"Gordon R. Dickson - Dragon Knight 06 - The Dragon and the Djinn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

fashion, in the proper place. That was what the hall was there for. The table servants who had to bring
food from the outside kitchen to the serving room might freeze in the process. That was beside the point.
There was a way things should be done; and that was the way it should be done here.

тАЬWhereтАЩs James?тАЭ Brian asked after a few moments, having managed to take on at least enough meat
pie and wine to begin satisfying his clamoring stomach.

тАЬHeтАЩll be along shortly,тАЭ said Angle. тАЬRight now heтАЩs up there.тАЭ

She pointed her finger vertically.

тАЬAh, yes,тАЭ said Brian, meaning he understood. This gesture of AngleтАЩs, which might have either baffled a
stranger or seemed to imply AngleтАЩs husband had left this earthly scene, was something completely
reasonable and understood between these two.

тАЬHe thought he should take a look at our people on the lands outside the castle,тАЭ said Angie, тАЬand make
sure all of them came through the storm all right.тАЭ

Brian nodded, his mouth full. He swallowed.

тАЬThen, with your pardon, my Lady, I shall wait until he comes back,тАЭ Brian said, тАЬand tell you both at
the same time what I came to say. I would like the two of you to hear it together. It is great news, indeed.
You will grant me mercy if I do not speak of it now?тАЭ

тАЬCertainly,тАЭ said Angie. In spite of the courtly question at the end of BrianтАЩs little speech, Angie knew
that Brian had no intention of speaking until her husband got back; and that was a red flag to her. If Brian
wanted to talk to the two of them together, he wanted or needed something from Jim; and in that case
experience had taught Angie to be ready to resist. Forewarned was forearmed.

тАЬHe should be back soon,тАЭ she said.

CHAPTER TWO

At the moment Jim was on wing over the southeast comer of the lands he owned as Sir James Eckert,
Baron of Malencontri. This part was mainly meadow and open farmland; and he was searching the white
landscape below for those relatively few of his tenants and farmers who lived in isolated spots farther out
from the castle, to see if any of them needed assistance after the storm.

He was feeling a keen delight in being airborne. It was strange, he thought now, how he forgot about the
sheer joy of it when he was not translated into dragon form; and how strongly the feeling came back to
him once he was aloft. It was a far more gratifying feeling than flying a small plane, which Jim had taken a
few lessons at doing, back in his original twentieth-century world, or even like soaring in a man-made
glider, which he had done as a passenger, twice. In this case it was his living, feeling self alone that was
riding the air currents; and there was a triumphant sensation of both freedom and power.

In his large dragon body, with its much higher mass-to-surface ratio than that of his human one, he was
not bothered by the cold. Heat would have been something else again. He had almost melted down trying
to walk through the summer heat in the middle part of France as a dragon, a couple of years ago; and the
rush of cold air about him now was only pleasant.