"Charles Stross - Different Flesh" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

quickly looked to Lady Stael for guidance. She sat bolt-upright, as if welded into position by the stays of
her strapless gown. A diamond glittered from one finely-sculpted nostril, but her white skin outshone it
against the ice-blue taffeta of her corsetry; and for an instant she seemed to personify fem inine
perfection in his eyes, to be the substance and ideal of all that he desired to possess and protect and
exhibit and dominate in life. He wondered how he had ever taken such a turning as to become a Bishop,
so that she was simultaneously inaccessible to and intimate with him, being as she was a prominent
member of his flock. He held his breath, as if she was chiselled from ice and a single false, hot gust
might cause her to melt away before the heat of his single dreams. Remembering the ordinal comman

ment, Know Thyself, he forced himself to look away. You are here to help her in her moment of
weakness, he berated his libido; not to take advantage of her vulnerability!

He directed his attention to Jack-Jones the Paramage, who appeared to be sweating. And so he should,
for if the hooded one was correct the stakes depending upon his truthfulness ran higher than his
reincarnate soul.

"Speak," said the Gambler. "It is time we heard the truth from your lips. Enlighten us; his Holiness -- "
he raised an eyebrow at the Bishop -- "is dying to know how the current predicament arose. And who
knows? Perhaps if you speak truthfully, we shall live to see the dawn."

Jones grimaced slightly, and raised his glass to his lips. It was a tumblerful of stroeh, a fiery spirit from
Dansk; he sipped it gingerly, then replaced it on the table and sat back.



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 Different Flesh

"Very well then," he said; "you have asked, so I suppose I must tell you all! Very well. I was not present
for much of this, and I have little first-hand knowledge of the major actress in this drama, but for the
sake of enlightenment let me tell you about Imad the Insane, who was once my student, and about the
Countessa Danielle, and what they did. And then, perhaps, the meaning of the current situation will
become clear."




Raw and Tenderly
A long distance away, in both space and time, there was a mis-guided youth named Imad who
apprenticed himself to the magus named Jones in order to search out Truth Absolut. Imad was young
and had no memory of his previous existences; he was gangling and thin and pale-faced, and there was
about him the shifty expression of one who spent too much time in libraries, after the fashion of the
ancients. Unfortunately this did not give Jones cause for concern, for in those days he had yet to receive
the ad ditional soul that gave him his extra name and his reputation for infallibility. Instead of sending
the youth packing, he gave him tasks to accom-plish -- the mild services of the postulant -- and took it
upon himself to give Imad the tools of wisdom with which to learn his trade. The fact that Imad later
misused them horribly was not Jones's responsibility, for by that time the youth had long since
absconded: but nevertheless Jones was galled by the whip of hindsight and, resolving not to permit
events to continue unhindered, sent an Eye to watch over his runaway tutee.