"Campbell, John W Jr - The Space Beyond" - читать интересную книгу автора (Campbell John W Jr)

"So you are American, All welcomes you," said Torn-sen.
Slowly, reluctantly, Tucker crossed the line, his eyes
fixed on the great cubed crystal of the altar. He crossed, stepped over the dead Oriental, and walked down the broad floor to the mighty crystal.
Tornsen stepped behind him. At twenty feet from the great crystal Tucker halted, and turned to look at the man behind him.
"All-All-" he said, "I never heard-"
"All, Lord of Life, one weary, worn stands' before your altar. All, Lord of Life, cleanse him with your flame, give him of your life! Tal, Lord of Peace, one distressed stands before your altar. Bring Life, Lord of Life. Bring Peace, oh Tal."
The motionless, silver flame washed higher, till, like a great fountain, it spilled over and fell in soft-glowing stars of light about them. The crystal turned with a vast majesty till the green facet shown toward them. As the silver died, green washed and spun within the crystal, soft green, restful emerald that reached out and through and about the two, and returned to the crystal.
In a moment Tucker turned, very slowly. His face was clear, his eyes bright with new life, new hope; his weary 'body stood straighter now, stronger. "All-All-" he said. Slowly he knelt before the softly glowing green of the crystal. "I have hope again-hope-something I thought gone for all time. Oh, God-let me stay, let me stay-"
The green washed out in a sudden whirling fire that wrapped him, and very slowly he sank to the floor, arranging himself comfortably.
Tornsen turned to the door. The Orientals stood staring, rifles lowered. But suddenly they lifted them. "We are coming, we are coming, for there is no death-some weapon-"
"It is Death for you," repeated Tornsen steadily.
"Come here," snapped one, "we will see! You will stand 'beside me, close to me-"
Together, side by side, they stepped across the line. Soundlessly, the smaller man sank to the floor.
"It is Dis, Lord of Death," said Tornsen again. "I will bring them to you, and you must believe, for to not believe is Death. Tell me, then, what man can kill as these men died? Look at their eyes, look at their flesh."
He picked up the limp Nashiki, and bore him across the threshold. The two remaining Japanese bent over him quickly, with little half-smothered twitterings, their watch-
his eyes, the eyes of a long-dead fish; they examined his his eyes, the eyes of a long-dead fish; they examined his flesh, and it was like boiled flesh, stiff and strangely white. They backed away suddenly, twittering more intensely. Then abruptly their rifles were flung to their shoulders, centered on the white-robed man. Behind him, abruptly, the great crystal whirled noiselessly, instantaneously, and from its sullen red, a monstrous flame licked like a great rope of congealed, luminous blood, a snake-tongue of death that wrapped suddenly about the nearer Japanese, and flamed about Tornsen.
It flicked back, and the second Japanese stood frozen as his companion wilted slowly. Tornsen, bathed in the heart of the red flame, stood calm, unmoving.
"I thank Thee, Dis," the Server said as he bowed his
head slightly.
He raised his eyes to look at the remaining Japanese. "Go," he said. "Bring your companions, and take these
bodies."
"I cannot leave," wailed the Oriental suddenly, "I cannot. I know no trail, he-the American-led us. It is night, I do not know the way."
Tornsen looked at the broken man. "Where are your companions? I will take you to them."
"No-no-I will not betray them-"
"We hurt no man. We serve All, Lord of Life. Those who trespass against All, beware. I would help you."
The Oriental looked up at Tornsen's broad, calm face. "They are at the top of that great cliff. There-their
fire-"
"Oh Tal-bring peace!" Tornsen called softly. The staff in his hand spun, and the small man screamed as the green face glowed, a lapping green reached toward him. He tried to run down the steps, but the great song of the stair echoed hi his ears as lethargy overcame him. He
slept.
He woke. His captain was shaking him, looking at him with angry eyes. "Shurimi, answer! How are you back? Where is your officer?"
Shurimi leapt to his feet. Hard red sandstone, age-old, lay beneath his feet, the great canyon swept out to the left. "Dead-" he gasped. "Dead, in the Temple of All!"
Sunlight, still faintly red with dawn, fell on the camp.
ra
Three vast feathers falling silent through the blue sky, great wings turning slow through still air, they settled vertically to silver sand between vast upflung walls of rioting color, sullen reds and slate blues, dull golds that shifted infinitely with shifting, lancing sunlight and cloud. Three great helicopters, the striking dragon of the Asian World flung bold across their sides. They touched and halted; slowly a stream of men came out to look across the gorge to the salt-white Temple of All with the bordering blue of Mens, the Green of Tal, the shifting pearl of Shan, and the sullen scarlet of Dis, Lord of Death.
The Commanding Officer came out a moment later, and behind him came thirty women in shabby clothes, torn and patched, half a dozen ragged children with them. He spoke swift orders to the men, then presently Lieutenant-General Hitsohi started up the mighty silver treads of the Singing Stair, glinting lancing light under the sun. The great treads echoed slumberously to his steps, a growing carillon as the eight men under Captain Chu Li followed, and a private, one Shurimi. And finally the American women came, and the peal of the Stair became a mighty chant that echoed infinitely through the rock-walled gorge.
At the top, Hitsohi halted as before him loomed the majestic figure of Tornsen, Server of All.
The Oriental turned to Shurimi. "This is the man?" he snapped.
"Yes, General."
"You brought about the deaths of Major Nashiki, and three men of the World Imperial Army?" he demanded, turning again to the giant.
"All, Lord of Life brought their deaths, Warrior. This is the Temple of All, and 'before the Cubed Crystal of All only ours may stand, for such is the will of All. No man may sway the will of God, Warrior."
"Never yet have I seen a God that killed, save through the hands of men. Further, there is report that aside from the violation of the Registration Edict, you have metallic
gold stored here, against the will of the Emperor and the laws of the Empire. Is this too, true?"
"Such is the base of the Cubed Crystal. All wills it. It will remain," said Tornsen simply. "Now I warn you, as I warned Nashiki, there is death on the Scarlet Floor of Dis. You do not believe, but believe me thus, that you, ignorant, cannot safely venture within the domain of mighty forces unknown to you, be they such things as man may understand or those things forever beyond man's finite mind, the will of Lord All."
Hitsohi stared cynically. "You are violating the Edicts of the Emperor, and you and your companions are under arrest for these, things, and for the assassination of Major Nashiki. The mighty forces of the Empire, priest, are within the limits of any man's finite mind!"
"We violate no Edicts. This is the Temple of All, and so reads the Edict of Nijihua; that any temple or major religious edifice, not saleable, is not to be Registered or taxed. This is the Temple of All, eternal, unchanging. Never can it be sold. So it is not to be registered.
"And so reads the Edict of Nijihua; that any man or organization may retain and use gold for such purposes as gold alone may serve.
"We violate no Edict."
"You need gold because no other will serve! That is not true, you will use alloys, alloys which have the brilliance, the color, the incorruptible beauty of gold. No nobler metal is needed for ornament."
"Give me then, some bit of metal, Warrior. I will show wherefore the Temple of All uses gold."
"Shurimi, your bayonet. Pass it to him."