"Xanth 21 - Faun and Games" - читать интересную книгу автора (Xanth)

"Don't float too near the Void," Forrest warned the demoness.

She changed course to approach the boundary, then paused. "Say, you are
a cunning one!" she said with admiration. "You knew I'd automatically
do the opposite. It almost worked, too. But I'm only a little crazy.
You have to be a lot crazy to venture into the Void."

"Maybe next time," he muttered.

The nymph was clearly teasing Branch, by passing flirtingly close to the
fringe of the Void. Her prints almost touched the boundary, then moved
away, then came close again. The menace of that drelid region added to
the thrill of the chase. Forrest had done it too, and knew exactly the
steps to take to be sure of never straying across the line.

Then his sandals balked. He stopped, perplexed; what was the matter?
His sandals were magic, and protected his hoofs from harm, and if he
were about to step somewhere harmful, they stopped him. Yet he saw
nothing ahead to be concerned about.

"So what's with you?" Mentia asked. "Tired of walking?"

"I didn't stop," he explained. "My sandals did."

"Say, I'm getting to like you. You're almost as weird as I am."

"That's impossible."

"Thank you." This time her flush of pleasure was purple with green polka
dots, and it extended down her legs and out across the ground around
her. "So why did your sandals stop?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe it was a false alarm."

Still, his sandals had never yet been wrong. So he dropped to his furry
knees and examined the ground before him. It was ordinary. There were a
few smiling gladiolas, the happiest of flowers, and beyond them some
horse radishes were flicking off flies with their tails. He thought of
asking the nearest horse if it knew of anything harmful here, but he
didn't understand plant language very well, and in any event all it
would say would be "neigh." So finally he got up and made a detour
around the place.

"Oh, well," the demoness said, disappointed.

But now he couldn't find the trail. Both sets of tracks were gone. So
he turned back-and that was when he saw it. A splinter of reverse wood
on the ground. He was sure of its identity, because the gladiola
closest to it was drooping sadly. And right across it was a lady