"(ebook) Anthony Piers - Xanth 16 - Demons Don't Dream" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

Grundy sighed and walked off-screen. Nada turned to Dug. "Please introduce yourself," she said appealingly. "Just type your name and description, so that I can relate to you."

Eagerly he typed. DUG. MALE. AGE 16. So she was five years older; who cared? This was only a game.

"Why, hello, Doug," she said. "I am sure we shall get along very well."

Oops. DUG, he typed. NO O. IT'S NOT SHORT FOR DOUGLAS, EITHER. IT'S JUST DUG.

She lifted one dainty hand to her mouth, blushing prettily. "Oh, I apologize, Dug! Please forgive me."

Actually, if she wanted to call him Doug or Douglas, let her do it. From her it would sound just great.

NO NEED, he typed quickly. I NEVER MET A PRINCESS BEFORE. It was a game, but it had become an interesting game, and he wanted to play it for what it was worth. He realized that he was losing his bet with Edsel, but he no longer cared. He just wanted to continue playing.

"It is a liability, being a princess," she said. "It was nice of you to select me anyway. I shall try to be an effective Companion for you."

DEMONS DON'T DREAM 9

I'M SURE YOU WILL BE PERFECT, he typed, speaking the words at the same time, really getting into it

"Dug, may I give you some advice?" she asked prettily.

"Anything you want," he said, his fingers flying to keep the pace.

"It will be easier if you get into the scene with me. So that we can relate to each other more readily. Do you know how to do that?"

"I'd love to get into the scene with you," he agreed. "But you're on the computer screen, and I'm out here in real life." So maybe it was a foolish business, getting emotionally involved like this, treating her as if she were a real person, but it was fun. He was amazed at how responsive she was.

"This is true. But though I can not come out to join you, you can in effect come in to join me. You have to suspend your disbelief a bit, and refocus your eyes."*

'Til try." He wished he could forget this was a fantasy game, and just live the fantasy: himself with this lovely woman.

"You see, the screen looks flat to you because you are focusing flat. But if you will try to focus your eyes on something behind the screen, as if it were a window to another world, you will find that it becomes rounded. See if you can do it."

Rounded. She was already so nicely rounded that he hardly cared about the rest But he obligingly tried to focus his eyes beyond the screen. The image of Nada fuzzed somewhat; that was all. "I don't see to be getting it," he said.

"See the two dots at the top?" she asked, pointing. Now he saw them, hovering just above her speech balloon. "Try to make them become three dots. Then you will be in the right range. It may not happen right away, but once it does, you will know it**

"Okay," he typed. He was glad that he could do it by touch, so that he could answer her without taking his eyes from die screen. He refocused his eyes, trying to make die

10 PIERS ANTHONY

two dots into three. He didn't really believe that anything would come of this, but he wanted to give his best try to whatever she asked him to do.

The picture blurred, refocused and blurred again. The two dots became four, then bobbed a bit and fused into three. And then, quietly, die third dimension came.

Dug stared. Literally. The picture was now 3-D! He wasn't wearing colored glasses or using one of those two-picture stereo dinguses; it was just the computer screen. But now the screen had become like a pane of glass, a window opening to a scene beyond. Nada Naga stood in the foreground, with the grass of the glade behind her, and the fantasy jungle in the background. It was all so real he was stunned.

"That's better," Nada said smiling. "I see you in rounded form now, Dug."