"K. D. Wentworth - Hallah Iron-Thighs and the Five Unseemly Sorrows" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wentworth K D)

The gleam waxed and waned, waxed again. I stood up in my stirrups. "It looks like flames."



"I don't want to know," Gerta said. She pressed her hands to her aching temples. "Let's bed down here
and then tell the princess tomorrow that we couldn't find anything. We can collect our fee and she'll never
know the difference."



"That would be Unseemly," I said in my best royal imitation. "Besides, if there really is a dragon up there,
don't you want to kill it? I mean, it is a tradition in your family."



"A glorious one," she agreed dully. "I think I'm going to be sick."



"Thanks for sharing," I said.



Half an hour later, we heard sounds echoing down from the rocks. They started low, just a few groans
and whimpers, then rose in pitch, ending with a final maniacal scream.



Gerta reined in her gray gelding. "Dragons don't torture their prey," she said. "At least, not in any of the
tales my family used to tell. Sometimes they eat you, but that only takes one bite, maybe two. They're not
dainty."



"And the meal wouldn't go on night after night," I said. My curiosity was roused. "Three princes would
last no more than three days. After that, the dragon would have to hunt."
We found a scrubby pine and tied our horses, then climbed the rest of the way on foot. Esmeralda was
comfortingly heavy on my back, but Gerta carried her sword already drawn. The noises continued, but in
a different pitch, lower. Tristin or Adelbert, I wondered, or even the unlamented Rumkin?



The sounds were coming from a large cave lit from within. "тАФyou can chain me up like this!" a male
voice was saying enthusiastically. Metal links rattled. "And then like this and this! Very fetching, don't you
think?"



"Go home," said a weary voice that sounded like a cross between a vulture and a camel. "I have told you
over and overтАФI am a vegetarian. I have no desire to eat any of you wretchedly scrawny humans, no