"Gordon R. Dickson - Dragon Knight 02 - The Dragon Knight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

“Me?” said Jim. “Unusual?”

A sense of sudden cunning overcame him.

“Different, me?” he said. “Different, how?”

Angie propped herself up on one elbow just under the blankets, and stared at him with her intense blue
eyes. Her dark hair was tumbled by sleep, but still very attractive. He felt a moment’s sharp awareness of
her trim, naked body only inches away from him. But this emotion was wiped away a second later by
apprehension.

“I don’t know exactly how,” Angie said. “I just have this feeling that there was something different and
you were going-why are you practically out of bed?”

“Oh? Am I?” Jim hastily pulled himself completely back under the furs. “Well, I just thought I’d go down
and get them started on breakfast and in fact I was thinking of-“ he crossed his fingers under the cover of
a particularly fine bearskin- “bringing you up a tray.”

“Oh, Jim,” said Angie. “That’s so like you. But it isn’t necessary. I feel marvelous, I can’t wait to get
up.”

She had put her hand on his arm under the covers; and he responded to her touch-and then was struck
with sudden horror at the thought that his smooth skin suddenly might develop scales under her fingers.

“Fine! Fine!” he yelped, popping out from under the furs and beginning to pull on his clothes. “I’ll go
down and get them started on breakfast, anyway. You come along as quickly as you can; and maybe
we’ll have it there waiting for you.”

“But Jim, there’s not that much hurry-“ Jim did not hear the rest of it because he was already out of the
door, closing it behind him and moving off down the corridor, still dressing as he went-not for decency’s
sake, since decency had a rather lower rating in these medieval times he now inhabited-but because the
stone-walled corridor following the inner curve of the keep’s walls was chillingly cold.

At a safe distance from the solar bedroom door, he stopped, caught his breath, and then spoke to thin
air.

“Accounting Office!” he said. “Why did I change into a dragon?”

“Your account has been activated,” responded the bass voice about on a level with his thigh; causing
him, as usual, to start, even though he knew what to expect.

“Activated? What does that mean?”

“Any account of which the owner is still alive and able to make use, but has not for at least six months, is
always activated,” said the Accounting Office, rather primly.

“But I still don’t understand what ‘activated’ means!” Jim protested.

“The explanation is self-explanatory,” replied the Accounting Office.