"Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - A Baroque Fable" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yarbro Chelsea Quinn)

And then my family would not have to starve and I would be able to tend to the chores you have set me
in a manner you will like." She smiles mistily. Or perhaps she is merely nearsighted.
12 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
"Indeed," Alfreida says with a permissive wave of her hand. "Well, then 1 will have to think about it,
won't IT'
"Oh, please; yes, please," Esmeralda breathes
Alfreida shakes her head and looks down once more at her pots. "Some people are remarkably dense."
She smiles, a jagged, crocodile sort of smile. "I'll have to give you that chance, won't I? It wouldn't do for
me to prohibit you. No, not at all."
"Thank you, thank you," Esmeralda whispers, all but dropping to her knees in gratitude. "I knew you
could not be so cold-hearted to forbid me to have the opportunity to redeem myself in your good
opinion."
"What mouthfuls you say," Alfreida remarks sweetly. "If you'll just go to the cave and get my grimoire, I'll
see what I can come up with for you to do." She indicates the door. "Be sure you close it firmly. I need
time to think, and the Trolls are making too much noise for that."
"The grimoire. Yes, I will fetch it. Right away." She rushes to the door and with some effort tugs it open.
"тАФin the mold-green moonlight Where horror unknown waits andтАФ"
"SHUT IT!" Alfreida bellows, and glares in secret satisfaction at the door. "That will keep her busy white
1 make a few preparations. Something tike this requires planning and concentration, and no one can
manage that with an abominably sweet wretch prattling along about goodness and happiness." Liripoop
gives a low purr, he knows what's coming. "And when she comes back, I'll show her." Alfreida begins to
hum, her tone-deaf meanderings painful to everyone including Liripoop, who turns his back on Alfreida
and ignores the whole thing. "What a pretty little cotton-head she is, no doubt about it. High time she
learned it's a rougher world than she knows. Yes. Yesyesyes. When she comes back, I'll turn her into a
toad." This gives Alfreida such amusement that she has to jig about the room in order to accommodate
her mirth. As she goes, she kicks the occasional bit of furniture out of her way. "Must have a good open
space, mustn't we? Large enough to do the work. Toad magic, now that takes a smallish pentacle." She
begins to pace out the lines on the floor, then stops abruptly. "Not a toad. No, that's
A BAROQUE FABLE
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far too easy. An obnoxious thing like her, she'd find someone who likes toads. It must be worse than
that."
Liripoop is no help at all.
"What about a sickly bat? One of those weak ones, that are always falling into people's hair? What
would that cream-puff do when a flightly old lady fainted at the sight of her?" She looks toward her cat,
as if expecting approval, but Uri-poop pays no attention. "If not a bat, what about something large and
terrible, something really unpleasant?" The notion appeals to Alfreida as she says this, and her grin is
unnerving to see. "I think that I might come up with a spell or two that would do the trick." She hops
experimentally. "A slip of a thing like Esmeralda is going to take more man a jot of magic to get up to
size, but there are some who are thought to be the best around who are not equal to my abilities, not that
I would think to boast of it." Her voice has turned sweetly modest, not a very pleasant thing at all.
Liripoop rolls onto his back and looks up at her in an expectant way, then utters a few strange cat sounds
which Alfreida listens to attentively. When he has finished this, he rolls back into a ball and claps his paws
over his eyes.
"Why, I never thought about that at all," Alfreida says to him, as if in conversation. "It didn't occur to me.
I must not be completely myself today, to have overlooked such an obvious thing." A speculative gleam
comes into her eyes. "And there would be real advantages to your plan, Liripoop. You're always
showing me the way, 1 must admit it." She looks about among the pots. "What might work best? Tigers
and lions are outтАФI haven't got the space for them. But there are other things..." She reaches out for
some white powder. "The pentacle first, I think, while I work out what I am going to do with her."