"Larry Niven - Limits UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

He was looking at a loaded crossbow aimed throat-high. The string had rotted and snapped. Karskon remembered to breathe, forced himself to breathe . .
It was a tiled bathroom, sure enough. There was a considerable array of erotic statuary, some quite good. The Roze-Kattee statue would have been better for less detail, Karskon thought. A skeleton in the pool wore a rotting bath-attendant's kilt; that would be Nihilil's spy. The one-eyed god
in a corner. . . yes. The eye not covered by a patch gleamed even in this dim, watery light. Gleamed green, with a bright vertical pupil.
Karskon closed his good eye and found himself looking at himself~ Grinning, eye closed, he moved toward the statue. Fumbling in his
pouch for the chisel. Odd, to see himself coming toward himself like this.
And Durily behind him, the triumph beginning to show through the exhaustion. And behind her- He drew his sword as he spun. Dually froze in shock as he seemed to
leap at her. The bubble of water trembled, the sea began to flow down the walls, before she recovered herself. But by then Karskon was past her and trying to skewer the intruder, who danced back, laughing, through the bedroom and through its ornate door, while Karskon- Karskon checked himself. The emerald in his eye socket was supplying the magical energy to run the spell that held back the water. It had to stay near Durily. She'd drilled him on this, over and over, until he could recite it in his sleep.
Rordray stood in the doorway, comfortably out of reach. He threw his arms wide, careless of the big, broad-bladed kitchen knife in one hand, and said, "But what a place to spend a honeymoon!"
"Tastes differ," Karskon said. "Innkeeper, this is none of your business."
"There is a thing of power down here. I've known that for a long time. You're here for it, aren't you?"
"The spying stone," Karskon said. "You don't even know what it is?"
"Whatever it is, I'm afraid you can't have it," Rordray said. "Perhaps you haven't considered the implications-"
"Oh, but I have. We'll sell the traveling stone to the barbarian king in Beesh. From that moment on the Movement will know everything he does."
"Can you think of any reason why I should care?"
Karskon made a sound of disgust. "So you support the Torovans!"
"I support nobody. Am I a lord, or a soldier? No, I feed people. If someone should supplant the Torovans, I will feed the new conquerors. I don't care who is at the top."
"We care."
"Who? You, because you haven't the rank of your half-brothers? The elderly Lady Durily, who wants vengeance on her enemies' grandchildren? Or the ghosts? It was a ghost who told me you were down here."
Beyond Rordray, Karskon watched faintly luminous fog swirling in the corridor. The war of ghosts continued. And Dually was tiring. He couldn't stay here, he had to pry out the jeweL He asked, "Is it the jewel
you want? You couldn't have reached it without Durily's magic. If you distract her now you'll never reach the air, with or without the jewel. We'll all drown." Karskon kept his sword's point at eye leveL If Rordray was a were-lion- But he didn't eat red meat.
"The jewel has to stay," Rordray said. "Why do you think these walls are still standing?"
Karskon didn't answer.
"The quake that sank Atlantis, the quake that put this entire peninsula under water. Wouldn't it have shaken down stone wails? But this
palace dates from the Sorcerer's Guild period. Magic spells were failing, but not always. The masons built this palace of good, solid stone. Then they had the structure blessed by a competent magician."

"Yes. The wails would have been shaken down without the blessing and some source of mana to power it. You see the problem. Remove the talisman, the castle crumbles."
He might be right, Karskon thought. But not until both emeralds were gone, and Karskon too.
Rordray was still out of reach. He didn't handle that kitchen knife like a swordsman, and in any case it was too short to be effective. At a dead run Karskon thought he could catch the beefy chef. . . but what of Durily, and the spell that held back the water?
Fool! She had the other jewel, the spying-stone!
He charged.
Rordray whirled and ran down the hall. The ghost-fog swirled apart as he burst through. He was faster than he looked, but Karskon was faster still. His sword was nearly pricking Rordray's buttocks when Rordray suddenly leapt over the bannister.
Karskon leaned over the dark water. The ghosts crowded around him were his only light source now.
Rordray surfaced, thirty feet above the ballroom floor and well Out into the water, laughing. "Well, my guest, can you swim? Many mainlanders can't."
Karskon removed his boots. He might wait, let Rordray tire himself treading water; but Durily must be tiring even faster, and growing panicky as she wondered where he had gone. He couldn't leave Rordray at their backs.
He didn't dive; he lowered himself carefully into the water, then swam toward Rordray. Rordray backstroked, grinning. Karskon followed.
He was a fine swimmer.
Rordray was swimming backward into a corner of the ballroom.
Trapping himself~ The water surface rose behind him, curving up the wall. Could Rordray swim uphill?
Rordray didn't try. He dove. Karskon dove after him, kicking, peering down. There were patches of luminosity, confusing . . . and a dark shape far below . . . darting away at a speed Karskon couldn't hope to match. Appalled, Karskon lunged to the surface, blinked, and saw Rordray clamber over the railing. He threw Karskon's boots at his head and dashed back toward the King's "secret" bedroom.

The old woman was still waiting, with the King's ghost for her companion. Rordray tapped her shoulder. He said, "Boo."
She froze, then tottered creakily around to face him. "Where is Karskon?"
"In the ballroom."
Water was flowing down the walls, knee-high and rising. Rordray was smiling as at a secret joke, as he'd smiled while watching her savor her first bite of his incredible swordfish. It meant something different now.
Durily said, "Very well, you killed him. Now, if you want to live, get me that jewel and I will resume the spells. If our plans succeed I can offer Karskon's place in the new nobility to you or your son. Otherwise we both drown."
"Karskon could tell you why I refuse. I need the magic in the jewel to maintain my inn. With the traveling jewel Karskon brought me, this structure will remain stable for many years." Rordray didn't seem to notice that the King's ghost was clawing at his eyes.
The water was chest high. "Both jewels, or we don't leave," the old
woman said, and immediately resumed her spell, hands waving wildly, voice raspy with effort. She felt Rordray's hands on her body and squeaked in outrage, then in terror, as she realised he was tickling her. Then she doubled in helpless laughter.

The water walls were collapsing, flowing down. The odd, magical bubble was collapsing around him. Clawing at the stone bannister, Karskon heard his air supply roaring back up the stairwell, out through the broken windows, away. A wave threw him over the bannister, and he tried to find his footing, but already it was too deep. Then the air was only a few silver patches on the ceiling, and the seawash was turning him over and over.