"Zelazny, Roger - Amber 10 - Prince Of Chaos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

talking to anyone. It's as if I'm standing in some sort of gateway. Forces are
moving about me, through me."
In an instant I was at the center that was the gay ring with its wheel of
many-spoked reddish metal. From the inside, here, it was like a great web. A
bright strand pulsed for my attention. Yes, it was a line to a very potent force
in distant Shadow, one that might be used for probing. Carefully, I extended it
toward the covered jewel she wore in her eye socket.
There was no immediate resistance. In fact, I felt nothing as I extended
the line of power. An image came to me of a curtain of flame, however. Pushing
through the fiery veil, I felt my extension of inquiry slowing, slowing, halted.
And there I hovered, as It were, at the edge of a void. This was not the way of
attunement, as I understood it, and I was loath to invoke the Pattern, which I
understood to be a part of it, when employing other forces. I pushed forward and
felt a terrible coldness, draining the energies I had called upon.
Still, it was not draining the energy directly from me, only from one of
the forces I commanded. I pushed it farther, and I beheld a faint patch of light
like some distant nebula. It hung against a background the deep red of port
wine. Closer still, and it resolved itself into a form--a complex, three
dimensional construct, half familiar--which must be the pathway one takes in
attuning oneself to the Jewel, from my father's description. All right, I was
inside the Jewel. Should I essay the initiation?
"Go no further," came an unfamiliar voice, though I realized it to be Coral
who was making the sounds. She seemed to have slipped into a trance state. "You
are denied the higher initiation."
I drew back on my probe, not eager for any demonstrations that might come
my way along it. My Logrus sight, which had remained with me constantly since
recent events in Amber, gave me a vision of Coral now fully enfolded and
penetrated by the higher version of the Pattern.
"Why?" I asked it.
But I was riot vouchsafed a reply. Coral gave a little jerk, shook herself,
and stared at me.
"What happened?" she asked.
"You dozed off," I replied. "No wonder. Whatever Dworkin did, plus the
day's stress..."
She yawned and collapsed back on the bed.
"Yes," she breathed, and then she was really asleep. I pulled off my boots
and discarded my heavier garments. I stretched out beside her and drew a quilt
over us. I was tired, too, and I just wanted someone to hold.
How long I slept I do not know. I was troubled by dark, swirling dreams.
Faces--human, animal, demonic, moved about me, none of them bearing particularly
cheerful expressions. Forests fell and burst into flame, the ground shook and
split, the waters of the sea rose in gigantic waves and assailed the land, the
moon dripped blood and there came up a great wailing. Something called my
name....
A great wind rattled the shutters till they burst inward, flapping and
banging. In my dream, a creature entered then and came to crouch at the foot of
the bed, calling softly to me, over and over. The room seemed to be shaking, and
my mind went back to California. It seemed that an earthquake was in progress.
The wind rose from a shriek to a roar, and I heard crashing sounds from without,
as of trees falling, towers toppling....