"Gordon R. Dickson - Dragon Knight 02 - The Dragon Knight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

silent alarm bell. Finally, with a snort of exasperation, he lifted his head and opened his eyes again to the
light spilling around the edges of the window covering, light which was just bright enough now to dimly
show the interior of the bedchamber.

He chilled-and not by reason of the cold bedchamber alone.

He was no longer in his own body. Once more, as it had been when he had originally come to this world
by astral projection to rescue Angie, his body had become the body of a very good-sized dragon.

тАЬNo!тАЭ The word almost escaped from Jim out loud; but he stifled it just in time. Of all things, he did not
want to wake Angie now and have her see him as he was.

A frantic feeling possessed him. Had he turned into a dragon for good? If so, why? Anything was
possible in this crazy world where magic was part of reality. Perhaps he had only been destined to stay
here in his own human body a certain length of time. Perhaps whatever rules governed this kind of thing
ordained that he should be a human only half a year and then a dragon half a year. If that was the case,
Angie would not like his being a dragon six months of the time at all.

Not at all.

He had to have answers. The one possible source of answers was the Accounting Office, that odd
invisible bass voice that seemed to know everything, but chose to tell only what it felt like telling.
Apparently, it kept some kind of a record of the magic credit of people who dealt in that
commodity-which evidently now included him; first, because he had come to this world by magical
means, and second because he had been involved in the frustration of the evil powers at the Loathly
Tower less than ten months before.

He opened his mouth to speak to the Accounting Office. As far as he knew they were open twenty-four
hours a day-if they was the right word for them.

Just in time, he remembered that speaking to the Accounting Office was just about as likely to wake
Angie as suddenly shouting тАЬNo,тАЭ the way be had been about to, a moment before.

The only thing to do was to sneak out from under the covers, get out of the room and far enough away
so that he could speak to the Accounting Office without waking Angie.

Gradually, he began to ease his enormous body out from under the covers. His tail slid out without
trouble. He got one leg out, then the other. He was just starting to move his enormous body when Angie
stirred in her sleep beside him, yawned, smiled, and, still without opening her eyes, stretched out a pair of
long, lovely arms into the cold air as she arched her body and woke up.

┬╖ Just as Jim, by the grace of whoever or whatever was responsible, suddenly reverted to being his
own human self again.

Angie had wakened smiling. She continued to smile at Jim for a drowsy moment, then gradually the smile
faded and a frown creased a faint line between her eyes.

тАЬI could swear...тАЭ she said. тАЬYou werenтАЩt going someplace just now were you? I had a feeling... You
sure something unusual wasnтАЩt going on with you just a second ago?тАЭ