"Robert F. Young - In Saturn's Rings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

The resemblance between her and the beautiful young woman standing before him in the Hostel was
striking. He had heard it said that interfamilial marriages had been the rule in the House of Christopoulos
ever since Nick the Greek had married an indentured chambermaid тАФ a peasant girl named Antonia
Anzalone тАФ and set the dynasty in motion. Matthew had always discredited the rumor, but now he
wondered if perhaps there might not be something to it.
He shuffled across the room and paused humbly before his visitor, staring down at the ermine snow
that lay around her feet. Should he bow? he wondered. Or should he kneel? In his indecision, he did
neither but stood there like the bewildered and frightened old man he was.
Hera Christopoulos looked him up and down. Her voice was as cold as the wind that blew across
the ice-flats. "Where is the last capsule?" she demanded. "Why wasn't it delivered to the House?"
He could not think at first, could only stand there dumbly. When at last words came, they emerged in
a meaningless mumble. "What did you say?" Hera Christopoulos asked.
He clenched his hands in a vain attempt to still the trembling of his fingers. Faustina appeared timidly
at his elbow, bearing a tray with two cups of coffee on it, and in his agitation he seized one of them and
gulped down its throat-searing contents. Belatedly, he remembered that he should have let his visitor
serve herself first. Acute embarrassment all but overwhelmed him. Miserably, he returned the cup to the
tray.
Hera declined the other cup with a disdainful look, and Faustina hurried away. The log fire crackled,
and the crackling reverberated throughout the room. "Are you dumb?" Hera said contemptuously. "Or
have you only temporarily lost your tongue?"
Anger sparked him into articulation, and he raised his eyes. "The capsule is in orbit, in accordance
with your husband's directions."
She took a step backward, and the fluffy pile of ermine snow became a windrow. The deep-space
darkness of her eyes intensified. "He ordered you to put the capsule in orbit. Why?
"He did not say why."
"When did he contact you?"
"This morning, just before I made moonfall."
"I order you to bring it down."
"I can't bring it down unless Zeus IX authorizes it," Matthew said.
"Zeus IX was called away on business. Quite naturally I am empowered to speak for him in his
absence. I hereby countermand his order with an order of my own: Bring the capsule down and see to it
that it is delivered to the House immediately." With a catlike movement she bent down and picked up her
cloak. Straightening, she showered it around her shoulders. "Immediately," she repeated, and, turning,
started for the door.
"No," said Matthew North. "I can't."
She spun around, a flurry of whiteness and woman. "I order you to bring it down!"

The commoner in Matthew quivered, and the servant in him quaked, but his loyalty to Zeus IX
refused to let him retreat.
"When your husband notifies me and gives me the necessary order, I will bring it down," he said, "but
not before. I am sorry, but I have no right to act otherwise."
"Very well then. Give me the orbital readings and I'll have someone else bring it down."
Matthew shook his head. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "I can't do that either. You see," he went on,
"Zeus Christopoulos IX represents more to me than just the ninth Zeus in line. He represents all the
others who preceded him. I тАФ I have worked for the House of Christopoulos almost all my life. And I
have come to regard my duties as a sort of sacred trust тАФ a trust that I could never bring myself to
violate. I would die for the House of Christopoulos. I would die for you. But I cannot obey your order."
She regarded him for some time, the Cimmerian fountain of her hair spilling darkly down to the white
snowbanks of her shoulders. Thought, not anger, now resided in her deep-space eyes. At length, "I
believe you would at, that," she said; and then, "Such loyalty should not go unrewarded."