"Stephen Goldin - Storyteller" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

shelf down from the top, seventh item from the left."

“Hearing and obeying,” said the Jinn, and vanished quickly upon his errand. He returned but a few
moments later, quaking in fear at the reaction he knew his news would provoke from his master.
 “O my gracious lord, I cannot perform the task you set. The storeroom has been ransacked, the shelves
have been overturned, and their contents are scattered all over the floor. It's impossible to find anything in
there right now."

At this news Akar, who had thought his anger entirely vented by the spell he'd cast against the thieves,
flared into rage anew at the indignity he'd suffered. His previous temper was as but a summer squall
compared now to the full tempest of his wrath. He did not have the proper equipment to do the job of
ridding his castle of tigers, but that scarcely mattered. He was Akar, the world's mightiest wizard, and his
power alone would suffice.

Step by angry step he marched across the roof and down the spiral stone stairway into the depths of his
mountaintop castle. Up from below came the sounds of chaos, as his magical servants battled the
ferocious flying tigers with the flaming claws who lived in the mountain's hollow interior. Snarls and groans
and yells of pain reached the wizard's ears, but he cared naught for any of them. He was coming to
redeem his castle, to rid it of the last trace of interlopers and restore its integrity once more. What was his
would be his again and forever. No one would deny him that.

He stepped out into the long corridor of rock and confronted his foes. He could not see the tigers, but
he could smell their feline musk, hear their angry growls, feel the heat of their bodies and their fiery claws.
There were at least ten of them, perhaps a score, but Akar knew no fear. He knew with utter precision
the length, width, and depth of his power, and he knew with equal precision how to use it.

His servants who'd been fighting the tigers in the corridor disengaged from the battle at the sight of their
master. They backed against the wall, or through doorways, or vanished altogether. They knew better
than to stand between the mighty wizard and any target he set his attention to.

And the wizard Akar uplifted his hands and a hurricane swept down the corridor, a wild wind whistling
its vengeance against Shahdur's defilers. Akar's body began to glow with a blazing radiance of rage at the
beasts who'd invaded his stronghold. Slowly the fires of his fury increased until he stood in the hallway
shining like the light of a dozen suns.

And Akar spoke but a single word, “Begone!” and it echoed like thunder down the smooth stone
corridor.

The winged tigers roared their defiance. They spat and hissed and snarled, swiping their fiery claws in
the air to menace a man who could not be swayed by such theatrical gestures. And as Akar stepped
toward them they backed away reluctantly, afraid to challenge the brightly glowing figure before them.

Step by deliberate step, Akar herded the fierce creatures back into the stairway from which they'd
come, back down the stairs and through the sturdy wooden door that separated the castle proper from
the mountain's interior. And when all the tigers were back in their proper place, Akar slammed shut the
heavy door and slid the bar closed, sealing off the threat. Shahdur Castle once more belonged to him.

As the menace disappeared, Akar could feel fatigue washing over him. Two angry surges of power so
close together had proved a severe strain on his energies, and his strength was fading quickly. Akar
climbed the stairs to his bedroom level, and each step seemed twice as high as the one preceding it. Akar