source of the music, but it faded and disappeared even as he
sought it, and only when he ceased to listen did it return.
For the first time Cugel looked towards the cliffs which rose to the west, and now the sense of
deja-vu was stronger than ever. Cugel pulled his chin in puzzlement. The time was a million years
previous to that other occasion on which he had seen the cliffs, and hence, by definition, must be the first.
But it was also the second time, for he well remembered his initial experience of the cliffs. On the other
hand, the logic of time could not be contravened, and by such reckoning this view preceded the other. A
paradox, thought Cugel: a puzzle indeed! Which experience had provided the background to the
poignant sense of familiarity he had felt on both occasions?тАж Cugel dismissed the subject as unprofitable
and started to turn away when movement caught his eye. He looked back up the face of the cliffs, and
the air was suddenly full and rich with the music he had heard before, music of anguish and exalted
despairтАж Cugel stared in wonder. A great winged creature wearing white robes flapped on high along
the face of the cliff. The wings were long, ribbed with black chitin, sheathed with grey membrane. Cugel
watched in awe as it swooped into a cave high up in the face of the cliff.