"Jean Lorrah - Empire 03 - Captives of the Savage Empire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lorrah Jean)

Go away! she willed without Reading, but the man lifted one foot at a time out of her sight, and returned
them to her view bare of his sandals, wriggling his toes in the sea breeze. She was trapped; she could not
get down from her perch without coming into his view.

"I know you're there, Melissa," he said. "Why are you not Reading?"

Magister Jason!

She had never heard his voice beforeтАФonly the "voice" he projected when Reading. Often a Reader's
physical voice and his Reading "voice" were far different from one another; not so in Jason's case. His
calm baritone exactly matched the reassuring tone she had known so often in her mind in the past few
months.

"I didn't really think about it," she replied, "but I suppose I knew that if I were Reading you would Read
how depressed I was, and make me come back to the hospital. I wanted to be alone."
"Melissa, you have every right to be upset. I did Read for you. When I could not find you, I contacted
Alethia, and she told me where you had gone. You seem better."

She knew he wanted her to open to Reading, but she did not want him in her mind just then. "I am
better," she told him. "I think I can go back to Alethia's house and be a sociable guest. You are not
canceling my afternoon off?"

"No, of course not. Alethia is worried about you, though, and rightly so. She can give you what I cannot,
Melissa: a shoulder to cry on. There are times when even Readers need another person's touch, you
know. If you are to be a successful healer, you must learn that some things must be treated in other ways
than with medicines and surgery." He took a deep breath of the fresh sea air. "I had forgotten myself how
cleansing to the spirit the sea can be. Thank you for reminding me." He pulled his feet up, preparing to
leave, but remained sitting for a moment so she could hear him over the surf and the bird cries. "Go back
to Alethia, and let her help you." He got up, picked up his sandals, and walked barefoot back along the
pier.

Melissa stayed where she was, giving Jason time to be well out of sight. He hadn't scolded her for not
Reading as she walked along the beachтАФGaeta had so many Readers that they had to Read constantly
when moving about the town, lest male and female encounter one another by accident. She should not
have forgotten that simple precaution.

How strange that Magister Jason should venture to talk to her this way. There were special rooms at the
hospital where Readers as yet unable to reach the plane of privacy could talk; no Reader ever Read into
those rooms, the only way to eavesdrop on a conversation. A mental discussion, though, was
"overheard" by every Reader within range who happened to be Reading.

She looked up at the boards of the pier over her headтАФthey were as effective as the screen placed
between male and female Readers using a privacy room. She had never done so. She talked with
nonReaders all the timeтАФbut talking with Magister Jason, so formally, without the mental intimacy she
was accustomed toтАж It's your own fault, she told herself. He was willing to Read, but you weren't.
And he had been concerned enough about her to leave his duties to search for her.

She put the thought out of her head, and walked back up the beach, Reading dutifully. Near the path that
led up to her street, Alethia was sitting on the sand, watching Primus digging with a shell. "Did Magister
Jason find you?" she asked as Melissa approached.