"Ann Maxwell - Timeshadow Rider" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maxwell Ann)

Sharia did not understand the voice speaking so hugely in her mind. She felt it sinking into her,
spreading like shock waves through her, an irresistible shaping of her mind beneath the power of the
Eyes. Yet some small part of her writhed and tried to evade the imperative, for if Kane broke exile and
returned at her call he would die the final death. She could not bear that, knowing that he was not alive in
time/now or the now, that he would never live again, ever, in any time. Za’ar death was not a simple
resting between lives. Za’ar death was final.
KIRIYS NEVER WASTE WHAT CAN BE SAVED. WHY DO YOU THINK I EXILED RATHER THAN EXECUTED
KANE? IF THE EYES ARE CLOSED HE WILL NOT DIE THE LAST DEATH WHEN HE RETURNS TO ZA’ARAIN,
CALL TO HIM.
Head bowed, Sharia felt the Za’ar imperative sinking into her mind. She did not fight it. She could
not. At some level she had never stopped calling to Kane since he had been exiled ten years ago.
The Kiriy knew that and used it, for she was dying and had few choices left, none of them
comforting. She fought ruthlessly for her people’s survival with every bit of her rapidly waning power.
Even wearing the Eyes, dealing with her niece’s innocent, too-powerful mind was rapidly using up the
Kiriy’s small reserves of strength. The Kiriy’s frail body shook with the force of the demand pouring out
of her mind.
IF IT COMES TO DUST AND KANE, YOU MUST REMEMBER: HE IS FORBIDDEN TO YOU! GO WITH KANE,
FIND THE EYES, BUT NEVER TOUCH HIM. NEVER. WHEN TWO FIVES LIKE YOU TOUCH, THE BOUNDARIES OF
ZA’ ARE DISTURBED. THEN TIME AND LIFE FLOW TOGETHER, DESTROY-ING EVERYTHING. CATASTROPHE.
THAT IS THE TRUTH OF THE GREAT TABU. IT WILL BE TRUTH AFTER THE EYES CLOSE. IT WILL BE
TRUTH WHEN ZA’ARAIN IS DUST. IT WILL ALWAYS BE TRUTH.
NEVER TOUCH YOUR FORBIDDEN SOUL.
Abruptly the Kiriy’s body went slack. She lay back in the alabaster alcove, spent by disease and the
difficulty of trying to force her niece’s powerful mind to accept an unwanted command all the way down
to the level of reflex. She hoped that the Za’ar imperative had been stronger than Sharia’s deeply buried
need to touch Kane. Once there would have been no doubt that a Za’ar imperative would hold. But Kiris
had become Dariens over time, and Dariens had become fives. The power of Sharia’s mind was unique
in all of Za’arain’s history. Kane’s mind was also unique in its power, and capable of joining completely
with hers. Neither of them knew it. The Kiriy hoped that neither ever would. If they did, it would be the
last thing that they would learn before they died the final death ...
... And took with them into Za’ar death every psi who had ever lived or would live, the then and the
now and the always released from za’ until it all imploded, shredding timeshadows beyond any hope of
rebirth or renewal in this or any other dimension of time and za’.
Sharia watched the shallow movements of the Kiriy’s chest for a long time. When no more words
came to ring hugely in Sharia’s mind, she turned and fled to her suite. There she sat without moving,
cupping the odd gem in her palms. At first she felt helpless, knowing only the impossibility of reaching out
across space and linear time to Kane. Yet the Za’ar imperative and her own deepest desire kept driving
Sharia back to the gem’s torrential colors.
She did not count the minutes or the hours or the days of linear time piling up around her like winter
leaves. She ate when she was too weak to hold the stone steady, drank when she must, and poured
herself into the endless colors turning deep within the alien jewel. She called to Kane through all the levels
of her Darien mind that were accessible to her. There was no answer, no whisper or shout returning, no
shift of color into meaning, nothing to separate one anonymous minute from the next.
Finally there came a moment to mark the end of Za’arain’s history, wrenching Sharia from the depths
of her fiery gem. A terrible psychic cry shattered her concentration. The Kiriy’s timeshadow was thinning,
energy radiating out of time/now into times/other, those unnamed and unknown dimensions where life
gathered between births. The Kiriy’s rich timeshadow convulsed as it was torn from time/now and rooted
irrevocably in the then.
The Kiriy was dead.
Sharia lay dazed, exhausted by her long, fruitless search and its shattering end. Soon someone would