"Anthony, Piers - Xanth 04 - Centaur Aisle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

Soon the wasp appeared. It was large, with a narrow waist and fine
reddish-brown color: an attractive female of her species, marred only by
shreds of dust on her wings. "WWWWWW?" she buzzed, making the dust fly
off so that she was completely pretty again.

Dor gave her the paper and opened the window again. "Take this to the
lady centaur Cherie. After that you're on your own."

She perched momentarily on the sill, holding the paper.

"WWWWWW?" she asked again.

Dor did not understand wasp language, and his friend Grundy the Golem,
who did, was not around. But he had a fair notion what the wasp was
thinking of. "No, I wouldn't advise trying to sting Cherie.

She can crack her tail about like a whip, and she never misses a fly."

Or the seat of someone's pants, he added mentally, when someone was
foolish enough to backtalk about an assignment. Dor had learned the
hard way.

The wasp carried the paper out the window with a satisfied hum.

Dor knew it would deliver; like the spelling bee, it had to be true to
its nature. A paper wasp could not mishandle a paper.

Dor went out to report to Irene. He found her on the south side of the
castle in a bathing suit, swimming with a contented sea cow and feeding
the cow handfuls of sea oats she was magically growing on the bank.
Zilch mooed when she saw Dor, alerting Irene.

"Hi, Dor-come in sm%ming!" Irene called.

"In the moat with the monsters?" he retorted.

"I grew a row of blackjack oaks across it to buttress th,, wallflowers,"
she said. "The monsters can't pass."

Dor looked. Sure enough, a moat-monster was pacing the line,

staY 9 just c e of the blac a s

and'ngot taggledar ki ek . It nudged too close at one point

those trees! by a well-swung blackjack. There was no passing Still,
Dor decided to stay clear. He didn't trust what Zilch might have done
in the water. "I meant the monsters on this side," he said.