XXII
He succeeded, the next morning, in that he wanted to be alone for a while, and was in a garden, the in the of a big across the valley. Elaine would have liked that, but she wasn't with him, now.
Then he that somebody was speaking to him, in a small, voice. He turned, and saw a little girl in and a jacket, in her arms a long-haired with big ears and eyes.
"Hello, of you," he said.
The and to the girl's face.
"Don't, Mopsy. We want to talk to this gentleman," she said. "Are you and the Space Viking?"
"Really and truly. And who are you two?"
"I'm Myrna. And this is Mopsy."
"Hello, Myrna. Hello, Mopsy."
Hearing his name, the again and from the child's arms; after a hesitation, he came over and jumped onto Trask's lap, his face. While he the dog, the girl came over and sat on the bench him.[Pg 124]
"Mopsy you," she said. After a moment, she added: "I like you, too."
"And I like you," he said. "Would you want to be my girl? You know, a Space Viking has to have a girl on every planet. How would you like to be my girl on Marduk?"
Myrna that over carefully. "I'd like to, but I couldn't. You see, I'm going to have to be Queen, some day."
"Oh?"
"Yes. Grandpa is King now, and when he's through being King, Pappa will have to be King, and then when he's through being King, I can't be King I'm a girl, so I'll have to be Queen. And I can't be anybody's girl, I'm going to have to somebody I don't know, for of state." She some more, and her voice. "I'll tell you a secret. I am a Queen now."
"Oh, you are?"
She nodded. "We are Queen, in our own right, of our Royal Bedroom, our Royal Playroom, and our Royal Bathroom. And Mopsy is our subject."
"Is Your Majesty ruler of these domains?"
"No," she said disgustedly. "We must at all times to our Royal Ministers, just like Grandpa has to. That means, I have to do just what they tell me to. That's Lady Valerie, and Margot, and Dame Eunice, and Sir Thomas. But Grandpa says they are good and wise ministers. Are you a Prince? I didn't know Space Vikings were Princes."
"Well, my King says I am. And I am ruler of my planet, and I'll tell you a secret. I don't have to do what tells me."
"Gee! Are you a tyrant? You're big and strong. I'll you've just hundreds of and enemies."
"Thousands, Your Majesty."
He that weren't true; he didn't know how many of them had been little girls like Myrna and little dogs like Mopsy. He that he was of them tightly. The girl was saying: "But you about it." These children must be telepaths!
"A Space Viking who is also a Prince must do many he doesn't want to do."
"I know. So a Queen. I Grandpa and Pappa don't through being King for just years and years." She looked over his shoulder. "Oh! And now I I've got to do something else I don't want to. Lessons, I bet."
He her eyes. The girl who had been his dinner was approaching; she a wide hat, and a that like sunset-colored mist. There was another woman, in the of an upper servant, with her.
"Lady Valerie and who else?" he whispered.
"Margot. She's my nurse. She's strict, but she's nice."[Pg 125]
"Prince Trask, has Her Highness been you?" Lady Valerie asked.
"Oh, from it." He rose, still the little dog. "But you should say, Her Majesty. She has me that she is of three domains. And of one dear subject." He gave the to the sovereign.
"You should not have told Prince Trask that," Lady Valerie chided. "When Your Majesty is her domains, Your Majesty must incognito. Now, Your Majesty must go with the Minister of the Bedchamber; the Minister of Education an audience."
"Arithmetic, I bet. Well, good-by, Prince Trask. I I can see you again. Say good-by, Mopsy."
She away with her nurse, the little dog looking over her shoulder.
"I came out to the gardens alone," he said, "and now I I'd them in company. If your Ministerial do not forbid, you be the company?"
"But gladly, Prince Trask. Her Majesty will be with of state. Square root. Have you the grottoes? They're this way."
That afternoon, one of the gentlemen-attendants up with him; Baron Cragdale would be if Prince Trask time to talk with him privately. Before they had talked more than a minutes, however, Baron Cragdale Crown Prince Edvard.
"Prince Trask, Admiral Shefter tells me that you and he are having about co-operation against this enemy of ours, Dunnan. This is fine; it has my approval, and the of Prince Vandarvant, the Prime Minister, and, I might add, that of Goodman Mikhyl. I think it ought to go further, though. A Tanith and Marduk would be to the of both."
"I'd be to think so, Prince Edvard. But aren't you marriage on acquaintance? It's only been fifty hours since the Nemesis in here."
