He stood up and made his way to the trio.
"May I be of assistance?" he ventured.
"Shove off, Rincewind," snarled Broadman.
"I only thought it might be useful to address this gentleman in his own tongue," said the wizard gently.
"He's doing all right on his own," said the innkeeper, but took a few steps backward.
Rincewind smiled politely at the stranger and tried a few words of Chimeran. He prided himself on his fluency in the tongue, but the stranger only looked bemused.
"It won't work," said Hugh knowledgeably. "It's the book, you see. It tells him what to say. Magic."
Rincewind switched to High Borogravian, to Vanglemesht, Sumtri and even Black Oroogu, the language with no nouns and only one adjective, which is obscene. Each was met with polite incomprehension. In desperation he tried heathen Trob, and the little man's face split into a delighted grin.
"At last!" he said. "My good sir! This is remarkable!" (Although in Trob the last word in fact became "a thing which may happen but once in the usable lifetime of a canoe hollowed diligently by ax and fire from the tallest diamondwood tree that grows in the noted diamondwood forests on the lower slopes of Mount Awayawa, home of the firegods or so it is said.")
"What was all that?" said Broadman suspiciously.
"What did the innkeeper say?" said the little man.
Rincewind swallowed. "Broadman," he said. "Two mugs of your best ale, please."
"You can understand him?"
"Oh, sure."
"Tell him - tell him he's very welcome. Tell him breakfast is - uh - one gold piece." For a moment Broadman's face looked as though some cast internal struggle was going on, and then he added with a burst of generosity, "I'll throw in yours, too."
"Stranger," said Rincewind levelly. "If you stay here you will be knifed or poisoned by nightfall. But don't stop smiling, or so will I."
"Oh, come now," said the stranger, looking around. "This looks like a delightful place. A genuine Morporkean tavern. I've heard so much about them, you know. All these quaint old beams. And so reasonable, too."
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První kniha Zeměplochy, kterou jsem četla anglicky. Přiznávám tu veřejně, že mi chvíli trvalo přiřadit si postavy k anglickým jménům a kupříkladu u téhle ukázky, ačkoli je na začátku knihy, mi při prvním čtení myslím ještě nedocházelo, že mám tu čest s Mrakoplašem. Je to vlastně pokus doplnit si vzdělání a dočíst úvodní knihy, které jsem předtím česky přeskočila. A je to báječné čtení, navíc se tak nějak určují pravidla pro všechny knihy příští. Vzala jsem si ji do letadla za jediným účelem - zlepšit si náladu a nenechat se myslet na smutky - a to tedy splnila dokonale. Píšu to jak suchařípa, ale je to opravdu vtipný.
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