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

paradoxical end.

The other man, whose back was to me, reached forward and moved a piece
that seemed to correspond to a pawn. It was a representation of the Chaos
beast known as a Fire Angel. When the move was completed the lightning
flashed again and the thunder cracked and my body tingled. Then Dworkin
reached out and moved one of his pieces, a Wyvern. Again, the thunder and
lightning, the tingling. I saw that a rearing Unicorn occupied the place of the
King among Dworkin's pieces, a representation of the palace at Amber on the
square beside it. His opponent's King was an erect Serpent, the
Thelbane--the great needlelike palace of the Kings of Chaos--beside it.

Dworkin's opponent advanced a Piece, laughing as he did so. "Mandor," he
announced. "He thinks himself puppet-master and king-maker." After the crash
and dazzle, Dworkin moved a piece. "Corwin," he said.

"He is free again."

"Yes. But he does not know he is in a race with destiny. I doubt he
will make it back to Amber in time to encounter the hall of mirrors. Without
their clues, how effective will he be?"

Dworkin smiled and raised his eyes. For a moment, he seemed to be
looking right at me. "I think his timing is perfect, Suhuy," he said then,
"and I have several pieces of his memory I found years ago drifting above the
Pattern in Rebma. I wish I had a golden piss-pot for each time he's been
underestimated."

"What would that give you?" asked the other.

"Expensive helmets for his enemies."

Both men laughed, and Suhuy rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise.
Dworkin rose into the air and tilted forward until he was parallel to the
ground, looking down on the board. Suhuy tended a hand toward a female
figure on one of the higher levels, then drew it back. Abruptly, he moved the
Fire Angel again. Even as the air was burned and beaten Dworkin made a move,
so that the thunder continued into a roll and the brightness hung there.
Dworkin said something I could not hear over the din. Suhuy's response to
the probable naming was, "But she's a Chaos figure!"

"So? We set no rule against it. Your move."

"I want to study this," Suhuy said. "More than a little."

"Take it with you," Dworkin responded. "Bring it back tomorrow night?"

"I'll be occupied. The night after?"

"I will be occupied. Three nights hence?"