"Anthony Piers - Incarnations 3 - With a Tangled Skien" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

She changed the subject. "I gather that you did not

want toЧto get married?"

"Pshaw, ma'am, I'm not ready for nothing like that!"
he agreed. "I don't know nothing about women. And I
wanted to finish school, and get into the track program,
so I could maybe make something of myself, you know.
But you know how it is when the family decides."

"I know," she agreed. "I suppose it's no secret that I
objected to thisЧI mean, I didn't even know you, Cedric,
just your name and age and that you came from a good
family. It's nothing personalЧ"

"It's a good family, all right," he agreed. "And so's
yours, which is whyЧyou know." He shrugged. "I just
wasn't, well, quite ready."

Piers Anthony 9

She found herself liking this honest, unassuming boy.
She had an idea. "Look, CedricЧwhy don't you go to
school anyway? We can afford it, and if you really want
to get an educationЧ"

His face brightened. "Say, you mean it, ma'am? You'd
let me go?"

"I would encourage it, Cedric."

"But you'd be alone here, ma'am, andЧ"

"I'll be safe enough. There are no dragons in these for-
ests." She smiled.

He paused, as if slightly stunned. Her smile had been
known to have that effect on men. Then he frowned.
"There is magic, though," he said darkly. "Those trees
cast spellsЧ"

"Not against those who understand them," Niobe said.
"I have been studying the magic of the wetlands forest.
Those trees and plants only want to live and let live. But
when you come marching in with an axeЧ"

He was startled. "Say, I never thought of that! If I was
a tree, I wouldn't like it none neither!" Then he paused.
"SayЧI know I didn't say that right. Ma'am, would