"Roger Zelazny - Dragons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

young knight out to make a name for himself: What is the first
thing he does?"

"I don't know," said Mister Gibberling.

"I will tell you," said Belkis. "He looks for a dragon to
kill. If he can't locate any, though, he finds something else
to do. Perhaps even something constructive. But you with your
dragon-filled maps! - you are keeping the old legend alive when
we want it to die. We want people to forget, to leave us alone.

Every time some young squire gets hold of one of your
maps, he has visions of heading for the mountains around here
in order to make some rank, to get to be a knight by killing
dragons. This leaves dragons with the choice of eating them all
or trying to ignore them. There are too many and most of them
pretty tasteless, not to mention hard to clean. So we attempt
to ignore them. This is often very difficult, and it is your
fault. You have been responsible for maintaining a thing better
forgotten.

Also," he stated, "you are a very poor geographer."

"My father was Royal Cartographer, and his father before
him," said Mister Gibberling.

"What does that have to do with you?" asked Belkis. "You
are a poor geographer."

"What do you mean?"

"What lies over those mountains?" asked Belkis, gesturing
with a scaly wing.

"Drag Oh! I mean more mountains, sir," said Mister
Gibberling.

"Admit it! You do not know!" said Belkis.

"All right! I don't know!" cried Mister Gibberling.

"Good," said Belkis. "That's something, anyway. Have you
quills and ink and parchment handy?"

"No," said Mister Gibberling.

"Then go get them!" roared Belkis. "And be quick about
it!"

"Yes, sir!" said Mister Gibberling, stumbling over his