"Janet Kagan - Mirabile" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kagan Janet)

old records tell me), the pandemonium I found would have been enough to kick off
Dragon’s Teeth by the dozens.
 Amid the chaos, Ilanith, Elly’s next-to-oldest-not-yet-grown, was handling the
oversized gilt ledger with great dignity. She lit up when she saw me and waved. Then
she bent down for whispered conversation. A second later Jen, the nine-year-old,
exploded from behind the desk, bellowing, “Elleeeeee! Noiseeeeee! Come quick!
Mama Jason’s here!” The kid’s lung power cut right through the chaos and startled
the room into a momentary hush. She charged through the door to the dining room,
still trying to shout the house down.
I took advantage of the distraction to elbow my way to the desk and Ilanith.
She squinted a little at me, purely Elly in manner, and said, “Bet you got hopped
on by a kangaroo rex this week. You’re real snarly.”
“Can’t do anything about my face,” I told her. “And it was biting cockroaches.” I
pushed up a sleeve to show her the bites.
“Bleeeeeh,” she said, with an inch or two of tongue for emphasis. “I hope they
weren’t keepers.”
“Just the six I saved to put in your bed. Wouldn’t want you to think I’d forgotten
you.”
She wrinkled her nose at me and flung herself across the desk to plant a big
sloppy kiss on my cheek. “Mama Jason, you are the world’s biggest tease. But I’m
gonna give you your favorite room anyhow”—she wrinkled her nose in a very
different fashion at the couple to my right—“since those two just checked out of it.”
One of the those two peered at me like a myopic crane. I saw recognition strike,
then he said, “We’ve changed our minds. We’ll keep the room.”
“Too late,” said Ilanith—and she was smug about it. “But, if you want to stay, I
can give you one on the other side of the lodge. No view.” Score one for the good
guys, I thought.
“See, Elly?” It was Jen, back at a trot beside Elly and dragging Noisy behind her.
“See?” Jen said again. “If Mama Jason’s here, I won’t have to go away, right?”
“Right,” I said.
“Oh, Jen!” Elly dropped to one knee to pull Jen into one of her full-body-check
hugs. “Is that what’s been worrying you? Leo already explained to your mom.
There’s no monster. Nobody’s going to send you away from Loch Moose!”
Jen, who’d been looking relieved, suddenly looked suspicious. “If there’s no
monster, why’s Mama Jason here?”
“Need a break,” I said, realizing I meant it. Seeing Elly and the kids was break
enough all by itself. “Stomped enough Dragon’s Teeth this week. I’m not about to
go running after monsters that vanish at the first breath of fresh air.”
Elly gave me a smile that would have thawed a glacier and my shoulders relaxed
for the first time in what seemed like months.
I grinned back. “Have your two monster-sighters sobered up yet?”
 “Sobered up,” reported Ilanith, “and checked out.” She giggled. “You should
have seen how red-faced they were, Mama Jason.”
I glowered at no one in particular. “Just as well. After the day I had, they’d have
been twice as red if I’d had to deal with ’em.”
Elly rose to her feet, bringing Jen with her. The two of them looked me over, Jen
imitating Elly’s keen-eyed inspection. “We’d better get Mama Jason to her room.
She needs a shower and a nap worse than any kid in the household.”
Ilanith shook her head. “Let her eat first, Elly. By the time she’s done, we’ll have
her room ready.”