"Shane Tourtellotte - String of Pearls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tourtellotte Shane)

Bunwadde quietly told Milinor to answer. "Gosho lustodon," she sang out.

"Kuss. Groa vat lusto ibegi."

Milinor cheered as though she had just won the game. Movedhor cheered along with her. Milinor let her
sister pick the tiles, then played four up the left-hand leg of the triangle for nine points. Pesh extended the
play by three tiles, scoring nineteen.

That gave Marcus a good six-tile play, or so he hoped. It involved making a subsidiary three-word
sentence, but its structure looked safe. He played it, and the board promptly razzed it off. Milinor and
Movedhor laughed, their squeaky barks worse on Marcus's nerves than the board's rejection tune had
been.

"Stop that!" said Pesh. "You won't be allowed to play if--"

"Let me handle this," Bunwadde said. "Girls, remember, our guest is human. Humans have trouble with
our language. Now play nicely."

"Yes, Father," they said. Neither one apologized.

Bunwadde seemed satisfied, as he promptly turned to his play. Three tiles went down near the top,
making five sentences in all three directions, every one good. "Thirty-five," said the board, and Marcus
couldn't help being impressed.

Tropid walked in from the kitchen. "I heard your commotion," he said to the youngsters. "Are you being
unruly?"

"They're fine, Tropid," Bunwadde said. "Thank you."

Tropid was about to withdraw, before spying the play Milinor was starting to make. "Remember what I
taught you yesterday, Milinor?"

She stopped, got a serious look, and took back her tiles. Marcus opened his mouth, but felt Bunwadde's
heavy hand on his arm. He might not have had the nerve to object to Tropid's meddling, but now he
certainly didn't.

She finally laid down a two-tile extension. "If it's not good," she said to Marcus, "don't laugh."

"I would not laugh at you," he said, rather tartly.

Movedhor hooted softly. "What if he played that?" she stage-whispered to her sister. Milinor didn't
reply, and hit "Lustep." The play was good, earning both their cheers.

Marcus's play turned cautious. The cramped, difficult board bequeathed by Bunwadde's play contributed
early. Even after Bunwadde opened it up, at some cost to himself, Marcus went for acceptable plays, not
high scores. It was his goal not to be laughed at again that game.

Once he lost that goal mid-game, his fallback was not to finish last to Milinor. He did not get much help.