"Eugeny L.Schwarz. Dragon (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

five thousand chickens and eighty pounds of salt a month. In summer and
fall, there's also ten acres of lettuce, asparagus and cauliflower added to
that.
Lancelot. He's eating you around!
Charlemagne. Not at all! We're not complaining. How else can it be? As
long as he's here, no other dragons would dare touch us.
Lancelot. My guess is all the others are long gone.
Charlemagne. And what if they aren't? Let me tell you: the only way to
get rid of dragons is to have one of your own. That's enough of him, please.
Why don't you tell us something really interesting instead?
Lancelot. All right. Do you know what the Book of Sorrows is?
Elsa. No.
Lancelot. Now you will. Five years' walk from here, in the Black
Mountains, there's an enormous cave. There's a book lying in this cave,
filled up to half. Nobody touches it, but page after page gets added to the
ones written before, added every day. Who writes them, you ask? The world!
The mountains, the grass, the stones, the trees, the rivers -- they all see
what people are doing. All the crimes are known to them, all the suffering
of innocents. From branch to branch, from drop to drop, from cloud to cloud
the human sorrows reach the cave in the Black mountains, and the book grows
with them. If there weren't this book in the world, all trees would die from
longing, and water would become bitter. Who is this book being written for?
For me.
Elsa. For you?
Lancelot. For us. For me and few others. We are light and watchful
people. We discovered that there is such a book, and took pains to reach it.
And whoever glances into this book once will never have peace again. What a
sorrowful book it is! The complaints cannot lay unanswered. And we answer
them.
Elsa. How?
Lancelot. We insert ourselves in other people's business. We help those
in need of help. We destroy those who need to be destroyed. Do you need
help?
Elsa. What help?
Charlemagne. How can you help us?
Cat. Mew!
Lancelot. Three times I have been mortally wounded, and all of those by
the people I was trying to save against their will. But even though you
aren't asking me to do it, I will challenge the dragon to a fight! Elsa, do
you hear?
Elsa. No, please! He will kill you, and that would poison the last
hours of my life!
Cat. Meow!
Lancelot. I am going to challenge the dragon!

A sound is heard that is growing in intensity -- whistling, noise,
howling. The windows are clattering. Purple glow is seen behind them.

Cat. Speak of the devil!