"Craig Shaw Gardner - Arabian 3 - The Last Arabian Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Craig Shaw)

about my cushions! My riding? My seal ring?"
He freed his scabbard from his robes only to draw his sword. "All this
talk of ravishing almost had me beguiled! As if I would knowingly want
to ravish a demon!" And so did he raise his sword to strike.

This, then, was the terrible moment that the young queen had been
preparing for. "Wait, O great King," Scheherazade therefore called in
her most pitiful tone, making certain that her remarks were
accompanied by copious tears, "if you must kill me, I pray that you
grant me one final boon."

And the king, shaken by her weeping, hesitated in his terrible judgment.
"Well, yes," he remarked, "I suppose, before this talk of swords, you
had shown great concern for my difficulties. Therefore, I shall listen to
your final request before I end your life.

But I warn you, a single mention of cushions or seal rings, and my
sword shall strike!"

"Very well, O master of my fate," Scheherazade replied, and she was
most careful in the words she chose next, so that nothing might lead the
king's thoughts back to those things that directed his sword arm. "I
have but one final wish. Before I die, I would like to see my beloved
younger sister, Dunyazad, one last time."

The king frowned at that. "Well, I suppose that is not so unreasonable a
request, save that it might take some time to fetch this beloved sister."

"On the contrary, my king, she may join us immediately." And with that,
Scheherazade called out her sister's name. Immediately, the door to the
king's chamber opened, and the fair young Dunyazad entered the room.

The king's frown only deepened. "There are things here that I do not
understand."

"Oh, sister," Dunyazad called out upon seeing Scheherazade. "It is so
good to see you again. Pray, tell me one of your tales of marvel, that I
do so admire!"

With that, the king called out in great consternation, ''I cannot even
ravish this young woman, and now I have to listen to her stories?''

But Scheherazade smiled most sweetly at that remark, and replied that
she had mentioned nothing about not being ravished.

Dunyazad, for her part, decided this was a good time to examine the
woodworking in the other nearby chambers of the king's quarters.
Scheherazade, however, did anything but move the other way. Before
he could think further upon it, Shahryar found his outer garments
removed, and then his inner garments.