"Ann Maxwell - Fire Dancer 1 - Fire Dancer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maxwell Ann)

perverts.”

Rheba’s long yellow hair stirred, though there was no breeze inside the Black Whole’s anteroom.
Kirtn spoke a few rapid words in Senyas, native tongue of Senyasi and Bre’ns alike. “If we kill
him, we’ll never get a chance to talk to Trader Jal.”

“I wasn’t going to kill him,” said Rheba in Senyas, smiling at the man with the silver circle who
could not understand her words. “I was just going to singe his pride-and-joys.”

Kirtn winced. “Never mind. I’ll wait outside.”

Rheba began to object, then shrugged. The last time they had bumped against local prejudices,
she had been the one to wait outside. She could not remember whether sex, color, number of
digits or lack of fur had been at issue.

“I’ll make it as fast as I can,” said Rheba, her hand on Kirtn’s arm, stroking him. She took an
uncomplicated pleasure from the softness of his fur. Kirtn’s strength and textures were her oldest
memories, and her best. Like most akhenets, she had been raised by her Bre’n mentor. “I can
understand a prejudice against smoothies,” she murmured, “but against furries? Impossible.”

Kirtn touched a fingertip to Rheba’s nose. “Don’t find more trouble than you can set fire to,
child.”

She smiled and turned toward the licensed employee. She spoke once again in Universal, the
language of space. “Does this cesspool have a game called Chaos?”

“Yeah,” said the man. He flicked his narrow, thick fingernail against Rheba’s license. “It’s not a
game for innocents.”

Rheba’s hair rippled. “Is that opinion or law?”

The man did not answer.

“Where’s the game?” she asked again, her voice clipped.

“Across the main casino, on the left. You’ll see a big blue spiral galaxy.”
Rheba sidestepped around the man.

“I hope you lose your lower set of lips,” he said in a nasty voice as she passed him.

She walked quickly across the anteroom of the Black Whole, not trusting herself to answer the
man’s crudity. As she passed through the casino’s velvet force field, a babble of voices assaulted
her. Throughout the immense, high-ceilinged room, bets were being made and paid in the
Universal language, but gamblers exhorted personal gods in every tongue known to the Yhelle
Equality.

Rheba knew only three languages—Bre’n, Senyas, and Universal—and Kirtn was the only other
being who knew the first two. The multitongued room made her feel terribly alone. One Senyas,
one Bre’n. Only known survivors of the violent moment when Deva’s sun had built a bridge of
fire between itself and its fifth planet.