"David Eddings - The Dreamers 04 - The Younger Gods" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

added, "but not quite." As closely as she could determine, "sleep-time" was no more than a few months
away. She'd long since decided that the pink grotto on the Isle of Thurn would be the place where she'd
sleep this time. The pink dolphins would sing her to sleep, and she might even have dreams of her own
this time—dreams of a Land of Dhrall without a Vlagh, and a land where her friends did not grow old
and pass away, and where she could sing and write poetry, and where it was always spring and the
flowers never wilted. Now that might be the best of dreams.
"I thought I could feel your presence here, dear sister," Dahlaine said as he joined Zelana on the balcony
over the "lumpy map" of his Domain. "You seem to be troubled. What's bothering you so much?"

"Aracia, of course," Zelana replied. "I think her mind is slipping even more than it was when she tried to
conceal Lillabeth's Dream. I wish that there was some way that we could put her to sleep a few months
early this time. Then we could all concentrate on the Vlagh and stop worrying about our sister."

"It probably would make things a lot easier."

"What is it about Aracia that makes her start to go to pieces at the end of every cycle?" Zelana
demanded. "I was thinking back, and as closely as I can remember, Aracia's never once gone off to
sleep without fighting it every step of the way. Why does she do that?"

Dahlaine shrugged. "Inferiority, most likely. When you include our alternates, there are eight of us
altogether, and as closely as I've been able to determine, our alternates trade off authority in the same
way that we do. That suggests that Aracia's the dominant one for only twenty-five thousand years. Then
she has to wait for a hundred and seventy-five eons for dominance to return. For some reason, she just
can't stand that. She yearns to be at the center of the entire universe. If I remember correctly—and I
usually do—the last time she was dominant, she literally wallowed in her position. Of course there
weren't any developed humans around back then, so she was the only one around who could adore her,
but as I remember, her self-adoration was more than a little extreme."

Zelana smiled. "Maybe you and I should join Veltan when our next waking cycle rolls around. I'm sure he
was just trying to make a joke of it—we all know how much Veltan enjoys jokes—but he told me on
one occasion that he might just go back and camp out on the moon when Aracia's next cycle of
dominance comes along, and I think he was about half-serious when he said it."

"That's our baby brother for you. Any time responsibility comes along, Veltan runs away." Dahlaine
scratched his cheek. "It probably wouldn't have made much difference in eons past, but there are humans
in our various Domains now. I don't know about you, dear sister, but I will not permit Aracia to run
roughshod over the people of my Domain."

"You almost sound like you're thinking about declaring war on our sister."

"I'd hardly call it a war, Zelana. Aracia's people are supposed to spend every waking moment adoring
her, so they wouldn't pose much of a threat."

"You're putting our sister in the same category as holy—but crazy—Azakan of the Atazak Nation of
your own Domain, big brother," Zelana said. Then she frowned. "There are quite a few similarities,
though, aren't there?"

"Except that Aracia actually has the power to make things happen. Poor Azakan spent most of his time
ordering the earth and sky to obey him, but I don't think they paid very much attention. Aracia, however,
has a certain amount of power, so she can make things happen if she feels the need."