Absolute Midnight. Clive Barker

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СКАЧАТЬ keep Finnegan out of this, Boa said.

      “Oh, feel a bit guilty do you?”

      I said—

      “I heard you.”

      There were a few moments of extremely strained silence between them. Then Boa said: Let. Me. Out. Of. This—PRISON!

      Covenantis appeared and looked at Candy with round, terrified eyes.

      “Did you hear that?” he said softly. “A human’s voice, I swear. Tell me it’s not just me.”

      “No, Covenantis, you’re perfectly sane. Will you get the conjuration underway please, before she gets murderous?”

      “It’s already begun. I’m going into the labyrinth to prepare the site of separation. Follow me there. But first repeat the sacred word nineteen times.”

      “Abarataraba?”

      “Yes.”

      “Does that one count?”

      “No!”

      Then the last thing he said before disappearing into the maze, leaving Candy to feel as though at the very moment she was making a life-changing decision for herself—a very adult thing to do—he’d reduced her to a kid in the school yard.

      She smeared the last six Abarataraba into a single Abarrrarababa, and without alerting Covenantis to the fact that she was done counting and was coming, ready or not, she plunged into the maze, entering as Two-in-One and hopefully exiting as simply two.

       Chapter 11 Severance

      CANDY TOOK FOUR CAUTIOUS steps into the darkened trees, each step delivering her into an even profounder darkness. On the fifth step, however, a flying creature appeared at the periphery of her vision. It buzzed like a big insect, and the brightness of its colors—turquoise and scarlet, speckled with flecks of white gold—defied the darkness.

      It darted around her head for a while then sped away. Candy took a fifth cautious step, then a sixth. Suddenly the creature reappeared, accompanied by several hundred identical beasts, which surrounded her with so much color and movement that she felt faintly nauseated.

      She closed her eyes to seal off the sight, but the chaotic motion of the creatures continued behind her eyelids.

      “What’s happening?” she said, raising her voice above the noise of the buzzing cloud. “Covenantis? Are you still there?”

      “Patience!” Candy heard the boy say.

      He’s frightened, Boa said, a distinct undercurrent of amusement in her words. This isn’t an easy thing to do. If he messes up, he’ll sacrifice your sanity. She let the laughter surface; there was undisguised malice in it. Wouldn’t that be a pity?

      “Covenantis,” Candy said. “Stay calm. Take your time.”

      “He never was very good at that, were you, brother?” said Jollo B’gog.

      “Stay out of here!” Covenantis said. “Mother! Mother!”

      “She was the one who said I could come and help,” the Bad Boy replied.

      “I don’t believe you,” Candy said, opening her eyes again.

      As she did so she saw the Bad Boy run through a wall of the colored creatures, who had assembled ahead of her in an intricate jigsaw of wings, limbs and heads. He yelled as he ran, scattering the assembled creatures. They rose up in front of her, the motion of their wings causing a gust of wind to come at her face, tasting of metal on her tongue.

      “Stop that!” Covenantis yelled, his voice shrill with anger.

      The Bad Boy just laughed.

      “I’ll tell Mama!”

      “Mama won’t stop me. Mama loves everything I do.”

      “Well, aren’t you lucky?” Covenantis said, unable to entirely disguise his envy.

      “Mama says I’m a genius!” the Bad Boy crowed.

      “You are, darling, you are,” Laguna Munn said, entering the space as little more than a shadow of herself. “But this isn’t the time or the place to fool around.”

      All it took was the sound of Laguna Munn’s voice and the creatures that had been scattered by the Bad Boy’s cavorting came back down on the instant, knitting themselves together—wing to claw to beak to coxcomb to fanning tail—forming a small prison around Candy.

      “Better,” Laguna Munn said, her voice all-forgiving. “Pale Child?”

      “Yes, Mama?” Covenantis said.

      “Have you secured all the locks?”

      Oh yes, Boa said. Got to have plenty of locks. I like the sound of that.

      “What are the locks for?” Candy said aloud. “What are you keeping out?”

      “Nothing’s being kept out—” Covenantis said, stopping only when his mother yelled his name, and dropping the last part of his reply to a whisper. “It’s you she’s keeping in.”

      “Covenantis!”

      “I’m coming, Mama!”

      “Quickly now. I haven’t got much time.”

      “I’ve got to go,” the Good Boy said to Candy. “I’ll be right outside.”

      He pointed to a narrow slit of a door in between the wings and claws of the big bugs, and for the first time Candy realized that a solid little chamber had formed around her. The walls were draining of color even as she watched, and every last crack or flaw in the knitted forms sealed. What had been a colorful room made of flittering wings was becoming a silent concrete cell.

      “Why are you locking me in?” Candy said.

      “Conjurations this strong are unstable,” Covenantis said.

      “What do you mean?”

      “They can go wrong,” he whispered.

      “Covenantis!” Laguna Munn shouted.

      “Yes, Mama!”

      “Stop talking to the girl. You can’t help her.”

      “No, Mama!”

      “She’ll probably be dead in under a minute.”

      “I’m coming, Mama,” Covenantis said. He gave Candy a little shrug, and slipped out through the door, which closed, leaving no trace of its presence, not a crack.

      Well . . . Boa said softly. You got us here. Better finish it. If you’ve got what it СКАЧАТЬ