Глава 9
The First Mirror (Первое Зеркало)
"Я пойду первой " - тихо сказала Элис.
"Давайте покончим с этим," ответила Дженни.
Это было на следующий вечер, сразу после восхода луны. Они проспорили весь день, о том в какое зеркало пройти. Чарльз и Клаудия хотели попробовать погреб, утверждая, что это логичное место для заключенной Морганы, но Элис и Дженни думали, что будет лучше и не так опасно использовать маленькую прихожую между кухней и гостиной , и, как обычно Элис говорила последней. Также она закончила все споры о том, кто пойдет в Дикий Мир первым.
Элис молчала, глядя на их отражения в зеркале в прихожей и теребила шелковый мешочек, висевший на шее. "Дайте мне минуту после того как я пройду," попросила наконец она. "Если с другой стороны, будет что-то опасное...например Кадал Форж - Я быстро вернусь."
Она колебалась. "Все готовы? Никому не нужно пойти в ванную или еще куда-нибудь?"
"Ох, давайте быстрее!" Клаудия не хотела больше ждать.
"Хорошо", ответила Элис. Она расправила плечи и посмотрела прямо в зеркало, подняла одну из рук,как будто хотела оттеснить или убрать завесу, видимую лишь ей одной. И она сделала небольшой шаг вперед.
"Элис в Зазеркалье," - произнес Чарльз и нервно рассмеялся.
Дженни в это время наклонилась,и внезапно изо всех сил толкнула Элис вперед.
"Эй-"
"Берегись!"
Чарльз хотел схватить Элис, но не смог её удержать. Она упала прямо в зеркало, но вместо осколков стекла, крови, и еще чего-нибудь, была лишь мешанина цветов,как в калейдоскопе. Чарльз увидел оранжево-красный рисунок, это был силуэт падающей девушки на сине-зеленом фоне. Через секунду,все цвета пропали,как будто их никогда и не было, и Чарльз смотрел с открытым ртом на свое отражение.
Он со злостью повернулся к Дженни. " Зачем ты это сделала?"
Фиолетовые глаза Дженни смотрели спокойно на Чарльза,хотя и были несколько шире чем обычно. "Я помогла ей. Я думаю если не я, она бы сама никогда не решилась на это"
Чарльз и Клаудия были слишком взволнованы и поражены, чтобы злиться. "Пойдем", сказала Клаудия. "Я пошла". И она нырнула в зеркало, как будто делала это каждый день. Опять появились цвета, красно-оранжевая фигура, и снова все стихло.
Когда зеркало пришло в норму Чарльз и Дженни посмотрели друг на друга. Чарльз опустил голову и шагнул в него. Он не почувствовал поверхности зеркала, когда проходил сквозь него, но на мгновение показалось, что воздух образовал вокруг кокон. Мгновением позже он понял,что вошел в комнату,которую никогда не видел прежде. Элис и Клаудия как раз осматривали её.
"Это работает", - произнес Чарльз с удивлением смотря на свои руки. Твердое тело прошло сквозь стекло.
"А вот и Дженни!" - закричала Клаудия, так как была очень взволнована.
Смотреть на выход из зеркала было еще страннее, чем видеть, как кто-то в него входит. Сначала красно-оранжевая фигура, а затем нога из ниоткуда, потом секунда и Дженни уже стоит рядом.
"Разве это не весело?" - радостно сказала Клаудия.
Чарльз кивнул. "Как проход через желе." "Тссс!" сказала Элис, тревожно оглядываясь. Они были в холле, или коридоре, сложно было понять, но потолок был двадцать футов в высоту, а пол и стены были сделаны из блоков грубо обработанного бледного известняка . Массивные деревянные двери в арках, обитые накрест железом, и весь коридор был освещен факелами, горевшими жутким синем цветом, и они к тому же не чадили.
"Это замок," - прошептала Клавдия, и Чарльз подошел к окну, которое было глубоко в стене. Через грубо застекленный квадрат он мог видеть лунный свет, падающий на внутренний двор.
