"John Morressy - Conhoon and the Fairy Dancer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morressy John)

"Well I know it. Wasn't it one of them who cast the spell that has my fair
Noreen picking up her food like a smith using tongs?"

That was the sort of trick one might expect of the fairy host. They looked
like
angels, except for the few who chose to look like devils. The women were
achingly beautiful and graceful as swaying flowers, the men deep-browed as
philosophers, some of them, others as handsome as gods, or nimble as cats, and
all of them with a quality that dazzled the eye and confused the mind; but
they
were a capricious lot, like willful children free of all restraint, as ready
to
blight a poor farmer's crops and strike down his cattle as they were to carry
off a lovely child and leave one of their own withered ancients in its place;
and all for the sake of a moment's diversion. Wise it was to avoid them, and
wiser still never to speak their name, but to call them by a honeyed euphemism
--The Good People, or The Noble Folk, or something such -- lest they overhear
and take umbrage.

"What did the woman do to offend them?" the wizard asked.

Corbal's eyes narrowed and his jaw set. "The People Outside Us need no reason
for their wickedness. We offered them kindness and hospitality when they
passed
through our county. Their mean little hearts took offense at the sight of a
happy marriage and a fine-looking husband and a beautiful good woman in her
grace and generosity, and they played the trick on her hand. Then off they
went,
laughing and singing, worse luck to them."

"That is their way. The best of them is no good at all. It's fortunate you are
that they did no more."

"Is that your help to me, telling me to be glad things are no worse?"

"It is good advice. Are you certain, now, you did nothing at all to provoke
them, neither one of you nor any of your household? Not a thoughtless word, or
a
careless gesture, or a sideways look?"

Corbal made an emphatic gesture of denial. "Not a thing itself. Their own
malice
was all the reason. We offered them food. One of them -- a nasty sly piece of
business he was -- demanded lobster and we had none to give him. Dish after
dainty dish we set before him, and the mean little sneak would have none of
them. It was lobster or nothing for him. Finally he said, 'Well, from now on
you'll always have a bit of lobster on hand for guests,' and made a funny move
with his hand and mumbled something, and they all gave a great whoop of
laughter