"James C. Glass - Shanji" - читать интересную книгу автора (Glass James C)

we've caught ourselves a little spy."

"No, no," said Toregene, finding her breath at last. "I'm gathering herbs, and I'm close to home. This is
Tumatsin land, so how am I a spy? I had a little sack with me when you attacked, but I dropped it."

One of the standing men held up the little leather sack. "And here it is," he said.

"Yes. The herbs are difficult to find in daylight, but glow in the night. I was collecting them."

The man opened the sack, withdrew a pinch of glowing lace and wrinkled his nose. "Smells like dung,"
he said.

"They add flavor to our soups. Please, let me up. I've done nothing wrong." Even as she said it,
Toregene knew she was found out, for that presence was there again, probing her mind as she tried to
blank it.

The man turned her sack upside-down and shook it, scattering the noctiluminescent fungus on the
ground. "You will have no need of this, I think. The dead have no need for soup."

"No!" she cried, struggling. "I've done nothing!" Adrenaline surged in her body, and now it was as if she
was seeing the grinning faces in daylight.

"Ohhh, see how her eyes glow. The light of passion is in her eyes, Shan. I think she wants you." The two
standing men laughed.

The kneeling one reached over and poked her in the stomach with her own blade. "I will enter her with
this after I'm satisfied. She's my captive, Majin, but I'm generous to my friends. Despite your jokes, you
and Xiao will enjoy a moment with her before the end."

"Let me go!" growled Toregene, writhing and straining at her bonds. The pressure on her gums was now
fierce, and she growled again.

The three men stared at her, and Shan was fumbling at his leather pants. "One should not pass by such
an opportunity, but do put something in her mouth. I don't want to be bitten and infected with changeling
diseases."

Toregene struggled furiously, writhing like a scalded snake, but suddenly her mind clouded, paralyzed by
a terrible force that made her shiver. A deep voice came from the darkness among the trees.

"Enough of this. Stand back, all of you. Shan, quit fumbling with your pants. You look like a child giving
himself pleasure."

The three men jumped back, auras changing to blue from being startled as another man came forth. The
first thing Toregene saw was the huge arch of his nose, the distended, vein-lined dome of his frontal
lobes. A Searcher, taller than the others by several centimeters, his eyes fathomless blackness in her
enhanced vision.

"She is a spy, Mengmoshu," said Shan.