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

"I just came to report that the paper is finished and off to the tutor."

"Monsters on this side!" Irene repeated, glancing down at herself.

"Sic him, Weedles!"

A tendril reached out of the water and caught his ankle. Another one of
her playful plants! "Cut that out!" Dor cried, windmilling as the vine
yanked at his leg. It was no good; he lost his balance and fell into
the moat with a great splash.

"Ho, ho, ho!" the water laughed. "Guess that doused your fire!"

Dor struck at the surface furiously with his fist, but it did no good.

Like it or not, he was swimming in all his clothes.

"Hey, I just thought of something," Irene called. "That spelling
bee-did you define the words for it?"

"No, of course not," Dor spluttered, trying to scramble out of the water
but getting tangled in the tendrils of the plant that had pulled him in.
Pride prevented him from asking Irene for help, though one word from her
would tame the plant.

She saw the need, however. "Easy, Weedless" she said, and the

plant eased off. Then she returned to her subject. "There may be
trouble. If you used any homonyms-"

"No, I couldn't have. I never heard of them." Weedies was no longer
attacking, but each time Dor tried to swim to the bank, the plant moved
to intercept him. He had antagonized Irene by his monsters crack, and
she was getting back at him mercilessly. She was like her mother in
that respect. Sometimes Dor felt the world would be better off If the
entire species of female were abolished.

"Different words that sound the same, duncel" she said with maidenly
arrogance. "Different spellings. The spelling bee isn't that smart; if
you don't tell it exactly which word-2'

"Different spellings?" he asked, experiencing a premonitory chill.

"Like wood and would," she said, showing off her vocabulary in

the annoying way girls had. "Wood-tree, would-could. Or isle and

aisle, meaning a bit of land in a lake or a cleared space between ob
jects. No connection between the two except they happen to sound