"Morris, Janet - Silistra 03 - Wind from the Abyss UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris Janet E)

"I would take these points up with all us present," rasped Vedrast, flicking those intrusive eyes my way. I was shocked that he would speak so to the dharen.
"Do your business here, now!" Khys commanded. "And I warn you, see to your skills while you are about it."
The arrar Vedrast closed his eyes for a moment, searching composure. He found it, and walked purposefully toward me. I retreated from him.
"Stand still, Estri," Khys commanded.
"Come sit with me," said the other, extending his hand. I looked at it. He did not withdraw. Timidly I extended my hand to his. This time there was no shock, but I felt again, unmistakably, a cold touch within. I twisted my head to the dharen.
"Please, Khys," I petitioned him, as Vedrast led me firmly toward the alcove. He only looked away, his face gone cold.
"Sit there. Good. Khys, if you will . .." And he motioned to a place on his left.
"Thank you," Vedrast said when the dharen had seated himself, his back against the draped windows.
"Now, Estri, I am going to sedate you. It will not be painful, and the effects will last only a short time." And he reached over and put both his hands around my neck, fingers meeting where spine joins skull. I felt only a drowsiness, an urge to sleep, and a receding of sensation. I concentrated upon staying upright. My body was weighty, recalcitrant.
Vaguely, I knew the man's hands had left me, and that Khys's had replaced them with his own. And I saw, blurred, that when his hands came away, they bore with them my band of restraint.
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But I had only enough strength to keep myself erect.
The arrar's hands were again upon me, and he peered at my throat for a time. I wanted desperately to lie down and sleep.
Then they asked me of hulions. And I heard myself answer, speak of what had, this very morning, occurred. I was asked to remember in detail, and I did.
Then did Vedrast ask what the paper I had read had brought to mind. And of the arrar Sereth, did he question me. I answered him as best I could, that I had only once met him, and that I had, upon occasion, dreamed of him, as I had much of my namesake's life.
"Why do you think," said Vedrast, "you have those dreams? Do they trouble you?"
I shook my head to clear it. Something within screamed that my answers were important, even crucial, but all I wanted was to lay my head in the dharen's lap.
"No, they do not trouble me." I struggled the words out upon an unwieldy tongue. "I have no past of my own. Hers was of great interest to me. I chose her name, also. I would be as she, but I know what was in that book was hers, and not mine."
"I see," said Vedrast. I squinted, that I might see Khys's face, but I could make nothing of it.
"Tell me, now, about the child you bore."
I did so, seeing the hateful beast, remembering my swollen belly.
"And about Khys," he pressed me,
I tried to rise. I could not. I could feel him, strolling through my memories, kicking what did not interest him from his path. My mind was filled with tangled thoughts, impressions, a patterning I could see extending out into the unborn time.-
WIND FROM THE ABYSS
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"Tell me," said Vedrast, his amber eyes, close to mine, prying.
"I serve him," I whispered. "I want what time he will give me, nothing else," I said. Then I felt Vedrast at our couching. Enraged, I met him there boldly, with a skill I had not known I had. And I drove him back. The arrar, shaken, retreated.
Khys replaced the band upon my neck gently. I felt his second touch, tightening it. And his third, upon my forehead, and my lethargy was gone, lifting like some oppressive gravity just repealed.
Vedrast, shaking his head back and forth, rose and pulled back the draperies, staring out into the waning day.
"Perhaps you can hold her," he said grudgingly.
"Doubtless I can hold her," Khys said, stroking my hair. I had been without the band, and I had felt the difference. I turned to him.
"I would do anything to have that freedom, to see, and hear, and feel as you do," I breathed, fighting tears.
"And I would love to have you whole," Khys said. "When the time comes, rest assured, it will be done."
"Did I pass?" I asked him fearfully. "Will I be eliminated?"
Khys laughed. Vedrast turned from the window, solemn-faced.
"Answer her, then, O dour one," directed the dharen.
"One does not usually give the subject the results," he temporized.
"Make an exception." And the dharen's tone had lost its humor.
"It is not up to us, in truth. You have heard that. If it were, I might be tempted to precipitate some crisis and see how you handled it." Vedrast turned to Khys. "There is no use in this, I will send you a written report."
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"You will make one before you leave here. And bring it before me, that I may see what it contains, and I may sign it. I may not. At any rate, I would hear what will be in it." His hand, upon my back, stopped moving.
"This is a farce!" the arrar exploded.
"Indeed, as is all of civilization. But it is workable. As one farcical primate with delusions of spirituality to another, let me adjure you to walk with greater care in my presence. I might be tempted to break you in half and feed the remains to the hulions. Now, in ten words or less, how do you find her?" the dharen said, rising.
"Neutralized. Reasonably adjusted. Potentially dangerous. May I go?" His words hissed from fat, full lips upon a fine spray.
"Go, then, and make your report. I will expect you to attend me at moon's meal."
."I have business elsewhere," said Vedrast, stepping carefully over my outstretched legs.
"Cancel it. We have more pressing business here."
The arrar wheeled and made exaggerated obeisance, strode angrily from the keep, slamming the thala doors behind him.