Данная книга из серии «Ходячий замок», сделана из двух: «House of Many Ways» и «Дом ста дорог», автор Диана Уинн Джонс.

В данном файле - первая половина книги (8 глав).

Причины такого "обрезания" следующие:

1. Лень, плюс знание о двух последующимх пунктах.

2. Файл из двух книг будет слишком "тяжел" (в некоторых читалках, открываться будет плохо).

[

3

] "Charmain must do it," said Aunt Sempronia. "We can't leave Great-Uncle William to face this on his own."

[

4

] "Your Great-Uncle William?" said Mrs. Baker. "Isn't he-" She coughed and lowered her voice because this, to her mind, was not quite nice. "Isn't he a wizard?"

[

5

] "Of course," said Aunt Sempronia. "But he has-" Here she too lowered her voice. "He has a growth, you know, on his insides, and only the elves can help him. They have to carry him off in order to cure him, you see, and someone has to look after his house. Spells, you know, escape if there's no one there to watch them. And I am far too busy to do it. My stray dogs' charity alone-"

[

6

] "Me too. We're up to our ears in wedding cake orders this month," Mrs. Baker said hastily. "Sam was saying only this morning-"

[

7

] "Then it has to be Charmain," Aunt Sempronia decreed. "Surely she's old enough now."

[

65

] Charmain stared at the empty path for a while and then shut the front door with a bang. "Now what do I do?" she said to the deserted, musty room.

[

66

] "You will have to tidy the kitchen, I'm afraid, my dear," said Great-Uncle William's tired, kindly voice out of thin air.

[

67

] "I apologize for leaving so much laundry. Please open my suitcase for more complicated instructions."

[

68

] Charmain shot the suitcase a look. So Great-Uncle William had meant to leave it, then. "In a minute," she said to it. "I haven't unpacked for myself yet."

[

69

] She picked up her two bags and marched with them to the only other door. It was at the back of the room and, when Charmain had tried to open it with the hand that held the food bag, then with that hand and with both bags in the other hand, and finally with both hands and with both bags on the floor, she found it led to the kitchen.

[

125

] The bathroom was as reassuring as Great-Uncle William's kindly voice. It had a worn greenstone floor and a little window, at which fluttered a green net curtain. And it had all the fitments Charmain knew from home. And home has nothing but the best, she thought. Better still, it had taps and the toilet flushed. True, the bath and the taps were strange, slightly bulbous shapes, as if the person who installed them had not been quite sure what he or she was aiming at; but the taps, when Charmain experimentally turned them on, ran cold and hot water, just as they were supposed to, and there were warm towels on a rail under the mirror.

[

126

] Perhaps I can put one of those laundry bags in the bath, Charmain mused. How would I squeeze it dry?

[

127

] Across the corridor from the bathroom was a row of doors, stretching away into dim distance. Charmain went to the nearest one and pushed it open, expecting it to lead to the living room. But there was a small bedroom beyond it instead, obviously Great-Uncle William's, to judge by the mess. The white covers trailed off the unmade bed, almost on top of several stripey nightshirts scattered over the floor. Shirts dangled out of drawers, along with socks and what looked like long underclothes, and the open cupboard held a musty-smelling uniform of some kind. Under the window were two more sacks stuffed full of laundry. Charmain groaned aloud.

[

128

] "I suppose he's been ill for quite a time," she said, trying to be charitable. "But, mother-ofpearl, why do I have to deal with it all?"

[

129

] The bed started twitching.

[

186

] Charmain heard the lubbock give a whirring shout of rage, though not clearly for the rushing wind of her fall. She saw the huge cliff streaking past her face. She went on screaming.

"Ylf, YLF!" she bellowed. "Oh, for goodness' sake! Ylf! I just did a flying spell. Why doesn't it work?"

[

187

] It was working. Charmain realized it must be when the upward rush of the rocks in front of her slowed to a crawl, then to a glide, and then to a dawdle. For a moment, she hung in space, bobbing just above some gigantic spikes of rock in the crags below the cliff.

[

188

] Perhaps I'm dead now, she thought.

[

189

] Then she said, "This is ridiculous!" and managed, by means of a lot of ungainly kicking and arm waving, to turn herself over. And there was Great-Uncle William's house, still a long way below her in the gloaming and about a quarter of a mile off. "And it's all very well floating," Charmain said, "but how do I move?" At this point, she remembered that the lubbock had wings and was probably at that moment whirring down from the heights toward her.