"Kushner,.Donn.-.A.Book.DragonUC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

Then, while all her guests remained frozen. Lady Ursula
rose to her feet. She seized a trombone from one of the cowering
musicians and fearlessly thrust it up the left nostril of the
dragon just as it swallowed the last peacock.

The dragon, whose shoulders and forelegs were now inside
the marquee, reared back with an indignant snort. He lifted
the great tent from its moorings. The stretched linen sides
bowled the musicians into a heap, and many of the guests
with them. Those who could run dashed out the other side,
bearing the table to the ground. Some, in panic, ran the other
way, squeezing past the dragon's sides. Outside, the men-at-
arms, roused at last from the hot afternoon's lethargy, began
to hack at the dragon's tail with broadswords.

And now Greedyguts, as eager as any of the guests to be
gone, tried to withdraw his head; but his scales had become
entangled in the silk banners and his ears were snared by the
horizontal support ropes. With a fierce tug he backed away.
The marquee followed him, leaving Lady Ursula standing by
the wreckage of her betrothal feast. Only when he was within
the shadow of the forest was the dragon able to shake the tent
and its banners from his neck and ears. He looked back at

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Lady Ursula, and received such a glare of hatred that, burping
apologetically, he slid out of sight among the trees.

Still Lady Ursula stood by her overturned table, ignoring
all efforts to bring her to safety within the castle walls. Her
fiance remained at her side, looking at her with wonder and
doubt. At last, as darkness was falling, Lady Ursula spoke
quietly, but in a voice that precluded any argument. She would
never many him, she said, while that dragon, who had shamed
her festive day, still lived.

The Welsh knight received this announcement silently. He
tugged at his beard as if thinking that, all things considered, it
might be better if the dragon lived a long time. Then he looked
at the silver plates again, still lying on the grass amid bones
and scraps of fruit, and at the rich trappings of the serving-
men, who had started to clear away the debris, cast a quick eye
on the castle's general air of soundness and prosperity, looked
again at Lady Ursula, as if weighing up all the pluses and
minuses, and nodded grimly to his beloved.

The Welsh knight took only time for some essential
preparation before he carried out his promise. One crisp fall