"Esther M. Friesner - Chicks 03 - Chicks 'N Chained Males" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

Fool's Gold
Elizabeth Moon
"It's been done to death," Mirabel Stonefist said.

"It's traditional." Her sister Monica sat primly upright, embroidering tiny poppies on a pillowcase. All
Monica's pillow-cases had poppies on them, just as all the curtains on the morning side of the house had
morning glories.

"Traditional is another word for 'done to death,' " Mirabel said. Her own pillow-cases had a stamped
sigil and the words PROPERTY OF THE ROYAL BARRACKS DO NOT REMOVE.

"It's unlucky to break with tradition."

"It's unlucky to have anything to do with dragons," Mirabel said, rubbing the burn scar on her left leg.
***

Cavernous Dire had never intended to be a dragon. He had intended to be a miser, living a long and
peaceful life of solitary selfishness near the Tanglefoot Mountains, but he had, all unwitting, consumed a
seed of dragonsfoot which had beenтАФentirely by accidentтАФbaked into a gooseberry tart. That wouldn't
have changed him, if his neighbor hadn't made an innocent mistake and handed him dragonstongue,
instead of dragonsbane, to ease a sore tongue. The two plants do look much alike, and usually it makes
no difference whether you nibble a leaf ofD. abscondus orD. lingula , since both will ease a cold-blister,
but in those rare instances when someone has an undigested seed of dragonsfoot in his gut, and then adds
to it the potent essence ofD. lingula . . . well.
Of course it was all a mistake, and an accident, and the fact that when Cavernous went back to the
village to dig his miser's hoard out from under the hearthstone it was already gone meant nothing.
Probably. And most likely the jar of smelly ointment that broke on his scaly headтАФfixing him in his
draconic form until an exceedingly unlikely conjunction of eventsтАФwas an accident too, though Goody
Chernoff's cackle wasn't.

So Cavernous Dire sloped off to the Tanglefoots in a draconish temper, scorching fenceposts along the
way. He found a proper cave, and would have amassed a hoard from the passing travelers, if there'd
been any. But his cave was a long way from any pass over the mountains, and he was far too prudent to
tangle with the rich and powerful dragons whose caves lay on more lucrative trade routes.

He was forced to prey on the locals.

At first, sad to say, this gave him wicked satisfaction. They'd robbed him. They'd turned him into a
dragon and robbed him, andтАФlike a true miserтАФhe minded the latter much more than the former. He ate
their sheep, and then their cattle (having grown large enough), and once inhaled an entire flock of
geeseтАФa mistake, he discovered, as burning feathers stank abominably. He could not quite bring himself
to eat their children, though his draconish nature found them appetizing, because he knew too well how
dirty they really were, and how disgusting the amulets their mothers tied round their filthy necks. But he
did kill a few of the adults, when they marched out with torches to test the strength of his fire. He couldn't
stomach their stringy, bitter flesh.

Finally they moved away, cursing each other for fools, and Cavernous reigned over a ruined district. He
pried up every hearthstone, and rooted in every well, but few were the coins or baubles which the