"Well, we know a about you and your beforehand. There's a large Gilgamesher here. You have a on Tanith, haven't you? Well, anything one Gilgamesher knows, they all out, and ours are co-operative with Naval intelligence."
That would be why Andray Dunnan was having no with Gilgameshers. It would also be what Zaspar Makann meant when he about the Gilgamesh Interstellar Conspiracy.
"I can see where an like that would be advantageous. I'd be in of it. Co-operation against Dunnan, of course, and trade-rights on each other's trade-planets,[Pg 126] and direct Marduk and Tanith. And Beowulf and Amaterasu would come into it, too. Does this also have the of the Prime Minister and the King?"
"Goodman Mikhyl's in of it; there's a him and the King, as you'll have noticed. The King can't be in of anything till the Assembly or the Chancellor an opinion. Prince Vandarvant it personally; as Prime Minister, he is his opinion. We'll have to the support of the Crown Loyalist Party he can take an position."
"Well, Baron Cragdale; speaking as Baron Trask of Traskon, we just work out a of what this ought to be, and then consult, unofficially, with a people you can trust, and see what can be done about it to the proper government officials...."
The Prime Minister came to Cragdale that evening, and by of the Crown Loyalist Party. In principle, they all a with Tanith. Politically, they had doubts. Not the election; too a subject. "Controversial," it appeared, was the dirty-name anything be called on Marduk. It would the labor vote; they'd think would in Mardukan industries. Some of the would like a at the Tanith planets; others would Tanith ships being to theirs. And Zaspar Makann's party were already about the Nemesis being repaired by the Royal Navy.
And a of who toward Makann had a calling for the court-martial of Prince Bentrik and an of the of Admiral Shefter. And somebody else, a of Makann's, was that Bentrik had the Victrix to the Space Vikings and that the of the of Audhumla were fakes, in at the Navy Moon Base.
Admiral Shefter, when Trask in to see him the next day, was about this last.
"Ignore the whole thing; we something like that every election. On this planet, you can always the Gilgameshers and the Armed Forces with impunity, neither have votes and neither can back. The whole thing'll be the day after the election. It always is."
"That's if Makann doesn't win the election," Trask qualified.
"That's no who the election. They can't any of them along without the Navy, and they well know it."
Trask wanted to know if Intelligence had been anything.[Pg 127]
"Not on how Dunnan out the Victrix had been ordered to Audhumla, no," Shefter said. "There wasn't any about it; at least a thousand people, from myself to the boys, have about it as soon as the order was taped.
"As for the list of ships you gave me, yes. One of them puts in to this regularly; she out from here only yesterday morning. The Honest Horris."
"Well, great Satan, haven't you done anything?"
"I don't know if there's anything we can do. Oh, we're investigating, but.... You see, this ship up here four years ago, by some of a Neobarb, not a Gilgamesher, named Horris Sasstroff. He to be from Skathi; the there have a ships, the Space Vikings had a on Skathi about a hundred or so years ago. Naturally, the ship had no papers. Tramp among the Neobarbs, it might be years you'd put in on a where they'd of ship's papers.
"The ship to have been in shape, on Skathi as a century ago and up by the locals. She was in here twice, according to the records, and the second time she was in too shape to be moved out, and Sasstroff couldn't pay to have her rebuilt, so she was for and sold. Some one-lung company her and her up a little; they in a year or so, and she was by another small company, Startraders, Ltd., and they've been using her on a milk-run to and from Gimli. They to be a outfit, but we're looking into them. We're looking for Sasstroff, too, but we haven't been able to him."
"If you have a ship out Gimli way, you might out if there anything about her. You may that she hasn't been going there at all."
"We might, at that," Shefter agreed. "We'll just out."
Everybody at Cragdale about the with Tanith by the after Trask's with Prince Edvard on the subject. The Queen of the Royal Bedroom, the Royal Playroom and the Royal Bathroom was that her should have a with Tanith, too.
It was to look to Trask as though that would be the only he'd on Marduk, and he was having his about that.
"Do you think it would be wise?" he asked Lady Valerie Alvarath. The Queen of three rooms and one four-footed had already that Lady Valerie should be the Space Viking Prince's girl on the of Marduk.[Pg 128] "If it got out, these People's Welfare would it up and it into of some of a plot."
"Oh, I Her Majesty a with Prince Trask," Her Majesty's Prime Minister decided. "But it would have to be very secret."
"Gee!" Myrna's widened. "A treaty; just like the of the old dictatorship!" She her ecstatically. "I'll Grandpa doesn't have any treaties!"
