172 洗碗女仆

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" This is ridiculous," Perda thought as she dunked a dirty

dinner plate into a basin of soapy water.

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She shuffled over to the kitchen door. Her legs were

still shackled together.

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Zira had released her hands after they'd zapped to her

house an hour or two earlier.

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Zira was in the courtyard garden. Just as Perda looked out

齐拉正在庭院花园里。佩达往外看时，

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Zira snapped her fingers and created a tall, golden fence around

the bushes with purple berries that Perda had noticed before.

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Those bushes were almost the only thing about Zira's house

that hadn't changed since Perda had first seen it.

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Thanks to Zira's magic abilities, the house was now

the largest and grandest in the village.

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" What do you want?" Zira asked, frowning when she noticed

Perda in the doorway. "I told you to wash the dishes."

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" Yes, you did. But as I keep telling you, it would be much faster

and easier with magic," Perda said.

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Zira shrugged." Too bad. As I keep telling you

you're forbidden from using magic.

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If you ever want me to remove those shackles from

your legs, you'll remember that.

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Now get back to your chores

现在回去干你的活。

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I expect you to be finished with the dishes by the time

I return from the village green."

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She rolled her eyes." Vilkor wishes to bestow more magical

favors on the townspeople this evening.

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I should be there to supervise."

我得去那里监督。"

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Perda was interested to hear that Zira was leaving

听到齐拉要出门，佩达来了兴致。

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" All right," she said, trying to sound humble." I'll get back to work."

"好吧，"她尽量让自己的声音听起来很顺从。"我这就接着干活。"

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She shuffled back inside. Zira followed, pausing to watch

as Perda picked up another dirty dish.

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" I'll be back in an hour," Zira said. Then she snapped

her fingers and zapped out of sight.

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Perda set down the dish. With her hands free

it was easy to create friction.

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She quickly cleaned the rest of the dishes with magic

她迅速用魔法洗完了剩下的碗碟。

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" Zira will be gone for an hour," she thought, looking around

“齐拉会离开一个小时，”她一边想，一边环顾四周。

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" That means I have an hour to look around this place

“这意味着我有一个小时可以探查这个地方。

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Maybe Zira left some clues about what she has planned for Terrica

也许齐拉留下了些线索，关于她对泰瑞卡的计划。

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Or maybe I can figure out where she sent my friends."

或者我也许能弄清她把我的朋友们送到哪去了。”

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For a second Perda was tempted to zap away to try

to find Zann and Mellis on her own.

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But she realized that her shackled legs would slow

her down too much.

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Besides, someone might see her and tell Zira

而且，可能会有人看见她并告诉齐拉。

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" First, I'll figure out what's going on," she murmured

as she shuffled into the next room.

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" Then I'll figure out how to rescue my friends."

“然后我再想办法营救我的朋友们。”

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By the next day, Perda hadn't figured out either of those things

到了第二天，佩达这两件事还是没弄明白。

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She'd searched as much as she could while Zira was away

她趁齐拉不在时尽力搜寻过。

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But she hadn't found any clues. Then Zira had returned

and forced her to sweep the whole house.

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By the time she finished, Perda was exhausted

Doing chores without magic was hard!

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To make things worse, Zira had woken her up

early to do more hard work.

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At the moment Perda was busy dusting all the fancy statues, furniture, and

knickknacks Zira had created to decorate her enormous reception room.

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There was a knock on the door. It was Vilkor

门上响起了敲门声。是维尔科。

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" Oh, hello, young lady," he greeted Perda

“哦，你好啊，小姐。”他跟佩达打招呼。

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He peered around, wringing his hands." Is my niece here with you?

他环顾四周，绞着双手。“我侄女跟你在一块儿吗？

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I haven't seen her since she was dragged off

by those large fellows yesterday."

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Perda was surprised to see that he actually looked worried

佩达惊讶地发现他确实看起来在担心。

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" I haven't seen her, either," she said." You'll have to ask Zira."

“我也没看见她，”她说，“你得去问齐拉。”

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Zira entered the room." Ask me what?"

齐拉走进房间。“问我什么？”

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Vilkor repeated his question about Mellis

维尔科重复了他关于梅丽斯的问题。

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" She's quite useful around the house," he added

glancing into the next room.

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" She could keep this place spotless for you."

“她能帮你把这里打扫得一尘不染。”

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" Your niece isn't here," Zira said

“你侄女不在这里，”齐拉说。

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" She's making herself useful at a friend's plonk farm outside of town."

“她在城外一个朋友的普朗克农场帮忙呢。”

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As she spoke, she snapped her fingers. A large fireball

appeared, hovering above her hand.

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She played with it as if it were a ball spinning on her finger

她像转球一样让它在她指尖旋转着玩。

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" Why do you ask? Do you have a problem

with my assignment of duties?"

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Vilkor gulped, his gaze trained on the fireball

维尔科咽了口唾沫，眼睛紧盯着那个火球。

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" No, of course not. Mellis always was fond of animals..."

“不，当然没有。梅丽斯一向喜欢动物……”

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Perda rolled her eyes. She could tell that Vilkor was

intimidated by Zira's display of magical power.

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" That's how she's keeping him and everyone else in line," Perda thought

“她就是这样控制他和所有人的。”佩达心想。

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" But I'm not afraid of her. And now I know where Mellis is!"

“可我不怕她。而且现在我知道梅丽斯在哪儿了！”

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" Say," Vilkor said, still watching the spinning fireball

"Can you teach me how to do that?"

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Zira noticed that Perda had stopped dusting to listen

"Back to work, girl!" she said.

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" And put some effort into it. This room is still a mess!"

“再用点力。这房间还乱糟糟的！”

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Perda stared at her defiantly. Then she rubbed her hands together

and magically removed everything from the room.

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The dust and dirt were gone, along with the furniture and everything else

灰尘和污垢消失了，家具和其他所有东西也没了。

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" Clean enough for you now?" Perda asked with a smirk

“现在够干净了吧？”佩达得意地笑着问。

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Zira gnashed her teeth." How dare you! Shackle!"

齐拉气得咬牙切齿。“你竟敢！镣铐！”

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Tight shackles appeared around Perda's wrists

佩达的手腕上立刻现出紧绷绷的镣铐。

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Vilkor bit his lip." Oh, dear."

维尔科咬了咬嘴唇。“哦，天哪。”

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Zira pointed." To your room, girl," she snarled

"I'll decide your punishment later."

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Pretending to be scared, Perda slunk off toward her sleeping chamber

佩达假装害怕，悄悄朝自己的卧室溜去。

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Unlike the rest of the house, it wasn't large or fancy at all

跟房子的其他地方不同，这间屋子一点儿也不大，也不华丽。

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It was barely big enough for a rough mattress on the floor

里面勉强能放下一张铺在地上的粗陋床垫。

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Once inside, Perda stood up straight and smiled. Her plan had worked

一进房间，佩达就挺直了腰，露出微笑。她的计划奏效了。

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She wasn't sure how long it would be before Zira decided on

her punishment, but she wasn't going to waste a moment.

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It wasn't easy to create friction with her wrists so tightly shackled

手腕被铐得这么紧，要制造摩擦并不容易。

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Plus, it seemed that lots of energy was required

to zap out of Zira's house.

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So she rubbed her shoulder against the wall and her feet on the floor

until she had built up enough energy. Then—zap!