"Anthony Piers - Incarnations Of Immortality 2 - Bearing an Hourglass [uc]" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

interrupt him. What would be the point? Norton had on
occasion spotted the traces of dragons in the parks and
had always given the monsters a wide berth. He might be
an environmentalist, but he was no fool. It was said that
some dragons in parks were halfway tame and would not
attack a person if he gave them food or jewelry, but Nor-
ton had never trusted such folklore. The best way to deal
with a dragon was to stay clear of it, unless a person had
a really competent pacification-spell.

"I know what you're thinking," Gawain said. "Obvi-
ously I met one dragon too many! But in my defense, I
do want to say that I was successful for five years and
had almost amassed my target level in bonus money. I
would be alive today if that last dragon I faced had been
genuine. But you see, it wasn't; it had been mislabeled.
Oh, I don't blame the natives—not much, anyway; they
were a fairly primitive tribe in South America and they
spoke a mixture of Amerind and Spanish, while I spoke
the language of champions, English. Normally language
is not much of a barrier; my armor and sword bespoke
my profession, with the dragon design on my shield; and
as for the women—a man never needs a language of the
tongue to speak his use for them, especially when he's a
warrior. These things are fairly standard, anyway; the
conquering hero always gets his pick of the local virgins.
After all, it's better for them than getting chomped by the
dragon!"

7

He paused a moment, his lips twitching. "Funny that
some of those girls don't seem to see it that way."

He shrugged and returned to the main theme. "But I
think they were honestly ignorant of the nature of their
monster. Of course, I should have checked it out in the
Dragon Registry—but I had traveled a long way, and the
nearest civilized outpost was a half day's trek distant—
couldn't use a standard flying carpet for this, of course,
since those things are coded into the tour computers, and
that would have given away my business—it would have
delayed me a day just to do that, and maybe alerted the
Dragon Patrol. So I tackled that dragon blind, as it were.
I'll never do that again! I was cocky and foolish, I know—
but I was familiar with the specs on just about every type
of dragon in the world; I figured I was okay this one time.

"So there I was, afoot and armed with sword and shield,
as is proper for such encounters, and I boldly braved the