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

must feel. As man and wife, they had never been success-
ful, she told herself; what kept them at the pretense of it
was the simple fact that both of them were constitu-
tionally incapable of admitting defeat in any matter what-
soever, though she had been told by pilots, often enough,
that success in a fleshly union was impossble for one who
had made the cruiser/pilot bond his own.

"And what, now, shall I give you in return?" he asked,
to break the awkward silence come between two who had
given much for one another, on principle, yet on princi-
ple could not trust each other. "Will you come up to the
Stump and be a wife to me? Or to New Chaeronea, the
test-city I am building in the north to dazzle the locals?
Would you like it there, on Mount Defiance? I will have
a temple made for you, get you a tripod. . . . You might
become a renowned sybil. ..."

"I am a renowned sybil," retorted Shebat, shaking her
head so that he saw a swatch of freshly shown curls swing

6

JANET MORRIS

against her cheek. "You will find that out soon enough, if
you stay in Bolen's town. As for what I wantтАФgive me a
hundred dream dancers; there are that many in prison at
space-end. Bring them to me and I will create a dream
dance which will predict and ensure that you can turn
Earth into a paradise. But no less: it will take that many
to secure Earth for us."

Chaeron let out an explosive breath. "It is nice to hear
you say 'us.' Though you have sorely wounded me with
this arbitrational attitude of yours, you shall have your
dream dancers, to do with as you choose." As he spoke,
he thought that surely it was from him she had learned
caution, suspicion, and worse. In three years of marriage,
he had got little joy of her. Fugitively, the past rushed in
upon himтАФall the errors they both had made, for which
he had repeatedly forgiven her, but never himself. At
least, with her words, the odd firelight and the ethereal
glow and the disturbing "presence" of her had receded:

she was merely a girl, simply his wife, back to normal
size. "In two months, you will have them," he promised,
unfolding his legs and rising. "For now, why not come
with me north to the city's siteтАФ?"