"Huff, Tanya - What Ho, Magic!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

"I don't believe this is happening," she sighed as the sludge rose up her legs. "Darvish, throw me your belt."
He obliged.
Kelly sighed again. "Keep hold of one end."
"Oh." He grabbed the flailing end and started to pull. The mud rose to Kelly's waist. "You're stuck tighter this time."
"Then pull harder," Kelly snapped as the mud reached her chest.
Darvish gritted his teeth and managed to get her clear to her hips.
"What was that?" Erik asked suddenly, whirling and pointing his weapon back the way they'd come. "Something's back there!"
Darvish let go of Kelly's lifeline and turned to look. "Nothing's back there," he scoffed.
"And nothing's going to be here if someone doesn't get me out," Kelly said sharply as the mud regained its lost territory.
"Huh?" Darvish turned back. "Oh, sorry."
He grabbed the belt, Erik grabbed him, and, with a sucking sound, the mud reluctantly released Kelly to solid land.
"Now then," she said, scraping off her sidearm. "What's wrong?"
"I heard something." Erik's lower lip went out. "I did."
"I don't hear anything." She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "But I sure smell something. What stinks?"
"That," said Darvish calmly. He pointed over her shoulder.
She twisted and almost fell.
No more than three meters away, four meters of slug rose into the air. Shkiy. A large slug, Erik had said, with large teeth and a large appetite. The first two points were self-evident. Kelly didn't want to make any bets on the third. The rain made no impression on its slime and the sinkhole it rested in didn't bother it at all.
"Hold it right there," came a command from the jungle. "We have you under our guns."
"No," broke in another voice. "We have you under our guns."
"The Atabeg," began the first voice but the second cut him off.
"We serve the Shahinshah!"
Kelly peered from one groups of Immortals to the other and then back at the shkiy. "Is this a joke?" she asked of no one in particular.
"Kelly." Erik danced around her. "Let's make a run for it while they're arguing."
"Run? Swim, maybe."
The shkiy slithered a little closer.
"I think it's going toЕ" Kelly grabbed Erik's arm and the two of them dove out of the way.
With a speed contradicting its flaccid appearance, the slug launched itself forward. Darvish was flung clear on a muddy wave. The Immortals weren't so lucky. One went before he had time to react. Another went while those remaining lifted their guns.
Ten energy beams sliced up from the jungle floor.
The shkiy reared in pain.
Three, six, twelve meters it rose, exposing more and more of its surface to the searing fire. The slime covering boiled away. The stench turned from merely bad to unbelievable; rotten egg mixed with ruptured bowel mixed with noxious odors less easily identified. Greasy smoke, weighted down by the rain, rolled sluggishly over the ground. Whole sections of the slug were destroyed before it would die. And when it did, twelve meters of smoking shkiy, falling in death, took four more Immortals with it.
Darvish splashed out of the jungle. Kelly and Erik got slowly to their feet. Six Immortals, weapons steaming, faced them over the body of the slug.
"Drop those guns!"
The nine survivors turned as one. A swamp buggy, barely visible through the rain, churned toward them, its single gun swiveling to cover the entire area.
"If anyone does any shooting around here, it's going to be me."
Darvish and Erik exchanged relieved grins.
"Grandmother!" they chorused.
Kelly sat down with a splash and started to laugh.
"My sons," said Quintella Osear, dowager Shabanou, "are fools. They have no concept of power Ц what it means or how to use it."
Kelly watched the older woman maneuver the unwieldy swamp buggy with no apparent effort. Although she'd found the last two days fascinating Ц as fascinating as spending two days with a dozen shkiy Ц she wasn't sorry to return to her ship.
"My husband," the tiny, grey haired woman continued, "grew lax in later years. Had it not been for me, the empire would have been eaten away by the rot and corruption."
"You held the rot and corruption together?"
The dowager smiled. "I still hold the rot and corruption together. The satraps report to me. I run the empire."
Kelly had a few thoughts on the way the empire had been run lately, but wisely, she kept them to herself. "Even with rejuvenations, you won't live forever," she said instead.
"I won't," the dowager agreed. "So I train my grandson."
"Erik?"
"Ahrikhartoum. Not even I could create a Shahinshah out of that other imbecile. I had intended this trip to dip him into the intrigues of the court. It became something else but I am not displeased. He survived. That is more than the Shahinshah's previous sons have done."
"Erik has brothers?"
"Had. The Defender of Infinity is permitted only one heir at a time. Ahrikhartoum is the sixth."
"You're a little hard on your relatives, aren't you?" The old woman speared Kelly with her gaze. "Only the strong are fit to rule." An eyebrow rose. "I'm surprised the boy is not here to bid you farewell."
"We said good-bye already."