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(The novel-trilogy, a fragment)
THE BOOK THE FIRST
THE TURNCOAT
Tell: "I Resort to the Lord of a dawn
From that harm, that he has created,
From harm of a gloom when it has covered,
From harm blowing on knots,
From harm of the envious person when it envied! "*
The Koran. Sura 113. A dawn
* I.J.Krachkovskogo's transfer.
PROLOGUE
Senor so never also has not learnt, that in the heart of its being was born
IT. Nobody saw, how awful seeds grow ripe... In the beginning IT was simple
Headache. And something suffered and turned in a close box of a skull; and
It was possible to it to banish for a short while this pain, but it never passed
Absolutely, and left thoughts — as noise and visions, as a tiresome dream.
prokljate it consisted that it was not Finished; it not
Remembered the past and knew nothing about the future.
Only for a second its mind became silent and clear, but then not
Found to itself of rest: words with the lost sense as spiteful dogs raged
On consciousness suburbs, from memory tombs demons rose — and went on a circle
Hours, days, weeks and years... IT grew imperceptibly and inevitably and got used to live
Within the precincts of the prison. And then IT has destroyed Senora and has started to operate...
IT aspired to reach Merge and End.
But this clearing was preceded by long and strange adventures.
PART THE FIRST
SWORD TORRA
THE FIRST CHAPTER
DIRTY CONSCIENCE
He followed bezglazoj a dog who unmistakably conducted it on the long
To twisting corridors of the top floors of the Tower. Knock of heels Senora it is booming
It was given under low hung arches. On road to it has not met
One live beings.
The cape from a thin skin of an animal of the Shade hid its chitinous
Armour and the sword enclosed in a sheath. An ill-starred piece of parchment, which it
Has grasped with itself as the admission in the Tower, burnt down a palm, as if
The heated coin. The received message did not promise anything good.
Senor was only the Person of the Ring finger so, it is less
Than a toy in hands of Owners of the Tower. What could it change? It was not its world,
Though it has adapted to it not worse any, living here. Something like
Dirty conscience tormented him. And he already has had time to regret about much.
* * *
Mute the servant from the Tower waited for it, disappearing for a green hedge,
Which surrounded the house with a dense sharp-clawed wall and ate garbage. Senor,
Come back from the Crater of Suicides, just removed a paternoster from the metal
Lattices over an input when the servant has slipped out darkness.
Senor has shuddered, occurrence mute was so unexpected,
Similar to a ghost. It has pulled out a sword from a sheath and has put its edge to
To throat of the stranger. But that has not moved at all, despite a thin streamlet of blood,
Flowing down to it on a breast.
Then the servant from the Tower has cautiously taken away klinok aside and has looked back
On the parties. Having convinced by that round anybody is not present, he has put Senoru in hands
Parchment piece, grey mask from the stretched fabric, dried up trehpaluju
Pad of any bird — also has silently disappeared in a gloom.
Stunned Senor has entered into the house, was locked and has begun to study
The message scratched on parchment in dim light hanging down from a ceiling
Shone snake.
It has remembered it by heart — word for word, and it was not empty
Time expenditure — he knew, that all written is very fast will disappear with
Parchment completely.
* * *
Presence at the Tower has for a while relieved Senora of prosecutions with
The parties of baron Tantora Tenga. A baron with rare persistence tried to kill Senora
Within several last weeks, but the reason of sudden enmity remained
While secret behind seven seals.
With the big work by means of gift Senoru it was possible to destroy
The hired killer sent Tantorom to avoid the death from poison, which to it
Have added to wine in the patrimonial house of duke Kriala, the patron of baron Tenga, and not
To be lost under carriage wheels in narrow street at yesterday's night. Then he was in time
To notice only the arms with a two-head a hyena, squeezed out on a door of the thawn
In darkness of crew.
But if Tantor was going to to finish business, Senor could consider,
That still is in danger of death. Thought on it too not
Improved moods.
* * *
Early in the morning, when has not ascended yet because of the Veil of the Gloom Big Fiery
The circle, Senor faced to a huge dark building the Towers habitual gribovidnye
Which outlines — visible from any point of a city — were lost in the afternoon in
Pre-dawn twilight. Here and there on a smooth trunk he distinguished the high narrow
The cuts similar to loopholes, and long, extended in parallel horizon
Cracks. Still above the mushroom body has been spoilt by outgrowths and sticking out in the parties
Huge poles. From them shreds the bluish fog hanged down.
