"Lisanne Norman - Sholan 01 - Turning Point" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman Lisanne)

Shock and fear brought her briefly out of her twin's world of pain. Blood. Dear God, there had never
been blood be-fore!

Footsteps pounded along the landing and her door burst open. Dimly she saw her father and brother
standing there, their faces blanching when they saw the state she was in.

She lifted her head up from the floor and tried to disentan-gle herself from her bedding but only
succeeded in slipping in her own blood.

"They've got Elise," she said, her voice made blurry by drugs and pain.

While the pain continued, she knew that Elise was still alive. When that stopped, her sister would
probably be dead. Carrie began to whimper again, a low-pitched animal sound. Pain flickered through
her body, but it no longer seemed to burn so fiercely. She lay there unthinking for the moment, thankful
for the brief respite, while knowing the worst was not yet over.

Two days before, the Valtegans had seized Elise; two days and nights of torment for Carrie. Her one
comfort had been the knowledge that nothing they could do would make her sister reveal anything about
the Terrans' resistance move-ment on Keiss.

Elise was not particularly brave, it was more that she pos-sessed no sense of pain. Born the stronger of
the two, she had never had to suffer the hurts of childhood. Instead, in some strange way, it was Carrie
who had suffered the agonies of her twin's broken arm, or the fever of some ill-ness. As in the past,
Carrie was the one suffering now.

She could feel Elise, a faint but unmistakable presence in the depths of her mind.

If I want to survive, I must remain detached, Carrie thought. Blank. I must keep my mind blank.

Slowly, she tried to edge out the consciousness that was Elise, pushing her sister down from the surface
of her own thoughts. The response was immediate. Waves of fear began spreading upward, catching her
unaware and pulling her back into that other life.

She cried out, flinging herself from side to side in an ef-fort to escape the welter of pain that began to
course through her fever-wracked body. Would they never stop questioning Elise?

Strong hands grasped her, pressing her down, but still she thrashed from side to side.

"My God, she's got some strength!"

"I'm afraid we might lose her, Peter. Even if she doesn't go catatonic as she did after the death of her
mother, her sys-tem can't take much more."

The voice sounded faint and far away, receding farther un-til all the reality she knew was the awful shriek
that echoed inside her head.

Abruptly, it stopped, and the terrible emptiness rushed in. That part of her mind where Elise lived was a
void. There was no more pain or fear, just emptiness. Total panic overwhelmed her and she began to
scream.