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

Luke stirred slightly upon my shoulder. I hoped he wasn't about to come
around, as I didn't have time to mess with a sleep-spell and I wasn't really in
a good position to slug him again. That pretty much left Frakir. But if he were
borderline, then choking might serve to rouse him rather than send him back--and
I did want him in decent shape. He knew too many things I didn't, things I now
needed.
We passed through a slightly brighter area, and I was able to distinguish
the walls of the shaft for the first time and to note that they were covered
with graffiti in a language that I did not understand. I was reminded of a
strange short story by Jamaica Kincaid, but it bore me no clues for deliverance.
Immediately following our passage through that band of illumination, I
distinguished a small spot of light far below. At almost the same moment I heard
the wail once again, this time very near.
I looked up in time to behold the Fire Angel passing through the glow. But
there was another shape close behind it, and it wore a vest and burbled. The
Jabberwock was also on the way down, and it seemed to be making the best time of
any of us. The question of its purpose was immediately prominent; as it gained,
the circle of light grew and Luke stirred again. This question was quickly
answered; however, as it caught up with the Fire Angel and attacked.
The whiffling, the wailing, and the burbling suddenly echoed down the
shaft, along with hissing, scraping, and occasional snarls. The two beasts came
together and tore at each other, eyes like dying suns, claws like bayonets,
forming a hellish mandala in the pale light which now reached them from below.
While this produced a round of activity too near at hand for me to feel entirely
at ease, it did serve to slow them to the point where I felt I need not risk an
ill-suited spell and an awkward maneuver to emerge from the tunnel in one piece.

"Argh!" Luke remarked, turning suddenly within my grasp.
"I agree," I said. "But lie still, will you? We're about to crash--"
"--and burn," he stated, twisting his head upward to regard the combatant
monsters, then downward when he realized that we were falling, too. "What kind
of trip is this?"
"A bad one," I answered, and then it hit me: That was exactly what it was.
The opening was even larger now, and our velocity sufficient for a bearable
landing. Our reaction to the spell that I called the Giant's Slap would probably
slow us to a standstill or even propel us backward. Better to collect a few
bruises than become a traffic obstruction at this point.
A bad trip indeed. I was thinking of Random's words as we passed through
the opening at a crazy angle, hit dirt, and rolled.
We had come to rest within a cave, near to its mouth. Tunnels ran off to
the right and the left. The cave mouth was at my back. A quick glance showed it
as opening upon a bright, possibly lush, and more than a little out-of-focus
valley. Luke was sprawled unmoving beside me. I got to my feet immediately and
caught hold of him beneath the armpits. I began dragging him back away from the
dark opening from which we had just emerged. The sounds of the monstrous
conflict were very near now.
Good that Luke seemed unconscious again. His condition was bad enough for
any Amberite, if my guess were correct. But for one of sorcerous ability it
represented a highly dangerous wild card of a sort I'd never encountered before.
I wasn't at all certain how I should deal with it.