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

longer and longer stretches of time: at first, it was for several hours in
the morning; then, morning and evening. Later, he stayed away all day, and
on occasion a day and a night.
At the end of the third week, Yama and Ratri discussed it on the porch
in the early hours of morning.
"This thing I do not like," said Yama. "We cannot insult him by forcing
our company upon him now, when he does not wish it. But there is danger out
there, especially for one born again such as he. I would that we knew how he
spends his hours."
"But whatever he does, it is helping him to recover," said Ratri,
gulping a sweetmeat and waving a fleshy hand. "He is less withdrawn. He
speaks more, even jesting. He drinks of the wine we bring him. His appetite
is returning."
"Yet, if he should meet with an agent of Trimurti, the final doom may
come to pass."
Ratri chewed slowly. "It is not likely, though, that such should be
abroad in this country, in these days," she stated. "The animals will see
him as a child and will not harm him. Men would consider him a holy hermit.
The demons fear him of old, and so respect him."
But Yama shook his head. "Lady, it is not so simple. Though I have
dismantled much of my machinery and hidden it hundreds of leagues from here,
such a massive trafficking of energies as I employed cannot have passed
unnoticed. Sooner or later this place will be visited. I used screens and
baffling devices, but this general area must have appeared in certain
quarters as though the Universal Fire did a dance upon the map. Soon we must
move on. I should prefer to wait until our charge is fully recovered, but. .
."
"Could not certain natural forces have produced the same energy effects
as your workings?"
"Yes, and they do occur in this vicinity, which is why I chose it as
our base-- so it may well be that nothing will come of it. Still, I doubt
this. My spies in the villages report no unusual activities now. But on the
day of his return, riding upon the crest of the storm, some say the thunder
chariot passed, hunting through the heavens and across the countryside. This
was far from here, but I cannot believe that there was no connection."
"Yet, it has not returned."
"Not that we know of. But I fear . . ."
"Then let us depart at once. I respect your forebodings too well. You
have more of the power upon you than any other among the Fallen. For me, it
is a great strain even to assume a pleasing shape for more than a few
minutes . . ."
"What powers I possess," said Yama, refilling her teacup, "are intact
because they were not of the same order as yours."
He smiled then, showing even rows of long, brilliant teeth. This smile
caught at the edge of a scar upon his left cheek and reached up to the comer
of his eye. He winked to put a period to it and continued, "Much of my power
is in the form of knowledge, which even the Lords of Karma could not have
wrested from me. The power of most of the gods, however, is predicated upon
a special physiology, which they lose in part when incarnated into a new
body. The mind, somehow remembering, after a time alters any body to a