In a days, on Marduk that a with Tanith was being discussed. If they didn't, it was no fault of Zaspar Makann's party, who to a large number of stations, and who the with of Space Viking and of the King and the Crown Prince who were about to Marduk to and plunder. The did not come from Cragdale, for it was that Trask was still at the Royal Palace in Malverton. At least, that was where the Makannists were against him.
He such a by screen; the was on one of the landing of the palace, the wide it. They were packed almost solid with people, toward the thin of police. The of the looked like a checkerboard—a in dress, then a in the effeminate-looking of Zaspar Makann's People's Watchmen, then more in ordinary garb, and more People's Watchmen. Over the of the crowds, at intervals, small on which were the that were bellowing:
"SPACE VI-KING—GO HOME! SPACE VI-KING—GO HOME!"
The police motionless, at rest; the closer. When they were fifty yards away, the of People's Watchmen ran forward, then spread out until they a line six across the entire front; other blocks, from the rear, pushed the ordinary and took their place. Hating them more every second, Trask of a and maneuver. How long, he wondered, had they been in that of tactics? Without stopping, they their on the police, who had now their stance.
"SPACE VI-KING—GO HOME! SPACE VI-KING—GO HOME!"
"Fire!" he himself yelling. "Don't let them any closer, fire now!"
They had nothing to fire with; they had only truncheons, no than the swagger-sticks of the People's Watch[Pg 129]men. They disappeared, after a of blows, and the Makann storm-troopers their advance.
And that was that. The gates of the Palace were shut; the mob, a of Makann People's Watchmen, up to them and stopped. The loud-speakers on, their four-word chant.
"Those police were murdered," he said. "They were by the man who ordered them out there unarmed."
"That would be Count Naydnayr, the Minister of Security," somebody said.
"Then he's the one you want to for it."
"What else would you have done?" Crown Prince Edvard challenged.
"Put up about fifty cars. Drawn a deadline, and opened machine-gun fire as soon as the it, and on till the and ran. Then sent out more cars, and a People's Watchmen uniform, all over town. Inside forty-eight hours, there'd be no People's Welfare party, and no Zaspar Makann either."
The Crown Prince's stiffened. "That may be the way you do in the Sword-Worlds, Prince Trask. It's not the way we do here on Marduk. Our government not to be of the blood of its people."
He had it on the of his to that if they didn't, the people would end by theirs. Instead, he said softly:
"I'm sorry, Prince Edvard. You had a here on Marduk. You have almost anything of it. But it's too late now. You've the gates; the are in."[Pg 130]
[Pg 131][Pg 132]
XXIII
The into the of hyperspace; five hundred hours to Tanith. Guatt Kirbey was his control-panel, happy to return to his music. And Vann Larch would go to his and brushes, and Alvyn Karffard to the model of it was he had left when the Nemesis had at the end of the jump from Audhumla.
Trask to the of the ship's library and for History, Old Terran. There was of that, thanks to Otto Harkaman. Then he for Hitler, Adolf. Harkaman was right; anything that in a had already happened, in one or another, and at some time. Hitler help him Zaspar Makann.
By the time the ship came out, with the yellow sun of Tanith in the middle of the screen, he a great about Hitler, occasionally to as Schicklgruber, and he understood, with sorrow, how the lights of on Marduk were going out.
Beside the Lamia, of her Dillinghams and with and instruments, the Space Scourge and the Queen Flavia were on off-planet watch. There were a dozen other ships on just above atmosphere; a Gilgamesher, one of the Gram-Tanith freighters, a of free-lance Space Vikings, and a new and ship. When he asked the who she was, he was told that she was the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu. That was, by almost a year, than he had of them. Otto Harkaman was out in the Corisande, and visiting the trade-planets.
He his cousin, Nikkolay Trask, at Rivington; when he about Traskon, Nikkolay cursed.
"I don't know anything about Traskon; I haven't anything to do with Traskon, any more. Traskon is now the personal property of our well loved—very well loved—Queen Evita. The Trasks don't own land on Gram now for a family cemetery. You see what you did?" he added bitterly.
"You needn't it in, Nikkolay. If I'd on Gram, I'd have helped put Angus on the throne, and it would have been about the same in the end."[Pg 133]
"It be a different," Nikkolay said. "You your ships and men to Gram and put on the throne."
"No; I'll go to Gram. Tanith's my planet, now. But I will my to Angus. I can on Morglay or Joyeuse or Flamberge just as easily."
