"Frank Herbert - Dune 5 - Heretics of Dune (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

black cap of karakul hair. The yellow sunlight of early spring cast a small
shadow at his feet. His skin was darkly tanned but a slight movement of his
body shifted his blue singlesuit, revealing pale skin at the left shoulder.

"Not only are these gholas costly but they are supremely dangerous to us,"
Schwangyu said. Her voice came out flat and emotionless, all the more powerful
because of that. It was the voice of a Reverend Mother Instructor speaking down
to an acolyte and it emphasized for Lucilla that Schwangyu was one of those who
protested openly against the ghola project.

Taraza had warned: "She will try to win you over."

"Eleven failures are enough," Schwangyu said.

Lucilla glanced at Schwangyu's wrinkled features, thinking suddenly: Someday I
may be old and wizened, too. And perhaps I will be a power in the Bene Gesserit
as well.

Schwangyu was a small woman with many age marks earned in the Sisterhood's
affairs. Lucilla knew from her own

assignment-studies that Schwangyu's conventional black robe concealed a skinny
figure that few other than her acolyte dressers and the males bred to her had
ever seen. Schwangyu's mouth was wide, the lower lip constricted by the age
lines that fanned into a jutting chin. Her manner tended to a curt abruptness
that the uninitiated often interpreted as anger. The commander of the Gammu
Keep was one who kept herself to herself more than most Reverend Mothers.

Once more, Lucilla wished she knew the entire scope of the ghola project.
Taraza had drawn the dividing line clearly enough, though: "Schwangyu is not to
be trusted where the safety of the ghola is concerned."

"We think the Tleilaxu themselves killed most of the previous eleven," Schwangyu
said. "That in itself should tell us something."

Matching Schwangyu's manner, Lucilla adopted a quiet attitude of almost
emotionless waiting. Her manner said: "I may be much younger than you,
Schwangyu, but I, too, am a full Reverend Mother." She could feel Schwangyu's
gaze.

Schwangyu had seen the holos of this Lucilla but the woman in the flesh was more
disconcerting. An Imprinter of the best training, no doubt of it. Blue-in-blue
eyes uncorrected by any lens gave Lucilla a piercing expression that went with
her long oval face. With the hood of her black aba robe thrown back as it was
now, brown hair was revealed, drawn into a tight barette and then cascading down
her back. Not even the stiffest robe could completely hide Lucilla's ample
breasts. She was from a genetic line famous for its motherly nature and she
already had borne three children for the Sisterhood, two by the same sire. Yes
-- a brown-haired charmer with full breasts and a motherly disposition.