"Simon R. Green - Nightside 1 - Drinking Midnight Wine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)
Jimmy hadn't known she'd allied herself with the Serpent's Son. And he hadn't known that either of
them were involved in running the Reality Express. It couldn't help but make him wonder what else
was going on, on his own doorstep, that he didn't know about.
Hob's calm voice and presence was finally having a soothing effect on the uneasy crowd of the
newly human, as long as they didn't look at Angel, and he was soon bustling among them, smiling
and shaking hands and checking names and numbers against a list on his laptop. He'd clearly done
this before. At his murmured suggestion, Angel had moved away to lean against the station-house
wall, and was idly digging out long curls of mortar from between the stones with a bored
fingernail, clearly uninterested in the proceedings. Presumably she was just there to ride
shotgun. Jimmy realised with a start that Hob and Angel were the reasons why he was there. The
Waking Beauty had wanted their presence confirmed. The train and its passengers were largely
irrelevant.
Jimmy studied Angel from the darkest and most concealing shadows he could find on the waiting-room
roof. A line from an old song ran through his head, subtly altered: Did you ever see a nightmare
walking? I did... Just standing there, with her pale arms now crossed over her small high breasts,
she looked as dangerous and malignant as all hell. She hadn't been in town long, and everyone had
been wondering which way she would jump. When God wanted a city levelled, or all the first-born
slaughtered in one night, he sent an angel. They were Heaven's stormtroopers. Angel's very
presence in Bradford-on-Avon was enough to unsettle any sensible person, man or god.
(Only one other angel had been reduced from the immaterial to the material in present times, and
that had been voluntary - supposedly. But the old city of Maggedon was no more, and the angel was
still chained to his rock in the cold dark heart of the earth, with nails through his wings. A
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Simon%20R.%20Green%20-%20Nightside%201%20-%20Drinking%20Midnight%20Wine.txt
little humanity can be a dangerous thing.)
Jimmy Thunder let his hand fall to the great hammer at his side. It had been a long time since he
had been genuinely frightened.
Perhaps he made a noise, or he'd moved too suddenly; either way, Angel's head snapped round, and
she looked up and glared right at him with her blood-red eyes, seeing him clearly through the
concealing shadows of the chimney stack. She shouted a warning to Hob and ran forward, the crowd
scattering before her. She jumped from the platform, across the tracks and up onto the waiting-
room roof in one impossible bound, as though borne aloft on invisible wings. Roof slates cracked
and exploded under her bare feet as she landed, her long legs barely flexing as they absorbed the
impact. She held her hands like claws, and her wide smile could just as easily have been a snarl.
Jimmy Thunder drew his hammer from its holster and moved reluctantly forward to face her.
Down below, on the far platform, the newly arrived refugees were panicking. Everyone was shouting
and milling about, and trying to get back into the carriages, but the doors wouldn't open for
them. There was pushing and shoving, and some fell to the ground and were trampled underfoot. Hob
moved quickly among them, trying to calm them with his voice and his presence, but no one was
listening. Newly human, no longer protected by their old natures or powers, the refugees were
naked and vulnerable and they knew it. This was a perfect time for old enemies to strike, and pay
off old scores and blood feuds. The crowd suddenly seized on the notion of escape, and headed en
masse for the only exit, the black iron gate beside the station house. Hob was yelling now at the
top of his voice, but no one gave a damn.
Up on the waiting-room roof there was neither time nor space for subtlety. Jimmy and Angel slammed
together head-on, like two crashing trains. They exchanged blows that would have killed ordinary
© 2025 Библиотека RealLib.org
(support [a t] reallib.org)
(support [a t] reallib.org)