Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

complied.

The disrobing awoke Tabath, his familiar, who raised her tiny crested head

from his wrist to stare with unwinking yellow-eyed hostility at the glare

and confusion. Though both glare and confusion were commonplace enough at

the residence conclave, no one really yet knew how much the little

basilisks learned from experience, even after nearly a century of studying

them. Jorn was personally quite convinced that Tabath was unusually

intelligent for a familiar but he had the saving good sense to know that

everyone thought well of their own-that bias was absolutely necessary in so

personal a relationship, but that did not make it necessarily true.

The serpent shifted her two-foot length on his arm automatically and looked

back up at Jorn. As usual, he had no idea what she wanted-as an

ectoparasite she had no wants she needed to ask for-but the movement had

the effect of making him notice that none of the naked men in the long line

he was supposed to join was wearing a familiar.

As he hesitated, he heard behind him the clackclack of sandals, and turned

to see another woman doctor in the act of passing him. She was exceedingly

24 fames Blish

striking, and somehow Jorn had the impression that he knew her. She was

gray-haired, obviously old enough to be his grandmother, and yet at the same

time quite beautiful-not with the hard gloss of the television actress, nor

even that of the older woman fighting grimly to hold onto her looks, but

with a soft feminine warmth which was as captivating as it was rare.