"Roger Zelazny - Amber Chronicles, The 06 - Trumps of Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

He did, too, after a moment.
"I don't know," he said then: "'There're lots of strange things in the
world. 'they can't all be right, but . . ."
I shrugged.
"Who knows? So you think she was looking for some system that would
give her power to defend herself against me?"
"That was the impression I got."
I took a drink of the wine.
"That doesn't make sense," I told him.
But even as I said it I knew that it was probably true. And if I had
driven her into the path of whatever had destroyed her, then I was partly
responsible for her death. I suddenly . felt the burden along with the pain.
"Finish the story," I said.
"That's pretty much it," he answered. "I got tired of people who wanted
to discuss cosmic crap all the, time and I split."
"And that's all? Did she find the right system, the right guru? What
happened?"
He took a big drink and stared at me.
"I really liked her," he said.
"I'm sure."
"The Tarot, Caballa, Golden Dawn, Crowley, Fortunethat's where she went
next."
"Did she stay?"
"I don't know for sure. But I think so. I only heard this after a
while."
"Ritual magic, then?"
"Probably."
"Who does it?"
"Lots of people."
"I mean who did she find? Did you hear that?"
"I think it was Victor Melman."
He looked at me expectantly. I shook my head. "I'm sorry. I don't know
the name."
"Strange man," he mused, taking a sip and leaning back in his chair,
clasping his hands behind his neck and bringing his elbows forward. He
stared off into the lavatory. "II've heard it said-by a number of people,
some of them fairly reliable-that he really has something going for him,
that he has a hold on a piece of something, that he's known a kind of
enlightenment, has been initiated, has a sort of power and is sometimes a
great teacher. But he's got these ego problems, too, that seem to go along
with that sort of thing. And there's a touch of the seamy side there. I've
even heard it said that that's not his real name, that he's got a record,
and there's more of Manson to him than Magus. I don't know. He's nominally a
painter-actually a pretty good one. His stuff does sell."
"You've met him?" .
A pause, then, "Yes."
"What were your own impressions?"
"I don't know. Well...I'm prejudiced. I can't really say."
I swirled the wine in my glass. "How come?"
"Oh, I wanted to study with him once. He turned me down."