"(ebook) Anthony Piers - Xanth 03 - Castle Roogna" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

Dor's eyes snapped closed. He barged ahead, trying to get out of the room before any accident caused him to take an involuntary look. He knew what the gorgon was; her glance turned men to stone. If they met that glance with their own.

His blindly moving feet tripped over a step, and Dor fell headlong. He threw his arms up to shield his face, but did not open his eyes. He landed jarringly and lay there, eyelids still tightly screwed down.

There was the swish of long skirts coming near. "Get up, young man," the gorgon said. Her voice was deceptively soft.

"No!" Dor cried. "I don't want to turn to stone!"

"You won't turn to stone. The hurdles are over; you have won your way into the castle of the Good Magician Humfrey. No one will harm you here.'*

"Go away!" he said. "I won't look at you!"

She sighed, very femininely. "Golem, you look at me. Then you can reassure your friend."

"I don't want to be stone either!" Grundy protested. "I had too much trouble getting real to throw it away now. I saw what happened to all those men your sister the siren lured to your island."

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"And you also saw how the Good Magician nullified me. There is no threat now."

"That's right! HeЧbut how do I know the spell's still on? It's been a long time sinceЧ"

"Take this mirror and look at me through the reflection first," she said. "Then you will know."

"I can't handle a big mirror! I'm only inches tall, only aЧoh, what's the usel Dor, I'm going to look at her. If I turn to stone, you'll know she can't be trusted."

"Grundy, don'tЧ"

*'I already have," the golem said, relieved. "It*s all right, Dor, you can look."

Grundy had never deceived him. Dor clenched his teeth and cracked open an eye, seeing the lighted room and the gorgon's nearest foot. It was a very pretty foot, with fluorescently tinted toenails, topped by a shapely ankle. Funny how he had never noticed ankles before! He got to his hands and knees, his eyes traveling cautiously up her marvelously molded legs until the view was cut off by the hem of her gown. It was a shapely gown, too, slightly translucent so that the suggestion of her legs continued on up toЧbut enough of this stalling. He forced his reluctant eyes to travel all the way up past her contours until they approached her head.

Her hair, now unbound, consisted of a mass of writhing little snakes. They were appealingly horrible. But the faceЧwas nothing. Just a vacuum, as if the head were a hollow ball with the front panel removed.

"ButЧbut I saw your face before, all except the eyesЧ"

"You saw this mask of my face," she said, holding it up. "And the dark glasses. There was never any chance for you to look into my true face."

So it seemed. "Then whyЧ?"

"To scare you offЧif you lacked the courage to do what is necessary in order to reach the Good Magician."

"I just closed my eyes and ran," Dor said.

"But you ran forward, not back."

So he had. Even in his terror, he had not given up

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