"Roger Zelazny & Robert Sheckley - A Farce To Be Reckoned With" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

A FARCE TO BE RECKONED WITH
by Roger Zelazny & Robert Sheckley

PART ONE

Chapter 1

Ylith congratulated herself on her luck. She had chosen a perfect day for her journey from Heaven to the
neat little graveyard outside of York, England. It was late May. The sunshine was glorious. Little birds of
all sorts cavorted on mossy tree limbs, singing away on the edge of the surround. And the best of it was,
the dozen little angels in her charge were being very good, even for angels.

The youngsters were playing together nicely, and Ylith was just starting to relax when suddenly a cloud of
sulfurous yellow smoke puffed into existence not ten feet from her. When the smoke cleared, a short,
red-haired fox-faced demon wrapped in a black cloak stood before her.

"Azzie!" Ylith cried. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd take a little time off from infernal affairs, check out some shrines," Azzie said.

"Not thinking of changing your allegiance, are you?" Ylith asked.

"Not like you," Azzie said, referring to Ylith's former career as a witch. "Nice bunch you've got." He
waved at the little angels.

"They're being terribly good, as you can see," Ylith remarked.

"It is not news when an angel acts good," Azzie said.

In fact, the little angels had begun running around the graveyard and quarreling. Their voices rose,
high-pitched and sugar sweet:

"Look what I've found! It's the tomb of St. Athelstan the Mealymouthed!"

"Oh, yeah? I've found the gravestone of St. Anne the Anxious, and she was much more important!"

The angels all looked very much alike with their snub features and their uniformly blond, smooth
honey-colored hair that curled up beneath in the pageboy bob so fashionable that century. They all had
plump wings, still covered with baby feathers and concealed under white and pink traveling cloaks. It
was customary for angels visiting Earth to hide their wings.

Not that anyone would have been surprised to see angels in that year of 1324. It was well known that
angels went back and forth between Earth and Heaven on a regular basis then, as did imps and devils
and other supernatural creatures who had managed to remain in existence during the change of major
deities, along with several anomalous immortal beings that no one had gotten around to identifying. In
terms of deities, the Renaissance was an eclectic sort of an age.

"What are you doing here, Ylith?" Azzie asked.

The beautiful dark-haired witch explained that she had agreed to take this group of pubescent angels on a