"Anthony, Piers - Xanth 06 - Night Mare" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

let of soul. I thought it wouldn't hurt."

"Any portion of a soul hurts in this business," he said.
"Are you ready to give it up now?"

"Give up my soul?" she asked, appalled for a reason she
could not define.

"As you know, most mares who earn half souls soon turn
them in to me for storage, so that their edge will not be
dulled, and they receive bonus-credit for extraordinary
service to the cause. Souls are extremely valuable commod-
ities, and we grasp and hold any we can. You alone re-




6 Night Mare

tained your share of soul, passing up the advantage you
could have had by cashing it in. Why?"
"I don't know," Imbri admitted, ashamed.
"I do know," Trojan said. "You are a nice personality,
and you have grown nicer over the decades. You don't
really enjoy causing people misery. The soul enhances that
liability."

"Yes . . ." she agreed sadly, knowing that she was con-
fessing a guilty secret that could indeed wash her out as a
bearer of bad dreams. "I have drifted along an errant
path."

"This is not necessarily wrong."

Her ears perked forward-an incongruous thing, since
she remained in lady image in the dream. "Not wrong?"

"It relates to your destiny. It will one day enable you to
see the rainbow."
"The rainbow!"

"You are a marked mare, Imbrium, and you will set
your mark on Xanth, That time is near."

Imbri stared at him. The Night Stallion knew more than
any other creature in the World of Night, but seldom told
it. If he perceived a pattern in Imbri's incapacities, he was
surely correct. But she dared not inquire about it, directly.

"Imbrium, I am transferring you to day mare duty. A