"Karl Edward Wagner - Undertow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wagner Karl Edward)

 The portly official glanced at the other uneasily. There was an
aura of power, of blighted majesty about the cloaked figure that
boded ill in arrogant Carsultyal, whose clustered, star-reaching
towers were whispered to be overawed by cellars whose depths
plunged farther still. "Light's poor back here," he protested,
drawing back the tattered shroud.
The visitor cursed low in his throatтАФan inhuman sound
touched less by grief than feral rage.
The face that stared at them with too wide eyes had been
beautiful in life; in death it was purpled, bloated, contorted in
pain. Dark blood stained the tip of her protruding tongue, and her
neck seemed bent at an unnatural angle. A gown of light-colored
silk was stained and disordered. She lay supine, hands clenched
into tight fists at her side.
"The city guard found her?" repeated the visitor in a harsh
voice.
"Yes, just after nightfall. In the park overlooking the harbor.
She was hanging from a branchтАФthere in the grove with all the
white flowers every spring. Must have just happenedтАФsaid her
body was warm as life, though there's a chill to the sea breeze
tonight. Looks like she done it herselfтАФclimbed out on the
branch, tied the noose, and jumped off. Wonder why they do
itтАФher as pretty a young thing as I've seen brought in, and took
well care of, too."
The stranger stood in rigid silence, staring at the strangled girl.
"Will you come back in the morning to claim her, or do you
want to wait upstairs?" suggested the custodian.
"I'll take her now."
The plump attendant fingered the gold coin his visitor had
tossed him a short time before. His lips tightened in calculation.
Often there appeared at the necrotorium those who wished to
remove bodies clandestinely for strange and secret reasonsтАФa
circumstance which made lucrative this disagreeable office.
"Can't allow that," he argued. "There's laws and formsтАФyou
shouldn't even be here at this hour. They'll be wanting their
questions answered. And there's fees..."
With a snarl of inexpressible fury, the stranger turned on him.
The sudden movement flung back his hood.
The caretaker for the first time saw his visitor's eyes. He had
breath for a short bleat of terror, before the dirk he did not see
smashed through his heart.
Workers the next day, puzzling over the custodian's
disappearance, were shocked to discover, on examining the
night's new tenants for the necrotorium, that he had not
disappeared after all.




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