"Christopher Stasheff - Warlock 09 - The Warlocks Companion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

juggernaut speared after him on a broomstick, shouting happy predictions of dire
doom.
"Children!" Gwen cried, and Geoffrey jerked to a halt in midair, then swerved over to
the nearest tree. Cordelia dropped to the ground, trying to hide her broomstick behind
her back, while the elm next to her brother seemed to waver, then solidified again, a bit
wider than it had beenтАФand Geoffrey was nowhere to be seen.
"Nay, then, I ken thy presence," Gwen said in tones that evoked dread, "and thou
knowest thou hast gone against the rule. Come out from that elm where thou dost
hide."
"He could not help it, Mama!" Cordelia cried. "I did spring upon him andтАж" She
hushed and bit her lip at a glare from Gwen.
"Thy sister's intercession will not save thee," Gwen informed the elm, "for thou hadst
no need to fly an thou didst wish to flee. Come out!"
The silence stretched to the point of snapping, and Rod was just opening his mouth
to point out that, after all, nobody had been hurt, and it wasn't really all that great an
infraction (though he knew he shouldn't), when Geoffrey saved him by stepping out
from the tree. His head was down and his shoulders hunched, but he was there, and
the tree was slender again. Rod swung down from Fess's back, bracing himself for a
shouting matchтАФthen decided to let Gwen start it. He was tired.
Gwen sat on her high horse, glaring down.
Geoffrey glowered back up at her.
Gwen's face was stone.
Geoffrey held his glare, but began to fidget.
Gwen waited.
"Well, then, I did wrongly!" Geoffrey burst out. "Thou hast told us time and again not
to fly in a forest, and I disobeyed!"
"A good beginning," Gwen said, with an air of finality.
Geoffrey glowered up again, slowly wilting. Finally, he dropped his gaze and
muttered, "I am sorry, Mama."
"Better," Gwen pronounced. "And wilt thou do it again?"
"Nay, Mama."
"Wherefore?"
"For that thou hast said so."
"Nay! Though 'twould be good, 'tis not enough! Wherefore have I forbade thee to fly
in a wood?"
"For that I might dash out my brains 'gainst a tree trunk," Geoffrey muttered. Then
he glared up at her again. "Yet I never have!"
 Gwen only stared.
"Oh, aye, there was that time two years agone, when I did knock myself senseless."
Geoffrey dropped his eyes again. "And three years agone, when I came home quite
dazedтАФyet I was little then!"
"And hast better aim now, surely. Nay, now thou'lt strike squarely on the center of
thy crown."
"I'll not strike at all!" Geoffrey's jaw jutted. "I am more practiced now, Mama!"
"Yes," Rod agreed, "he's gotten so good at it that now he can flatten his head
completely."
"I shall not! I shall slip 'twixt the trees like a sky-borne eel!"
"Quite a vision, that." Rod imagined a flock of flying eels, wriggling their way across
the heavens. "But with all those eels, wouldn't it be a little dangerous for you?"
Geoffrey rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Canst thou never be serious, Papa?"