"Diana Wynne Jones - Castle In The Air (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

"They even gave you a man's name!" Flower-in-the-Night exclaimed
indignantly. "Do sit down and tell me."

Abdullah sat on the marble curb beside her and thought that this was a
very real dream. The stone was cold. Splashes from the fountain soaked
into his nightshirt, while the sweet smell of rose water from
Flower-in-the-Night mingled most realistically with scents from the
flowers in the garden. But since it was a dream, it

15

followed that his daydreams were true here, too. So Abdullah told her
all about the palace he had lived in as a prince and how he was
kidnapped by Kabul Aqba and escaped into the desert, where the carpet
merchant found him.

Flower-in-the-Night listened with complete sympathy. "How terrifying!
How exhausting!" she said. "Could it be that your foster father was in
league with the bandits to deceive you?"

Abdullah had a growing feeling, despite the fact that he was only
dreaming, that he was getting her sympathy on false pretenses. He agreed
that his father could have been in the pay of Kabul Aqba and then
changed the subject. "Let us get back to your father and his plans," he
said. "It seems to me a little awkward that you should marry this Prince
from Ochinstan without having seen any other men to compare him with.
How are you going to know whether you love him or not?"

"You have a point," she said. "This worries me, too, sometimes."

"Then I tell you what," Abdullah said. "Suppose I come back tomorrow
night and bring you pictures of as many men as I can find? That should
give you some standard to compare the Prince with." Dream or not,
Abdullah had absolutely no doubt that he would be back tomorrow. This
would give him a proper excuse.

Flower-in-the-Night considered this offer, swaying dubiously back and
forth with her hands clasped around her knees. Abdullah could almost see
rows of fat, bald men with gray beards passing in front of her mind's eye.

"I assure you," he said, "that men come in every sort of size and shape."

"Then that would be very instructive," she agreed. "At least it would
give me an excuse to see you again. You're one of the nicest people I've
ever met."

This made Abdullah even more determined to come back tomorrow. He told
himself it would be unfair to leave her in such a state of ignorance.
"And I think the same about you," he said shyly.