"L. Sprague De Camp - The Unbeheaded King" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Camp L Sprague)

'"How long will this take?' asked King Ishbahar.

"The engineer thought a moment and said: 'May it
please Your Maiesty, allowing time for drawing up a plan
and assembling materials, I am sure we can have you out
in a fortnight.'

"'And meanwhile we shall sit here soaking?' said Ish-
bahar. 'Come, come, my good fellow! Fetch us the head
of the School of Spirit.'

"So they brought in the head wizard of the School of
Spint, a bitter rival of the chief engineer in the House of
Learning. The enchanter said: 'Your Majesty, I have just
the thing! It is my newly developed levitation spell, which
can easily handle up to three talents avoirdupois. Let me
fetch my instruments, and all shall be well.'

"So, after midnight, the wizard ordered all the others
out of the bath chamber and began his spell. He burned
mysterious powders in a brazier, whence arose many-hued
smokes that wnthed and twined like ghostly serpents. He
chanted mystical phrases, and shadows chased each other
about the walls, albeit there was no solid body in the
chamber to cast them. The hangings rippled, and the can-

THE UNBEHEADED KING

die flames flickered, although there was no wind m the
chamber.

"At length the wizard cried three words of power, and
King Ishbahar roseтАФbut the tub rose with him, still firmly
attached to the royal haunches. At length the wizard was
compelled by sheer fatigue to let the king and his tub settle
back to the floor. This tub, you understand, had no faucet
and no pipes to let water in and out, so it could be freely
moved.

"At length the favorite wife, named Haziran, came m
to see what was keeping her lord so long. She found the
king still in the tub, and the chief engineer and the chief
wizard and the servants all standing about, muttering dis-
consolately at their failure to get the king unstuck. They
were proposing desperate expedients, such as starving the
king until he shrank enough no longer to fit so snugly,
like a cork in a bottle.

"Haziran looked the situation over and said, 'You are