Senor has found the input mentioned in parchment. Before dim
Its shining door the blind dog waited. That place on her head, where at
Usual animals there were eyes, the powerful horn plate covered,
Which not any sword could break. By the same reservation have been protected a neck and
Trunk.
The dog has felt approach Senora much earlier, than it
Has seen the blind guard of the Tower.
He has put to a dog under a nose a parchment piece from which signs have disappeared,
And its bared canines were tightened again by a plate. The turned black reservation on
Shoulders has fallen and became white.
After a blind dog the Person of the Ring finger has slowly entered in
High door.
* * *
Though the bottom part of Tower Senor knew as the four fingers, in it
The top limits it did not happen never. Anybody from the court did not appear here
On the will. Now it precisely followed all instructions containing in
Parchment. Quite probably, that otherwise it was expected by death.
Governors Kobara preserved the secrets well enough.
On top floors Senor has got, having entered after a dog in the narrow stone
Well. Some instants of impenetrable darkness — and they have come to be in
Corridor absolutely unfamiliar to it. Senor did not try to understand at all how it is fast
Transition was made. Everyone, born in Kobare, has got used for a long time to the incomprehensible
To power of Owners of the Tower.
At an input in a hall of gobelins he has pulled the grey stretched on the person
Mask which has received from mute servants. It has appeared, that in it are cut
Apertures for eyes, and in apertures are inserted transparent glasses, through which
Senor could see everything, that occurs around.
Hall walls have been covered by old gobelins from metal threads and
Are closed by panels with extremely difficult ornament.
The blind dog passed a hall free but when Senor has reached
To its middle, from almost invisible cracks in walls clubs has tumbled down the brown
Smoke which has filled a premise in some instants. Senor at random
Has reached massive metal doors and it has appeared in a corridor shined
Rare torches. He has seen leaving croup of a blind dog and, having torn off with the person
Mask, has followed it.
Before a room from which ceiling brilliant networks hanged down, it has inserted
trehpaluju the bird's pad in an aperture about a door and without hindrances has sliped
Between trailing traps. Any network has not stirred, though he and felt,
That tears the most thin web stretched everywhere and touches silently ringing
Strings.
It seemed, they moved without sense and the purpose, and Senoru began
To bother these interiors calling confusion and strange actions, which
It have forced to make. But before it has appeared face to face with the Governor,
They passed a room where from a ceiling water flew and disappeared in apertures
Between stone plates of a floor; a mirror hall in which Senor has lost the way
Among reflexions also has got out only because went on a smell of a blind dog;
Library with many thousand volumes covered with a dust in the metal
Covers; and at last a room forced by silvery sarcophagi. Senor
Has glanced in a rectangular window of the nearest and has started back, having seen behind glass
Unnaturally smooth persons of two Servants of the Tower — men and women, which
Laid in a sarcophagus with open eyes. Some times he met them in
City — these, or as like as two peas similar to them.
The dog has deafly grumbled, and Senor has hasty moved behind it. One
Consoled: at least here also did not smell as sorcery.
THE CHAPTER THE SECOND
FOUNDATIONS KOBARA
Thousand years there was a city of Kobar, and nobody remembered those times,
When a city was not. Kobaru, surrounded with the Gloom Veil, the earths belonged
All this world, including villages the Deserted Court yard — in the south and Full of holes
Roof — in the east. Anybody and could get nothing through the Veil: on
To any height of a bird accessible to a sight turned back, and a huge hole,
Dug it is a lot of generations back Owner of Tower Tingom to find out on purpose,
How much deeply the Veil gets in terrestrial tverd, and remained mute
The certificate of its powerlessness. The veil a wall rose from the earth and,
Being washed away, it was lost highly in the sky, and the Big Fiery Circle, ascending and
Coming, appeared and disappeared behind it gradually.
Only in one place of the closed world the Gloom Veil interrupted,
But in this rupture it was poured and the Unsteady Shade shivered disgusting studnem.
Anybody in Kobare did not know, that such the Unsteady Shade; any person,
Entered there, has not returned. Establishments said, that there were Uncertainty,
Uncertainty, Chaos, Madness and Death.
Founders of Establishments have disappeared for a long time, and acknowledgement to hearings
Newcomers from the Shade — strange beings, Chaos generations served; with
The majority of them Kobaru it was necessary to battle and destroy their any
The price.
However, sometimes they appeared almost predicted and did not threaten
Death. Then with them communicated by means of signs and even conducted an exchange, but all
Of equally their secret influence were afraid and with impatience waited for the moment, when they
Again will disappear in the Shade. And these creations never were late in
Kobare for a long time, obviously feeling uncomfortably in the predefiniteness world, and,
Having appointed time at trade the price seeming to people silly small, soon
Disappeared.
