"Zelazny, Roger - Amber Short Stories 05 - Blue Horse Dancing Mountains" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

spend the night. The shadows will dance over us or near us. Dismount now,
please, unsaddle, and remove your gear, that I may shift."

"To what?" I asked as I swung to the ground.

"I've a lizard form would face this desert best."

"By all means, Shask, be comfortable, be efficient. Be a lizard."

I set about unburdening him. It was good to be free again.

Shask as blue lizard was enormously fast and virtually tireless. He got us
across the sands with daylight to spare, and as I stood beside him
contemplating the trail that led upward through the foothills, he spoke in a
sibilant tone: "As I said, the shadows can catch us anywhere around here, and
I still have strength to take us up for an hour or so before we camp, rest,
and feed. What is your choice?"

"Go," I told him.

Trees changed their foliage even as I watched. The trail was
maddeningly irregular, shifting its course, changing its character beneath us.
Seasons came and went--a flurrying of snow followed by a blast of hot air,
then springtime and blooming flowers. There were glimpses of towers and metal
people, highways, bridges, tunnels gone in moments. Then the entire dance
would shift away and we would simply be mounting a trail again.

At last, we made camp in a sheltered area near to a summit. Clouds
collected as we ate, and a few rumbles under rolled in the distance. I made
myself a low lean-to. Shask transformed himself into a great dragonheaded,
winged, feathered serpent, and coiled nearby.

"A good night to you, Shask," I called out, as the first drops fell.

"And-to-you-Corwin," he said softly.

I lay back, closed my eyes, and was asleep almost immediately. How long I
slept, I do not know. I was jarred out of it, however, by a terrific clap of
thunder which seemed to occur directly overhead.

I found myself sitting up, having reached out to and half drawn
Grayswandir, before the echoes died. I shook my head and sat listening.
Something seemed to be missing and I could not determine what.

There came a brilliant flash of light and another thunderclap. I
flinched at them and sat waiting for more, but only silence followed.
Silence...

I stuck my hand outside the lean-to, then my head. It had stopped
raining. That was the missing item--the splatter of droplets.