"Craig Shaw Gardner - Ebenezum 03 - A Night in the Netherhell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Craig Shaw)

“It is possible.” The newcomer nodded. “For have we all not met, if not in this life, then on some other
plane, or in some prior existence, or perhaps even in the future? For what is time, but an arbitrary
structure we mortals—”

“Yes, of course we have met!” Ebenezum cut the other’s rambling short. “Are you not an instructor at
the Greater Vushta Academy of Magic and Sorcery?”

“Instructor?” The man frowned. “I am a full professor in the college of wizards!”

“Ah, yes.” Ebenezum scratched his mustache in thought. “Pardon my oversight. I had forgotten your
eminence.”

“Quite all right.” The old professor smiled again. “Oversight, unfortunately, is common to us all.
Reaching for the stars, we lost sight of what is within our grasp. Did I mention that I might have been able
to save Vushta? As you see, even a full professor is capable of occasional error. What matters, though, is
how we cope with our shortcomings once we discover—”

“Indeed,” Ebenezum said with somewhat more force than usual. “And is your name Snorphosio?”

“Why, yes,” the elder replied in surprise. “Although what is truly in a name? Is it but a label we hang
upon our souls, or do those few syllables somehow imbue us with their essence, in order that we—”

“Indeed!” Ebenezum cried, clasping his hands together so that they might not accidentally do some
damage to the old gentleman “And is not your field of expertise theoretical magic?”

“Why, yes.” Snorphosio’s smile grew even broader. “I like to look at magic in the broadest possible
sense. Just what is magic? How does it differ from real life? Or is magic just real life under another name?
Or are we just imagining that magic exists? Or are we imagining that real life—”

“I was a student of yours,” Ebenezum cut in this time.

“Really!” Snorphosio was delighted. “Did you take ‘Basic Theory” or ‘Conjuring the Unconjurable’?
Do you remember my famous lecture: ‘If a Magician Pulls a Rabbit From a Hat, But There Is No Hat, Is
There Then No Rabbit?’ Oh, I tell you, I always was one for catchy titles.”

“Perhaps,” my master remarked, “you can tell us what happened to Vushta.”

“Vushta?” The professor coughed. “Oh dear, it’s gone. The entire city, buildings, streets, people,
animals, every single one of the forbidden delights, sucked into the earth. I could hear their screams when
it happened. Horrible!”

“Indeed.” My master fixed the professor with his best interrogatory stare. “How did you manage to
escape?”

“Easy enough.” Snorphosio’s smile returned. “I wasn’t there. I was visiting East Vushta. Charming
little town.” The old man peered at Ebenezum. “Hmm. You’re getting on in years. Probably a senior
wizard by now? East Vushta hadn’t really grown up yet when you were in school, had it? Lovely place.
Many people have been building small castles there to get out of the rush of the city. That was always a
problem with Vushta, you know. It’s not easy living in the middle of a thousand forbidden delights, let me