"Gordon R. Dickson - Dragon Knight 04 - The Dragon At War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

now he felt as if all eyes were on him. He was almost to the kettle now, anyway.
The Lady Angela turned at the sound of his running feet. She took the tip of her finger from her mouth
and stared at him as if he was a ghost. He vaulted up to the level of the high table and enfolded her in his
arms.
“Angie!” he said.
For a moment she did nothing; then she enclosed him in her own arms and kissed him fiercely.
“Jim!” she said. “Oh, Jim!”
They hung together for a few moments; and then Jim felt himself pushed away from her, with her hands
on his chest. A dark frown was gathering over her eyes.
“And just where have you been all this time-“ she began.
Hastily, he shoved the flowers, which he had been unconsciously carrying all this time in his left hand,
into her arms.
“For you!” he said.
“Jim, I don’t care-“ She broke off again and looked down at the flowers. After a second she took a long
deep sniff at them. “Oh, Jim-“ She broke off with an entirely different note in her voice. She lowered her
head and sniffed deeply again at the flowers, then she put her arms around him once again, hugging him
to her.
“Damn you!” she whispered in his ear; then kissed him again, both angrily and lovingly. Then they both
let go and stood back from each other.

“But are you all right?” demanded Jim. “Your finger was in your mouth-“
“Oh, I burned it on this kettle,” said Angie vexedly. “I couldn’t believe that it was boiling with no heat
under it, so I touched. Stupid thing to do! But Jim-how does it happen you turn up at just this moment?
Did you use magic, or something?”
“Not to get here at just this moment,” said Jim. “Why is getting here at just this moment so important?”
“Because the kettle just got here, too, and it wants to talk to you!”
“The kettle?” Jim stared from her to the utensil, steaming and singing away on the table. “A kettle wants
to talk to me?”
“Yes! Don’t you hear it?” demanded Angie. “Listen!”
Jim listened.
The kettle was still singing away in its breathy little voice; and up close, as Jim was now, he found its
singing made recognizable words. The song was a brief refrain, but repeated over and over again.
This is an emergency.
Fetch Jim Eckert here to me.
He is needed desperately!
Fetch Jim Eckert here to me!
Jim blinked as the kettle went back to its first line and began to sing the quatrain all over again. He
listened to it halfway through again before he came out of his daze.
“I’m here!” he told the kettle. “This is Jim Eckert. I’m here. What do you want to tell me?”
The kettle immediately switched its song.
It sang:
Carolinus needs you, Jim,
You must swiftly rescue him!
He is sick, in living hell-
From nurses who would make him well!
Two “wisewomen,” from Hill Farm
Not really wise, but strong of arm.
Dose and poultice him to death.
Haste, before his final breath!
Rescue Carolinus!