"Friedman,.C.S.-.Coldfire.2.-.When.True.Night.Falls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friedman C. S)

If anyone else had brought him out here - if anyone else had even
suggested that he should come out here, making himself the
perfect target for every nightmare beast in this planet's ghastly
repertoire - laughter would have been the kindest of his responses.
But Lise had suggested it and he trusted her judgment, sometimes
more than his own. And Ian had to be dealt with. There was no way
around that. Case should have jailed the man when this all started,
but he had chosen to assign him to therapy instead, and now he
was paying the price for that decision.

"Listen," she whispered. "Here he comes."

He nodded, noting that though her jacket and pants were dark
enough for cover her pale skin glowed like a beacon in the
moonlight. They should have thought of that. Rubbed her down
with charcoal, or lampblack, or... something. Made her dark, like
him, so that they could creep through the night unseen. Too late for
that now, he thought. He cursed himself for carelessness and
motioned for her to keep low, so that the weeds might obscure her
face.

True night was about to fail. Less than half an hour now. Case told
himself that the term was a mere technicality, that even on Earth
heavy cloudcover might obscure the stars and moon, leaving a
man in total darkness - but he knew that there was more to it than
that. He had tasted its true power once in the field, by turning off
his lantern so that the darkness was free to envelop him - a
darkness so absolute, so utterly boundless, that all the shadows of
Earth paled by comparison. The mere memory of it made his skin
crawl. By now the whole camp would be alight with beacons, bright
floods fighting to drive back the shadows of the triple night. As if
mere light would help. As if mere walls could keep the serpent out
of Eden, or prevent it from reading their secret thoughts, from
turning their fears and even their desires against them.

As he listened for the sound of Ian's approach, he remembered
the night it had come for him, the serpent incarnate in an angel's
form. Remembered how all his fear and his skepticism and even
his innate caution were banished from his soul in an instant, as
though they had never existed. Because what had stepped out
from the shadows was his son - his son!- as young and as healthy
as he had been ten years ago, before the accident that took him
from Case's life. And in that moment there was no fear in the
Commander's heart, no suspicion, not even a moment's doubt.
Love filled him with such force that he trembled, and tears poured
down his cheeks. He whispered his son's name, and the figure
moved toward him. He reached out his hand, and the creature
touched him - it touched him! - and it was warm, and alive, and he
knew it by touch and scent and a thousand other signs. Christ in
heaven, his son was alive again! He opened his arms wide and