"Julian May - The Pliocene Exiles 04 - The Adversary" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

who had been befriended by the trickster youth, Aiken Drum.
Stein was put up for auction as a kind of gladiator; to save him
from certain death, Aiken himself impudently put in his own
bid for Stein. The Tanu throng was stunned when the head of

the Farsensor Guild, Mayvar Kingmaker, not only endorsed
Aiken's bid but also took him for her protege. Mayvar was well
aware that the young man, who wore a golden suit all covered
with pockets, possessed enormous latent mindpowers that were
only beginning to come fully operant as a result of the triggering
action of his silver torc.

Deeply shaken by a glimpse into Aiken's mind and by
Mayvar's embrace of the youth (she was not called "kingmaker"
for nothing), Thagdal accepted Aiken's bid for Stein. After a
period of training, Aiken would be obliged to rid the kingdom
of a certain Firvulag monster, Delbaeth.

In the weeks that followed, Aiken was tutored by Mayvar in
the exercise of his fast-developing metafunctions. He became
fully operant without a torc--although this fact was concealed
from the other Tanu by Mayvar. He successfully disposed of
Delbaeth and, with Stein as his henchman, became cautiously
allied with the human President of the Coercer Guild, Sebi-
Gomnol, who had plans of his own for advancing human domin-
ation of the Tanu kingdom.

The anthropologist Bryan Grenfell carried out his cultural
survey--but scarcely paid attention to the import of the growing
body of data, because he was once more under the spell of his
long-lost love, Mercy Lamballe. This woman had arrived in the
Pliocene shortly before Group Green. A latent metapsychic with
extraordinary creative powers, Mercy had become the latest
consort of the formidable Nodonn Battlemaster and was
completely converted to the Tanu cause. Nodonn and his siblings
of the Host of Nontusvel encouraged Mercy to entice Bryan, so
that the anthropologist's survey could be used against the King
and Gomnol.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was under the protection of the
mysterious Brede Shipspouse, after having been subjected to
inept attacks by Nodonn and the Host, who saw her as a dynastic
threat. Safe inside Brede's room without doors, a sophisticated
force-field secure against physical and mental penetration, Eliz-
abeth confided her despair and hopelessness to the exotic
woman. The Shipspouse, maternally concerned with both the
Tanu and Firvulag races, perceived Elizabeth as one who might
lead them (as Brede apparently could not) out of their barbarous
battle-culture into a truly civilized society of the mind. Elizabeth
declined this role of spiritual motherhood. She did, however,