"Walter Jon Williams - The Crown Jewels" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Walter John)

THE CROWN JEWELS I 23

Maijstral left his flier on the lawn of his rented villa and
walked through the sonic screen that served for a front
door. On his way he unlaced his jacket as far as the design
would permit—an unwritten rule of High Custom insisted
that clothing should not allow itself to be put on or re-
moved without the help of a servant. Most used robots
these days, at least in the Human Constellation.

Maijstral, however, had a servant, a Khosalikh named
Roman. Roman was large, even for a Khosalikh, and very
strong. The annual rings around his muzzle showed his age
to be forty-five. His ancestors had served Maijstral's for
fifteen generations, and Maijstral had inherited Roman
from his father. He used Roman on errands of a physical
and sometimes sinister nature, the character of which Ro-
man often disapproved. Roman's disapproval, like much
else, was kept to himself. He prided himself on being a
loyal and incorruptible family retainer, even though the
family in question was sometimes the despair of him.

Roman appeared from the hallway and glided toward
Maijstral, moving with a silence and stately ease that Maijstral
admired for reasons both professional and aesthetic.

"Is Gregor back?"

They spoke in Standard. Roman's voice had a sugges-
tion of still waters about it. "Not yet, sir."

"No problems, 1 trust."

"I wouldn't expect any."

Roman unlaced Maijstral's jacket, helped him off with
his buskins, and collected his gun, his knife, his collar and
cuffs, doing it all with a supreme competence and econ-
omy of gesture that were as familiar as an old sofa.
Maijstral felt his tension ease. Roman was the sole fixture
in his scattered, uncertain life, less a servant than a sign of
home, and home was a place where he could unbend. He

24 / WALTER JON WILLIAMS

dropped onto a sofa and put one foot up, wiggling his toes


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