"Lackey, Mercedes - Arrow's Fall" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

"Exactly." She shivered a little. "I thought I'd never feel clean again after touching his mind. But—what could I have done with him? Ordered his execution? That . . .wouldn't be enough of a punishment for what he did. Imprison him? Not appropriate at all. And much as I would have liked to pull him to bits slowly, Heralds don't go in for torture."

"What did you do to him? In detail, I mean. You didn't want to talk about it before."

"It was a—kind of twist on a mind-Healing technique; it depended on the fact that I'm a projective Empath. I can't remember what Devan called it, but you tie a specific thought to another thought or set of feelings that you construct. Then, every time the person thinks that thought, they also get what you want them to know. Like with Vostel—-every time he would decide that he was to blame, he'd get what / put in there."

"Which was?"

She grinned. " 'So next time I won't be so stupid!' And when he'd be ready to give up from pain, he'd get, 'But ft isn't as bad as yesterday, and it'll be better tomorrow.' Not words, actually; it was all feelings."

18

Mercedes Lackey

"Better, in that case, than words would have been," Kris mused, shooing a fly away absently.

"So Devan said. Well, I did something like that with— that thing. I took one of the worst sets of his stepdaughter's memories, and tied that in to all of his own feelings about women. And I kept point-of-view, so that it would appear to him as if he were the victim. You saw what happened."

Kris shuddered. "He went mad; he just collapsed, foaming at the mouth."

"No, he didn't go mad. He locked himself into an endless repetition of what I'd fed him. It's an appropriate punishment; he's getting exactly what he put his stepdaughters through. It's just, at least I think so, because if he ever changes his attitudes he can break free of it. Of course if he does—" she grimaced "—he might find himself dancing on the end of a rope for the murder of his older stepdaughter. The law prevents the execution of a madman; it doesn't save one who's regained his sanity. Lastly, what I did should satisfy his stepdaughter, who is, after all, the one we really want to come out of this thing with a whole soul."

"So where's the ethical problem?"

"That was a stress-situation, a threat-situation. But—is it ethical to—say—read people during Council sessions and act on my information?"

"Uh—" Kns was unable to think of an answer.

"You see?"

"Let's go at it from another angle. You know how to read people's faces and bodies—we've all been taught that. Would you hesitate to use that knowledge in Council?"

"Well, no." She rode silently for a few more moments. "I guess what will have to be the deciding factor is not if I do it but how I use the information."

"That sounds reasonable to me."

"Maybe too reasonable," she replied doubtfully. "It's awfully easy to rationalize what I want to do—what I have no choice about in some cases. It's not like thought-sensing; I have to actively shield to keep people out. They go around shoving their feelings up my nose on a regular basis, especially when they're wrought up."

ARROWS FALL

19

Kris shook his head. "All I can say is, do what seems best at the time. Really, that's all any of us do."

.-Verily, oh, Wise One.:

Kris ignored his Companion's taunting comment. He was going to question her further, but broke off when he caught the sound of a horse galloping full out, heading up die road toward them, the hoofbeats having the peculiar ringing of a Companion.

"That—"