"Janet Morris - Kerrion Empire 03 - Earth Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris Janet E)

Forthwith Shebat, nodding, still full of power, sent out
a dream to engulf them, so that each man sank to the
ground. And their horses, after awhile, drifted away
where the cropping was better, and the sun set entirely,
loosing misty night upon the land. Yet still she held
them, motionless and dreaming, upon the ground. She
had never held so many; she had never felt so strong.
With Chaeron watching her, she proved her worth that
day. Seventeen men she held enthralled until the dew
covered themтАФand then she let them out of dreams only
when her husband came to her, shaking her shoulder
gently, nuzzling her hair: "Enough. I yield. You can do
more with dream dances than I can do with every other
tactic I possess. Let them up, Shebat, or leave them as
they are. I am going to make supper, and you are going
to eat it."

It occurred to her then, from the forced levity in his
voice, that perhaps she had shown him too much, pushed
him too far.

But since it was done, she could not undo it, only
rouse the dreamers, one by one. The rebel leader Thome

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EARTH DREAMS

she left until last, and when she bade him wake, she did
it with a touch upon his brow. "Come again tomorrow,
militiaman, if you dare."

She left him yet knuckling sleep from his squinty eyes
among his horses and his men, while the enchanters she
had charged to let his little band pass unmolested grum-
bled that it was madness to allow such an infamous ma-
rauder to escape.

And that grumbling waxed strident as the enchanters
bivouacked their inflatables before the cave's mouth.
While they interlocked them, disgruntlement ran amok,
and disagreement among the five grew heated as to
whether it might be wiser to desert now with honor, or
stay on in hopes that the Kerrions would mismanage
themselves into a no-lose situation. Hooker, a blond
cultural attache from the Stump, was sure that this would
be the case. Through force of arms, Kerrion power nec-
essarily must triumph; there was no Orrefors consulate to
defect to, any longer, only scattered cells of Earthbound
insurgents who refused to don Kerrion livery and fought