"You won't have to; you can with Newhaven and Bigglersport. Count Lionel and Duke Joris are Angus; they've to him men, they've out his tax collectors, those they haven't hanged, and they're ships of their own. Angus is ships, too. I don't know he's going to use them to Bigglersport and Newhaven, or attack you, but there's going to be a another year's out."
The Goodhope and the Speedwell, he found, had gone to Gram. They were by men who had come into at the of King Angus recently. The Black Star and the Queen Flavia—whose captain had an order from Gram to re-christen her Queen Evita—had remained. They were his ships, not King Angus'. The captain of the from Wardshaven now on to take a to Newhaven; he had been by King Angus, and would take orders from no one else.
"All right," Trask told him. "This is your last here. You that ship under Angus of Wardshaven's and we'll fire on her."
Then he had the he had in his last to Angus off. At first, he had to himself King of Tanith. Lord Valpry, Baron Rathmore and his all against it.
"Just call Prince of Tanith," Valpry said. "The title won't make any in your authority here, and if you do to the of Gram, nobody can say you're a king trying to the planet."
He had no of doing anything of the kind, but Valpry was in earnest.
So he sat on his throne, as Prince of Tanith, and his to "Angus, Duke of Wardshaven, self-styled King of Gram." They sent it on the otherwise empty freighter. Another copy to the Count of Newhaven, along with a in the Sun Goddess, the non-Space-Viking ship into Gram from the Old Federation.
Seven hundred and fifty hours after the return of the Nemesis, the Corisande II from her last microjump, and Harkaman of the Battle of Audhumla and the of the Yo-Yo and the Enterprise. At first, he reported a successful voyage, from which he was rich booty. Oddly booty, it was remarked, when he it.
"Why, yes," he replied. "Secondhand booty. I Dagon for it."
Dagon was a Space Viking base[Pg 134] planet, by a named Fedrig Barragon. A number of ships from it, a by Barragon's half-breed sons.
"Barragon's ships were one of our planets," Harkaman said. "Ganpat. They a of cities, one, killed a of the locals. I out about it from Captain Ravallo of the Black Star, on Indra; he'd just been from Ganpat. Beowulf wasn't too out of the way, so we put in there, and the Grendelsbane just to space out." The Grendelsbane was the second of Beowulf's ships, sister to the Viking's Gift. "So she joined us, and the three of us to Dagon. We up one of Barragon's ships, and put the other one out of commission, and then we his base. There was a Gilgamesher there; we didn't them. They'll tell what we did, and why."
"That should Prince Viktor of Xochitl something to ponder," Trask said. "Where are the other ships, now?"
"The Grendelsbane to Beowulf; she'll stop at Amaterasu to do a little on the way. The Black Star to Xochitl. Just a visit, to say hello to Prince Viktor for you. Ravallo has a of we the Dagon Operation. Then she's going to Jagannath to visit Nikky Gratham."
Harkaman his and with to King Angus.
"We don't need to do with the Sword-Worlds at all. We have our own industries, we can produce what we need, and we can with Beowulf and Amaterasu, and with Xochitl and Jagannath and Hoth, if we can make any of agreement with them; to let else's trade-planets alone. It's too you couldn't some of an agreement with Marduk." Harkaman that for a seconds, and then shrugged. "Our grandchildren, if any, will be Marduk."
"You think it'll be like that?"
"Don't you? You were there; you saw what's happening. The are rising; they have a leader, and they're uniting. Every rests on a base. The people who don't civilization, and wouldn't like it if they did. The hitchhikers. The people who create nothing, and who don't what others have for them, and who think is something that just and that all they need to do is what they can of it—luxuries, a high standard, and easy work for high pay. Responsibilities? Phooey! What do they have a government for?"
Trask nodded. "And now, the think they know more about the car than the people who designed it, so they're going to the controls. Zaspar Makann says they can, and he's the Leader." He a drink from a that had been on Pushan; there was a where a had[Pg 135] been in of a four centuries ago, and the had into a dozen dictatorships, and now they were to the peasant-village and handcraft-industry level. "I don't it, though. I was reading about Hitler, on the way home. I wouldn't be if Zaspar Makann had been reading about Hitler, too. He's using all Hitler's tricks. But Hitler came to power in a country which had been by a defeat. Marduk hasn't a in almost two generations, and that one was a farce."
