"Simon Hawke - Sorcerer 2 - The Inadequate Adept" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawke Simon)

''You actually like spam?" MacGregor asked with disbelief.

"Aye, 'tis powerful good, Mac!" Dugh replied. " 'Ere, tear yourself off a chunk!"

He held out a dripping, suety mass of roasted, pink-speckled flesh. Mac winced and recoiled from it.
The smell alone was enough to stunt your growth, he thought.

"No, thank you, I am not very hungry," he replied with a sour grimace of distaste.

"Suit yourself, then," Dugh replied, elbowing his brothers gleefully. "Just means more for us, eh, lads?"

Mac reached for the wineskin and squirted a stream into his mouth. He sighed, leaned back against a tree
trunk, and lit up his pipe. "Right, then," he said, when he had it going. "Time to review our progress, lads."

They all sat up attentively, like acromegalic schoolboys.

"What have we learned thus far?"

"About what, Mac?" asked Lugh with a puzzled frown.

MacGregor rolled his eyes and drew a long, patient breath. "About our quarry, lads, the three men we
are seeking for our esteemed patron, Warrick the White."

"Well... there's three of them," offered Dugh.

MacGregor shut his eyes in patient suffering. "Yes, very good, Dugh, there are three of them. But if you
will recall, we knew that to begin with, did we not? What else?"

The brothers screwed their faces up in expressions of fierce concentration. "One of 'em likes wee
wooden horses!" Hugh finally said triumphantly.

MacGregor reached into his pouch and removed a small, hand-carved, wooden chesspiece. "Right," he
said, holding it up. "And what, exactly, does this wee wooden horse signify?"

"Uh... a knight?" asked Lugh.

"Very good, Lugh! It signifies a knight. And what is the name of the game in which this knight is a game
piece?"

"Cheese!" said Dugh.

"Close," said MacGregor with a wry grimace. "Actually, 'tis called chess. Try to remember that. Now,
let's all say it together, shall we?"

"Chess," said the brothers in unison.

"Very good," said Mac. "And what is the significance of this information?"

Silence.