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

But when the younger of the two was done, the elder brother declared
that he could not believe in such a thing and had to see it with his own
eyes.

Then did Shahzaman, who still realized the possibility of the headsman's
axe, suggest that his elder brother loudly announce that the two kings
would now embark on a hunt together, but, instead of doing this thing,
they would instead both secrete themselves in a corner of the palace
with a clear view of the garden.

Shahryar agreed to this plan, and quickly made it so, announcing that
he would hunt again on the morrow. But while he sent a full
complement of hunters and attendant servants out into the great forests
beyond the palace, he and his brother stayed behind within a secret
place and then moved quietly to a balcony overlooking the gardens.

Mere moments passed before the queen reappeared in the garden, and
around her frolicked the forty slaves, and all were clothed, or rather
unclothed, precisely as before. And, after a verbal exchange between
the queen and her primary slave concerning bananas, melons, cherries,
and other fruit, all further proceeded in much the same manner as
Shahzaman had previously related.

And there were many calls of "Whoopie!" that arose from the garden
and even, I am afraid to relate, an occasional "Hotcha!" Shahryar did
witness this spectacle in his garden in every detail, first with disbelief,
then with anger, and lastly with an evergrowing sadness. His grief
doubled with every whoopie that rose from down below.

At last, he had had too much of this display, and so he said to his
brother, "Why must both of us, though we be kings, have to face this
misery? I cannot bear to stay within this palace another instant. Come,
we shall take to the road, until we might find someone who might
explain why we must be so miserable, or until we might find someone
who is even more miserable than we two kings!"

And Shahzaman, seeing his brother's grief, discovered his grief
rekindled as well. So it was that both kings left the palace by a secret
way and took to the road, leaving their fate in the hands of Destiny.

The two kings traveled, day and night, until they came to a meadow by
the great salt sea. And in this meadow was a tree of substantial age and
height, and a modest pond of fresh water. The kings paused there to
drink the fresh water and rest beneath the tree. But soon did a great
black column of smoke rise from the sea, as if the ocean itself were on
fire. The two brothers cried in fear and sought the safety of the upper
branches of the tree, as that blackest of black smoke whirled its way
toward them, until, upon its arrival on the beach, the smoke cleared to
reveal a huge djinni, the size of three men standing one upon the