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

didn't help to promote tourism.)

This is why everyone was afraid of the dragons they had
never seen. If your father were to drive into a gas station and
ask for a road map, and it said, "HERE THERE BE DRAGONS" and it
showed a little picture such as the ones Mister Gibberling
drew, your father would take a dif- ferent route. So, since all
the maps in the kingdom showed dragons everywhere, breathing
flames and being mean, all the people in the kingdom stayed at
home, because there were no other routes.

Chapter 2

BUT THEN ONE DAY the king's daughter, the princess, was
going to have a birthday, and the king wanted to celebrate it
in a special way.

"I want fireworks!" he said.

"Yes, sire. A good idea," said his first adviser.

"Yes indeed, sire. A very good idea," said his second
adviser.

"Oh yes, great sire! A very, very good idea," said his
third adviser.

"Uh, where will we get them, sire?" asked his fourth
adviser, who was never too popular around the court (but his
dowager aunt was a good friend of the queen, so the king kept
him about, despite his habit of asking uncomfortable
questions).

"The man who used to manufacture fireworks died some ten
years ago," he explained, "and he never trained anyone to take
his place. This is why there have been no fireworks displays in
recent years."

"We shall simply have to get them," said the king,
"because I want them."

"Yes," said the first adviser.

"We shall simply have to get them," said the second.

"Because the king wants them," said the third.

"How?" asked the fourth.

"Well we could, ah import them," said the first.