"H. Beam Piper - The Space Viking" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

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gentleman-secretary, and the Karvall lawyer, executives of the steel mills,
the Karvall guard-captain. Sesar himself, with Elaine on his arm; she wits
wearing a shawl of black and yellow. Lucas looked around in sudden fright.
"For the love of Satan, where's our shawl?" he demanded, and then relaxed when
one of his gentlemen exhibited it, green and tawny in Traskon colors. The
bridesmaids, led by Lady Lavina Karvall. Finally they halted, ten yards apart,
in front of the Duke.

"Who approaches us?" Duke Angus asked of his guard captain.

He had a thin, pointed face, almost femininely sensitive, and a small pointed
beard. He was bareheaded except for the narrow golden circlet which he spent
most of his waking time scheming to convert into a royal crown,. The
guard-captain repeated the question.

"I am Sir Nikkolay Trask; I bring my cousin and liege lord, Lucas, Lord Trask,
Baron of Traskon. He comes to

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receive the Lady-Demoiselle Elaine, daughter of Lord Sesar Karvall, Baron of
Karvallmills, and the sanction of your Grace to the marriage between them."


Sir Maxamon Zhorgay, Sesar Karvall's henchman, named himself and his lord;
they brought the Lady Demoiselle Elaine to be wed to Lord Trask of Traskon. The
Duke, satisfied that these were persons whom he could address directly, asked
if the terms of the marriage-agreement had been reached; both parties affirmed
this. Sir Maxamon passed a scroll to the Duke; Duke Angus began to read the
stiff and precise legal phraseology. Marriages between noble houses were not
matters to be left open to dispute; a great deal of spilled blood and burned
powder had resulted from ambiguity on some point of succession or inheritance
or dower-rights. Lucas bore it patiently; he didn't want his
great-grandchildren and Elaine's shooting it out over a matter of a misplaced
comma.

"And these persons here before us do enter into this marriage freely?" the
Duke asked, when the reading had ended. He stepped forward as he spoke, and
his esquire gave him the two-hand Sword of State, heavy enough to behead a
bisonoid. Trask stepped forward; Sesar Karvall brought Elaine up. The lawyers
and henchmen obliqued off to the sides. "How say you, Lord Trask?" he asked,
almost conversationally.

"With all my heart, your Grace."