"Esther M. Friesner - At These Prices" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

chain charged for it, I had every right to take that double handful of butterscotch
drops from the bulk candy bin!”
“Ma’am, if you think we’re about to risk our own freedom by drinking a drop
of that, you’ve mistaken us for fools,” Berry said solemnly.
 “In other words, fat ass!” Selina put in.
“Don’cher mean ‘fat chance’?” Tom the troll asked, always helpful.
“I call ‘em like I see ‘em.”
Bella ignored the barb. “I don’t want you to drink it, I want you to swear on
it.”
“You’re free and easy calling for oaths, ma’am,” Berry said, his eyes
narrowing. “First on the blesséd Mill, now on the beans of bliss. Don’t trifle with our
faith for your own amusement.”
“Not this time. If you’ve honestly come to free Bixby just because it’s the
right thing to do, it honors the sacred ties of friendship, it’s all a part of the
brotherhood of the seals—”
“The Seelie!” Mel shouted.
“—then swear so on these beans and I swear I’ll let him go, here and now.
But if you can’t do that, you’ve got to grant me one wish, something beyond
Bixby’s powers, something I’ve always wanted with all my heart.”
“A winning personality?” Selina suggested.
“A party, you flying glob of snot,” Bella replied coldly. “A fabulous party, so
I can finally brownnose the top brass at Speranza Storm Cosmetics in style. Kissing
up to those hairsprayed hags is the only way to get ahead in this business, the
straight road to earning all the top salesmanship awards, the cruises, the cars—”
“The ultimate freebies,” Mel murmured, demurely eyeing the droplets of
anticipatory drool forming at the corners of Bella’s mouth.
“I’d think a salesmanship award was based on merit alone,” Berry remarked.
Bella sniffed. “Shows what you know, Peewee. It’s a hard world, and the only
way to get ahead is to take what you can, help yourself, and above all ... think fast!”
She hardballed the bag of coffee beans right at the dwarf’s face. Mel gave a cry of
alarm, but before Berry’s nose met a dark-roasted doom, his hand shot up
instinctively and intercepted the missile. Bella did her impression of a cream-stuffed
cat. “The consecrated caffeine’s in your court now, big boy, so how’s about that
oath?”
“I am an engineer. I do not fear truth, merely statistics.” Berry cradled the
coffee reverently in his cupped palms. “By all we hold most dear, I freely swear that
we’ve come to rescue Bixby out of purest friendship.”
“Oh.” Bella had the stricken look of someone who’d not only backed the
wrong horse, but had done so at a dog race.
 “And also because if we don’t get him back for our weekly poker game soon,
we’ll have to replace him with Lyndon.” The dwarf shuddered.
“Lyndon?” Bella echoed.
“Lyndon the ogre,” Tom volunteered.
“Lyndon the blood-drinking, bone-crunching, flesh-rending, lousy
poker-playing, sore-losing, vicious-tempered, troll-punching, dwarf-crushing,
ondine-squishing, pixie-swatting ogre,” Selina elaborated.
“The designer from the independent florist shop in the lobby, yes, that
Lyndon,” Berry said. “Our poker game is the envy of all the other hotel employees,
both for the camaraderie and the chance to pick up some serious winnings.”
“Like Bixby was doing for the past six weeks before you captured him,”