"Jacqueline Lichtenberg - Dushau Trilogy 03 - Outreach" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lichtenberg Jacqueline)

Terab made the Holot grimace that bespoke satisfaction. Her snouted face was mobile and expressively
beautiful for those who could read it. "I told them as much, but they insisted I comeтАФ"

"I'm glad." Jindigar summoned the effortтАФless now than it had beenтАФto tell her, "I cannot speak to
them, but afterwardтАФwe must talk."

тАв "There's to be an investigationтАФwhy the clickerhive picked on usтАФwhy we were caught
unpreparedтАФwhat we can do to prevent it happening againтАФand most of all, what we can do now to
feed our children. There will be more births soon. And Jindigar, half the colony is having nightmares
againтАФof the attack by all the animals of the plains. They wanted me to ask the Oliat if Chinchee and that
hivebinder of his are about anywhere, putting ideas in our heads. People have been seeing that ugly gray
dome over us."

"Chinchee is not nearтАФ" answered Jindigar, wanting to claim full responsibility. They had re-evoked the
hive-dome image. But even with Terab, an old and trusted friend, he could not summon the words.

Storm interrupted. "You'll have to wait for their report on the clickerhive until Krinata can deliver it. "

As if it only now penetrated, Terab asked, "What's wrong with Krinata?" They had fought then- way
across a continent together, bandaging each other's hurts, calming each other's terrors. Terab was as
much Krinata's friend as Jindigar's.

Storm launched into an explanation, shouting a little against the sound of another downpour. Cyrus
handed Jindigar the medical kit, saying, "Go-тАФwe'll be here when you want usтАФ unless a flood washes
us away."

In the Aliom Temple, the fire was still burning in the hearth by the door. Jindigar hung his slicker to dry
and cut across toward the door of the Oliat quarters before he noticed Darllanyu, wearing rough-worn
field clothes, standing at the edge of the marriage circle, her indigo skin like a black shadow against the
white gravel. She tossed gravel back into the circle and dusted off her hands. Jindigar paused, suspended
between the urgency of Krinata's illness and the aching hurt tearing at his mate.

Darllanyu turned, and her eyes drew him forward.

"DarтАФno. Not now." Suddenly he hated the Priest's disciplines that gave him the strength to deny her.

"You must DissolveтАФor Dismiss me, at least. Perhaps Trinarvil can take my place. I can't do it, Jindigar."

She was closer to the critical point than he. He had counted on that to pull him into active Renewal
quickly, the swift rush of hormones forcing them both over the threshold into acceptance of this alien
world. ButтАФ"Trinarvil is still too ill. If I let anyone go, it's DissolutionтАФand the Holot children will
starve."

"Zannesu convinced us of thatтАФafter you left. I thoughtтАФ I thought I couldтАФbutтАФI can't. Wisdom is to
know your limits. I'm a dangerтАФto all of us."

I can't, wasn't usually in Darllanyu's vocabulary. He recalled how she'd looked when they'd found her
outside the hive up on the plateau. She and Cyrus had been the only survivors of Avelor's Oliat. She'd
been emaciated, too weak to walk, but she had recovered her spirits before her strength. Within a few
weeks she had joined another Oliat, of Jindigar's fabricationтАФand lost two of her fellow officers to