"Vonda N. McIntyre - Little Faces" - читать интересную книгу автора (McIntyre Vonda N)

Yalnis touched the scar, where Zorargul's jagged remains pricked her skin from underneath.
"Maybe I shouldтАФ"

"No." Zorar spoke sharply.

Discouraged, Yalnis let the lacy panels slip back into place.

"It's our memories Seyyan killed," Zorar said. "Would you send out a daughter with only one parent's
experience?"

Zorar was kind; she refrained from saying that the one parent would be Yalnis, young and relatively
inexperienced. Yalnis's tears welled up again. She struggled to control them, but she failed. She fought
the knowledge that Zorar was right. Zorar was mature and established, with several long and distant
adventures to her credit. Her memories were an irreplaceable gift, to be conveyed to a daughter through
Zorargul. The sperm packet alone could not convey those memories. "Let time pass," Zorar said. "We
might see each other again, in some other millennium."

Yalnis scrubbed at her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm so angry!" she cried. "How could Seyyan betray me like
this?"

"How did you find her?" Zorar asked, as if to change the subject. "She's not been heard of for тАж" She
paused to think, to shrug. "Sixty or eighty millennia, at least. I thought she was lost."

"Did you hope it?"

Zorar gave her a quizzical glance. "Don't you remember?"

Yalnis looked away, ashamed. "I don't have all Zorargul's memories," she said. "I savored
themтАФanticipated them. I didn't want to gobble them all up at once. It would be too greedy."

"How old are you now?" Zorar asked gently, as if to change the subject.

"My ship is eleven millennia," she replied. "In waking time, I'm twenty-five years old."

"You young ones always have to find out everything for yourselves," Zorar said with a sigh. "Didn't you
ask Zorargul, when you took up with Seyyan?"

Yalnis stared at her, deeply shocked. "Ask Zorargul about Seyyan?" Zorar might as well have suggested
she make love in a cluster of ships with the dome transparent, everyone looking in. It had never occurred
to Yalnis to tell the companions each others' names, or even to wonder if they would understand her if
she did. She had a right to some privacy, as did her other lovers.

"You young ones!" Zorar said with impatience. "What do you think memories are for? Are they just a toy
for your entertainment?"

"I was trying to treat them respectfully!" Yalnis exclaimed.

Zorar snorted.

Yalnis wondered if she would ever be so confident, so well-established, that she could dispense with