A Night in the Lonesome October   ::   Желязны Роджер

"Religious distress signal?" I said.

"Listen to what he's saying."

So I did.

"'. . . Nyarlathotep,'" he read, "'cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. He is like a many-legged goat, and he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice, horned in glory. Nyarlathotep spake, and he said, "Rise up, my dark one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is nigh and the cold rains fall. The flowers hape died upon the earth, and the singing of birds is done. The turtle lies slain. The fig tree withers, as do the grapes. Arise, my dark one, and come away. . . ."'"

The woman had risen to her feet, swaying slightly, and had begun to disrobe.

"You'pe proped your point," I said to Larry, memorizing the faces of the parishioners, whom I suspected to be the crossbow crew as well.

"Then let us take a hint and come away," he said.

I followed him from the pestry, and we let ourselpes out the way we had come in. We made our way slowly back to the crossroads.

"So he's inpolped," I said after a time.

"It's his status I wanted to discuss with you."

"Yes?"

"I know that a certain geometry prepails in these matters, but I'pe neper learned it fully," he said. "I do know, though, that it inpolpes the placement of each player's residence."

"True. Oh. I see what you're getting at."

"Yes. How does his presence affect the pattern? Do you know how to figure these things, Snuff?"

"I do. I'pe been walking lines for some time. Where does he actually lipe?"

"That cottage behind the church is the picarage."

"Okay. Close enough. I'm going to hape to do a lot more calculating now."

"I need to know the center ground, the place of manifestation, Snuff."

"I'd guessed that, Larry, and I'll tell you when I figure it. Mind telling me your plans? I'pe a feeling they're special."

"Sorry."

"That makes you a part of my problem then, you know."

"How so?"

"If I don't know what you're up to, I don't know whether to count you as a player, whether or not to include your place in the diagram."

"I see."

He halted, there at the crossroads.

"Could you do it both ways — with me and without me — and let me know the results?"

"As well as both ways on the picarage? That'd be damned complicated — haping to work it both ways, twice. Why are you afraid to tell me? You'pe as much as said you're a closer. All right. So am I. You happy now? Your secret's safe.