So in a city there were metal spheres with not clear drawings,
Sticking iron, the weightless disks floating under a ceiling; vessels from the dark
Substances which managed to be filled or broken to nobody, and many other things,
Not similar in general on what. Purpose of these subjects was not known
Living here, and correct data were considered lost very long time ago.
In any case, inhabitants Kobara have been compelled to construct the Barrier,
Fenced off Shade from the world and to contain guards who could battle though
With most vulnerable of its generations. Usually policemen were skilled
Soldiers with the best weapon and fighting vehicles, but also they at times appeared
Powerless against the Pernicious Light, Floating Reflections (when something
The strange was created with Fiery Circle), the Poisonous Fog, the Fetid Plague,
Chain Madness, and even at all the Imperceptible Death, getting sometimes because of
Barriers. In such cases many died. When became useless
The usual weapon, to Great Magicians was necessary to start the secret
Art.
Anyway, till now Kobaru it was possible to constrain
Shade approach — and balance between the order supported by the power
Owners of the Tower, and the Chaos, ready to absorb the world, it was restored again.
* * *
To nobody known, except, maybe, Magicians, remained
Sources of their present power. During immemorial times Kobar has been divided on
The top and Bottom city. The Tower surrounded with fortresses became the centre Top
Rich and influential clans, houses court, the city nobility and
Priests of religion of Embodiments; Bottom in which all lived the others,
Stretched all further in the parties ugly feelers densely populated
Quarters.
* * *
The hierarchy court in Kobare was rather difficult and confused. Except
The higher nobility inheriting titles unconditionally, any at whom would suffice
Means for training in sects and who would manage to survive in continuous and secret
To war against all which was conducted in Kobare by means of intrigues with most
Refined cruelty and insidiousness, could become court. Such,
Belonging to again hatching nobility, aspired the truth and a lie
To get merits before the power and the patrons. They rose on
To steps of scale of ranks Kobara from the Person of the Little finger to the Owner of the Palm
And in due course acquired the right to carry at a court yard a glove with the cut off finger.
Appropriated the next title, as well as took away it at broken the uncertain
Side, Owners of the Palm who sat at secret council. In it also it was concealed
Inexhaustible source of intrigues.
Owning magic, bases of all sciences and pseudo sciences, Great Magicians corrected
Invisibly and inevitably, only sometimes going down with forbidden for other inhabitants
Kobara the top floors of the Tower. Magicians did not require almost support of swords, for
Possessed forces much more terrible. Owners of the Tower supposed intrigues,
Rivalry of clans, duels between court, murder and slaughter, while it not
Threatened indestructible foundations of this world, the main things from which were their power and
Never-ending war with the Unsteady Shade.
It was difficult to challenge incomprehensible power of Magicians. Any
The court did not dare at it while was in the mind. Has sunk into a non-existence
(And whether existed sometime?) memory of the one who and when has built
Tower — a huge citadel of the strange form from a dark stone, in walls
Which was not joints and seams. Possibly, it was created not by ancestors of people Kobara; and
Legend about that the Tower has fallen from the sky even before occurrence of the Veil of the Gloom, not
Explained anything.
Masters supported hearings about the immortality; nobody
Knew, whence they undertook, how much them, and in general — whether there are they one and
The same throughout many centuries. Except belief in immortality of Magicians, had
Circulation and legends about the women who have disappeared for ever, — in essence,
Slaves whom Owners of the Tower took to themselves on the top floors that those
Gave birth it to children.
* * *
But once, it is direct on eyes at Senora, the end to the Great Magician has come
Selangu. It happens, when dvuhgolovyj from the Shade has appeared in world Kobara on
Shoulders of a huge transparent dog. Arrows and stones of throwing cars not
Rendered on newcomers of any influence, short of that, on
To measure of absorption of shells getting to them, dvuhgolovyj and its dog became
More and more.
They have easily broken through strengthenings and were transferred through
The disguised traps, and then the safe passed a fiery rain,
Brought down on them soldiers of the Barrier from bochek with a burning liquid.
dvuhgolovyj, moving to Kobaru on a narrowed spiral, almost completely
Has destroyed the Roof Full of holes, but on suburb of village for it already waited Purg
Razdelyvatel Meat with a fighting axe from the heavenly metal, the covered silver
And Magician Selangom started talking shortly before it. While a transparent dog
dvuhgolovogo stone claws tore apart in shreds of the Carrier of Hulks Halepa,
Purg has come nearer to the monster closely and, having said the magic formula, has taken down
To it an axe a head.
