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

beads . . . a roaring to approach the power of silence . . .
We passed at last into a tunnel, damp at first but drying as it rose.
We followed it to a gallery, open to our left and looking out upon night and
stars, stars, stars. . . . It was an enormous prospect, blazing with new
constellations, their light sufficient to cast our shadows onto the wall
behind us. She leaned over the low parapet, her skin some rare polished
marble, and she looked downward.
"'They're down there, too," she said. "And to both sides! There is
nothing below but more stars. And to the sides . . ."
"Yes. Pretty things, aren't they?"
We remained there for a long while, watching, before I could persuade
her to come away and follow the tunnel farther.. It bore us out again to
behold a ruined classical amphitheater beneath a late afternoon sky. Ivy
grew over broken benches and fractured pillars. Here and there lay a
shattered statue, as if cast down by earthquake. Very picturesque. I'd
thought she'd like it, and I was right. We took turns seating ourselves and
speaking to each other. The acoustics were excellent.
We walked away then, hand in hand, down myriad ways beneath skies of
many colors, coming at last in sight of a quiet lake with a sun entering
evening upon its farther shore. There was a glittering mass of rock off to
my right. We walked out upon a small point cushioned with mosses and ferns.
I put my arms around her and we stood there for a long time, and the
wind in the trees was lute song counterpointed by invisible birds. Later
still, I unbuttoned her blouse. "Right here?" she said.
"I like it here. Don't you?"
"It's beautiful. Okay. Wait a minute."
So we lay down and love till the shadows covered us. After a time she
slept, as I desired.
I set a spell upon her to keep her asleep, for I was beginning to have
second thoughts over the wisdom of making this journey. Then I dressed both
of us and picked her up to carry her back. I took a shortcut.
On the beach from which we' d started I put her down and stretched out
beside her. Soon I slept also.
We did not awaken till after the sun was up, when the sounds of bathers
roused us.
She sat up and stared at me.
"Last night," she said, "could not have been a dream. But it couldn't
have been real either. Could it?"
"I guess so," I said. She furrowed her brow.
"What did you just agree to?" she asked.
"Breakfast," I said. "Let's go get some. Come on."
"Wait a minute." She put a hand on my arm. "Something unusual happened.
What was it?"
"Why destroy the magic by talking about it? Let's go eat."
She questioned me a lot in the days that followed, but I was adamant in
refusing to talk about it. Stupid, the whole thing was stupid. I should
never have taken her on that walls. It contributed to that final argument
that set us permanently apart.
And now, driving, as I thought about it, I realized something more than
my stupidity. I realized that I had been in love with her, that I still