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

"Yes."
"They burn the wanderer who suffered a heart attack as he took his rest
among them."
"This is true."
"For a spur of the moment thing, you came up with a fairly engaging
sermon."
"Thanks."
"Do you really believe what you preached?"
Sam laughed. "I'm very gullible when it comes to my own words. I
believe everything I say, though I know I'm a liar."
Yama snorted. "The rod of Trimurti still falls upon the backs of men.
Nirriti stirs within his dark lair; he harasses the seaways of the south. Do
you plan on spending another lifetime indulging in metaphysics-- to find new
justification for opposing your enemies? Your talk last night sounded as if
you have reverted to considering why again, rather than how."
"No," said Sam, "I just wanted to try another line on the audience. It
is difficult to stir rebellion among those to whom all things are good.
There is no room for evil in their minds, despite the fact that they suffer
it constantly. The slave upon the rack who knows that he will be born
again-- perhaps as a fat merchant - if he suffers willingly-- his outlook
is not the same as that of a man with but one life to live. He can bear
anything, knowing that great as his present pain may be, his future pleasure
will rise higher. If such a one does not choose to believe in good or evil,
perhaps then beauty and ugliness can be made to serve him as well. Only the
names have been changed."
"This, then, is the new, official party line?" asked Yama.
"It is," said Sam.
Yama's hand passed through an invisible slit in his robe and emerged
with a dagger, which he raised in salute.
"To beauty," he said. "Down with ugliness!"
A wave of silence passed across the jungle. All the life-sounds about
them ceased.
Yama raised one hand, returning the dagger to its hidden sheath with
the other.
"Halt!" he cried out.
He looked upward, squinting against the sun, head cocked to his right.
"Off the trail! Into the brush!" he called.
They moved. Saffron-cloaked bodies flashed from off the trail. Ratri's
litter was borne in among the trees. She now stood at Yama's side.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Listen!"
It came then, riding down the sky on a blast of sound. It flashed above
the peaks of the mountains, crossed over the monastery, whipping the smokes
into invisibility. Explosions of sound trumpeted its coming, and the air
quaked as it cut its way through the wind and the light.
It was a great-looped tau cross, a tail of fire streaming behind it.
"Destroyer come a-hunting," said Yama.
"Thunder chariot!" cried one of the mercenaries, making a sign with his
hand.
"Shiva passes," said a monk, eyes wide with fear. "The Destroyer . . ."