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

trouble smoothing things over, and we're not even supposed to be awake yet."

Zelana was staring at the lady. "Are you really—" She almost choked at that point.

"Yes, Beloved, I am your alternate. Our Domain is still under your control, however. I promise that I
won't tamper—unless Mother tells me—us—to." She put her hand on Eleria's shoulder. "This can be
terribly confusing sometimes. This is Little-Me. You know her as Eleria, which is sort of all right, I
suppose. She makes me laugh quite often, and laughter's good for the soul—or so I've been told. There
is something I've been curious about, though. Where in the world did she come up with her hugs and
kisses ploy? She has poor Vash so confused that he doesn't know exactly what to do."

Zelana suddenly smiled. "The idea came to Eleria back in the pink grotto when she was very, very young.
She can kiss a pink dolphin into submission in no time at all." Then she looked rather closely at Balacenia,
her alternate. "The resemblances are definitely there, Balacenia. You are, in fact, a grown-up version of
Eleria the Dreamer. How is it that the two of you can both be in the same place at the same time?"

"It's just a little complex, Beloved. Actually, we're not here at the same time. Actually, I'm not even really
here. I'm still sound asleep, and what we're all seeing right now is my Dream."

"That's not possible!" Dahlaine protested.

"Why—and how—am I here, then?" Balacenia demanded. "Your little game was very clever, Dahlaine,
but it got away from you almost right at the beginning. You thought that you could step around us with
your 'infant' hoax, but it started to come apart when Eleria had her first Dream. That was the one when
she saw the very beginning of this world. Then, a little later in the Land of Maag she had a variety of
Dream that you didn't even anticipate. She had what we call a 'warning dream,' and it was that Dream
that saved Longbow and his friends from the intentions of the Maag called Kajak. You might not have
been aware of what that Dream suggested to us. Dreams can be warnings as well as predictions."

"That did startle me just a bit," Dahlaine admitted. "I'd sort of believed that I might have some control
over the Dreams, but the children keep slipping around me."

"Actually, it's Mother who's guiding the Dreamers. She picked up your little game, and she's doing things
with it that you couldn't even imagine."

"Mother?" Dahlaine sounded startled. "We don't have a mother."

"Where did we come from, then?" Balacenia demanded.

"You'll really like her, Dahlaine," Eleria said. "She can do all kinds of fun things. She was the one who
took me down under the sea so that I could pick up my pink pearl. That's what started all this,
remember?"

"She's the mother of the whole universe, Dahlaine," Balacenia added, "and she's more than a little peeved
with you right now. The outlanders are all right, I suppose, but Mother was—and still is—dealing with it
in her own way."

"That will do, Balacenia," a melodious voice came through the open doorway. "Why don't you let me
deal with this?" Then a misty sort of form that seemed to be pure light came through the open doorway.
"What were you thinking of when you hired all those outlanders to come here and fight this war for you,