"It wasn't the that put Hitler into power. It was the that the class of his nation, the people who running, were discredited. The masses, the barbarians, didn't have to take their for them. What they have on Marduk is a class that has been itself. A class that's of its and its duties. A class that has to that the are just as good as they are, which they are not. And a class that won't use to maintain its position. And they have a democracy, and they are the of themselves safeguards."
"We don't have any of this in the Sword-Worlds, if that's the word for it," he said. "And our class aren't of their power, and our people aren't hitchhikers, and as long as they they don't try to things. And we're not doing so well."
The Morglay of a of centuries ago, still and smoking. The Oskarsan-Elmersan War on Durendal, into which Flamberge and now Joyeuse had intruded. And the on Gram, fast mass. Harkaman agreement.
"You know why? Our are the among us. There isn't one of them—Napolyon of Flamberge, Rodolf of Excalibur, or Angus of about of Gram—who is to or anything else himself, and that's the mark of the barbarian."
"What are you to, Otto?"
"You. You are my chieftain. That's another mark of the barbarian."
Before he had left Marduk, Admiral Shefter had ordered a ship to Gimli to check on the Honest Horris; a men and a would be left to any ship from Tanith. He sent Boake Valkanhayn off in the Space Scourge.
Lionel of Newhaven's Blue Comet came in from Gram with a of merchandise. Her captain wanted and gadolinium; Count Lionel was more ships. There was a that Omfray of Glaspyth was to the of Gram, in the right of his great-grandmother's sister, who had been married to the great-grandfather of Duke Angus. It was a and claim, but the was that it would be [Pg 137][Pg 136]supported by King Konrad of Haulteclere.
Immediately, Baron Rathmore, Lord Valpry, Lothar Ffayle and the other Gram people that he should go with a and the for himself. Harkaman, Valkanhayn, Karffard and the other Space Vikings were as against it. Harkaman had the of the other Corisande on Durendal to remember, and the others wanted no part in Sword-World squabbles, and there was that he should start calling himself King of Tanith.
He to do either, which left parties dissatisfied. So politics had come to Tanith. Maybe that was another of progress.
And there was the Treaty of Khepera, the Princely State of Tanith, the Commonwealth of Beowulf, and the Planetary League of Amaterasu. The Kheperans to allow on their planet, to workers, and to send students to on all three planets. Tanith, Beowulf and Amaterasu themselves to joint defense of Khepera, to free among themselves, and to one another assistance.
That was a of progress, and no about it.
The Space Scourge returned from Gimli, and Valkanhayn reported that nobody on the had or of the Honest Horris. They had a Mardukan Navy ship's there, by officers, some of them Navy Intelligence. According to them, the into the of that ship had come to an impasse. The owners claimed, and had papers to prove it, that they had her to a private trader, and he claimed, and had papers to prove it, that he was a citizen of the Planetary Republic of Aton, and as soon as they him, he was by the Atonian ambassador, who a with the Mardukan Foreign Ministry. Immediately, the People's Welfare Party had into the and the as an of a national of a power at the of of the Gilgamesh Interstellar Conspiracy.
"So that's it," Valkanhayn finished. "It they're having an election and they're to who might have a vote. So the Navy had to the investigation. Everybody on Marduk's of this Makann. You think there might be some tie-up him and Dunnan?"
"The idea's to me. Have there been any more on Marduk trade-planets since the Battle of Audhumla?"
"A couple. The Bolide was on Audhumla a while ago. There were a of Mardukan ships there, and they had the Victrix up to do some fighting. They ran the Bolide out."[Pg 138]
A study of the time the of the Enterprise and Yo-Yo and the of the Bolide give them a around Audhumla. It did; seven hundred light-years, which also Tanith.
So he sent Harkaman in the Corisande and Ravallo in the Black Star to visit the Marduk with, looking for Dunnan ships and and with the Royal Mardukan Navy. Almost at once, he it; the next Gilgamesher into on Tanith a that Prince Viktor was a on Xochitl. He sent off to Amaterasu and Beowulf and Khepera.
A ship came in from Bigglersport, a freighter. There was in a dozen places on Gram, now—resistance to on the part of King Angus to taxes, and by on from and to Garvan Spasso, who had now been promoted from Baron to Count. And Rovard Grauffis was dead; poisoned, said, either by Spasso or Queen Evita or both. Even with the threat from Xochitl, some of the Wardshaven talking about sending ships to Gram.
Less than a thousand hours after he had left, Ravallo was in the Black Star.