"Я никого там не вижу", - зашептал он. - "И ничего не слышу."-
Все прислушались. Толстые стены гасили все звуки. Только слышен был треск факелов.
Элис выдохнула. "Может быть, Кадала Форжа здесь нет," сказала она. "Но мы должны быть осторожны. Ладно, Чарльз, ты и Клаудия идите в подземелье - я имею в виду подвал. Если вы найдете Моргану, приведите её в человеческий вид, а затем поднимитесь и скажите нам." Последняя фраза далась Элис тяжело, но она, наконец, решила, что безопасность Морганы важнее её собственной. "Если вы увидите кого-то кроме Морганы, бегите. Помните, что-то схватило лисицу."
Чарльз настороженно кивнул, и они с Клаудией пошли прочь, через ближайшую арку, в сторону кухни.
Дженни в это время уже толкала дверь, которая вела во внутренний двор, но она оказалась закрытой
"Интересно, сколько закрытых дверей в этом месте," прошептала она.
"Это не так." Элис стояла перед огромными двойными дверями, которые в их мире отделяли гостиную от коридора. Они были настолько тяжелыми, что только вдвоем девушки смогли открыть их.
"Ох ..." выдохнула Элис, как только они вошли внутрь.
They were in the great hall of Fell Andred. As in the human house the ceiling was three stories high, but in the Wildworld the stories themselves were more lofty, and the ribs of the vaulted ceiling soared upward as if defying gravity. Thick columns sculpted like statues supported the galleries, and at the far end a staircase wound out of the northeast turret to end between two of these columns.
As they slowly walked the length of the hall Alys shrank from the titanic statues, which seemed to be staring down at them. Some merely looked impassive, but many had twisted smiles and an air of quietly waiting. . . .
"Here's a fire," said Janie.
The hearth was in proportion to the room, and in its cavernous depths a whole tree trunk was blazing. At a distance of ten feet the heat brought a flush to Alys's cheeks and tingled dryly against her outstretched palms. She stepped closer for a better look, and suddenly Janie grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the way as a fist-sized fireball burst out of the flames and shot toward her, flashing past with a sizzling sound. Gasping, she watched it careen off a wall and fly about the room until, with a hiss, it winked out and was gone.
"Thank you," said Alys when she could speak again. She added, "That makes up for pushing me through the mirror."
Janie looked quickly at her, then away. "Didn't think you realized that was me," she said. "Sorry."
"Forget it." Alys cast another glance around the hall, more uneasy than ever. That statue over there, of the man with steer's horns-hadn't it been on the other side before? And surely the winged woman above them hadn't been smiling so cruelly.
"I don't think Morgana is here," said Janie in a small voice.
"No," agreed Alys. There was nowhere to hide anyone. The vast room was bare except for the great dais which stood at the east end near the staircase and the glittering tapestries on the walls. It might have been a beautiful place, if one didn't mind the statues, of course, or that faint faraway music which disappeared when you tried to listen to it.
Yet right beside Alys, hanging in front of the fireplace, was something altogether lovely: a bird cage fashioned of twisted golden wires. "Look, Janie," she whispered, going on tiptoe to look into it. Then: "Oh!"
"What is it?" asked Janie, keeping well back in case it was something dangerous.
"It looks like ... I think it's a snake." Somehow the thought of a snake being kept like a lovebird or canary was the most horrible of all. This is a different world, Alys thought, and all desire to explore left her. Aloud she said, "Anyway, it's dead."
"Well, good. Let's go over there, then." Janie nodded toward the dais, which stood in front of the largest mirror Alys had ever seen, a mirror large enough for four people to walk into abreast. But even as she spoke they heard another sound, barely audible above the crackle of the fire, a sound like a paper bag brushing across a wooden floor.
"... if you please, gentle ladies . . ."
Alys stiffened. She looked up, down, around. She looked at Janie, who was doing the same thing.
". . . gentle ladies . . . if you please . . ."
"It's the snake," said Janie. There was a sort of horrified fascination in her face.
Alys put her head close to the cage. The snake was lying as still and quiet as before, but its black eyes glittered at her. It was alive.
