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

"No, that's not cowardice. Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be doneЧthat's courage. The one who feels no fear is a fool, and the one who lets fear rule him is a coward. You are neither. Same for you, golem. You never deserted your friend, and were willing to risk your precious flesh body to help him. I think the Magician will answer."

Dor considered that. "I sure don't feel very brave," he said at last. "All I did was hide my face."

"I admit it would have been more impressive had you closed your eyes and fenced with me blind/* she said. "Or snatched up a mirror to use. We keep several handy, for those who have the wit to take that option. But you're only a boy. The standards are not as strict."

46

**Uh, yes," Dor agreed, still not pleased.

*You should have seen me when I came here," she warmly. "I was so frightened, I hid my faceЧ jgst as you did."

;v'*B you didn't hide your face, you'd turn everyone to stone," Grundy pointed out

"That too," she agreed.

"Say," Grundy demanded. "It was twelve years ago when you met the Good Gnome. I was there, remember? How come you're just now asking your Question?"

"I left my island at the Time of No Magic," she said frankly. "Suddenly no magic worked at all hi the whole Land of Xanth, and the magic things were dying or turning mundane, and all the old spells were undone. I don't know why that wasЧ"

"I know," Grundy said. "But I can't tell, except to say it won't happen again.**

"All my former conquests reverted to life. There were some pretty rowdy men there, you knowЧtrolls and things. So I got all flustered and fled. I was afraid they would hurt me."

"That was a sensible fear," Grundy said. "When they didn't catch you, they went back to the Magic Dust village where most of them had come from, and I guess they're still there. Lot of very eager women in that village, after all that tune with all their men gone."

**But when the magic came back, the Magician's spell on my face was gone. It was one of the one-shot variety, that carried only until interrupted. A lot of spells are like that, mine included. So I had my face again, and IЧyou know."

Dor knew. She had started making statues again.

"By then, I knew what was happening," she continued. **I had been pretty naive, there on my isolated island, but I was learning. I really didn't want to be that way. So I remembered what Humfrey had said about Mundania, where magic doesn't ever workЧ (fiat certainly must be a potent counterspell laid on that lafcdlЧand I went there. And he was right. I was a normal girl. I had thought I could never stand to leave th, but the Time of No Magic showed me that may-could stand it after all. And when I tried, I could.

47

It was sort of strange and fun, not nearly as bad as I had feared. People accepted me, and menЧdo you know I'd never kissed a man in Xanth?"

Dor was ashamed to comment He had never kissed a woman other than his mother, who of course didn't count. He thought fleetingly of Millie. IfЧ

**But after a while I began to miss Xanth,** the gor-gon continued. "The magic, the special creaturesЧ do you know I even got to miss the tangle trees? When you're born to magic you can't just set it aside; it is part of your being. So I had to come back. But that meantЧyou know, more statues. So I went to Hurafrey's castle. By that time I knew he was the Good MagicianЧhe never told me that when we met! Чand that he wasn't all that approachable, and I got girlishly nervous. I knew that if I wanted to be with a man in Xanth, I mean man-to-woman, it would have to be one like him. Who had the power to neutralize my talent. The more I thought about itЧwell, here I am."

*"Didn't you have trouble getting into the castle?**

**Oh, yes! It was awful. There was this foghorn guarding the moat, and I found this little boat there, but every time I tried to cross that horn blasted out such columns of fog that I couldn't see or hear anything, and the boat always turned around and came back to shore. It was a magic boat, you see; you had to steer it or it went right back to its dock. I got all covered in fog, and my hair was hissing something awful; it doesn't like that sort of thing.**

Her hair, of course, consisted of myriad tiny snakes or eels. They were rather cute, now that he was getting used to the style. "How did you get across the moat, then?"

"I finally got smart. I steered the boat directly toward the foghorn, no matter how bad the fog got. It was like swimming through a waterfall! When I reached the hornЧ-I was across. Because it was inside, not outside."

"OopsЧthe gnome cometh," Grundy said.