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

тАЬOf course.тАЭ
тАЬHow?тАЭ she asked plaintively.

тАЬHow can you create fire?тАЭ asked fтАЩlTiri.

She shrugged. тАЬIтАЩm a fire dancer. ItтАЩs what Ido .тАЭ

тАЬAnd weтАЩre illusionists. We can be fooled, though.тАЭ

тАЬAnd I can be burned,тАЭ said Rheba wryly. She looked at the uninviting illusion ahead of
her. тАЬWhy do you call itReality Street?тАЭ

FтАЩlTiri laughed. тАЬBecause most of the people who use the street are tourists, not
illusionists. ItтАЩs the only place a realist can go on Yhelle without a guide.тАЭ

Kirtn sighed and turned to Rheba. тАЬIтАЩm ready if you are.тАЭ

тАЬYouтАЩre a poet.тАЭ she said accusingly. тАЬYouтАЩd trade reality for a good illusion any day.тАЭ
But she followed him through the arch, for she was a dancer and he was her BreтАЩn.

Reality Street was a riot fit to boggle the sensory apparatus of any Fourth People worthy
of the name. If a plant grew anywhere in the Equality, it grew alongReality Street. If an
animal breathed anywhere in the Equality, it breathed onReality Street. If anything was
manufactured or imagined anywhere in the Equality, its counterpart thrived onReality
Street.

Or at least it appeared that way.

The city-state of Serriolia was the centerpiece of YhelleтАЩs master illusionists. It also was
the center of intra-Equality trade. Not everything onReality Streetwas an illusion, but
deciding what was and was not real would take a concatenation of First People ... or
perhaps a single Fssireeme.

It was early morning in Serriolia, but groups of people wanderedReality StreetтАЩs straight
line, stopping :o marvel at various manifestations. The people were as mixed a group as
Kirtn and Rheba had left behind on theDevalon .There were one or two races that they
had not seen on Loo, though the Loo-chim had prided itself on owning two of every kind
of living being known in the galaxy.

Kirtn thought that at least one of the strange races wanderingReality Streetwas an
illusion. Even a BreтАЩn poet balked at accepting a tall, fluffy-tailed, rainbow-striped biped
as a real Fourth People. Especially when it shook out flowered wings longer than it was
tall. Its teeth, however, might have been real, so Kirtn was careful not to stare.

Nearby, a grove of Second People whispered between purple leaves. Laughter rustled
and whiplike branches snapped in amusement. Kirtn remembered the carnivorous Second
People he and Rheba had burned to stinking ash on Loo, though not in time to save the
children who had stumbled into the groveтАЩs lethal embrace. He wondered if this grove,
too, was insane.тАЭ