johnzy: переводы

→Every year Muffie opened up her sprawling Hamptons estate, “Ocean’s End”, for a fashion show to benefit the New York Blood Bank. It was the highlight of the August social calendar. Located at the end of Gin Lane, the property sprawled over six acres and included a manor house with a separate and equally lavish guesthouse, a twelve-car garage, and staff quarters.

→She was also one of New York’s most popular socialites. Jealous rivals sniped that the public just took a liking to her name. It was so outrageously preppie it sounded like a joke. But it was not; it was the real thing, like Muffie herself, who embodied a horsey, Bedford, WASP authenticity in an age of brash nouveau-riche hordes adding “von? or ‘de? to their names and who didn’t know a Verdura from a Van Cleef.

→El Sol de Ajuste was located in Cidada de Deus, The City of God, the notorious slums in the western part of the city that had inspired a major Hollywood movie and a subsequent television show, City of Men. Of course, the real city was nothing like the cleaned-up Hollywood version, which was the equivalent of a ‘slum tour’ arranged by hotel concierges: showcasing fashionable grittiness. The reality of poverty was much harsher and much uglier, the towering mountains of trash, the stench of sewer and garbage, the bare-bottomed children languishing on the streets, smoking cigarettes; the way no one batted the flies away, they were way past caring about something so simple as flies.

→Muffie Astor Carter (real name Muriel) was a Blue Blood in every sense of the word. She was educated at Miss Porter’s and Vassar, and had worked in the publicity department of Harry Winston before marrying Dr. Sheldon Carter, who had found fame as the plastic surgeon to the Park Avenue set. Their bonding was one of the more controversial ones in recent memory, as it had taken each quite a few attempts to find the other. He was her second husband and she his third wife.

→Right, Mimi remembered. Lucifer was the Prince of Heaven. The Morningstar. It made sense that to the Silver Bloods, his doom was akin to the setting sun.

→“It’s an old Silver Blood expression, the setting sun describes Lucifer’s fall to Earth,” Kingsley explained. ‘That could be it.”

→“There’s a bar not too far away called El Sol de Ajuste. The Setting Sun.”

→Meanwhile, the other Venators were deep in the glom, consulting their memories, trying to ascertain the meaning behind the words. Finally, Ted opened his eyes and spoke.

→“Just trying to keep things interesting”, Mimi telepathed in return. “And get out of my head. You don’t belong here.”

→“You make light of trivial matters”, Kingsley sent.

→A riddle. Great. A year of tracking down the Watcher, and when they finally get somewhere, they find some kind of one-eyed sphinx blocking the path. Could it have hurt her to have written Am being held captive at 101 Favela Lane! Come soon and bring a Luna Bar! Or was that just too much to ask?

→“Of course. Sophia always did say wisdom had to be earned.”

→It was the longest sentence he had said in a year. Even Sam looked surprised to find his brother so garrulous. Kingsley nodded.

→“It’s a riddle. A clue,” Ted said suddenly. “A clue to her whereabouts. ‘the sun shall show the way.”

→“You forget. The Watcher can see into the future. If she was being held by Silver Bloods, as she surely was, she must have felt threatened enough to allow only the most cryptic of communications.”

→He has no idea, does he, Mimi thought. “Why would the Watcher take the trouble to send us a note but then have the note be nonsense?” she asked, annoyed. “And how did she know I was coming? And bringing a stuffed toy?”

→In answer, Kingsley folded up the note carefully and tucked it into his jacket pocket.

→Phoebus was the name of the sun king in the old tongue, Mimi knew, and the rest was easy enough to understand.

→He quieted her with a look and showed them the letter. One line, written in the same beautiful calligraphy. Phoebus ostend praeeo.

→“So? What? She’s gone to a Miley Cyrus concert? She’s written a cell phone novel? What does it say?”