"Philip Jose' Farmer. The Green Odyssey (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

thanks-the short one-or else giggle at his funny accent.

The Duke sat at the other end of the table. He ignored the by-play, just
as he ignored the so-called secret passage inside the walls of the castle,
which Green used to get to the Duchess's apartments. Custom demanded this,
just as custom demanded that he should play the outraged husband if she
got tired of Green or angry at him and accused him publicly of amorous
advances. This was enough to make Green jittery, but he had more than the
Duke to consider. There was Alzo.

Alzo was the Duchess's watchdog, a mastiff-like monster with shaggy
red-gold hair. The dog hated Green with a vindictiveness that Green
could only account for by supposing that the animal knew, perhaps from
his body-odor, that he was not a native of this planet, Alzo rumbled a
warning deep in his chest every time Green bent over the Duchess or made
a too-sudden movement. Occasionally he rose to his four feet and nuzzled
the man's leg. When that happened Green could not keep from breaking out
into a sweat, for the dog had twice bitten him, playfully, so to speak,
and severely lacerated his calf. As if that weren't bad enough, Green had
to worry that the natives might notice that his scars healed abnormally
fast, almost overnight. He'd been forced to wear bandages on his legs long
after the new skin had come in.

Even now, the nauseating canine was sniffing around Green's quivering hide
in the hope of putting the fear of the devil in him. At that moment the
Earthman resolved that, come the headsman's ax, rack, wheel, or other
hellish tortures, he was going to kill that hound. It was just after he
made that vow that the Duchess caused him to forget altogether the beast.

"Dear," said Zuni, interrupting the Duke in the midst of his conversation
with a merchant-captain, "what is this I hear about two men who have
fallen from the sky in a great ship of iron?"

Green quivered, and he held his breath as be waited for the Duke's reply.

The Duke, a short, dark many-chinned man with white hair and very thick
bristly salt-and-pepper eyebrows, frowned.

"Men? Demons, rather! Can men fly in an iron ship through the air? These
two claimed to have come from the stars, and you know what that means.
Remember Oixrotl's prophecy: A demon will come, claiming to be an angel.
No doubt about these two! Just to show you their subtlety, they claim to
be neither demon nor angels, but men! Now, there's devilish clever
thinking. Confusing to anybody but the most clearheaded. I'm glad the King
of Estorya wasn't taken in."

Eagerly Zuni leaned forward, her large brown eyes bright, and her
red-painted mouth open and wet. "Oh, has he burned them already? What
a shame! I should think he'd at least torture them for a while."