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

But he was remarrying his first wife, the most deeply satisfying. He should be serene and confident,
leading the others, as was expected of a Priest of Aliom.

Restless, he paced the length of the Temple hall, keenly aware of the smell from the freshly polished
wood paneling. The gleaming walls reflected the ceremonial fire in the circular hearth at the end of the
room near the entry.

The door was open on this early spring morning, mixing , the alien scent of the reviving world with the
strange perfumes of native wood smoke, but little light filtered around the interlocking, curved walls of the
entry tunnel.

At the opposite end of the windowless hall, on what the humans called a staircase that went nowhere,
four hooded marriage flames danced in their smoked-glass containers amid the symbols of Aliom,
displayed on the steps one above the other. At midnight Jindigar had kindled the wedding flame for
Darllanyu just as the three other men had for their mates. And she, with the other women, had concealed
the flame. That had been his moment of commitment to the remarriage. Why was he so agitated now?
He paused at the edge of the marriage circle, below the skylight. The rays of the morning sun were
focused by the slanted panes above him to set the crushed white gravel of the marriage circle to glowing
visually, even for Dushau eyes, so ill adjusted to this world's sun.

But to his other senses, from below the crushed white gravel, from deep in the center of the planet, a
fountain of pure white energy, the energy of the planet itself, erupted upward, flowing out through the
skylight and dissipating in the air above the Temple. The marriage circle was laid over the worldcircle, at
the point where the energy of sun and planet met, the condition necessary to create life.

At noon he would reveal the marriage flame and carry it into that circle, where Darllanyu would extinguish
it. If the nonvisible light from the worldcircle increased, it would show that they were close enough in
harmony, in shaleiliu, to transform physical light to spiritual light, and they would be married. He knew it
would happen. Just gazing into the circle made him eager to get it over with.

But before he dared think of success at his marriage trial, he had to Dissolve his Oliat, releasing the seven
of them from the psychic bonds linking them into one mind and enabling them to interpret the complex
ecology of this world.

To bring them safely through Dissolution, he must remain unmoved even though the gonads at the base of
his neck throbbed insistently at any thought of Darllanyu. He told himself sternly that he wasn't near being
fertile yet. His fingers were still nailless, and the nail beds didn't even itch.

But when I'm fertile and an Active Priest again, the Historians will stop trying to lure me away
from Aliom. Jindigar discarded that thought instantly. His Priesthood was intact. He had no reason to
fear temptation. They couldn't force him to become a Historian. He wouldn't court Renewal and sacrifice
his Oliat to avoid confrontations.

He paced around the circle. Am I running from my personal problems by Dissolving my Oliat now?
The colony still needed an Oliat's ecological advice, but things were stable now. They'd manage until he
could train a new group. His Oliat, however, had been trembling on the brink of Renewal all winter. To
continue would be irresponsible.

An astonishing sense of relief washed through him as he reaffirmed that decision. But it was quickly
replaced by needles of anxiety as he resolved to surrender to Renewal, and suddenly everything in him