"Роджер Желязны. Lord of Light (Лорд Света, engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

"Hail, Mahasamatman - Buddha!" said Yama.
The eyes stared ahead, unseeing.
"Hello, Sam," said Tak.
The forehead creased slightly, the eyes squinted, fell upon Tak, moved
on to the others.
"Where . . . ?" he asked, in a whisper.
"My monastery," answered Ratri.
Without expression, he looked upon her beauty.
Then he shut his eyes and held them tightly closed, wrinkles forming at
their corners. A grin of pain made his mouth a bow, his teeth the arrows,
clenched.
"Are you truly he whom we have named?" asked Yama.
He did not answer.
"Are you he who fought the army of Heaven to a standstill on the banks
of the Vedra?"
The mouth slackened.
"Are you he who loved the goddess of Death?"
The eyes flickered. A faint smile came and went across the lips.
"It is he," said Yama; then, "Who are you, man?"
"I? I am nothing," replied the other. "A leaf caught in a whirlpool,
perhaps. A feather in the wind. . ."
"Too bad," said Yama, "for there are leaves and feathers enough in the
world for me to have labored so long only to increase their number. I wanted
me a man, one who might continue a war interrupted by his absence - a man
of power who could oppose with that power the will of gods. I thought you
were he."
"I am"-- he squinted again"-- Sam. I am Sam. Once-- long ago . . . I
did fight, didn't I? Many times . . ."
"You were Great-Souled Sam, the Buddha. Do you remember?"
"Maybe I was . . ." A slow fire was kindled in his eyes.
"Yes," he said then. "Yes, I was. Humblest of the proud, proudest of
the humble. I fought. I taught the Way for a time. I fought again, taught
again, tried politics, magic, poison . . . I fought one great battle so
terrible the sun itself hid its face from the slaughter-- with men and gods,
with animals and demons, with spirits of the earth and air, of fire and
water, with slizzards and horses, swords and chariots-- "
"And you lost," said Yama.
"Yes, I did, didn't I? But it was quite a showing we gave them, wasn't
it? You, deathgod, were my charioteer. It all comes back to me now. We were
taken prisoner and the Lords of Karma were to be our judges. You escaped
them by the will-death and the Way of the Black Wheel. I could not."
"That is correct. Your past was laid out before them. You were judged."
Yama regarded the monks who now sat upon the floor, their heads bowed, and
he lowered his voice. "To have you to die the real death would have made you
a martyr. To have permitted you to walk the world, in any form, would have
left the door open for your return. So, as you stole your teachings from the
Gottama of another place and time, did they steal the tale of the end of
that one's days among men. You were judged worthy of Nirvana. Your atman
was
projected, not into another body, but into the great magnetic cloud that