"Freda Warrington - A Taste of Blood Wine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Warrington Freda)

Ilona reacted swiftly, almost too fast for him. The instant she
realised the danger, she arched backwards over the balcony rail and
vanished.
Not quite fast enough, though. Kristian was after her in a split-
second. He caught her even as she flashed into the Crystal Ring, and
they fell together through the unseen dimension that only immortals
could enter.
She fought him violently, but their bodies were rarified in this realm
and her struggles only bound her to him. While the world below
them turned flat and dark, the sky became a tiered landscape of light
and colour. A soft golden ridge arrested their fall. Kristian clutched
Ilona to himself and began to climb relentlessly.
The warm lower layers of the air condensed into a chain of hills,
gleaming bronze, rising and falling continually like the slow waves
of an ocean. Like clouds the hills sailed on air, yet their substance
was like honey; dense enough to bear weight, but treacherous,
forever changing. They flowed on as far as the eye could see, but


file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Freda%20Warrington%20-%20A%20Taste%20of%20Blood%20Wine.html (54 of 711)28-12-2006 21:38:58
A Taste


there were shifting gaps where they frayed into an indigo void.
Although they were in continuous motion, dissolving and
reforming, there was a permanence in their fluidity like the ocean
tides.
Against the shimmering dappled slopes, the two vampires were
delicate ink sketches; almost bird-like, almost human, too strange to
be either. Dragonflies spun from black crystal.
Ilona's struggles hindered Kristian, but she couldn't stop him. He
carried her up towards a ridge from which a wisp of vapour formed
a pathway towards the higher levels. Guiding lines of light threaded
through everything; a magnetic field made visible, some said, but
Kristian scorned scientific rationale.
Some vampires—unbelievers, like Karl—said it was impossible to
explain the Crystal Ring. Why should immortals be privileged to
step into another dimension, weird beyond human dreams? When
they entered it they vanished from the world of mortals, yet its
geography corresponded to that of Earth, enabling them to travel
unseen from place to place. Like the sky, it enveloped the world in a
vast circle of crystal. Its beauty was ineffable. Moving through it—
half-swimming, half-flying—was a dizzying rapture. Yet it was far
more than a convenience or a delight. Unable to sleep on Earth,
vampires must come here to rest. The Crystal Ring held dangers,
too, but in some unfathomable occult way it was essential to their
existence.
Kristian, however, knew precisely what the Crystal Ring was. It was
the mind of God. And God, of course, allowed only His chosen dark
messengers to enter His mind; this savage heaven.