"Ann Maxwell - Fire Dancer 3 - Dancer's Illusion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maxwell Ann)

--3 DancerтАЩs Illusion (1983)




THE SHIPтАЩS COMPUTER HAS CHOSENтАФand now Rheba the fire dancer and her
BreтАЩn mentor Kirtn must fulfill the next part of their ongoing missionтАФto return a
shipload of fellow ex-slaves to their widely scattered home planets. Their current
destinationтАФYhelle, a world where reality is far too fleeting for anyone but a master
illusionist to grasp. Yhelle is considered the most civilized place in the galaxy and their
brief stopover should be pure pleasure. But it doesnтАЩt take Rheba, Kirtn, and their two
Yhelle crewmates long to discover that beneath the paradise-like surface of this society
lurks an evil that is growing more powerful each day, a seductive darkness that feeds on
love and kills with ecstasy....



I

The tension in theDevalonтАЩs crowded control room was as unbearable as the air. The
shipтАЩs life-support systems were overloaded. Passengers and crew were being kept alive,
but not in comfort. Rheba wiped her forehead with the back of her arm. Both arm and
face were sweaty, both pulsed with intricate gold lines that were visible manifestations of
the power latent within her.

She looked at her BreтАЩn. Rivulets of sweat darkened KirtnтАЩs suede-texturcd skin. The
fine, very short copper fur that covered his powerful body made the control roomтАЩs heat
even more exhausting for him than it was for her.

тАЬReady?тАЭ she said, wiping her face again.

тАЬYesss,тАЭ hissed Fssa, dangling his head out of her hair. His thin, infinitely flexible body
was alive with metallic colors. He loved heat.

тАЬNot you, snake,тАЭ Rheba muttered. тАЬKirtn.тАЭ

The BreтАЩn smiled, making his yellow eyes seem even more slanted in their mask of
almost invisibly fine gold fur. тАЬReady. Maybe it will be an ice planet,тАЭ he added
hopefully.

Rheba looked around the control room at the sweaty races of Fourth People she had
rescued from a lifetime of slavery on Loo. Some were furred, some not. They had as
many colors as Rainbow, the Zaarain construct that was at the moment a necklace
knocking against KirtnтАЩs chest.

AH of the passengers had two things in common: their past slavery on Loo and their
present hope that it would be their planetтАЩs number that would be chosen by theDevalonтАЩs
computer in the lottery. The winner was given the best prize of allтАФa trip home.

The owners of the ship, Rheba and Kirtn, were not included in the lottery. Their home