"Dave Luckett - The Girl The Dragon And The Wild Magic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Luckett Dave)

house by this afternoon. She would have to face her mother and father over dinner.
That was enough to cause any amount of gloom. She'd be sent to her room after school every day for a
week, most likely. Told to study. Study! As if it ever made any difference whether she studied or not!
The things in the books didn't make any sense at all. Why should a finding charm work if you walked
around a circle one way, but not if you walked around it the other? Why? Rhianna always wanted to
know why. Mrs. Greenapple was always telling her it didn't matter why. Just do it, Rhianna.

"Just do it, Rhianna," she said out loud, and there was a rude laugh just behind her. Rory Spellwright's
laugh.

It was Rory, all right. "Yeah, just do it, Rhianna. Why can't you? What's wrong with you? I can do it. All
the other kids can do it, even the little ones. Even Rose here can do it, and she's nearly as dumb as--"

Rose whipped her head around, her eyes sparkling dangerously. She whispered a find spell and tossed a
squashberry in the air. Up it went, gently, and then it curved in flight as if it had wings, flew faster and
faster, and went splat! right in the middle of Rory's forehead. Purple juice trickled into his eyes, and he
touched his fingers to his face in disbelief.

"Dumb, am I?" asked Rose. "Well, I've got a mean find spell and a basket full of squashberries. Get out
of here, Rory, or you'll be so purple you'll think you're a grape."

Rory looked down at his purple fingers. His mouth opened and closed. "You wait," he raged. "You wait.
I'll tell. I'll tell Mrs. Greenapple," and he ran towards the school building, his voice working up into a howl
as he went.

Rhianna sighed. "You shouldn't have done that," she said. "He'll do it, for sure."

Rose nodded. "It'll be worth it," she said comfortably. "I should have used the whole bunch on him."

"Waste of good squashberries," said Rhianna. She sighed again. "Why does he have to be such a
sneak?"

Rose shrugged. "Could be because he doesn't have much power, no matter how right he gets the spell,
and he hates that. He couldn't have done that with the squashberry, for instance. Could be because
nobody takes any notice of him unless he's acting like he does. But the main reason is just Rory. He just
likes himself that way, I suppose." She glanced across the meadow. "Here we go."

Mrs. Greenapple was coming towards them. Rory walked behind her, looking woeful when she glanced
at him, and poking his tongue out the rest of the time.

"I'll probably be kept in," said Rose. "You'll have to walk home by yourself."

Rhianna nodded. It was so unfair.

---

When school was over, Rhianna slouched up the village street towards home. The worst of it was that
she had to stop at Mr. Spellwright's shop. Her mother had asked her to pick up some amber for a
preserving spell.