"John Morressy - Floored" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morressy John)

JOHN MORRESSY

FLOORED

WHEN GRUNJAK, LORD OF the Blighted Barrens, sent his first appeal for relief
from a spell that had left him covered from head to foot with boils, Kedrigern
read it with delight. "Couldn't happen to a more deserving man," he said.

Princess, who considered her husband to be a reasonably compassionate wizard,
was surprised but withheld comment even when a second appeal left Kedrigern
unmoved. "They'll improve his appearance," he said upon reading it, chuckling
with malicious satisfaction.

This time she could not remain silent. "A fellow human being is suffering under
a terrible spell. You owe it to the poor man to despell him."

"No one owes Grunjak anything, my dear," he replied, adding after a moment's
thought, "Except perhaps a good thrashing."

"What has the man done?"

Kedrigern sat back in his comfortable chair, made a little tent of his
fingertips, and said, "To me, personally, nothing. He lacks the temerity to
injure a wizard. But to others...it would be easier to tell you what he hasn't
done. Grunjak of the Blighted Barrens is known among those unfortunate enough to
be his neighbors as Grunjak the Gross, the Greasy, the Grisly, the Grim, the
Grungy, the Greedy, the Gruesome, and the Grotty, as well as numerous
non-alliterative epithets I would not repeat in the presence of a lady. To
describe him as a malevolent, vicious, brutal dolt, liar, coward, bully, and
thief would be shameless flattery. A curse of boils is mild recompense for his
misdeeds, and I see no reason to interfere with the course of justice."

Princess could read his moods. She said no more, but waited.

Grunjak's third appeal opened with the promise of a complete reformation. He
swore by every saint that once cured, he would forsake barbarity and brutality,
empty his dungeons and his coffers, abandon looting and lechery, and give up
senseless violence, extortion, and cruelty. He would repent, he would make good,
he would be a new and better man. Kedrigern paused in his reading to observe,
"An easy promise to make. A new Grunjak could hardly be a worse one"

Princess was not of the same mind. "You can't shrug this off," she said. "The
reformation of such an appalling man would be a great service to humanity. It
has to be done, and no one else is even trying."

The latter observation was not quite true. Zealous clergy had made several
attempts to bring the light to Grunjak, but every monk who set foot on his land
had been so severely battered that he was incapable of anything but silent
prayer for months afterward. The neighboring landowners were aware of Grunjak's
ways, but tolerant. "There he goes again," they would say at word of each new