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

Omar crowded in behind the women. "Do you find something amiss?"

"Who was that?" Scheherazade asked.

"Who was who?" was Omar's reply.

"That woman who was just here," Scheherazade explained. "The one
wearing the fine, dark silk."

"There are no women here but the servants. And the servants do not,
as a rule, wear silk." Omar hesitated, as if he was unsure that he should
continue.''That is, there are no other living women. Oh, now, some of
the women servants have said that this place is haunted with the souls
of those whose lives passed too quickly from the earth." Omar coughed
with great delicacy. "There would certainly be a lot of those souls,
considering our recent circumstances. And reflecting upon the bloody,
violent, and thoroughly unpleasant way that they ended their lives, these
departed might want to wreak a horrible vengeance upon the living
when they least expect it. But what are these stories but idle and no
doubt harmless gossip?'' The large fellow giggled again.''This reminds
me of another poem."

And with that, he lifted his two hands toward the ceiling with all the
fingers folded save for the little one on either hand, which pointed to the
sky. And Omar further declaimed,

"Turn the corner, you 'II find death,
A hanging form, a bloated corpse,
A severed head, and pools of gore-"

Yes," Scheherazade interrupted. "While your poetry is most finely
wrought, I believe it is time for my sister and I to take our repose.

Omar frowned at that. ''Oh, dear. I suppose that verse was not among
my best work. It is so difficult to find anything that rhymes with corpse."
Omar bowed remarkably low for one of so great a girth, and walked
backward toward the door with a silence equal to that of his forward
motion. "I hear and I obey! I leave you now so that you might gain your
much-needed repose."

Scheherazade turned to ask her sister what she thought might be the
best course of action. But Dunyazad had already crossed the room to
that point where the mysterious lady had disappeared.

"She vanished behind this screen," she declared as she also moved
behind the partition. "But there is nothing here but two bare walls!"

"Ah, now, I do not want you two worrying about vengeful spirits,"
Omar said from his position at the doorway. "No doubt, if there was
indeed another woman present within this room, we can also find a