"Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth 3 - Blood of the Fold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goodkind Terry)

we would envy Sister Liliana's fate." She looked up, into Ulicia's eyes. "He
said we would regret it if we made him wait." Tears flooded her eyes. "And then
he gave me a taste of what it would mean to displease him."
Ulicia's flesh had gone cold, and she realized that she, too, had drawn her
sheet up. She pushed it back into her lap with an effort. "Armina?" Soft
confirmation came from above. "Cecilia?" Cecilia nodded. Ulicia looked to the
two in the upper
bunk opposite. The composure they had worked so hard to bring back seemed to
have settled in. "Well? Did you two hear the same words?"
"Yes," Nicci said.
"The exact same," Merissa said without emotion. "Liliana has brought this upon
us."
"Perhaps the Keeper is displeased with us," Cecilia offered, "and has given us
to the emperor so we may serve him as a way of earning back our place of favor."
Merissa's back stiffened. Her eyes were a window into her frozen heart. "I have
given my soul oath to the Keeper. If we must serve this vulgar beast in order to
return to our Master's graces, then I will serve. I will lick this man's feet,
if I must."
Ulicia remembered Jagang, just before he had departed the semicircle in the
dream that was not a dream, commanding Merissa to stand. He had then casually
reached out, grabbed her right breast in his powerful fingers, and squeezed
until her knees buckled. Ulicia glanced at Merissa's breast, now, and saw lurid
bruises there.
Merissa made no effort to cover herself as her serene expression settled on
Ulicia's eyes. "The emperor said we would regret it, if we made him wait,"
Ulicia, too, had heard the same instructions. Jagang had displayed what bordered
on contempt for the Keeper. How was he able to supplant the Keeper in the dream
that was not a dream? He hadтАФthat was all that mattered. It had happened to al!
of them, It had not been a mere dream.
Tingling dread thickened in the pit of her stomach as the small flame of hope
extinguished. She, too, had been given a taste of what disobedience would mean.
The blood that was crusting over her eyes reminded her of how much she had
wanted to escape that lesson. It had been real, and they all knew it, They had
no choice. There wasn't a moment to lose. A cold bead of sweat trickled down
between her breasts. If they were late . . .
Ulicia bounded out of bed.
"Turn his ship around!" she shrieked as she flung open the door. "Turn it around
at once!"
No one was in the passageway. She sprang up the companionway, screaming as she
went. The others raced after her, pounding on cabin doors as they followed.
Ulicia didn't bother with the doors; it was the helmsman who pointed the ship
where it was going and commanded the deckhands to the sails.
Ulicia heaved open the hatch door to be greeted by murky light; dawn was not yet
upon them. Leaden clouds seethed above the dark cauldron of the sea. Luminous
foam frothed just beyond the rail as the ship slid down a towering wave, making
it seem they were plunging into an inky chasm. The other Sisters poured from the
hatchway behind her out onto the spray-swept deck.
"Turn this ship around!" she screamed to the barefoot sailors who turned in mule
surprise.
Ulicia growled a curse and raced aft, toward the tiller. The five Sisters