"Esther M. Friesner - Troll By Jury" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

anything about it, for her cloak was so sodden it weighted her to the spot. Instantly she knew whose
hand was behind her plight. She raised her fists to the heavens and wailed in helpless rage, "Motherrr!"



Zoli threw the troll.



"тАФreact," said Garth.

***

Duke Janifer slowly paced the width of the great hall for the twenty-third time. Before him stood a row of
plaintiffs, defendants, and witnesses in one of the biggest lawsuit pileups he had ever been called upon to
judge. It was all that his men-at-arms could do to hold back the throng that had come to gawk at and
gabble over the proceedings. Most of Overford and half of the Academy was there. They filled the hall,
overflowed into the passageway beyond, and all but dangled from the rafters.



"Now let me see if I've got this straight," he said. "You're charging her with assault with a deadly
weapon?" He pointed first at Ludlow, then at Zoli. Ludlow nodded and tugged his forelock deferentially.
His fingers came away dripping sheep fat.



"And you are charging her with reckless endangerment of your person?" This was directed at Bursar
Tailings.



"Potentially fatal reckless endangerment," the troll corrected. "That's worse."



"I should say so. Now you are charging her with creating a disturbance?" He gave Goodwife Eyebright
an inquiring look.



"It was the best I could do, Your Gracious Eminence." Ethelberthina's mother made cow eyes at the
duke. "That's what my dear husband told me to do. He said it's the closest we could come to finding a
legal term to describe the way that hussy broke up our Ethelberthina's lovely Maiden Morn. I'm just a
weak, ignorant woman with very little knowledge of things that don't concern me. I always say we ought
to leave law and such confusing stuff to the men who've got the brains for it. Like yourself, Your
Unspeakable Wiseness."