"Anthony, Piers - Adept - 06 - Unicorn Point" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

Neysa stood awkwardly. Naturally she was pleased to hear
her offspring praised, but she was not speaking to Fleta, as
perhaps Icebeard knew. Demons had ways of teasing. Stile
did not comment.

"She it was, methinks, made him what he be," the demon
concluded. "A filly worthy o' any male, like her dam."

Neysa did not react visibly, but the snow around her was
beginning to melt. At last the demon had mercy, and directed
his minions to escort her out and to keep lookout for her safe
return perhaps a week hence.

It occurred to Stile that he could get to like Icebeard. As

16 | Piers Anthony

Neysa departed, they walked to the chessboard with its pieces
crafted from ice. He did not care to admit it, but he had
looked forward to this game as much as had the demon, be-
cause Icebeard was indeed the best other player in Phaze.

And, with luck, the Adverse Adepts would relax, believing
that Stile could not make any initiative against them while
locked in a chess game in the cold White Mountains. He was
counting on that. Chess was not the only game he was playing

at the moment.
"Let's get on with it, pretender," Stile said. "I expect to

wipe the floor with thy king before the hour be out."

Icebeard swelled up like an advancing glacier. ' 'Thou dost
call me pretender? Thy king shall be meltwater, and thy queen

ravished ere mine be threatened!''
Stile smiled grimly. They both knew this was going to be

great fun.

2

Mack

Mach felt the disorientation of the exchange. It was both
physical and emotional: physical because he moved from a
living to a machine body, and emotional because the frame
of Phaze was so different, with its magic and his unicorn wife
and son. He hated to return to Proton, though his existence
here was hardly a negative one. It was merely a less feeling