"02 - An Excess of Enchantments" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Craig Shaw)

"Well, I was going to give you the role of your careers!" Mother Duck seemed to be getting upset. "You were going to be the climax of the fairy tale!"

"Oh, is that what we were doing?" Hubert laughed apologetically. "I was wondering about that. I mean, for some reason, there we were, humming this idiotic ditty about 'Once upon a time, once upon a time.' Then--zap!--we suddenly remembered who we were and what we were doing here, and next thing we knew, there was this tremendous commotion outside. What could we do but investigate?"

'That's right!" Alea chorused. "Damsel and Dragon are always where the action is!"

"Well, this time you'll wish you were where the action wasn't!" Mother Duck raised her hands above her head. Was she going to conjure?

Guxx leapt for her with a roar.

It all happened so quickly, I wasn't quite sure what had transpired. One minute, the heavily muscled demon was flying through the air, straight toward the old lady. Just as his sharp and deadly claws were about to reach Mother Duck, however, the demon somehow managed to perform a complete somersault

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in midair and land on his back in the mud at the river's edge.

"Must we be tiresome?" Mother Duck murmured. "I could eat demons like you for lunch. Why do you think the Netherhells were forced to sign a pact with me?"

A chill ran through my frame as I remembered the true severity of our situation. Not only were we prisoners of this woman, but Mother Duck had already allied herself with the evil forces of the Netherhells, a demonic horde who wished to control the surface world for their own foul purposes. My fellow questers and I had been sent to try to enlist Mother Duck in our cause by my master and his fellow wizards of Vushta, now all afflicted with a dread malady that caused them to sneeze whenever confronted by sorcery. This malady made them easy prey for the magical might of the Netherhells, and it appeared that all might be lost for the surface world unless we might gain the aid of the mysterious woman who controlled the Eastern Kingdoms. Once we had met this woman, though, we discovered that Mother Duck had already allied herself with the forces of darkness.

Was there no hope, then, of saving Vushta and the rest of the surface world from an eternity of Netherhells domination? I choked back a cry of anguish. If I foundered in despair, all would be lost.

Indeed, I thought to myself, trying to calm my fears enough to rationally deal with the problem. How would my master, the great wizard Ebenezum, handle a situation like this?

That was easy. I knew he would have continued with his noble purpose, no matter what the odds. There was only one answer, then. As difficult as it appeared, I had to somehow find a way to get Mother Duck to change her mind.

"Indeed!" I called out to Mother Duck, who was still glowering at the mud-covered Guxx. "I was wondering if we might talk about this pact of yours."

"Eh?" The woman glanced at me as one might regard a passing insect. "Ah. The Eternal Apprentice. Now, now, don't worry your mythic little head about those things. Mother Duck knows what's best for you."

"Indeed?" I replied, rather taken aback. Mythic little head? This was going to be more difficult than I thought.

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Guxx pointed a claw at Brax the Salesdemon, who had managed to help his fellow creature rise from the mud.

"Begin!" Guxx exclaimed. Brax began to beat on a drum that he fished out of a sack he had been carrying over his shoulder.

s "Guxx Unfufadoo, muddy demon, Follows Wuntvor, noble quester, You will listen to the 'prentice, Or you will feel Guxx's fury!"

The large demon cracked his massive knuckles for emphasis.

Mother Duck yawned. "Must we continue to be so tiresome? No one needs to feel anybody else's fury. We're here to make fairy tales."

The hairy fellow with the green cap trotted over to the old woman. "And speaking of fairy tales, may I say that I can see any number of ways to improve your presentation?"

Mother Duck stared glumly at the hairy fellow. She seemed a bit out of sorts.

"Ahem," the hairy fellow replied, glancing at me and doffing his cap. "Pardon me, but I don't think we've been introduced. Wolfs the name. Jeffrey Wolf."