The Redemption of Althalus. David Eddings

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ source of light other than the sun, the moon, and the shimmering curtain of God’s light at the edge of the world was fire, and the dome over his head was not on fire.

      Then that contented sound coming from the bed grew even louder, and now that the light from the dome over his head was growing brighter, Althalus could see the source of that sound. He blinked, and then he almost laughed. The sound was coming from a cat.

      It was a very dark cat, almost black, and it blended so well into the dark fur of the bison robes on the bed that his cursory glance when he’d first entered the room had missed it entirely. The cat lay on its belly with its head up, though its eyes were closed. Its front paws were stretched out on the robe in front of its short-furred chest, and they were making little kneading motions. The sound which had so baffled Althalus was the sound of purring.

      Then the cat opened its eyes. Most of the cats Althalus had seen before had looked at him with yellow eyes. This cat’s eyes, however, were a brightly glowing green.

      The cat rose to its feet and stretched, yawning and arching its sinuous back and hooking its tail up. Then the furry creature sat down, looking into the face of Althalus with its penetrating green eyes as if it had known him all its life.

      ‘You certainly took your own sweet time getting here’, the cat observed in a distinctly feminine voice. ‘Now why don’t you go shut that door you left standing wide open? It’s letting in the cold, and I just hate the cold.’

CHAPTER FIVE

      Althalus stared at the cat in utter disbelief. Then he sighed mournfully and sank down onto the bench in absolute dejection. His luck hadn’t been satisfied with everything else she’d done to him. Now she was twisting the knife. This was why Ghend had hired somebody else to steal the Book instead of doing it himself. The House at the End of the World didn’t need guards or hidden traps to protect it. It protected itself and the Book from thieves by driving anyone who entered it mad. He sighed and looked reproachfully at the cat.

      ‘Yes?’ she said with that infuriatingly superior air all cats seem to have. ‘Was there something?’

      ‘You don’t have to do that anymore,’ he told her. ‘You and this House have already done what you’re supposed to do. I’ve gone completely insane.’

      ‘What in the world are you talking about?’

      ‘Cats can’t talk. It’s impossible. You aren’t really talking to me, and now that I think about it, you’re probably not really even there. I’m seeing you and hearing you talk because I’ve gone crazy.’

      ‘You’re being ridiculous, you know.’

      ‘Crazy people are ridiculous. I met a crazy man on my way here, and he went around talking to God. Lots of people talk to God, but that old fellow believed that God talked back to him.’ Althalus sighed mournfully. ‘It’ll probably all be over before long. Since I’m crazy now, it shouldn’t be very long until I throw myself out of the window and fall on down through the stars forever and ever. That’s the sort of thing a crazy man would do.’

      ‘What do you mean by “fall forever”?’

      ‘This House is right at the end of the world, isn’t it? If I jump out that window, I’ll just fall and fall through all that nothing that’s out there.’

      ‘Whatever gave you the ridiculous idea that this is the end of the world?’

      ‘Everybody says it is. The people here in Kagwher won’t even talk about it, because they’re afraid of it. I’ve looked out over that edge, and all there is down there is clouds. Clouds are part of the sky, so that means that this edge is the place where the world ends and the sky starts, doesn’t it?’

      ‘No,’ she replied, absently licking one of her paws and washing her face. ‘That’s not what it means at all. There is something down there. It’s a long way down, but it is there.’

      ‘What is it?’

      ‘It’s water, Althalus, and what you saw when you looked over that edge is fog. Fog and clouds are more or less the same thing – except that fog’s closer to the ground.’

      ‘You know my name?’ That surprised him.

      ‘Well, of course I know your name, you ninny. I was sent here to meet you.’

      ‘Oh? Who sent you?’

      ‘You’re having enough trouble holding onto your sanity already. Let’s not push you off any edges with things you aren’t ready to understand just yet. You might as well get used to me, Althalus. We’re going to be together for a long, long time.’

      He shook off his momentary dejection. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I think I’ve had just about enough of this. It’s been just wonderful talking with you, but if you’ll excuse me now, I think I’ll just take the Book and go. I’d love to stay and chat some more, but winter’s going to be snapping at my tail feathers all the way home as it is.’

      ‘And just how did you plan to leave?’ she asked calmly as she started to wash her ears.

      He turned sharply to look around. But the door through which he had entered the room wasn’t there any more. ‘How did you do that?’

      ‘We won’t be needing it any more – for a while at least – and it was letting in the cold air, since you were too lazy to close it behind you when you came in.’

      A brief panic clutched at the thief’s throat. He was trapped. The Book had lured him into this place, and now the cat had trapped him, and there was no way out. ‘I think I’ll kill myself,’ he said mournfully.

      ‘No you won’t,’ she said quite calmly, beginning to wash her tummy. ‘You can try, if you like, but it won’t work. You can’t leave, you can’t jump out of the window, and you can’t stab yourself with your sword or your knife or your spear. You might as well get used to it, Althalus. You’re going to stay right here with me until we’ve done what we’re supposed to do.’

      ‘Then I can leave?’ he asked hopefully.

      ‘You’ll be required to leave. We have things we need to do here, and then there are other things that have to be done in other places, so you’ll have to go do them.’

      ‘What are we supposed to do here?’

      ‘I’m supposed to teach, and you’re supposed to learn.’

      ‘Learn what?’

      ‘The Book.’

      ‘How to read it, you mean?’

      ‘That’s part of it.’ She began to wash her tail, hooking it up to her tongue with one curved paw. ‘After you learn how to read it, you have to learn how to use it.’

      ‘Use?’

      ‘We’ll get to that in time. You’re having enough trouble here already.’

      ‘I’ll tell you something right here and now,’ he said hotly. ‘I am not going to take СКАЧАТЬ