"Brian Lumley - Aunt Hester" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

belief. His quotes, while apparently genuine and authoritative, often differ substantially when compared
with the works from which they were supposedly culled. Regarding such discrepancies, Feery claimed
that most of his occult knowledge came to him ‘in dreams’!” She paused, then asked: “Am I boring
you?”

“Not a bit of it,” I answered. “I’m fascinated.”

“Well, anyhow,” she continued, “as I’ve said, Feery must somewhere have seen one of the very rare
copies of Abdul Alhazred’sNecronomicon, in one translation or another, for he published a slim volume
of notes concerning that book’s contents. I don’t own a copy myself but I’ve read one belonging to a
friend of mine, an old member of my group. Alhazred, while being reckoned by many to have been a
madman, was without doubt the world’s foremost authority on black magic and the horrors of alien
dimensions, and he was vastly interested in every facet of freakish phenomena, physical and
metaphysical.”

She stood up, went to her bookshelf and opened a large modern volume of Aubrey Beardsley’s
fascinating drawings, taking out a number of loose white sheets bearing lines of her own neat handwriting.

“I’ve copied some of Feery’s quotes, supposedly from Alhazred. Listen to this one:



‘’Tis a veritable and attestable Fact, that between certain related Persons there exists a Bond more
powerful than the strongest Ties of Flesh and Family, whereby one such Person may beawareof all the
Trials and Pleasures of the other, yea, even to experiencing the Pains or Passions of one far distant; &
further, there are those whose skills in such Matters are aided by forbidden Knowledge or Intercourse
through dark Magic with Spirits & Beings of outside Spheres. Of the latter: I have sought them out, both
Men & Women, & upon Examination have in all Cases discovered them to be Users of Divination,
Observers of Times, Enchanters, Witches, Charmers, or Necromancers. All claimed to work their
Wonders through Intercourse with dead & departed Spirits, but I fear that often such Spirits were evil
Angels, the Messengers of the Dark One & yet more ancient Evils. Indeed, among them were some
whose Powers were prodigious, who might at willinhabitthe Body of another even at a great Distance &
against the Will & often unbeknown to the Sufferer of such Outrage …’



She put down the papers, sat back and looked at me quizzically.

“That’s all very interesting,” I said after a moment, “but hardly applicable to yourself.”

“Oh, but it is, Love,” she protested. “I’m George’s twin, for one thing, and for another –”

“But you’re no witch or necromancer!”

“No, I wouldn’t say so – but I am a ‘User of Divinations’, and I do ‘work my Wonders through
Intercourse with dead & departed Spirits’. That’s what spiritualism is all about.”
“You mean you actually take this, er, Alhazred and spiritualism and all seriously?” I deprecated.

She frowned. “No, not Alhazred, not really,” she answered after a moment’s thought. “But he is
interesting, as you said. As for spiritualism: yes, Idotake it seriously. Why, you’d be amazed at some of