"01 - A Difficulty With Dwarves" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Craig Shaw)

The wizards nearby held their noses and turned to watch their fellow.

'This will happen no more!' The silver-clad wizard cried in a voice as deep as the farthest depths of the Inland Sea. 'I will banish this curse, as I call upon the spirits!'

His hands wove a pattern through the air too fast for the eye to see. 'Come forth, oh mighty waa ..." He paused. 'Come forth, oh mighty waa . . . waa . . . WAAAA . . . .' His voice seemed to rise with every word. He stopped and swallowed, his dark brows furrowed in concentration.

'Enough!' he began again. 'This will happen no . . . WAAAACHOOO!'

His sneeze tore his silver robes in half as the multitude of mages about him answered in kind. The entirety of the Great Hall trembled with their distress. The silver wizard was soon lost beneath the sneezing mass.

Something must have gone horribly wrong. My master

4

and I had traveled here, to far and fabled Vushta, the city of a thousand forbidden delights, in hopes of ending our quest - a quest that began when my master was forced into battle with the dread rhyming demon Guxx Unfufadoo! My master won that first battle, but discovered that he suffered from a sinister aftereffect. From that moment onwards, whenever the wizard Ebenezum was even in the presence of magic, he would begin to sneeze uncontrollably!

Now, a malady of this sort might have driven a lesser magician to despair, but not my master! Ebenezum set out to find a cure, even if it meant traveling to far and fabled Vushta, seat of wizardly learning for all the Western and Central Kingdoms!

So travel to Vushta we did, learning on our way of a sinister plot by the forces of the Netherhells led by the dread rhyming Guxx! We redoubled our efforts to reach our destination, only to discover that the demons had spirited away the very city that was our goal and hidden it deep within their dwelling place beneath the earth, the dreaded Netherhells!

Well, there was nothing to do then but rescue Vushta as well. Since there was no legitimate hero handy, I was sent in the hero's stead, and with the help of good luck and noble companions, Vushta was rescued at last. In return for my service, the greatest wizards of the greatest city on the face of the globe had gathered together, all for the sake of Ebenezum. Now my master's malady would be cured, and all set right with the world.

Or would it?

Wizards were still emerging from the room at the far end of the hall, climbing over the bodies of their fallen comrades, the latter now convulsed with sneezing fits. It was a

5

gruesome sight. I swallowed hard and turned back to my beloved.

'Yes,' I replied, looking once again deep into Norei's eyes.

'It is truly -'

'Terrible!' The old wizard Snorphosio called as he approached us, carefully stepping around or over the prone wizards in his path. 'Instead of curing Ebenezum's malady, he has given it to all of them. I knew this would happen!' He coughed nervously into a thin, almost birdlike hand.

'They took too direct an approach! I knew it! Something of this magnitude needs to be studied for weeks at least. Sometimes even years!' Snorphosio mopped his brow with a gray scholar's sleeve. 'Everyone knows that sorcery is an elusive art. Well' - he paused and took a breath - 'perhaps everyone doesn't know that, but at least wizards do ... well, good wizards know the truth of what I'm saying.' He glanced distractedly at the roomful of sneezing sorcerers. 'Well, good wizards should know the truth I speak. But then again, what is the nature of truth? And how do wizards approach that nature? For that matter, how does nature approach wizards? In fact, is there truth in natural wizardry, or is there rather -'

'Indeed,' I replied in an attempt to cut short the learned sorcerer's musings. At least Snorphosio seemed to be calming down. Before, he had been so upset that he had actually managed to talk in short, coherent sentences. Now, however, the never-ending theorist deep in his soul seemed to be reasserting itself.

'Yes, you are quite right,' Snorphosio replied to my surprise. 'This is no time for theory. It is time for action. I say there!' His voice rose above the collective sneezing. 'Fellow



wizards! Can any of you catch your breath long enough to tell me what happened in the other room?'

Half a dozen wizards tried to speak at once. None of them uttered more than a phrase before they rejoined their sneezing comrades.

'This is even more serious than I imagined!' Snorphosio exclaimed. 'But then, who is to say how truly serious a situation can be? And who can put a limit on imagination? And exactly how serious is imagination, anyway? Or how imaginary is the limit of seriousness -'