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

voice, and again Cugel indicated his inability to understand. The elder gave his ears a sharp disapproving
jerk and turned away. Cugel signalled to the proprietor, pointed to the bread and wine on a table and
signified his desire that the same be brought to him.
The proprietor voiced a query which, for all its unintelligibility, Cugel was able to interpret. He
brought forth a gold coin, and, satisfied, the proprietor turned away.
Conversation recommenced at the various tables and before long the vocables conveyed meaning
to Cugel. When he had eaten and drunk, he rose to his feet and walked to the table of the elder who had
first spoken to him, where he bowed respectfully. "Do I have permission to join you at your table?"
"Certainly; if you are so inclined. Sit." The elder indicated a seat. "From your behaviour I assumed
that you were not only deaf and dumb, but also guilty of mental retardation. It is now clear, at least, that
you hear and speak."
"I profess rationality as well," said Cugel. "As a traveller from afar, ignorant of your customs, I
thought it best to watch quietly a few moments, lest in error I commit a solecism."
"Ingenious but peculiar," was the elder's comment. "Still, your conduct offers no explicit
contradiction to orthodoxy. May I inquire the urgency which brings you to Farwan?"
Cugel glanced at his ring; the crystal was dull and lifeless; TOTALITY was clearly elsewhere. "My
homeland is uncultured; I travel that I may learn the modes and styles of more civilized folk."
"Indeed!" The elder mulled the matter over for a moment, and nodded in qualified approval. "Your
garments and physiognomy are of a type unfamiliar to me; where is this homeland of yours?"
"It lies in a region so remote," said Cugel, "that never till this instant had I knowledge of the land of
Farwan!"
The elder flattened his ears in surprise. "What? Glorious Farwan, unknown? The great cities
Impergos, Tharuwe, Rhaverjand - all unheard of? What of the illustrious Sembers? Surely the fame of the
Sembers has reached you. They expelled the star-pirates; they brought the sea to the Land of Platforms;
the splendour of Padara Palace is beyond description!"
Cugel sadly shook his head. "No rumour of this extraordinary magnificence has come to my ears."
The elder gave his nose a saturnine twitch. He said shortly: "Matters are as I state."
"I doubt nothing," said Cugel. "In fact I admit to ignorance. But tell me more, for I must be forced to
abide long in this region. For instance, what of the Winged Beings that reside in the cliff? What manner of
creature are they?"
The elder pointed towards the sky. "If you had the eyes of a nocturnal titvit you might note a dark
moon which reels around the earth, and which cannot be seen except when it casts its shadow upon the
sun. The Winged Beings are denizens of this dark world and their ultimate nature is unknown. They serve
the Great God Yelisea in this fashion: whenever comes the time for man or woman to die, the Winged
Beings are informed by a despairing signal from the dying person's norn. They thereupon descend upon
the unfortunate and convey him to their caves, which in actuality constitute a magic opening into the
blessed land Byssom."
Cugel leaned back, black eyebrows raised in a somewhat quizzical arch. "Indeed, indeed," he said,
in a voice which the elder found insufficiently earnest.
 "There can be no doubt as to the truth of the facts as I have stated them. Orthodoxy derives from
this axiomatic foundation, and the two systems are mutually reinforcing: hence each is doubly validated."
Cugel frowned. "The matter undoubtedly goes as you aver -but are the Winged Beings always
accurate in their choice of victims?"
The elder rapped the table in annoyance. "The doctrine is irrefutable, for those whom the Winged
Beings take never survive, even when they appear in the best of health. Admittedly the fall upon the rocks
conduces towards death, but it is the mercy of Yelisea which sees fit to grant a speedy extinction, rather
than the duration of a possibly agonizing canker. The system is wholly beneficent. The Winged Beings
summon only the moribund, which are then thrust through the cliff into the blessed land Byssom.
Occasionally a heretic argues otherwise and in this case -but I am sure that you share the orthodox
view?"