"Morressy, John - NestEgg" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morressy John)

griffin's talon and pour syrups down its throat. I've just come back from
working a very difficult counterspell, and he --"

"If you're going to call yourself a master counterspeller, you can't complain
when someone asks you to work a counterspell."

"It's the way they ask."

"Well, if Tyasan's an old friend --"

Kedrigern flung up his hands in frustration. "He's not! That's what annoys me
most, this pretense that we're old pals. He didn't say a dozen words to me when
I was there last, and now he tries to sound like a boyhood chum."

"Don't be impatient with him. The man's desperate. It's possible to become very
fond of a pet."

"My dear, no one knows better than you that I'm a patient man. The soul of
kindness. I am filled with love for all living things, griffins included. But
only a very silly man keeps a griffin as a household pet, and I resent being
summoned to the aid of a silly man because the consequences of his silliness
have finally caught up with him."

Princess raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. She returned her attention to the
scroll.

In a milder tone, Kedrigern went on, "I don't like to refuse help to an old
client -- even when he's presumptuous and demanding -- but I don't know anything
about healing sick griffins."

"Tyasan says that the griffin might be spelled. You know about despelling
victims of wicked spells."

"I'm sure the reference to a spell is a desperate guess on the part of the
physicians. It's highly unlikely that Cecil has been spelled. If anyone with
sense wanted to discompose the royal family, they'd put the spell on them, not
on their griffin."

"Would they?" said Princess. She pointed with a delicate fingertip to a
handwritten addendum far down in the parchment, below the point to which
Kedrigern had unrolled it. He rose, grumbling, and joined her at the table. The
postscript read:

*
Please come, Dear K. The children will be heartbroken if they lose their Cecil.

Your old comrade, Tyasan.

Kedrigern gazed long at the message. He looked up helplessly and sighed.