Then the crystal ring and a dog was distributed has disappeared in parts,
Having turned to scattered planes which differently refracted light.
When it happens, dvuhgolovyj has published a low rumble — from it standing
Nearby have lost reason, — and has let out from two mouths a black cloud,
Shrouded a head Snowstorm and transformed his face behind the lowered visor in
The charred mask from which drops the fused metal fell on the earth.
After destruction Snowstorm on dvuhgolovogo has attacked rack of blind dogs —
The bewitched creations of Owners of the Tower. They were considered as regenerations of the ancient
Monsters whom Gods have doomed to extinction in the Bottom World. Their shades called
From the Gloomy Kingdom, have been concluded by Magicians in bodies bezglazyh dogs.
Despite lacking eyes, they fine were guided in the secret
Holes of the Tower and reliably protected its secrets. Existed povere, that the blind
The dog can be killed, only having chopped off it a head and having dug a trunk separately, for
Otherwise the dog got out from under the earth and started to wander on
To the world, pursuing the murderer. But, how much Senor knew, anybody yet
Tried to make it...
The rack attacked dvuhgolovogo, however any of dogs has not managed
To approach to it is closer than on ten steps. Having appeared before the visitor from the Shade,
Furious creations have failed down to the ground, paralysed by unknown influence,
Which started with four his eyes.
dvuhgolovyj already hunted on suburbs Kobara when Selang has gone down
From heights of the Tower with a white sphere in hands, holding it in metal mittens. Those,
Who saw it, swore then, that between a sphere and mittens Selanga remained
Small gleam, and sphere shrouded bluish a smoke.
Selang has appeared on a roof of one of houses and has dumped a sphere on
dvuhgolovogo. For an instant before two persons have risen up and four
Burning eyes have looked on Selanga. But the sphere already inevitably flied downwards, and,
When has achieved the object, flash of brightest light has blinded all, including
Senora, with shudder observing of an event, and on a place where stood
dvuhgolovyj, still long time the muddy crimson whirlwind was turned.
After some seconds the dried up body Selanga has rolled down from a roof and,
Having turned over in air, has hit about stones. Nobody could tell, that
The shapeless, porous and firm subject which has appeared in ten steps from
Suppressed Senora, was once a live being.
THE CHAPTER THE THIRD
CONVERSATION WITHOUT WORDS
The blind dog has left it in a room where there was nothing, except
raskativshihsja on a floor of the big black spheres, also has disappeared behind the rotary panel
In a wall.
Senor has not caught the moment when the Owner of the Tower has appeared before it.
Certainly, here there was something strongly influencing its brain.
The grey figure, appear, has arisen from the condensed twilight and a dust.
It was too dark, and Senor has not seen anything under low pulled hood,
Except a blue shining eye.
Senor looked at this eye and thought of, whether it is known to Governors about
The hidden corpse. To it was not on itself. He with disgust understood, that has made
The ridiculous course and to it, maybe, has ruined the life... But not still was
It is lost. Otherwise it would finish much faster
In the way.
Than more attentively he peered into a unique eye of the owner of the Tower,
Especially strange that to it seemed. Then he has understood, what's the matter, — it
Own reflexion in a pupil of a blue eye was turned.
He has not had time to be prepared properly when the first has followed
Silent question. Senor has heard an appeal, has felt, how something another's gets
In its brain, also has let in it, but only there where waited for the hour polite and
Nothing meaning answers. After all it was Court Towers and knew, that for
Similar conversations there were internal barriers, but guessed as well
About that there is strong and more unknown to it a magic which is capable to destroy
Memory and consciousness of any of a being.
At desire the Magician could "enter" into it with the same ease, with
What break a doll head. But while some "spies" almost
Openly wandered by the most accessible part of consciousness Senora, trying to find
Openings to forbidden places. Without effort it was possible to the person of the Ring finger
To watch them and to do so that they were not crossed anywhere with its thoughts about
The hidden corpse.
The magician "spoke" some time about the killed woman, whose body have found in
To ditch on city suburb. Forehead Senora has become covered by a perspiration.
Coincidence was really monstrous.
There was a unique explanation to all to they be Owners of the Tower
Have started with it any game. In this game it was only a pawn, which
Sooner or later will offer, when there will come the necessary moment. Quite probably,
He and does not learn, in what intrigue he had to play an incidental role.
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