"I to Gimli, and I wasn't there fifty hours a Mardukan Navy ship came in. They were to see me; it saved them sending off a for Tanith. They had news for you, and a of passengers."
"Passengers?"
"Yes. You'll see who they are when they come down. And don't let with side-whiskers and buttoned-up see them," Ravallo said. "What those people know all over the place long."
The visitors were Lucile, Princess Bentrik, and her son, the Count of Ravary. They with Trask; only Captain Ravallo was also present.
"I didn't want to my husband, and I didn't want to come here and myself and Steven on you, Prince Trask," she began, "but he insisted. We the whole to Gimli in the captain's quarters; only a of the officers we were aboard."
"Makann the election. Is that it?" he asked. "And Prince Bentrik doesn't want to you and Steven being used as hostages?"
"That's it," she said. "He didn't win the election, but he might as well have. Nobody has a majority of seats in the Chamber of Representatives but he's a with of the parties, and I'm to say that a number of Crown Loyalist members—Crowd of Disloyalists, I call them—are with him, now. They've some phrase about the 'wave of the future,' that means."
"If you can't them, join them," Trask said.[Pg 139]
"If you can't them, their boots," the Count of Ravary put in.
"My son is a bitter," Princess Bentrik said. "I must to a of bitterness, too."
"Well, that's the Representatives," Trask said. "What about the of the government?"
"With the splinter-party and Disloyalist support, they got a majority of seats in the Delegates. Most of them would have denied, a month before, having any with Makann, but a hundred out of a hundred and twenty are his supporters. Makann, of course, is Chancellor."
"And who is Prime Minister?" he asked. "Andray Dunnan?"
She looked for an then said, "Oh. No. The Prime Minister is Crown Prince Edvard. No; Baron Cragdale. That isn't a title, so by some of a I can't to he is not Prime Minister as a of the Royal Family."
"If you can't ..." the boy started.
"Steven! I you to say that about ... Baron Cragdale. He believes, very sincerely, that the election was an of the will of the people, and that it is his to to it."
He Otto Harkaman were there. He name, without stopping for breath, a hundred great nations that into their that they should of rule, and couldn't themselves to the blood of their people. Edvard would have been a and man, as a little country baron. Where he was, he was a disaster.
He asked if the People's Watchman had their out from under the and started them in public yet.
"Oh, yes. You were right; they were armed, all the time. Not just small arms; vehicles and weapons. As soon as the new government was formed, they were as a part of the Planetary Armed Forces. They have taken over every police station on the planet."
"And the King?"
"Oh, he on, and and says, 'I just here.' What else can he do? We've been and away the powers of the Throne for the last three centuries."
"What is Prince Bentrik doing, and why did he think there was that you two would be used as hostages?"
"He's going to fight," she said. "Don't ask me how, or what with. Maybe as a in the mountains, I don't know. But if he can't them, he won't join them. I wanted to with him and help him; he told me I help him best by myself and Steven where he wouldn't worry about us."
"I wanted to stay," the boy said. "I have with him. But he said that I must take of Mother. And if he were killed, I must be able to him."[Pg 140]
"You talk like a Sword-Worlder; I told you that once before." He hesitated, then again to Princess Bentrik. "How is little Princess Myrna?" he asked, and then, trying to be casual, added, "and Lady Valerie?"
She so and present to him, and space-black hair, more than Elaine had been to him for years.
"They're at Cragdale; they'll be safe there. I hope."
XXIV
Attempting to the presence on Tanith of Prince Bentrik's wife and son was pushing necessity. Admitted that the news would to Marduk Gilgamesh, it was over seven hundred light-years to the and almost a thousand from there to the former. Better that Princess Lucile should Rivington society, such as it was, and escape, for a moment now and then, from about her husband. At ten—no, almost twelve; it had been a year and a since Trask had left Marduk—the boy Count of Ravary was more easily diverted. At last, he was among Space Vikings, on a Space Viking planet, and he was trying to be and see at once. No he would be himself a Space Viking, returning to Marduk with a to his father and the King from Zaspar Makann.
Trask was satisfied with that; as a he left much to be desired. He had his worries, too, and all of them the same name: Prince Viktor of Xochitl. He over with Manfred Ravallo the captain of the Black Star tell him. He had talked once with Viktor; the lord of Xochitl had been and noncommittal. His had been hostile. There had been five ships on or at Viktor's the Gilgameshers and traders, two of them Viktor's own, and a big had come in from Haulteclere as the Black Star was leaving. There was activity at the and around the spaceport, as though in for something on a large scale.
