"Diana Wynne Jones - The Game" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

“If we do play,” Troy said, “what sign of the Zodiac are we under
now?”
Harmony looked up at the sky with its scudding clouds. “Virgo,”
she said. “Just passed the cusp with Leo. Make up your mind, Troy.
Everyone’s waiting.”
“I suppose Virgo’s not so bad,” Troy said. “ You decide,” he said,
passing the card to Hayley.
The card was old and worn and floppy, and fawn-coloured with
age. When Hayley took it, she found it had once been a plain
postcard on which someone had written— a long time ago, to judge
by the way the ink had faded—in large, firm capitals: FETCH A
SCALE FROM THE DRAGON THAT CIRCLES THE ZODIAC.
“What do you think?” Troy said to her.
Hayley had no idea what they were supposed to do in the game
anyway, and the card made her very curious to find out. Besides,
everyone else was standing by the markers jigging with impatience.
James, who was nearest, said, “Hurry it up, can’t you!” and Tollie,
in the distance, was jumping up and down shouting, “Cowards,
cowards, cowards!”
“I think we’d better try,” she said.
“Great!” said Troy. He seized her by one arm and towed her over
to the double marker. “Leave the card on the grass for Harmony to
collect.”
Back by the table, Harmony wound up the clock. It seemed to be
a musical box as well as a clock. When Harmony set it down on the
table, ticking loudly, it began to play a small tinkly tune. Grandad
had played the same tune to Hayley once and told her it was by
Mozart.
“ ‘A Little Night Music’?” she said to Troy.
He nodded. “We all hear different tunes,” he said. “Harmony’s
good at that. Start walking.”
All over the paddock, the others were setting off. James charged
downhill towards the orchard. Tollie came rushing back up the hill.
Lucy was walking rather carefully in a straight line, looking
nervous. Most of the rest were running towards the house.
“Some of them are cheating,” Troy said, pulling Hayley forwards.
“Tollie always does.”
Hayley hastily dropped the card by the markers and let herself be
pulled towards the garden shed at the side of the paddock.
It was a simple brick-built shed with a pointed roof, but when
they came to it, Hayley was highly delighted to find that the top
half of the door was of panes of stained glass, in nine different
colours. As Troy pulled the door shut behind them, Hayley saw
Lucy pass slowly across outside, from thundery yellow, to stormy
red, and then to twilight purple as she walked out of sight. Inside,
the old lawn mowers and the stack of deck chairs were in a sort of
rainbow dusk. Troy, keeping hold of Hayley’s wrist, edged them
past the lawn mowers—and through some thick, dusty cobwebs
that caught unpleasantly on Hayley’s hair—and on into coloured,
twilight beyond. Shortly, it was almost dark. But there seemed to