"Kelly McCullough - WebMage" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCullough Kelly)

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CHAPTER ONE




"Nothing here," said Melchior, his voice echoing from the depths of an ancient citrus-wood chest.

"Keep looking," I called back to my familiar, yanking another drawer from my many-times-great-aunt's
desk. "It's small. It could be anywhere."

The spell was very tightly written, and elegantly coded. Embedded in the crystalline matrix of a memory
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jewel, it was beautiful. Even incomplete, it was the scariest thing I'd ever seen. Worse, it didn't seem to
be anywhere in Atropos's suite. I shouldn't have been surprised. My great-to-the-nth-degree-aunt is a
consummate weaver of intrigue. I dropped the drawer. Where should I look next? As if in answer to my
question, a hound bayed in the distance, the unmistakable belling of a hunter on a fresh trail. I didn't have
much time.

"Melchior, Mtp://mweb.DecLocus.prime.minus3051/ umn.edu, comstockhall301," I said. It was my
current home site on the mweb. "Execute."

"I hear and obey, Ravirn," replied Melchior.

The webgoblin hurried to an open space on the floor and scratched a hexagram into the wood before
spitting out a netspider. The tiny magical creature scuttled to the diagram, where it set an anchor line and
vanished. A few seconds later it returned and Melchior grabbed it and returned it to his mouth.

"Mm-mm. Delicious and nutritious, tastes just like chicken."

"Can the editorials, Mel," I called, sliding out from under the bed. I'd sliced open the liner and dug
around in the springs. The smell of dust filled my sinuses. "We're in a hurry, and I know they taste
terrible. That's one of the reasons I built you in the first place. I just want to know if my dorm room is
clear."

The webgoblin stuck his spider-occupied tongue out at me. I snapped my fingers in exasperation, calling
a wisp-light into being, and sent it to dance a few inches in front of Melchior's eyes. He hopped back and
growled a little. When the wisp showed no signs of departing, he sighed and swallowed the spider.

I dispelled the wisp. There was no sense in aggravating him, or drawing more attention than I already
had. Although, on looking around at the wreck we'd made of my great-aunt's bedroom, I had to wonder