Xochitl was a thousand light-years from Tanith. He rejected the idea of a attack; his ships might Xochitl to it undefended, and then return to Tanith devastated. Things like that had in space-war. The only thing to do was tight, Tanith when Viktor attacked, and then if he had any ships left by that time. Prince Viktor was in the same way.
He had no time to think about Andray Dunnan, except, now and then, to wish that Otto Harkaman would stop about him and the Corisande home. He needed that ship on Tanith, and the and of her commander.
More news—Gilgamesh sources—came in from Xochitl. There were only two ships, merchant[Pg 141]men, on the planet. Prince Viktor had out with the an two thousand hours the him. That was twice as long as it would take the Xochitl to Tanith. He hadn't gone to Beowulf; that was only sixty-five hours from Tanith and they would have about it long ago. Or Amaterasu, or Khepera. How many ships he had was a question; not than five, and possibly more. He have into the Tanith and his ships on one of the planets. He sent Valkanhayn and Ravallo their ships from one to another to check. They returned to report in the negative. At least, Viktor of Xochitl wasn't their own system, waiting for them to Tanith open to attack.
But he was somewhere, and up to nothing good, and there was no possible way of when his ships would be on Tanith. The only thing to do was wait for him. When he did, Trask was that he would from into trouble. He had the Nemesis, the Space Scourge, the Black Star and Queen Flavia, the Lamia, and Space Viking ships, among them the Damnthing of his friend Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan, who had to and help in the defense. This, of course, was not pure altruism. If Viktor and had his to Em-See-Square, Xochitl would open and unprotected, and there was on Xochitl to everybody's ships. Everybody's ships who had ships when the Battle of Tanith was over, of course.
He was to Princess Bentrik:
"I'm very sorry you jumped out of Zaspar Makann's pan into Prince Viktor's fire," he began.
She laughed at that. "I'll take my on the fire. I to see a of good around. If there is a you will see that Steven's in a safe place, won't you?"
"In a space attack, there are no safe places. I'll keep him with me."
The Count of Ravary wanted to know which ship he would on when the attack came.
"Well, you won't be on any ship, Count. You'll be on my staff."
Two days later, the Corisande came out of hyperspace. Harkaman was by screen. Trask took a landing and out to meet the ship.
"Marduk doesn't like us, any more," Harkaman told him. "They have ships on all their trade-planets, and they all have orders to fire on any, repeat any, Space Vikings, the ships of the self-styled Prince of Tanith. I got this from Captain Garravay of the Vindex. After we were through talking, we a little ship-to-ship action for him to make of. I don't think see anything with it."[Pg 142]
"This order came from Makann?"
"From the Admiral commanding. He isn't your friend Shefter; Shefter retired on account of ill-health unquote. He is now in a hospital unquote."
"Where's Prince Bentrik?"
"Nobody knows. Charges of high were against him, and he just vanished. Gone underground, or and executed; take your choice."
He just what he'd tell Princess Lucile and Count Steven.
"They have ships on all the they with. Fourteen of them. That isn't to catch Dunnan. That's to the Navy away from Marduk. They don't trust the Navy. Is Prince Edvard still Prime Minister?"
"Yes, as of Garravay's last information. It Makann is in a legal manner, of making his People's Watchmen part of the forces. Protesting his to the King every time he opens his mouth."
"When will the fire be, I wonder?"
"Huh? Oh yes, you were reading up on Hitler. That I don't know. Probably by now."
He just told Princess Lucile that her husband had gone into hiding; he couldn't be sure she was or more worried. The boy was sure that he was doing something and heroic.
Some of the of waiting, after another thousand hours, and out. The Viking's Gift of Beowulf came in with a cargo, and on after it to join the watch. A Gilgamesher came in from Amaterasu and reported there; as soon as her captain had his cargo, with a minimum of haggling, he out again. His that the attack would come in a of hours.
It didn't.
Three thousand hours had passed since the had Tanith, that five thousand since Viktor's ships were to have left Xochitl. There were those, Boake Valkanhayn among them, who doubted, now, if he had.
"The whole thing's just a big Gilgamesher lie," he was declaring. "Somebody—Nikky Gratham, or the Everrards, or maybe Viktor himself—paid them to tell us that, to pin our ships here. Or they it up themselves, so they make on our trade-planets."
"Let's go to the Ghetto and clean out the whole gang," somebody else took up. "Anything one of them's in, they're all in together."
