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

assignment from Zeus and Hera, so you can go take a flying leap at Selene."

"Uppity mortal! You can't talk to me like that." Victoria drew back a suddenly very brawny right arm for
a haymaker that would have knocked the feathers right off of Hermes' sandals.

"Oh, yes, I can," Andromeda said, and held up the shield Hera had given her.

She didn't know whether it could have done a decent job of stopping the goddess' fist. That didn't
matter. Victoria took one brief look at her reflection and cried, "Vae! Malae comae! Vae!" She fled so
fast, she might have gone into business with her Greek cousin Nike.

A grim smile on her face, Andromeda descended on Cindy, Claudia, and Tyra. They were lined up on
the beach like three tenpinsтАФexcept not so heavy in the bottom, Andromeda thought resentfully. Had
they been lined up any better, she'd have bet she could've looked into the left ear of the one on the left
and seen out the right ear of the one on the right.

They turned on her in unison when she alighted on the sand. "Ooh, I like those sandals," one of them
crooned fiercely. "Gucci? Louis Vuitton?"

"No, Hermes'," Andromeda answered. She fought panic as they advanced on her, swaying with
menaceтАФor something.

"I wonder what she's doing here," one of the Gorgons said. She waved at the gorgeous scenery, of
which she and her comrades were the most gorgeous parts. "I mean, she's so plain."

"Mousy," agreed another.

"Nondescript. Utterly nondescript," said the third, proving she did have room in her head for a
three-syllable word: two of them, even.

And the words flayed like fire. Cindy, Claudia, and Tyra weren't even contemptuous. It was as if
Andromeda didn't rate contempt. That was their power; just by existing, they made everyone around
them feel inadequate.Zeus wanted me , Andromeda thought, trying to stay strong. But what did that
prove? Zeus wanted anything that moved, and, if it didn't move, he'd give it an experimental shake.

Andromeda felt like curling up on the beach and dying right there. If she put the shield up over her,
maybe it would keep her from hearing any more of the Gorgons' cruel words. The shield . . . !

With a fierce cry of her own, Andromeda held it up to them. Instead of continuing their sinuous advance,
they fell back with cries of horror. Peering down over the edge of the shield, Andromeda got a quick
glimpse of their reflections. The shield had given her and Victoria bad hair. It was far more pitiless to
Cindy, Claudia, and Tyra, perhaps because they had further to fall from the heights ofhaute couture .
Whatever the reason, the three Gorgons' hair might as well have turned to snakes once the shield had its
way with them.

"Plain," Andromeda murmured. "Mousy. Nondescript. Utterly nondescript."

How the Gorgons howled! They fell to their knees in the sand and bowed their heads, trying to drive out
those images of imperfection.