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

"YouЧif you would care to animate my body while

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my spirit is awayЧI know it's not much of a body, just a juvenileЧ"

Done! the Coral replied. Go work your spells; I will be there.

"Uh, thank you. IЧ"

Thank you. / have existed a thousand years, storing mortals in my preservative lake, without ever enjoying the sensations of mortality myself. Now at last I shall experience them, however fleetingly.

"Uh, yes, I guess. You do understand that I will want my body back, whenЧ"

Naturally. Such spells are always self-limiting; there will be no more than a fortnight before it reverts. Time enough.

Self-limiting? Dor hadn't known that. What a good thing the Good Magician had set it up. Had Dor tried to work such a spell by himself, he could have been stuck forever in the tapestry. The best spells were fail-safe.

The carpet took off without warning. "Farewell, Coral!" Dor cried, but there was no answer. Either the Brain Coral's communications range was short, or it had ceased to pay attention. Or it objected to inane courtesies.

The return trip was similar to the descent, with its interminable convolutions, but now Dor felt more secure, and his stomach stayed pretty much in place. He had new confidence hi the Good Magician's planning and hi the carpet's competence. He hardly winced as they shot up out of the crack into the bosom of the tangle tree, though he did have a qualm as the tentacles convulsed. The carpet merely dodged the embrace, allowing the Tangier to catch nothing but the qualm, and zoomed along the base of the crevasse. When well clear of the tree, it rose smoothly out of the chasm and powered into the sky. The afternoon was bUndingly bright, after the gloom of the caverns.

Now they flew north. Dor looked down, trying to spot the Magic Dust village, but all he saw was jungle, One area was dark, as if burned out, but no village. Then, all too soon, Castle Roogna hove in view. The carpet circled it once, getting its bearings as was its

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$ wont, then slanted down and into a window, through a hall, and into the tapestry room.

"Here's the first spell," Grundy said, lifting the yellow package.

MNo, wait!'* Dor cried, abruptly afraid of the magnitude of what he contemplated. He had supposed he would only have to search out some hidden spring in the contemporary world, and now faced a far more significant undertaking. To actually enter a pictureЧ "I need time to uncramp my legs, toЧ" To decide whether he was really up to this challenge. MaybeЧ

But Grundy had already torn open the wrapping. Yellow mist spread out, diffusing into the air, forming a little cloud.

"I don't even know what body hi the tapestry toЧ**

Then the expanding mist encompassed him. Dor felt himself swaying, falling without falling. For a moment he saw his body standing there stupidly, tousle-haired and slack-jawed. Then the great tapestry was coming at him, expanding hugely. There was a bug on it, then this too fuzzed out. He glimpsed a section of woven jungle, with a muscular young man standing with a huge sword, at bay againstЧ

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Chapter 3. Jumper

If or stood at bay, his trusty blade unmasked. The goblins in front of him faded back, afraid, before he could get a close look at them. He hadn*t seen goblins in the fiesh before. They were small, twisted, ugly creatures with disproportionately large heads and hands and feet.

Goblins? Of course he hadn't seen them before! There had been few goblins on the surface of Xanth hi daylight for centuriesl They hid in the caverns beneath the surface, afraid of light.

OhЧthis was no longer the present! This was the tapestry, depicting the world of eight hundred years ago. So there could be goblins hereЧbold ones, un-cowed by light.

But he, himselfЧwhat of him? What bodyЧoh, yes, the huge-thewed, giant young man. Dor had never before experienced such ready power; the massive sword felt light in his hands, though he knew that in his real body he would barely have been able to swing it two-handed. This was the kind of body he had daydreamed about!