"Roger Zelazny - Hall Of Mirrors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

"Then question those few."
"We'll see."
"Just trying to be helpful."
"Don't stop. Say, what do you want to do after we get to Amber?"
"Haven't made up my mind yet. I've been something of a wanderer."
I laughed.
"You're a beast after my own heart. In that your sentiments are most
unbeastlike, how can I repay you for this transport?"
"Wait. I've a feeling the Fates will take care of that."
"So be it. In the meantime, though, if you happen to think of something
special, let me know."
"It's a privilege to help you, Lord Corwin. Let it go at that."
"All right. Thanks."
We passed through shadow after shadow. Suns ran backward and storms
assailed us out of beautiful skies. We toyed with night, which might have
trapped a less adroit pair than us, found a twilight, and took our rations
there. Shortly thereafter, Shask turned back to stone. Nothing attacked us
that night, and my dreams were hardly worth dreaming.
Next day we were on our way early, and I used every trick I knew to
shortcut us through Shadow on our way home. Home... It did feel good to be
headed back, despite Shask's comments on my relatives. I'd no idea I would
miss Amber as much as I had. I'd been away far longer on countless
occasions, but usually I had at least a rough idea as to when I might be
heading back. A prison in the Courts, though, was not a place from which one
might make such estimates.
So we tore on, wind across a plain, fire in the mountains, water down a
steep ravine. That evening I felt the resistance begin, the resistance which
comes when one enters that area of Shadow near to Amber. I tried to make it
all the way but failed. We spent that night at a place near to where the
Black Road used to run. There was no trace of it now.
The next day the going was slower, but, more and more, familiar shadows
cropped up. That night we slept in Arden, but Julian did not find us. I
either dreamed his hunting horn or heard it in the distance as I slept; and
though it is often prelude to death and destruction, it merely made me feel
nostalgic. I was finally near to home.
The next morning I woke before sunup. Shask, of course, was still a
blue lizard curled at the base of a giant tree. So I made tea and ate an
apple afterward. We were low on provisions but should soon be in the land of
plenty.
Shask slowly unwound as the sun came up. I fed him the rest of the
apples and gathered my possessions.
We were riding before too long, slow and easy, since there would be
some hard climbing up the back route I favored. During our first break I
asked him to become once more a horse, and he obliged. It didn't seem to
make that much difference, and I requested he maintain it. I wanted to
display his beauty in that form.
"Will you be heading right back after you've seen me here?" I asked.
"I've been meaning to talk to you about that," he responded. "Things
have been slow back in the Courts, and I'm no one's assigned mount."
"Oh?"