"Роджер Желязны. Lord of Light (Лорд Света, engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

returning, as though their bases were rooted to the ground.
He crouched there wet and shivering, examined his courage and found it
to be a small thing indeed. Yet, he pushed on until he was parallel to the
strange place, then past it.
He drew up behind it, finding himself in the midst of many large
stones. Grateful for their shelter and the cover they provided against
observation from below, he inched forward, never taking his eyes from the
fang.
He could see now that it was partly hollow. There was a dry, shallow
cave at its base, and two figures knelt within it. Holy men at prayer? He
wondered.
Then it happened. The most frightful flashing he had ever seen came
down upon the stones-- not once, or for a mere instant. It was as if a
fire-tongued beast licked and licked about the stone, growling as it did so,
for perhaps a quarter of a minute.
When Tak opened his eyes, he counted twenty of the blazing towers.
One of the holy men leaned forward, gestured. The other laughed. The
sound carried to where Tak lay, and the words: "Eyes of the serpent! Mine
now!"
"What is the quantity?" asked the second, and Tak knew it to be the
voice of Great-Souled Sam.
"Twice, or none at all!" roared the other, and he leaned forward,
rocked back, then gestured as Sam had done.
"Nina from Srinagina!" he chanted, and leaned, rocked, and gestured
once more.
"Sacred seven," Sam said softly.
The other howled.
Tak closed his eyes and covered his ears, expecting what might come
after that howl.
Nor was he mistaken.
When the blaze and the tumult had passed, he looked down upon an eerily
illuminated scene. He did not bother counting. It was apparent that forty of
the flame like things now hung about the place, casting their weird glow:
their number had doubled.
The ritual continued. On the left hand of the Buddha, the iron ring
glowed with a pale, greenish light all its own.
He heard the words "Twice, or none at all" repeated again, and he heard
the Buddha say "Sacred seven" once more, in reply.
This time he thought the mountainside would come apart beneath him.
This time he thought the brightness was an afterimage, tattooed upon his
retina through closed eyelids. But he was wrong.
When he opened his eyes it was to look upon a veritable army of
shifting thunderbolts. Their blaze jabbed into his brain, and he shaded his
eyes to stare down below.
"Well, Raltariki?" asked Sam, and a bright emerald light played about
his left hand.
"One time again, Siddhartha. Twice, or not at all."
The rains let up for a moment, and, in the great blaze from the host on
the hillside, Tak saw that the one called Raltariki had the head of a water
buffalo and an extra pair of arms.