"Zelazny, Roger - Lord Demon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

They had hung him from it, upside down, from a lower branch and punctured him in many places, whence they drank. With their nasty little teeth, they tore off pieces on which they dined.
I drew nearer. There were six altogether around poor O'Keefe's dead and dangling carcass. They were two feet tall, yellow-eyed, portly, and solid. Their complexions ran from green through gray to yellowish. Their claws were short and sharp. A discarded pizza box lay on the grass nearby.
"How do you like your human?" one asked, talking around some slobbersome gobbet.
"Better than pizza," replied another.
"Hey, try a slice with some pepperoni before you knock it," said a third.
I raised my hands, appearing within the circle of fire which now rose about us. From their waists down, all six of them were turned to stone. They squeaked like guinea pigs and, one by one, their gazes were drawn to my blazing countenance.
"Uh-oh. It's one of the big guys," said the nearest.
"Hey, boss," ventured another. "We can't pay the proper obsequies with our legs all stiff like this. Good joke, though. Ha-ha. Turn back now?"
I reached out and picked up the one who had just spoken, his voice going silent as the rest of him stiffened. Then I squeezed, enlarging my hands until I held but fistfuls of gravel. These I tossed into the air, watching them burst into flame and fall as a small firestorm, the ashes burning away in a small wind that rose as they neared the earth. I gave the creature no possibility for any sort of regeneration.
"Hey, we sorry," cried one.
"Yeah. What we do?" said another.
I reached out and pulverized the second one, making the world a richer place by its absence. The others squealed again.
"Silence! I want stupid demon talk I ask for talk!" I ordered. "You be shit-brained spoilers of everything you touch. Not worth nothing most of the time."
"Right, we not important at all," agreed another. "Little shits, like you say. You one of the big bosses. We no mean get in your way. Let us go. We be your slaves forever and ever. You say 'shit,' we eat shit, you laughЧ just like that. Want us hit enemies, rub feet, bring wineЧ whatever you want."
I blackened him to ash, and the others cowered.
The fourth finally turned his head toward O'Keefe.
"The man," he said at last. "You do this because we kill the manЧno?"
"At last," I said, "someone asks why."
"Yes, sir," said the fourth. "He your human?"
"That's right."
"Maybe your servant many years?"
"You begin to understand."
"We no know. We just little shit-brains, like you say. If you be little dickheads like us, you still wouldn't destroy great lord's property. May be shithead, but not fools. We sorry."
"Yeah," said the fifth. "We sorry big bunch now we know. Let us go andЧ"
I turned him to dust and watched the tiny fire tornado he became burn itself to nothing. I looked back at the fourth one, who looked quickly away, saying nothing.
"You are smarter and more polished than the others. As Confucius said, the form is more important than the content. You knew O'Keefe not and can feel nothing for him, yet you know what is right to say of this man."
"Me too!" said the sixth (and remaining) demon, I ignored him.
"You cannot completely help being what you are," I said. "Yet you have dwelled in palaces," I said to the fourth, "and you in the gutters," to the sixth, "and something of both has stuck."
They hung their heads. I left a long silence. Finally, the fourth one spoke: "It was Tuvoon, the Smoke Ghost," he said.
I looked at him.
"I know that you would know our sort does not do this kind of thing much these days. You would want to know who gave us the shen coin and told us when and where to do the man," he went on.
I nodded.
"This is a very grave charge," I said.
He, too, nodded.
"One I not make lightly," he proceeded, "without solid proof for you, and knowing it will probably cost my life."
At that, the sixth one howled.
"Shouldn't've said nothing!" it told the other. "Now he do flash-burn and we die."
The other shuffled and struck his fellow's head. "Sometimes lie is bad," he said, "and sometimes silence. This time only truth maybe save us. Use head. Learn to think."
Rocking on his stony base, the sixth demon prostrated himself at my feet and lay still,
"See? He learn a little," said his companion, and I realized that in his odd way he was slipping in a word for his buddy's life.
"Stay on your belly," I told the one who was kowtowing, and, releasing some of the stiffness from the fourth demon's legs, I motioned him a little off to the side.
"Did Tuvoon give you any indication why he did what he did?" I whispered.
It was about then, I saw that the little demon realized that they might live if his buddy didn't learn any more of what we were saying. He withdrew even farther away, lowered his voice even more.
"No, sir," he said, gesturing across the park toward an alley. "Another demon found us scrounging over there, and he sounded us out on the job. That was yesterday. Said the man might be by tonight because he often passes this way on Saturdays. The demon offered shen coin, and, when we agreed, gave us a few then. Told us Tuvoon would be in town two days off. We supposed to get the rest tomorrow."
"Did he say anythingЧanything at allЧindicating why he might have wanted this thing done?"
"No, sir. He did not."
"Are you supposed to see Tuvoon tomorrow?"
"That's right"
I glared at the stars.
"Eve?"