"Diana Wynne Jones - Mixed Magics" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

moved them out of reach. "Whatever world it is," he said, "the money there
will be quite different from your pounds, shillings, and pence. You might as
well give me all you have."

So the Willing Warlock handed over all his ┬г273 6s 4d. Then he was
allowed to pick a card. It was the ten of clubs. Not a bad card, the Willing
Warlock thought. He was no fortune-teller, of course, but he knew the ten
of clubs meant that someone would bully somebody. He decided that he
would be the one doing the bullying, and handed back the card. Jean-Pierre
tossed all the cards carelessly down on a table. The Willing Warlock just
had time to see that every single one was the ten of clubs, before he found
himself still in Shepherd's Bush but in another world entirely.

He was standing in what seemed to be a car park beside a big road. On
that road, more cars than he had ever seen in his life were rushing past,
together with lorries and the occasional big red bus. There were cars
standing all around him. This was a good world indeed!

The Willing Warlock sniffed the delicious smell of petrol and turned to the
nearest parked car to see how it worked. It looked rather different from the
one he had tried to steal in Wolvercote. Experi-mentally he made a magic
pass over its bonnet. To his delight, the bonnet promptly sprang open an
inch or so. The French wizard had not lied. He had his magic back.

The Willing Warlock was just about to heave up the bonnet and plunge into
the mysteries beneath when he saw a large lady in uni-form, with a yellow
band around her cap, tramping meaningfully toward him. She must be a
policewoman. Now he had his magic back, the Willing Warlock did not
panic. He simply let go of the bonnet and sauntered casually away. Rather
to his surprise, the policewoman did not follow him. She just gave him a
look of deep contempt and tucked a message of some kind behind the
wiper of the car.

All the same, the Willing Warlock felt it prudent to go on walk-ing. he
walked to another street, looking at cars all the time, until something made
him look up. In front of him was a grand marble building. CITY BANK, it
said, in rich gold letters. Now here, thought the Willing Warlock, was a
better way to get a car than simply steal-ing it. If he robbed this bank, he
could buy a car of his very own. He took the toy pistol out of his pocket and
went in through the grand door.

Inside, it was very hushed and polite and calm. Though there were quite a
lot of people there, waiting in front of the cashiers or walking about in the
background, nobody seemed to notice the Will-ing Warlock standing
uncertainly waving his pistol. He was forced to go and push the nearest
queue of people aside and point the pistol at the lady behind the glass
there.

"Money or your life," he said.