"Roger Zelazny - Amber 05 - The Courts of Chaos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

going on!"
There was no response.
"I don't think he can hear you," Gerard said. "This barrier seems to have
cut us off completely."
Random strained forward, his hands pushing against something unseen.
"Let's all of us give it a shove," he said.
So I tried again. Gerard also threw his weight against the invisible wall.
After half a minute without success, I eased back.
"No good," I said. "We can't move it."
"What is the damned thing?" Random asked. "What is holding - "
I'd had a hunch - only that, though - as to what might be going on. And
only because of the deja-vu character of the entire piece. Now, though... Now
I clasped my hand to my scabbard, to assure myself that Grayswandir still hung
at my side. It did.
Then how could I explain the presence of my distinctive blade, its
elaborate tracery gleaming for all to see, hanging where it had suddenly
appeared, without support, in the air before the throne, its point barely
touching Dara's throat? I could not.
But it was too similar to what had happened that night in the dream city
in the sky, Tir-na Nog'th, to be a coincidence. Here were none of the
trappings - the darkness, the confusion, the heavy shadows, the tumultuous
emotions I had known - and yet the piece was set much as it had been that
night. It was very similar. But not precisely so. Benedict's stance seemed
somewhat off - farther back, his body angled differently. While I could not
read her lips, I wondered whether Dara was asking the same strange questions,
I doubted it. The tableau - like, yet unlike, that which I had experienced -
had probably been colored at the other end - that is, if there were any
connection at all - by the effects of Tir-na Nog'th's powers upon my mind at
that time.
"Corwin," Random said, "that looks like Grayswandir hanging in front of
her."
"It does, doesn't it?" I said. "But as you can see, I am wearing my
blade."
"There can't be another just like it... can there? Do you know what is
happening?"
"I am beginning to feel as if I may," I said. "Whatever, I am powerless to
stop it."
Benedict's blade suddenly came free and engaged the other, so like my own.
In a moment, he was fighting an invisible opponent.
"Give him hell, Benedict!" Random shouted.
"It is no use," I said. "He is about to be disarmed."
"How can you know?" Gerard asked.
"Somehow, that is me in there, fighting with him," I said. "This is the
other end of my dream in Tir-na Nog'th. I do not know how he managed it, but
this is the price for Dad's recovering the Jewel."
"I do not follow you," he said.
I shook my head.
"I do not pretend to understand how it is being done," I told him. "But we
will not be able to enter until two things have vanished from that room."
"What two things?"