"Michael Moorcock - The Skrayling Tree" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moorcock Michael)

MICHAEL
MOORCOCK
THE

SKRAYLING
TREE
THE ALBINO IN AMERICA

WARNER BOOKS
An AOL Time Warner Company
This book is a work of historical fiction. In order to give a sense of the times, some names of real people or places have
been included in the book. However, the events depicted in this book are imaginary, and the names of nonhistorical
persons or events are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance of such
nonhistorical persons or events to actual ones is purely coincidental.
All characters, the distinctive likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are trademarks of Michael Moorcock.
Copyright © 2003 by Michael Moorcock and Linda Moorcock All rights reserved.
Aspect® name and logo are registered trademarks of Warner Books, Inc.
Warner Books, Inc., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 Visit our Web site at
www.twbookmark.com.
An AOL Time Warner Company
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing: February 2003
10 987654321
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Moorcock, Michael.
The skrayling tree / Michael Moorcock.
p. cm.—(Eternal champion series) ISBN 0-446-53104-9
1. Elric of Melnibona (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Albinos and albinism—Fiction. 3. Swordsmen—Fiction. I.
Title.
PR6063.O59 S58 2003
823'.914—dc21 2002027247
Book design by H. Roberts Design
For Jewell Hodges and them Gibsons with great respect
Thanks, too, as always to Linda Steele for her good taste and patience
Prologue
Nine by nine ana three by three, We snail seek the Skraeling Tree.
WHELDRAKE,
'A Border Tragedy"
The following statement was pinned to a later part of this manuscript. The editor thought it better
placed here, since it purports to be at least a partial explanation of the motives of our mysteri-ous
dream travelers. Only the first part of this book is written in a different, rather idiosyncratic hand.
The remaining parts of the story are mostly in the handwriting of Count Ulric von Bek. The note
in his hand demanding that the manuscript not be published until after his death is authentic.
More than one school of magistic philosophy insists that our world is the creation of human yearning.
By the power of our desires alone, we may bring into being whole universes, entire cosmologies, and
supernatural pantheons. Many believe we dream ourselves into existence and then dream our own
gods and demons, heroes and villains. Each dream, if powerful enough, can produce still another
version of reality in the constantly growing organism that is the multiverse. They believe that just as
we dream creatively, we also dream destructively. Some of us have the skills and courage to come and
go in the dreams of others, even create our own dreams within the host dream. This was the accepted
wisdom in Melnibone, where I was bom.