"Jerry Sohl - I, Aleppo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sohl Jerry)

pledge. I have required all under me to take the same pledge.
 I am not sure Adrea will kill, though I know Ronsard will because he
has done so before, though not for this reason. Adrea was one of the most
beautiful girls of one of the noble families of Thebes when she was chosen
to be consecrated in the temple of Ammon. She gained honor and profit
by the life of a courtesan but she lost her life at a young age when
Constantine demolished the temples before she could find a grand
marriage.

Adrea does not lie, though it does seem strange she has not felt the pull
of the human essence in all her years of inhabiting dreams. Perhaps it is
because she is such an object of love to Ronsard, even though such love
cannot be consummated here. She has promised to work with Ronsard
and with me and to be ever alert to unnatural attachments or powers
that may begin to cling to her or draw her into the human arena. She
has asked me why the humans are so intent on pulling Us to them. I have
told her only a small number, a very few, try such things, though they do
increase from year to year now that there are more humans.

What Adrea experienced in the young man's dream and what I saw of
it makes it a grappling hook different from any I have experienced. It is
as if there is a plan, as if the humans have organized in some way, as if
they have built up an enormous power with which they will try to
compete with Our power. It is a good thing there are Volunteers here to
stop it, for stop it We will.

Even if We have to kill, though there are some Beings here who say
there must be other ways. I say the Consciousness Pool must not be
violated and We Volunteers will kill if We have to.

Sometimes, particularly after a rousing dream experience, I wish for
Syria and the Hittite kingdom that was there before 1000 B. C. and
before I died in my prime when Abdel slew me. For many years as a
Being I remained drifting about the Byzantine Empire entering dreams,
watching it being taken by Arabs in the Seventh Century and sharing
many a

troubled dream with them, and with the Turks who invaded in the
Eleventh Century. The Crusaders besieged it in 1124 and Saladin seized it
before the Mongols.

Now that humans are all over the world the Pool of Consciousness has
expanded and We who used to ply our dreams in one area have moved to
cover the world and even to outer space now that humans have sent
some of their numbers aloft to circle the earth and to land on the moon.
Wherever humans are, they must sleep, and when they do We enter their
dreams. Fragile creatures, humans! Sometimes if a dream is too
exciting, they do not survive it.

They have their dreams, these humans. What do they seek by