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

I heard a sound near my left hand. I moved quite slowly to regard its source. The blade had been driven into the ground between my first and second fingers, leaving the webbing intact by about one sixteenth of an inch.
I heard a small chittering as Tuvoon came to stand beside his mother.
"Your friends?" he asked.
I looked toward the source of the chittering. Ba Wa's companion, the stupid demon, was selling tickets and seating people.
"Excuse me," I said to Tuvoon and Viss.
Making my way through the crowd, I found Ba Wa in due time. When he saw me coming, he began to tremble.
"What you doin'?" I asked.
"Thought I'd make a little on the side. The old American way. Like truth,"
I shook my head.
"No," I said.
"No?"
"No. You got it. Give back tickets. Clear the field. I need you for this, or I would kill you. You disgrace!"
"Right, boss. Sorry about that, boss. I take care of right now."
I retreated to the others.
"One of the little shit demons was getting uppity," I said. "Everything's okay now. Give them a few minutes to clear the field,"
"No," Tuvoon said "That was your responsibility. We fight now."
"Very well,"I said, taking the spirit sword from where Viss had set it and raising the blade in its particular attitude, divided by its spirit. "Let us begin."
I came on in a rapid attack mode, swung twice, connected once, doing only superficial injury. Tuvoon moved about me, found an opening, tried a second tack, failed.
"Your honor has been satisfied. Blood has been drawn," Viss remarked.
"They're stalling!" I heard someone call. I tripled my pace and cut again. For the first time metal touched metal with a sound like a glassy bell.
Tuvoon moved like a whirlwind, practically invisible even in his solid parts. I barely managed to avoid the next blow. Above my increased breathing I could hear the shrieks of the rabble.
Then I was disarmed, as was Tuvoon. Someone had thrown a blanket over our weapons, tangling them.
"Enough! This is a farce," Viss said. She held the blanket. "Sheathe both blades."
We did, though they remained close at hand.
"Come over here. I want to talk while the alley trash departs."
We followed her.
"Kindly tell me the cause," she said, fastening me with a gaze that took me back to centuries before when I had quailed before my teacher, "for this duel."
I answered, "Last night, a dear servant of mine was murdered in the human-world analog to this park by some of the scruffy little scrub demons who hang out there. Under questioning, they told me that Tuvoon was their boss and that he was delivering payment in shen coins for the job.
"Son!" she said. "What is the truth of this?"
"Well, I guess I was going to bring them some money," he said. "Devor gave me it last night, when he heard I'd be passing this way. Said it was to cover his gambling losses."
"With them?" Viss asked.
"Yes."
"Some people have no self-respect. Who would gamble with street shit?"
"Devor apparently." Tuvoon chuckled. He did not seem too unhappy to have our duel ended. Two fingers pressed closed the thin slash in his upper arm where I had cut him.
I reached out across a great distance and snagged the fleeing Ba Wa. I drew him to us.
"No! No!" Ba Wa cried, covering his head with his hands. "I stop bets. Even now Wong Pang give money back!!"
"I want to know," I said, "whether anyone was gambling with Devor the night before my servant was killed."
"Oh, yeah. Pitt, One-Eye, Bat's Laughter, and Roaming Nose played coins for a time with Devor."
"Who won?"
"Pitt, mainly. I think."
"Could that have been what Tuvoon was to drop off the following night-ЧDevor's gaming debt?" Viss asked.
"I suppose it could have."
"Anybody got any other questions?" I asked. "No? In that case, depart!" I told Ba Wa.
He was gone in an instant.
"You were going to fight Tuvoon to the death on that scant evidence!" Viss said angrily.
"Well, I was mad," I said.
"Put up your blades!" she commanded, and such was the force of her personality that neither of us considered not obeying.
We both stowed our weapons extradimensionally, only the hilts remained, reduced to the size of tie tacks. The one I fastened to the edge of my trouser pocket was a polished piece of smoky quartz.
"Well, which of you guys is going to buy me coffee?" Viss said, her tone softening only slightly.
The brick red faded from her complexion so she now wore the appearance of a stocky, middle-aged woman about five and a half feet tall, hair slightly unkempt. Tuvoon rearranged himself so that his less solid parts were hidden by his clothing.