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

'There have always been people here, and I have seen them come and go. Go back two and a half
thousand years, and there were people living here. Before there was a town, there was an Iron Age
settlement; five centuries before the Christ was born, to save or damn the world. A dark and ugly
kind they were; savage and brutal and tenacious, maintaining a community in defiance of all that
the elements could throw at them. I was there. I remember them. I saw them dance and sacrifice to
things best forgotten, in the name of survival.
'The Romans wiped out such unhealthy worship when they finally arrived, though they had their
secrets too. No one in the city of Bath now remembers why the old spa baths were originally built,
but I do. It's still down there somewhere, sleeping. I remember when the Saxon armies drove the
last Celtic forces out of this area, and named this town bradanford, or broad ford. They kept the
old Celtic word for river, though: afon.
'I have seen men butcher each other on the hills surrounding this town, seen the river run red
with blood, for good reasons and bad. But I have seen wonders and miracles too, as the town has
grown down the centuries, acquiring grace and hope and civilisation. I have seen it all... but
never been part of it. For all my longevity, I have never been a force or a power. Never been able
to fight the shadows or embrace the light, protect the innocent or punish the wicked. I watch and
I remember, and I forget nothing - it is my blessing and my curse. For every joy and every pain I
ever knew is as fresh to me now as the first time I experienced it. I am the town, its history and
its legend. So when I tell you Something Bad is coming, you listen, Gayle.'
'Something bad is always coming,' said Gayle. 'But the world goes on turning. Are you the oldest
human being, Carys?'
The Waking Beauty frowned. 'I don't know... there's always Tommy Squarefoot.'
'Yes, but he's a Neanderthal.'
'Don't try to distract me!' snapped Carys. 'You came here to talk to me, so listen! I don't
normally pay much attention to the future or the past. I try to concentrate on the present.
Otherwise I'd lose my focus and be twice as crazy as I already am. And for all my fascination with
gossip, I usually keep important information to myself. People have tried to kill me before now,
for what I know or what they think I know and might tell.' Carys smiled. 'I'm still here and
mostly they're not. You don't live as long as I have without learning a few survival tricks; some
of them quite spectacularly nasty.'
'Get to the point, Carys,' said Gayle. 'You love to talk so much it's a wonder you haven't had
your tongue hinged in the middle so you could flap both ends at once. What does any of this have
to do with Toby and me?'
'One of my survival tricks,' said Carys to Toby, 'is to pay attention. Sometimes, when vital or
terrible or momentous things occur, they make such an impression on time they send reverberations
back down its spine. And people like me-, rooted so firmly in the timestream, can detect such
things. Something is going to happen, and it's almost upon us. Something so important that it will
affect Veritie and Mysterie and the nature of existence itself. It's going to happen here, and
it's going to happen soon, and you and Gayle will be a part of it. Whether for good or bad is
beyond me. Events just are. Beware The Serpent In The Sun and his earthbound son, the Hob.
Whatever it is that's coming, they're a part of it, just like you; whether you like it or not.'

'If this future event is so damned important, why didn't you detect it earlier?' said Gayle.
'Someone's been hiding it' said Carys. "Want to guess who?'
'Hold everything,' said Toby determinedly. 'Let's take some time out. Will somebody please explain
to me just who or what The Serpent In The Sun is, and why you both look so worried about him?'
Carys and Gayle looked at each other, and then Gayle looked at Toby. 'The Serpent... is the oldest
of us all. Our progenitor, in many ways. No one knows exactly what he is. We call him the Serpent
because we have to call him something. Real and magical, both and neither, he lives inside the
Sun.'