"Esther M. Friesner - The Way To A Man's Heart" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

THE WAY TO A MAN'S HEART
Esther Friesner

Talona the Terrible folded her sinewy arms across her mighty armor-plated bosom and
glared at her opponent. "Just what do you mean by coming to class at this hour, young lady?

Amaryllis pressed her lips together, forcing back the same words which had gotten her i
trouble a good twenty-eight times since her arrival at the school. Every single one of those
times she had been reproved before all her fellow students and made to slop the school pig
Therefore, instead of the angry retort "I am Princess Amaryllis, you muscle-bound crone!" s
meekly replied, "I'm sorry, Swordmistress, but on the way to class I thought I heard a cry fo
help coming from Rushy Glen, so I went to investigate, for extra credit."

"Ah!" said Talona, uncrossing her arms and leaning forward on the podium which creak
and cracked at the joints in protest "And did you think, child, that I am unaware that the only
presence in Rushy Glen at the moment is one Hamid, a travelling merchant and master of
Hamid's Caravan of Discounts?"

Amaryllis cringed and blushed, mortified, while her classmates sniggered. "I-I was only
looking at the daggers. He has a fine selection of the new models for distant Goristan, and a
prices that just can't be beat!"

Talona sighed. "Shopping. I might have known. You can take the princess out of the cast
but you can't take the urge to shop out of the princess. Well, shopping is not the proper
occupation for any serious swordswoman, let me assure you."

"But I'm not a serious-"

"Hush!" All the instincts of a seasoned fighter snapped into action as Talona leaped the
length of the classroom to clap a sword-calloused hand over Amaryllis's mouth. Darting he
eyes to left and right as if seeking skulkers in the shadows, the veteran hissed, "Do you wan
the surviving minces to hear you? Their agents are everywhere. These are cutthroat times."

"Mo mah miff may mid?" Amaryllis said as well as she was able.

"So what if they did?" Talona echoed. "Mark my words well, lass: If they did, I promise
you that you would face the deepest doom, the saddest fate, the most dreadful curse that eve
can befall a woman." She lowered her voice so that it sounded even more portentous: "You
would have to stay single forever!"

A gasp of involuntary horror shook the assembled student body, causing chainmail-clad
bosoms to heave until the jingling sounded like the charge of a bellringers' choir, out for bl

As for Amaryllis, at the very mention of possible spinsterhood she collapsed in a dead f
 She awoke to the sounds of a heated argument between Talona and one of her fellow
students, a lady named Gethina.

"-Sovereign Essence is the best remedy for swoons available without a wizard's
prescription, that's why!" Gethina was saying, waving a small yellow bottle dangerously ne
the Swordmistress's lace.