"Patricia C. Wrede - Enchanted Forest 4 - Calling on Dragons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wrede Patricia C)

"It doesn't," Archaniz admitted. "And I'll tell you right away that you aren't the only one who puts a few
lilacs and daylilies in with the rampion and henbane. Why, I've got a perfectly ordinary patch of daisies in
the corner myself."
"Daisies." Jasmine snorted softly. "She would."
"But I've been getting complaints," Archaniz continued, "and I have to do something about them."
"what sort of complaints?"
"That the Deadly Nightshade Gardening Club is too normal for witches," Archaniz said gloomily. "That
all we grow are everyday plants like cabbages and apples-" "Apples are a basic necessity for witches,"
Morwen said. "And every day plants don't turn the people who eat them into donkeys. Who's
complaining?"
"Arona Michaelear Grinogion Vamist?"
The Chairwitch nodded. "That's the one. I've gotten six regular letters and two by Eagle Express in the
past month. He says he's going to write a letter to the Times next."
"He would," Trouble muttered. "I said you should turn him into a toad."
"That idea sounds better all the time," Morwen told Trouble. Then she looked back at Archaniz, who
of course had not understood a word Trouble had said. "Vamist isn't a witch," Morwen said. "He's an
idiot. Why worry about what he says?"
"That's all very well, Morwen, but if he convinces people he's right, it'll ruin our image. And if people
think we're not dangerous, they'll come around asking for love potions and penny curses whenever they
like. We'll be so busy mixing up cures for gout that we won't have time for the things we want to do.
Look what happened to the sorceresses?"
"I haven't seen many of them around lately."
Archaniz nodded. "They got a reputation for being kind and beneficent, and the next thing you knew
everyone was begging them for help.
Most of them moved to remote islands or deep forests, just to get away from the pestering. It's all very
well for you, Morwen, living out here in the Enchanted Forest anyway, but I-" A loud yowl interrupted
the Chairwitch in mid-sentence. An instant later, four cats tore around the corner of the house. The one in
front was a heavy, shortlegged tomcat with yellow eyes and fur as black as night. Behind him came a fat,
long-haired tabby tomcat and two females, one a large calico and the other a fluffy white cat with blue
eyes. The black cat streaked out into the front yard, made a hairpin turn, and leapt for the porch, where
he clawed his way up Archaniz's skirts to a perch on her shoulder.
The three pursuing cats jumped gracefully onto the porch roiling and sat down, curling their tails around
their feet, just as Fiddlesticks poked his head out of the front door.
"What's all the noise about? Who's shouting? Is it a fight? Who's winning? Can I join?" With every
question, Fiddlesticks pushed a little farther, until he was entirely outside the house, staring up at Archaniz
and the cat on her shoulder. "Who's that?"
"Mrow!" said the black cat in a complaining tone. "Yow wow mrr"Oh, yeah?" said Trouble. "Well,
your father wears boots!"
Morwen gave the black cat a speculative look. "One of these days, I am going to have to work up a
spell that will let me understand other people's cats as well as my own," she said to Archaniz. "What was
that about?"
"We caught him nosing around in back of the garden," the long-haired tabby growled.
"He had no business there," the white cat added primly. "He's not one of us, after all. So we thought we
would drive him away."
"Stupid creature was babbling something about a rabbit," the calico cat said with a disdainful look at
the black cat. "As if that was any excuse."
"Why didn't you call me?" Trouble demanded. "I never get to have any fun." Radiating hurt pride, he
stalked to the far end of the porch and disappeared into a large clump of beebalm.
"You know, people have been trying to perfect a universal cat-translating spell for years," Archaniz said
to Morwen in a dry tone. She glanced at the cats on the porch railing. "If you do come up with one, I'd