"Simon R. Green - Nightside 1 - Drinking Midnight Wine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

chest again. 'Have you ever had any kind of supernatural experience before? Seen anything strange,
encountered anything you couldn't explain in safe, rational terms?'
'You mean before today?'
'Of course before today.'
Toby thought hard. All kinds of people came into Gandalf's bookshop, looking for all kinds of
books, some of them so esoteric they had to be ordered specially from foreign publishers. Some of
the stranger tomes even came with little locks and keys. Toby had always been willing to listen
while these people talked, but he'd never taken any of it particularly seriously. In all his life
he'd never once seen a ghost, or had a strange feeling in an old building. He'd never seen a UFO
or a black helicopter, or one of those big feral cats that were supposed to roam the countryside.
He'd never got a message on a Ouija board, never experienced deja vu, and never once been abducted
by little grey aliens keen to play amateur proctologist - even though there was practically an
epidemic of those, according to what he read in the papers. No: for Toby the world had always been
a simple, sane and boringly normal place.
Until now.
Since it obviously meant so much to Gayle, he tried hard to think of something to say. There had
been that time in Sally in the Wood, that long, winding road leading down a steep hill through the
great swathe of ancient forest on the Wiltshire and Somerset border. The area had long been said
to be haunted by the ghost of an old gypsy woman called Sally. There was one particular sharp
curve on the hill, where cars and lorries were always shooting out over the edge and into the long
drop, despite all the warning signs, crash barriers and its infamous reputation. An accident black
spot, said some. Sally, said others, usually in a hushed voice, as though Someone might be
listening.
And once, just once, coming back from a party in Bath in the early hours, in the back of someone's
car, Toby could have sworn he saw... something, standing in the trees at the side of the road, in
the woods, a tall dark shadow with eyes brighter than any eyes had a right to be. Toby was drunk,
and by the time he had roused himself to say something, the car had swept past the corner and left
it behind and the shape, or the shadow, or whatever it had been, was gone.
Toby related all this to Gayle, and looked at her hopefully, but she was already shaking her head.
'It's hardly the Blair Witch Project, is it? Much more likely you saw a deer. There are still a
few running wild around there, mostly because they've learned to stay out of the road when there
are cars around.' She sighed again and shook her head. Toby was getting really tired of that sigh.
She looked him straight in the eye and her expression softened. 'I know this is hard for you,
Toby, thrown in the deep end without warning, but you can't get away with just treading water.
There are bad things in the water with you. There are forces and influences in the magical world,
and it's best to tread softly so as not to wake them. Especially in Bradford-on-Avon, a town with
far too much past for its own good. I think we'd better start our grand tour right now, while the
Waking Beauty is the only one that's noticed you. in fact, I think we'll start with her. Maybe she
can talk some sense into you.'
She frowned suddenly, and her gaze turned inwards. 'I'd been planning to make the rounds soon,
anyway. There have been strange currents and dark undertows in the ether just recently. Maybe


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you're the disturbance everyone has been sensing... Damn! Everything's such a mess! Why did I give
in to such a stupid impulse, to open a door between the worlds just to get out of the rain? What
was I thinking of? And how the hell did I manage to avoid seeing you standing there? I'm always so
careful...'