"Coldheart Canyon (preview edition)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Barker Clive - Coldheart Canyon)

Quamquam in fundis inferiorum sumus, oculos angelorum tenebimus.
He didn't linger to puzzle over this for more than a few seconds, but
instead let his eyes drift up and into the room itself. The chamber before him was
large, it seemed; and unlike the rest of the rooms and corridors, which were simply
constructed, far more elaborate. Could he make out pillars, supporting several small
vaults? He thought so. There were chairs and tables within a few yards of where he
stood, and what appeared to be lamps or the like heaped on top of them.
The confusion inside was explained a moment later, when the Father returned
with one of the bare bulbs, attached to a length of electric cord.
"We use this as a storeroom," he said. "Many of the items we found in the
Fortress when we arrived we put down here, just to get them out of the way." He
lifted the light to give Zeffer a better view.
Zeffer's estimation of the size of the place, and of the complexity of its
construction, had been conservative, it now turned out. The chamber was fully
thirty-five feet long; and almost as broad, the ceiling (which was indeed divided
into eight elaborately-vaulted sections, divided by pillars) higher than the
passageway by six feet or more. The floor was littered with furniture and crates;
the place plainly filled by hands that had little or no respect for the objects they
were moving; wishing only to put them quickly out of sight. It occurred to Zeffer
that if indeed there were treasures here the chances of finding themуor indeed of
their being in reasonable condition when discoveredуwere remote. Still, the Father
had brought him this far at no little inconvenience to himself; it would be
discourteous to now show no interest in what the chamber contained.
"Did you have a part in moving all of this?" he asked Sandru, more out of a
need to fill the silence between them than because he was genuinely curious.
"Yes, I did," the Father replied. "Thirty-two years ago. I was a much
younger man. But it was still a back-breaking labor. They built things big here. I
remember thinking that maybe the stories were right..."
"Stories aboutу"
"Oh...nonsenses. About this furniture having been built for the retinue of
the Devil's wife."
"The Devil's wife."
"Lilith, or Lilitu. Sometimes called Queen of Zemargad. Don't ask me why."
"This is the same woman Katya spoke about?"
Sandru nodded. "That's why the locals don't have much hope for the sick if
they stay here. They think Lilith's curse is on the place. As I say: nonsenses."
Whether it was nonsense or not, the story lent some flavor to this banal
adventure. "May I look more closely?" Zeffer asked.
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Barker, Clive - Coldheart Canyon
"That's what we're here for," Father Sandru replied. "I hope there's
something that catches your eye, for your sake. All these stairs and doors. I'd
forgotten how far down it was..."
"I'm sorry to have made this so burdensome," Zeffer said, quite sincerely.
"If I'd known you were going to go to so much trouble I wouldn't haveу"
"No, no," Sandru said. "It's not a trouble to me. I only thought there might
be an item here that pleased you. But now I'm down here I doubt it. To be truthful I
believe we should have taken all this trash up the mountain and thrown it in the
deepest gorge we could find."
"Why didn't you do just that?"