"Jack Vance - Demon Prince 04 - The Face" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

The time was middle afternoon, mists over the Dunvearys had
dwindled to a few^ wisps, the landscape showed a stark grandeur to
the cold glare of Vega-light

As before Gersen had climbed the trail which led up from the
Ffolliot Gardens at the western edge of Rath Eileann He stood
leaning on the parapet as Addels sedately arrived m his car

Addels crossed the road and joined Gersen at the parapet In a
heavy voice he said "The Garganty-f has landed The documents
have been served The captain made an outcry and attempted to
return into space He was removed from the ship and charged with
attempted flight to evade the court's )unsdiction He is now in cus-
tody. All precautions have been taken The captain has sent off an
information to his home office " By this time Addels had learned
the details of Gersen's program and had not altogether recovered
his composure. "He has also retained an attorney, who presumably
is competent and who well may wreak enormous grief upon us all "

Gersen said "Let us hope that the Lord High Benchmaster
shares our view of the case "

"An amusing concept," growled Addels "Let us hope that we
will find our terms in the Carcery no less amusing "

From Life, Volume I, by Unspiek, Baron Bodissey
If religions are diseases of the human psyche, as the
philosopher Grmtholde asserts, then religious wars must be
reckoned the resultant sores and cankers infecting the ag-
gregate corpus of the human race Of all wars, these are the
most detestable, since they are waged for no tangible gain,
but only to impose a set of arbitrary credos upon another's
mind

Few such conflicts can match the First Vegan Wars for
grotesque excess The issue concerns, in its proximate
phase, a block of sacred white alabaster the Aloysians in-
tended for Temple St Revelras, while the Ambrosians
claimed the same block for their Temple St Bellaw The
culminating battle on Rudyer Moor is an episode to tax the
imagination The locale: a misty upland of the Mournan
Mountains, the time late afternoon, with Vega darting
shafts of pallid light here and there, as roiling clouds allow
On the upper slopes stand a band of haggard Ambrosians
in flapping brown robes, carrying crooked staves carved
from Cornb yew Below is gathered a more numerous
group of the Aloysian Brotherhood, small short-legged
men, plump and portly, each with ritual goatee and scalp-
tuft, carrying kitchen cutlery and garden tools