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

"Not trade-sell, O master of a stack of mats," the stranger corrected him.

Mats! thought Abdullah. This was an insult. One of the carpets on
display in front of Abdullah's booth was a rare floral tufted one from
Ingary-or Ochinstan, as that land was called in Zanzib-and

5

there were at least two inside, from Inhico and Farqtan, which the
Sultan himself would not have disdained for one of the smaller rooms of
his palace. But of course, Abdullah could not say this. The manners of
Zanzib did not let you praise yourself. Instead, he bowed a coldly
shallow bow. "It is possible that my low and squalid establishment might
provide that which you seek, O pearl of wanderers," he said, and cast
his eye critically over the stranger's dirty desert robe, the corroded
stud in the side of the man's nose, and his tattered headcloth as he
said it.

"It is worse than squalid, mighty seller of floor coverings," the
stranger agreed. He flapped one end of his dingy carpet toward Jamal,
who was frying squid just then in clouds of blue, fishy smoke. "Does not
the honorable activity of your neighbor penetrate your wares," he asked,
"even to a lasting aroma of octopus?"

Abdullah seethed with such rage inside that he was forced to rub his
hands together slavishly to hide it. People were not supposed to mention
this sort of thing. And a slight smell of squid might even improve that
thing the stranger wanted to sell, he thought, eyeing the drab and
threadbare rug in the man's arms. "Your humble servant takes care to
fumigate the interior of his booth with lavish perfumes, O prince of
wisdom," he said. "Perhaps the heroic sensitivity of the prince's nose
will nevertheless allow him to show this beggarly trader his merchandise?"

"Of course, it does, O lily among mackerel," the stranger retorted. "Why
else should I stand here?"

Abdullah reluctantly parted the curtains and ushered the man inside his
booth. There he turned up the lamp which hung from the center pole but,
upon sniffing, decided that he was not going to waste incense on this
person. The interior smelled quite strongly enough of yesterday's
scents. "What magnificence have you to unroll before my unworthy eyes?"
he asked dubiously.

"This, buyer of bargains!" the man said, and with a deft thrust of one
arm, he caused the carpet to unroll across the floor.

Abdullah could do this, too. A carpet merchant learned these things. He
was not impressed. He stuck his hands in his sleeves in a primly servile
attitude and surveyed the merchandise. The carpet