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

A gong tolled, from a direction Cugel could not determine. Overtones shuddered across the air and
when they died, the unheard music became almost audible. From far over the valley came one of the
Winged Beings, carrying a human form, of what age and sex Cugel could not determine. It hovered
beside the cliff and dropped its burden. Cugel thought to hear a faint cry and the music was sad, stately,
sonorous. The body seemed to fall slowly down the great height and struck at last at the base of the cliff.
The Winged Being, after dropping the body, glided to a high ledge, where it folded its wings and stood
like a man, staring over the valley. Cugel shrank back behind a rock. Had he been seen?
He could not be sure. He heaved a deep sigh. This sad golden world of the past was not to his
liking; the sooner he could leave the better. He examined the ring which Pharesm had furnished, but the
gem shone like dull glass, with none of the darting glitters which would point the direction to TOTALITY.
It was as Cugel feared. Pharesm had erred in his calculations and Cugel could never return to his own
time.
The sound of flapping wings caused him to look into the sky. He shrank back into such concealment
as the rock offered. The music of woe swelled and sighed away, as in the light of the setting sun the
winged creature hovered beside the cliff and dropped its victim. Then it landed on a ledge with a great
flapping of wings and entered a cave.
Cugel rose to his feet and ran crouching down the path through the amber dusk.
The path presently entered a grove of trees and here Cugel paused to catch his breath, after which
he proceeded more circumspectly. He crossed a patch of cultivated ground on which stood a vacant hut.
Cugel considered it as shelter for the night, but thought to see a dark shape watching from the interior and
passed it by.
The trail led away from the cliffs, across rolling downs, and just before the twilight gave way to night
Cugel came to a village standing on the banks of a pond.
Cugel approached warily, but was encouraged by the signs of tidiness and good husbandry. In a
park beside the pond stood a pavilion possibly intended for music, miming or declamation; surrounding
the park were small narrow houses with high gables, the ridges of which were raised in decorative
scallops. Opposite the pond was a larger building, with an ornate front of woven wood and enamelled
plaques of red, blue and yellow. Three tall gables served as its roof, the central ridge supporting an
intricate carved panel, while those to either side bore a series of small spherical blue lamps. At the front
was a wide pergola sheltering benches, tables and an open space, all illuminated by red and green
fire-fans. Here townsfolk took their ease, inhaling incense and drinking wine, while youths and maidens
cavorted in an eccentric high-kicking dance, to the music of pipes and a concertina.
Emboldened by the placidity of the scene, Cugel approached. The villagers were of a type he had
never before encountered, of no great stature, with generally large heads and long restless arms. Their
skin was a rich pumpkin orange; their eyes and teeth were black; their hair, likewise black, hung
smoothly down beside the faces of the men to terminate in a fringe of blue beads, while the women
wound their hair around white rings and pegs, to arrive at a coiffure of no small complexity. The features
were heavy at jaw and cheekbone; the long wide-spaced eyes drooped in a droll manner at the outer
corners. The noses and ears were long and were under considerable muscular control, endowing the
faces with great vivacity. The men wore flounced black kirtles, brown surcoats, headgear consisting of a
wide black disc, a black cylinder, another lesser disc, surmounted by a gilded ball. The women wore
black trousers, brown jackets with enamelled discs at the navel, and at each buttock a simulated tail of
green or red plumes, possibly an indication as to marital status.
Cugel stepped into the light of the fire-fans; instantly all talk ceased. Noses became rigid, eyes
stared, ears twisted about in curiosity. Cugel smiled to left and right, waved his hand in a debonair
all-inclusive greeting, and took a seat at an empty table.
There were mutters of astonishment at the various tables, too quiet to reach Cugel's ears. Presently
one of the elders arose and approaching Cugel's table spoke a sentence, which Cugel found unintelligible,
for with insufficient scope, Pharesm's mesh as yet failed to yield meaning. Cugel smiled politely, held wide
his hands in a gesture of well-meaning helplessness. The elder spoke once more, in a rather sharper