"(ebook) Anthony Piers - Xanth 12 - Man from Mundania" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

6 Man from Mundania

"Didn't you know a Boy, once?" Electra asked. She
had been born more than eight hundred years beforeЧ-
maybe closer to nine hundredЧand had slept through all
those centuries until Dolph kissed her awake. So her phys-
ical age was fifteen, and she looked twelve; indeed, she
was still a child in all the ways that counted, except for
the spell that made her love Dolph- But because of that
spell, she understood something of love and had a lively
curiosity about it.

"Yes," Ivy said, remembering. "I knew Hugo, the
Good Magician's son. He was five years older than me."

"The right way around!" Nada said. They all knew that
a boy could love a girl who was five years younger, but a
girl could not love a boy five years younger. That was
Nada's plight. She could marry Dolph, when the time
came, but couldn't love him.

"Oh," Electra said, understanding. "So when the Good
Magician disappeared, so did his son!"

"Yes. Hugo wasn't much, but he was nice, and he could
conjure fruit. Only he usually conjured rotten fruit."

"Rotten fruit!" Electra exclaimed, laughing. She
plucked a cherry from her pie and tossed it at Ivy. "Have
some rotten fruit!"

"Oh, so that's the way it is!" Ivy cried with mock out-
rage. She plucked a fragment of peach from her own pie
and threw it at Electra. "Have a peach of pie yourself!"
But Electra, childishly canny, ducked, and the piece hit
Nada.

"Oho!" Nada said. Her pie was lemon meringue, but
there were no lemon pieces to throw, so she threw me-
ringue instead.

In a moment they were engrossed in their very most
favorite sport: a food fight. For some obscure reason this
was frowned on at the castle, so this was a golden oppor-
tunity. When Stanley returned, all three were thoroughly
spattered. The dragon offered to lick them clean, but at
the first lick Electra dissolved into titillations of ticklish-
ness, and that set them all off in helpless laughter.