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

pink leaves shookтАФA small Yhelle leaped from a branch and hit the ground running.

тАЬYou scared him,тАЭ said iтАЩsNara, but there was no censure in her voice.

тАЬI meant to compliment him,тАЭ said Kirtn. тАЬBeing swallowed up by our own astonishment
is a shrewd illusion for one so young.тАЭ

тАЬBut he didnтАЩt know you were real. HeтАЩd never seen someone like you before, so he
assumed you were an illusion,тАЭ explained fтАЩlTiri. тАЬThen he tried to penetrate your
illusion, and couldnтАЩt. Then he assumed you were at least a class eight teasing him by
pretending to be a realist. So he fled, leaving you to tease tourists rather than one small
Yhelle.тАЭ

Rheba looked down the long, straight street. Colors she had no name for surged brightly
on either side. In the distance, well back from the street, fantastic buildings grew,
architecture representing every Cycle from First to Seventeenth, made up of every
material from mud to force fields.

She sighed and rubbed her aching eyes. Itching eyes. They itched like new akhenet lines
of power beneath her skin. She rubbed her shoulders where new lines had formed when
she had been forced to tap a Zaarain core on Daemen. But it was not her shoulders that
itched, it was the back of her eyes.

Kirtn bent over her and pulled her fingers away from her eyes. тАЬDid you get something
in them? Spores? Pollen?тАЭ

She blinked rapidly, but her eyes did not water. Nor did they feel as if anything foreign
was in them. тАЬThey just itch in back. As if new lines are forming.тАЭ

тАЬIтАЩve never heard of a dancer getting lines back there.тАЭ He looked carefully at her. Twin,
cinnamon-colored eyes looked back at him, translucent pools with a hint of gold veining.
The whites of her eyes were clear and glossy, visible sign of her health. тАЬThey look fine.тАЭ

тАЬThey donтАЩt feel that way. The zoolipt must be asleep.тАЭ She shook her head fiercely.
тАЬWake up, you useless parasite. Iitch! тАЭNothing happened. She whistled a BreтАЩn curse, тАЬIt
did fine on my other akhenet lines. I only itched a little, even after wrestling with that
Zaarain core.тАЭ

Kirtn tilted back her chin. New lines lay gold beneath her tawny skin, thicker lines,
deeply curved, lint upon line sliding beneath the scarlet silk of her brief ship clothes. His
whistle was a combination of disbelief and distress. тАЬYouтАЩre too young for so many lines,
fire dancer. If you develop too quicklyтАФ

He did not finish his sentence. He did not have to. Rheba knew that it was as dangerous
to push a dancerтАЩs growth as it was to push a BreтАЩn balanced on the edge ofrez .But there
had been no choice, not on Daemen or Loo or Onan. They had done what they must to
survive. If that forced her to develop too quickly, so be it. It was better than dying.

тАЬBesides,тАЭ said Rheba, as though she had been speaking aloud all the time, тАЬIтАЩm the first
dancer to have a zoolipt inside. It will keep me healthy.тАЭ She smiled sourly. тАЬUntil it gets