"Anthony Piers - Golem in the Gears" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

dow that was normally left open for him. He landed in a
clump of toadstools that had sprung up overnight, knock-
ing several over. Unfortunately, a small toad had been
sitting on one.

"Clumsy oaf!" the toad croaked, righting himself.
"Watch where you're going!"

"Listen, frogface," Grundy retorted. "This is my path!
You have no business here."

"I was on a toadstool, as I have a perfect right to be,"
the toad protested. "You just came barging through!"

The creature had a case, but Grundy didn't care. His
irritation with the situation—and with all ot Xanth—
caused him to react in the familiar way that he wished he
didn't. "Know what I think of that? I'll bash all these
stinky things to smithereens!" And he grabbed up a stick
and laid about him, knocking over toadstools right and
left. Grundy was no giant, but they stood only about knee-
high to him, and were easy to dispatch.

"Help!" the toad croaked. "Berserker on the loose!"

Suddenly there was a stirring throughout the weedy
region beside the castle wall. Toads appeared, hopping in
toward the summons—small ones at first, then larger ones,
and finally one huge one.

Grundy realized he was in trouble. He tried to scramble
up to the window, but the monster toad opened his pon-

Golem in the Gears 3

derous maw and speared the golem with his tongue. The
tongue was sticky; Grundy could not get free. The toad
retracted it and hauled Grundy in.

"Eat him! Eat him!" the massed toads cried. "Teach
him to leave toadstools alone!"

Grundy clutched at a half-buried rock, managing to
halt his progress toward the maw. But now the little toads
hopped on him, pounding him with their feet, and one of
them wet on him.

Disgusted as well as frightened, he grabbed that toad
and heaved it into the maw of the giant toad. The maw
closed. The tongue released Grundy and snapped back