"Jacqueline Lichtenberg - Lifewave 02 - City of a Million Legends" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lichtenberg Jacqueline)

their fifth consecutive egg, already is a record. And no such mating has occurred between a pair that had mated with each other
previously."
Ley looked at Zref in chagrin. "My brother the Interface. I'll never get used to it." He shook his head, then wondered, "Could it
have something to do with Khelin's priesthood?" He gestured at Zref not to answer.
The Mautri disciplines both Arshel and Khelin had mastered seemed to have gentled their mating habits while intensifying their
concentration on the process. Zref squelched the bubbling question of why this was, and why he, knowing Ley was human and not
at all likely to be inflamed by Khelin's condition and attack Arshel himself, still felt a growing sense of threat. He decided the entire
threat to Arshel came from the messages still dropping insistently into his private fileтАФthreatening to interrupt them.
Ley scrambled to his feet. "Look."
Khelin poked his head up above the rim of the pond, his skull outlined by the soaked down fluff that normally haloed his head.
His hide gleamed, cascades of rainbows adorning his earless skull. He raised one hand, webbing spread, to beckon. "She's ready."
Shoulder to shoulder, Zref and Ley walked down the sloping sand and into the water, until they stood waist deep, facing one
another with the kren couple between them.
If they had been kren, the situation would have them squaring off as potential combatants, venom flowing into their venom
sacks, fangs lowered to strike position. Since they both happened to be human, they had worked out a symbolic gesture which
helped to put the kren subliminally at ease. Making fists, they touched knuckles across the two kren who were floating nearly
submerged, hyperventilating in preparation for the long submergence.
Arshel floated on her back. The bulge of her abdomen which contained the egg broke the surface, rippling as the powerful
muscles drove the egg into her fully extended ovipositor. She reached for Zref's hand and squeezed, her eyes closed as she
concentrated on the Mautri disciplines to relax her sphincters and pass even such a large egg as this easily. He returned her squeeze
reassuringly.
Khelin urgently motioned Ley aside. Then, in one swoop, he flipped Arshel over, submerging them both as he thrust his male
organ deep, both pushing the egg down its channel and lubricating it with his sperm.
Zref saw Ley's lips moving in a silent count as the kren disappeared beneath the surface. "I'm timing them," Zref said.
Ley smiled. "Just don't get lost in the comnet."
"If I do, my watchdog function will alert me at four minutes. If we have to bring them up, we will, but I don't think that's what
they wanted us here for." Over the last five matings, Zref had built these routine monitoring functions into his private file so that
they would operate even around a sheaf of unread messages.
The movements below the surface churned Zref off balance, dragging him into neck-high water. Ley followed, swimming. "That
was awfully strong," said Ley. "I'm worried." He hyperventilated, and Zref followed suit.
"That's three minutes," said Zref. "Let's go down."
They submerged. Khelin's large webbed hands were spread around Arshel's abdomen, encouraging the egg to descend into the
ovipositor as he gripped her from behind. Arshel's face was relaxed into a sublime ecstasy, Khelin's into rapture.
 The two humans watched critically and then surfaced. Ley puffed, "They're both getting enough oxygen through their skins.
They can stay down three or four minutes more."
Zref sculled to keep his balance in the churning water. "Arshel's color was good: I think she can make itтАФbut I'm not sure about
Khelin. He's doing all the work."
"Ah, but he's having the time of his life! Did you see the expression on his face? I think he'd strike at me if I tried to make him
stop now!"
They breathed together, and Zref said, "That's five minutes." Together they jackknifed straight to the bottom, but by the time
they got there, the egg was a pearlescent blob against the pale grains of sand. Khelin was happily scooping sand up around it,
beckoning Ley over to help him.
Arshel turned to Zref and, in self-conscious imitation of the human gesture of acceptance, embraced him.
The flexible, kren scales were familiar. The venom sack at her throat was still flaccid, empty from the long mating. Her
ovipositor had already tucked itself away and the pleated skin of her abdomen was coming back into place. Her firm muscles were
pliant, not tense. Her overflowing vitality filled Zref with inexplicable joy, so rare for an Interface.
Khelin's exuberant egg burying had kicked up so much sand Zref couldn't see. He signaled, and together they surfaced, Zref
panting while Arshel floated, breathing easily.
Moments later, Khelin and Ley surfaced, laughing. The image evoked precious memories of Sudeen finishing a mating.
Khelin swept Arshel aside. "At last, Arshel! That was the final time for us!"