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

Thinking of Hermes and his winged sandals gave her an idea. Back to the

high-rent district of Mount Olympus she went. The god raised his eyebrows. He had a winged cap, too,
one that fluttered off his head in surprise. "You wantmy shoes?" he said.

"I can't very well walk across the Adriatic," Andromeda said.

"No, that's a different myth altogether," Hermes agreed.

"And then up to Rome, to see if the gods are in," Andromeda went on.

"They won't be, not when the mercury rises," Hermes said, "They'll be out in the country, or else at the
beach. Pompeii is very pretty this time of year."

"Such alovely view of the volcano," Andromeda murmured. She cast Hermes a melting look. "May I
please borrow your sandals?"

"Oh, all right," he said crossly. "The story would bog down if I told you no at this point."

"You'd better not be reading ahead," Andromeda warned him. Hermes just snickered. Gods had more
powers than mortals, and that was all there was to it. When Andromeda put on the winged sandals and
hopped into the air, she stayed up. "Gotta be the shoes," she said.

"Oh, it is," Hermes assured her. "Have fun in Italy."

As she started to fly away, Andromeda called back, "Do you know what Victoria's secret is?"

The god dipped his head to show he did. "Good camera angles," he replied.
***

Good camera angles. A quiet hostel. A nice view of the beach. And, dammit, a lovely view of the
volcano, too. Vesuviuswas picturesque. And so were Cindy, Claudia, and Tyra, dressed in lacy, colorful,
overpriced wisps of not very much. As soon as Andromeda set eyes on them, she started hoping the
mountain would blow up and bury those three in lava. Molten lava. Red-hot molten lava. The rest of
Pompeii? So what? Herculaneum? So what? Naples, up the coast? Who needed it, really?

But Vesuvius stayed quiet. Of course it did. Hephaestus or Vulcan or whatever name he checked into
motels with locally was probably up at the top of the spectacular cone, peering down, leering down, at
some other spectacular cones. "Men," Andromeda muttered. No wonder they'd given her this job. And
they wouldn't thank her for it once she did it, either.

As Andromeda flew down toward the Gorgons with the spectacularly un-Hellenic names, Victoria flew
up to meet her, saying, "Whoever you are, go away. We're just about to shoot."

Shooting struck Andromeda as altogether too good for them. "Some victory you're the goddess of," she
sneered, "unless you mean the one inLysistrata ."

"You're just jealous because you can't cut the liquamen, sweetheart," Victoria retorted.

Andromeda smiled a hemlock-filled smile. "Doesn't matter whether I am or not," she answered. "I'm on