"Zelazny, Roger - Amber 08 - Sign Of Chaos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

Moments later I heard a more decisive movement at my back and I turned. The
Jabberwock was drawing itself to its feet. The Fire Angel was still crouched and
was making small piping noises. The Jabberwock staggered back, spreading its
wings, then suddenly turned, beat the air, and fled back up the high hole in the
cleft at the rear of the cave. Not a bad idea, I decided, as I hurried out into
the garden.
Here the aromas were even stronger, the flowers, mostly in bloom, a
fantastic canopy of colors as I noshed among them. I found myself panting after
a short while, but I jogged on nevertheless. Luke was heavy, but I wanted to put
as much distance as I could between ourselves and the cave. Considering how fast
our pursuer could move, I wasn't sure there was sufficient time to fool with a
Trump yet.
As I hurried along I began feeling somewhat woozy, and my extremities
seemed extremely distant. It occurred to me immediately that the flower smells
might be a bit narcotic. Great. That was all I needed, to get caught up in a
drug high while trying to bring Luke back from one. I could make out a sill,
slightly elevated clearing in the distance, though, and I headed for it.
Hopefully, we could rest there for a bit while I regained my mental footing and
decided what to do next. So far, I could detect no sounds of pursuit.
Rushing on, I could feel myself beginning to reel. My equilibrium was
becoming impaired. I suddenly felt a fear of falling, almost akin to acrophobia.
For it occurred to me that if I fell I might not be able to rise again, that I
might succumb to a drugged sleep and be discovered and dispatched by the
creature of Chaos while I dozed. Overhead, the colors of the flowers ran
together, flowing and tangling like a mass of ribbons in a bright stream. I
tried to control my breathing, to take in as little of the effluvia as possible.
But this was difficult, as winded as I was becoming.
But I did not fall, though I collapsed beside Luke at the center of the
clearing after I'd lowered him to the ground. He remained unconscious, a
peaceful expression on his face. A wind swept our hillock from the direction of
its far side, where nasty-looking, spiked plants of a nonflowering variety grew.
Thus, I no longer smelled the seductive odors of the giant flower field, and
after a time my head began to clear. On the other hand, I realized that this
meant that our own scents were being borne back in the direction of the cave.
Whether the Fire Angel could unmask them within the heady perfumes, I did not
know, but providing it with even that much of an opportunity made me feel
uncomfortable.
Years ago, as an undergraduate, I had tried some LSD. It had scared me so
badly that I'd never tried another hallucinogen since. It wasn't simply a bad
trip. The stuff had affected my shadow-shifting ability. It is kind of a truism
that Amberites can visit any place they can imagine, for everything is out
there, somewhere, in Shadow. By combining our minds with motion we can tune for
the shadow we desire. Unfortunately, I could not control what I was imagining.
Also unfortunately, I was transported to those places. I panicked, and that only
made it worse. I could easily have been destroyed, for I wandered through the
objectified jungles of my subconscious and passed some time in places where the
bad things dwell. After I came down I found my way back home, turned up
whimpering on Julia's doorstep, and was a nervous wreck for days. Later, when I
told Random about it, I learned that he had had some similar experiences. He had
kept it to himself at first as a possible secret weapon against the rest of the