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

The creature shrugged its silken shoulders and pointed its golden horn in my direction. 'I was speaking with Wuntvor. Isn't there someplace quiet we can go? This sort of thing always happens when unicorns get stuck in crowds.' The beast snorted its magnificent defiance of the ways of the world. 'If only I hadn't wanted to see you so badly! If only I could find a place to lay my weary head!'

'I have a very nice lap,' Alea suggested.

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'This is what happens when unicorns get stuck in crowds in Vushta!' The beast nudged my shoulder gently with its horn. 'It seems I am offered a never-ending succession of laps! But never' - it paused to nudge me again - 'the right one.'

'Wuntvor!'

'Norei!' I replied, for it was she, the woman with a voice only slightly more frigid than the coldest of winter days.

'We have been waiting here for quite some time. Isn't Ebenezum ever coming?'

Now my beloved was becoming impatient. It seemed very unlike her, as if, when she lost her faith in me, she had lost her faith in my master and all of Vushta as well.

I swallowed hard, knowing that whatever had happened to her, it was all my fault.

'Norei,' I began. 'We have to talk. No matter what you may think of me -'

'Weren't we talking?' the unicorn reminded me.

'Later,' I said, ignoring the beast's insistent golden horn.

'Norei, we've been through a great deal together -'

'Oh, for a lap to rest my weary head!' the magnificent beast interrupted.

'But I've already offered you mine!' Alea interjected. She glanced at me as she sidled toward the unicorn. 'If Wuntie wants to waste his time elsewhere, let him. After all, I'm available!'

Alea ran around the beast so that she might sit directly in front of it. The unicorn's well-polished hooves took apair of steps in the opposite direction.

'Oh!' the beautiful beast moaned. 'To be in want of a lap in Vushta!'

I looked up to see Norei standing directly before me. Her lips trembled as she tried to speak. Finally she managed:

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' Wuntvor? You started to tell me something. What -'

'It's after me again!' Snarks ran between us, his lips curled back in a grimace of fear that showed his every fang. 'The Brownie is after me!'

But I turned my attention back to my beloved. I could not let the crisis of the moment dissuade me from my task. What Norei and I meant to each other was too important for that.

Snarks ran on. The Brownie followed.

'Norei,' I tried again. 'In our brief time together, we have become very -'

' I j ust want to help you with some Brownie etiquette!' Tap yelled at the retreating demon. 'Like those times when you should refer to His Brownieship as his Master of Buckles, or mayhaps the King of Sole -'