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

tucker. They fled the party en masse. In less than a minute, the only sign that the
room had once been packed with women was a scattering of peel-and-gorge shrimp
carapaces, the skid pattern of high heel marks on the parquet, and the cloud of
excess eye shadow and blusher slowly settling over the abandoned tables.
“Whoa,” the pixie remarked, scanning the echoing, evacuated space. “What
crawled up their bloomers?”
“You ... monsters! Look what you did to my party!” Bella Franklin sailed
across the floor, her rage leaving Bixby abandoned on the far side of the room. “Is
this how you honor your bets?”
“Ma’am, the wager specified only that we’d give you a party,” Berry said.
“There wasn’t one word uttered about how long it had to last,” Mel added,
her words all the more aggravating because they were true.
Bella was in no mood for logic. She roared an obscenity and slapped Berry
and Mel across their faces before they could react. Selina was quicker and easily
soared out of the maddened mortal’s reach. Bella cursed the elusive pixie and turned
on Tom in her frustration. A howl of pain followed the hearty smack she dealt
across the troll’s chops. It did not come from him.
“Bloody mythological illiterate,” Mel said again, this time with a smile. “Some
people know that trolls are made of stone.”
“You ruined me!” Bella shouted, tenderly holding her injured hand. “You
humiliated me in front of every Speranza Storm V.I.P. in existence! Do you know
who first saw that miserable cockroach?”
“Hey!” Selina objected from on high.
“Only the president of Speranza Storm Cosmetics, that’s all. You destroyed
my future! I’ll kill you!”
“Beggin’ yer pardon, ma’am,” Tom said. “But I’d like t’ see yer try.”
Bella gritted her teeth. “Oh, you’ll see. When I get home, I’m working your
pal Bixby to death, once and for all! It won’t take long. Not once I revoke his
percolator privileges.”
The four friends gasped. “Ma’am, you can’t mean it!” Melusine cried. “To
keep him from the sacred brew is unbelievable cruelty, even for a mortal.”
“Also, real stupid,” Selina put in from on high. “If you whack Bixby, there
goes your housekeeping slave.”
“I survived without him before,” Bella retorted. “It’ll be worth it.”
“Ma’am, I beg of you, think,” Berry said. “We’ll mourn Bixby’s loss, but it
won’t kill us.”
“It won’t. Lyndon the ogre will.” Bella leered nastily through the pain from her
self-mangled hand. “Lyndon the troll-punching, dwarf-crushing, ondine-squishing,
pixie-swatting, sore loser ogre. Think I wasn’t paying attention? With Bixby dead,
you’ll have to bring him into the game right away, and then you’ll either have to let
him win every hand or face a world of hurt. You’ll end up broke or broken, I don’t
care which. Maybe he won’t kill you outright, but you’ll wish you were dead.” She
turned her back on them and bellowed, “Bixby!” The brownie came running. “We’re
going home. Say goodbye.”
“Yes, milady,” Bixby replied sadly. “Farewell, Tom, Selina, Melusi—”
“Not farewell,” Bella interrupted. “Goodbye.” Her smirk was pitiless. She
headed for the door without a backward glance. She knew Bixby had no choice save
to follow her, even to his death. She only paused long enough to scoop up one of
the towering centerpieces and stuff it partway into her purse. It must have been
agony to accomplish with her wounded hand, but as always, greed overruled every