"Nifflheim with that; let's all space out for Xochitl," Manfred Ravallo proposed. "We have ships to them on Tanith, we have to them on their own planet."
He managed to talk them out of of action—what was he, anyhow; Prince of Tanith, or the non-ruling King of Marduk, or just the of a discipline[Pg 143]less of barbarians? One of the out in disgust. The next day, two others came in, with from a on Braggi, and to around for a while and see what happened.
And four days after that, a five-hundred-foot yacht, the and of Bigglersport, came in. As soon as she was out of the last microjump, she calling by screen.
Trask didn't know the man who was screening, but Hugh Rathmore did; Duke Joris' secretary.
"Prince Trask; I must speak to you as soon as possible," he began, almost stuttering. Whatever the of his mission, one would have that a three-thousand-hour would have taken some of the from it. "It is of the importance."
"You are speaking to me. This screen is secure. And if it's of the importance, the sooner you tell me about it...."
"Prince Trask, you must come to Gram, with every man and every ship you can command. Satan only what's there now, but three thousand hours ago, when the Duke sent me off, Omfray of Glaspyth was landing on Wardshaven. He has a of eight ships, to him by his wife's kinsman, the King of Haulteclere. They are by King Konrad's Space Viking cousin, the Prince of Xochitl."
Then a look of came into the of the man in the screen, and Trask why, until he that he had in his chair and was laughing uproariously. Before he apologize, the man in the screen had his voice.
"I know, Prince Trask; you have no to think of King Angus—the King Angus, or maybe the late King Angus, I he is now—but a like Omfray of Glaspyth...."
It took a little time to to the of the Duke of Bigglersport the of the situation.
There were others at Rivington to it was not evident. The professional Space Vikings, men like Valkanhayn and Ravallo and Alvyn Karffard, were disgusted. Here they'd been sitting, on alert, all these months, and, if they'd only known, they have gone to Xochitl and it clean long ago. The Gram party were outraged. Angus of Wardshaven had been enough, with the of the Mad Baron of Blackcliffe, and Queen Evita and her family, but he was to a villain—some called him a in shape—like Omfray of Glaspyth.
Both parties, of course, were positive as to where their Prince's lay. The that on Tanith that be put into should be at once to Xochitl, to from it a absolutely[Pg 144] natural of the planet. The clamored, just as and passionately, that on Tanith who a should be at once on a for the of Gram.
"You don't want to do either, do you?" Harkaman asked him, when they were alone after the second day of acrimony.
"Nifflheim, no! This that wants an attack on Xochitl; you know what would if we did that?" Harkaman was silent, waiting for him to continue. "Inside a year, four or five of these small planet-holders like Gratham and the Everrards would against us and make a slag-pile out of Tanith."
Harkaman agreement. [Pg 145]"Since we him the time, Viktor's his ships away from our planets. If we Xochitl now, without provocation, nobody'd know what to from us. People like Nikky Gratham and Tobbin of Nergal and the Everrards of Hoth around dangers, and when they they trigger-happy." He slowly on his pipe and then said: "Then you'll be going to Gram."
"That doesn't follow; just Valkanhayn and Ravallo and that are doesn't make Valpry and Rathmore and Ffayle right. You what I was telling those very people at Karvall House, the day I met you. And you've what's been on Gram since we came out here. Otto, the Sword-Worlds are finished; they're now. Civilization is alive and here on Tanith. I want to here and help it grow."
"Look, Lucas," Harkaman said. "You're Prince of Tanith, and I'm only the Admiral. But I'm telling you; you'll have to do something, or this whole of yours will apart. As it stands, you can attack Xochitl and the Back-To-Gram party would go along, or you can decide on this against Omfray of Glaspyth and the Raid-Xochitl-Now party would go along. But if you let this go on much longer, you won't have any over either party."
"And then I will be finished. And in a years, Tanith will be finished." He rose and across the room and back. "Well, I won't Xochitl; I told you why, and you agreed. And I won't the men and ships and of Tanith in any Sword-World squabble. Great Satan, Otto; you were in the Durendal War. This is the same thing, and it'll go on for another a century."
"Then what will you do?"
"I came out here after Andray Dunnan, didn't I?" he asked.
"I'm Ravallo and Valpry, or Valkanhayn and Morland, won't be as in Dunnan as you are."
"Then I will them in him. Remember, I was reading up on Hitler, in from Marduk? I will tell them all a big lie. Such a big that nobody will to it."
