"Christopher Stasheff - Rogue Wizard 02 - Wizard in Mind" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

The screen cleared, and Herkimer put up the sound of cards flipping again, to
indicate that he was searching his data banks. Magnus waited, feeling oddly
troubled. The aristocrats were no doubt acting in their own interest first and
foremost-but they seemed to be aware that their own prosperity depended on that
of their people, and that their power was based on the yeomen's contentment with
life. Magnus really had no reason to interfere. He didn't doubt that government
of the people should be for the people-he just wasn't all that sure who should
be doing the governing. In this case, the aristocrats seemed to be doing well
enough for everybodywhich seemed wrong.
"Andoria," Herkimer said, and the screen lit with a picture of a row of people
wearing only loincloths, bent over to cut grain with sickles.
"Spare me the geophysical data." Magnus leaned forward, feeling his heart lift.
This looked like a more promising setting for oppression-though now that he
looked more closely, he could see that each of the peasants was well fed. They,
too, sang as they worked, and the song was cheerful. "Begin with the
government!" Magnus was already feeling impatient.
"The government is an absolute monarchy," Herkimer said, "with overtones of
theocracy, for the monarch is a god-king."
"God-king?" Magnus frowned. "Is this Neolithic?"
"Bronze Age, but with some surprisingly sophisticated notions, no doubt supplied
by original colonists whose Terran-style culture fell apart without a high
technology to preserve the infrastructure. All land is the king's, and is
administered by his stewards, each of whom supervises a hundred or so bailiffs."
"How are they chosen?"
"Candidates are selected by examination, but the final selection is the king's."
"A civil service!"
"Yes, but one that is largely hereditary. The king tends to appoint the sons of
the same families, generation after generation, century after century. New blood
enters the civil service only when one of the families fails to produce a male


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heir, or the scion of the line chooses another profession-for example, the
priesthood, or the army."
"There's a standing army, then?"
"Yes, but it's the king's, and only the king's. The officers tend to come from
the old families, but may be promoted from the ranks. In both civil service and
army, new appointees constitute approximately twelve percent of the personnel."
"So there's some vertical mobility." Magnus pursed his lips. "I gather, from the
fact that the king feels it necessary to maintain an army, that his civil
service's main purpose is to assure abundant income for himself and his
household."
"No, though that purpose certainly seems to be well served." Herkimer replaced
the picture of the field with the interior of a stone palace, lush with
decoration, a marble floor polished mirror-smooth, and a double file of
bare-chested soldiers with spears leading to a golden throne on a high dais, on
which sat a tall man wearing a robe richly ornamented with golden beadwork
interspersed with gems. "The godking charges his stewards with seeing to the