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

The theoretical wizard's body shook with an effort of will. 'No! I have no time for these musings. It is time to act!' He paused. 'But, is not musing in itself an action? And what if you act on musing? Is that not -'

Snorphosio shook himself again, clenching his fists. 'Action!' He looked again at the mass of ailing wizards. 'Colleagues!' he called. 'Please, hold your breath for but a moment. I will perform a short magic eradication spell, after which we may talk in peace.'

The noise level dropped considerably as the sorcerers attempted to comply. Snorphosio got halfway through his spell before he, too, began to sneeze.

'Hold!' came a clear voice from the room in which the wizards had conferred. 'Go no further!'

Norei and I turned to look across the disabled wizards, at the meeting room where this had all begun.

One more wizard strode boldly from the room, also seemingly unaffected by the magical malady. The large mass of sneezing wizards filling the hallway about us had raised a great deal of dust. It was difficult to see clearly. Still, there was something familiar about the way the man carried himself, his long, white beard, and dark blue robes.

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The mage paused at the edge of the sneezing mass of sorcerers. 'Indeed,' he intoned.

With that word, I knew. It was my master, the greatest wizard in all the Western Kingdoms, Ebenezum!

'Master!' I called, delighted to see him so self-possessed in the midst of this chaos. 'Did the wizards succeed? Are you cured?'

The mage frowned at the mass of magicians before him. He pulled absently at his beard, then turned his gaze from the shuddering mass to look at me.

'Alas, no.' He sniffed delicately into a sleeve threaded with silver. 'I have but had the malady somewhat longer than these others, and thus have learned to control it better.' He shook his head. "Tis a sorry sight, to see the amassed wisdom of Vushta brought to such a pass.'

'Pardon me, good wizard,' Norei interjected, 'but how could such a thing have happened?'

'Indeed,' Ebenezum replied as he wove through the disabled mages. 'Perhaps if I got a bit closer, we would no longer need to shout.' He moved as quickly as he could through the sneeze-wracked horde. The very sight of the tastefully inlaid silver moons and stars on his wizard's robe seemed to send those crouched nearby into redoubled nasal attacks. Finally he reached the end of the hallway in which we stood, the flagstones here still relatively free of incapacitated sorcerers.

Ebenezum looked back over the trembling sea of wizard flesh. 'It seems that we face new difficulties. It appears that the machinations of the Netherhells were even more insidious than we first thought. By dragging the city of Vushta down within their noxious domain, the demons have somehow subtly changed it. I fear this change may affect every-

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thing within the city. We have already seen how it affects the use of magic.'

'This is all the doing of demons?' Norei asked. 'Then that means we haven't defeated them as thoroughly as we thought!'

'Alas, no.' My master scratched absently at the thick white hair beneath his wizard's cap. 'I fear that our victory celebrations are premature. It appears that we have won but the first battle. Vushta and the Netherhells are still at war.'

'But this is terrible!' I shuddered at the very thought of these underhanded Netherhells' schemes. 'What can we do?'

'The first thing is not to panic.' He nodded at the still sneezing mass. 'The enemy has, temporarily, taken us by surprise. They have a slight advantage over us now, but it will not last for long. Already the wizards around us are learning to control their disability.'

It was true. There were far fewer sneezes than there had been but a moment before. Perhaps my master was right. There was cause for hope after all.

'Indeed,' my master continued, 'we must now plan for the long run. As long as we can keep our heads -'

There was an explosion in the middle of the room.

'Hi, guys!' a tiny voice exclaimed. 'I'm back!'