". . . of your mercy, ladies ... I beg you . . ." The voice was as dry and thin as a dead butterfly's wing.
"It's hurt," said Alys, somehow sure of this. "What's wrong? What can I do?" she said to the snake.
". . . if it would not be too much to ask . . . the heat . . . fire is death to my kind. . . ."
Now that Alys thought of it, she saw it would be madness to keep a bird or any other living creature so close to that great fire. She looked up and realized with dismay that the cage could not be detached from its chain. She would have to reach in and take the snake in her hands.
"Don't," said Janie.
Alys hesitated. She didn't want to do it, but she couldn't just walk away and leave the creature to die. "You won't-er, bite me, will you?"
"Ah, lady . . ." The tiny voice was so pained that Alys felt ashamed. With a sideways glance at Janie she unfastened the cage door and took out the snake, which was neither slimy nor scaly, but dry and very warm. It drooped limply from her hand, head and tail hanging like pieces of old string.
"It's cooler at the other end of the hall," said Janie. Janie might be difficult at times, but she never got hysterical and she seldom nagged. Alys felt grateful for this as she carried the snake back and laid it on the floor near the double doors.
"Is that any better?"
The snake gave a weak, appreciative wiggle. "My life ... is yours. . . ."
"What was it doing there, anyway?" said Janie.
"Hush. It's tired out. It can't talk." Alys was tempted to pet the snake down its blue and coral length, but she resisted. Although it was nearly two feet long, its back was marred by little bumps or stubs, giving it the look of a very slim caterpillar.
"What were you doing in that cage?" said Janie again. "I just thought if Morgana did it we'd better know about it," she added, with a quelling look at Alys.
"The Lady Morgana . . . ah, no. It was that devil, Cadal Forge."
"Him!" said Alys. They strained to hear the papery voice.
"That cage was meant for a firebird, a phoenix . . . but he caught me and put me there lest I fly away."
"Fly?" said Janie.
"Like a butterfly," said Alys, pleased with her deductive powers. "You're a caterpillar, aren't you?"
When the creature spoke again its voice was a little stronger. "Gentle lady, you mock me." Then, with a laugh like a whispered sigh, it said, "Although only an infant of my kind, I am a Feathered Serpent."
"You mean you have wings?" Alys bent over the serpent, reaching a tentative finger toward one of the bumps. Now that she looked at them more closely, they didn't look decorative at all. They looked . . . like wounds. . . .
"Cadal Forge tore them off," whispered the serpent.
________________________________________
The stairway to the cellar was just off the kitchen, and it plunged narrow and straight into the darkness below. Moments after Charles and Claudia stepped onto it, the darkness engulfed them. Charles took a flashlight out of his windbreaker pocket and switched it on, but the light seemed pitifully weak, and illuminated only a small area of the steep, uneven stone steps. He put his free hand on the wall to steady himself and quickly snatched it back. The wall was furry-with slime, cobwebs, fungus, who knew what. He didn't turn the flashlight aside to see.
Behind him, Claudia had a firm grip on his wind-breaker. Charles wanted to say something to reassure her, but the darkness and the silence closed his throat. It felt as if no one had spoken in this place for centuries.
They reached the bottom, cut off completely from the world of light and sound. The room was so large that it had the open-air feeling of a subterranean cavern walled with hewn stone and floored with hard-packed earth. With Claudia still clutching him desperately, Charles made the circuit of the room, keeping close to the bulk of the wall. If, he thought, something were to leap suddenly out of the blackness into the small bright spot the flashlight made . . .
When they got to the far end with its mirror of stained and battered steel, Charles began to feel a little better. Nothing had jumped out at them. But there was no sign of Morgana. Just to be sure, they would hug the other wall on the way back and look into the counterpart of Morgana's secret workroom, but he was already certain they would find nothing. This place was empty, deserted as a forgotten tomb. No one had disturbed its stillness for centuries.
It was then, of course, that a voice spoke out of the darkness behind them.
Внимание! Этот перевод, возможно, ещё не готов.
Его статус: идёт перевод
Английский текст будет изменен на русский по мере готовности (Готово 40% главы)