Space Viking | Page 2

him. I might have made him understand."
Sesar Karvall was shocked. "Child, you couldn't have subjected
yourself to that! The man is insane!" Then he saw her bare shoulders,
and was even more shocked. "Elaine, your shawl!"
Her hands went up and couldn't find it; she looked about in confused
embarrassment. Amused, Lucas picked it from the shrub onto which
she had tossed it and draped it over her shoulders, his hands lingering
briefly. Then he gestured to the older man to precede them, and they
entered the arbored walk. At the other end, in an open circle, a fountain
played; white marble girls and boys bathing in the jade-green basin.
Another piece of loot from one of the Old Federation planets; that was
something he'd tried to avoid in furnishing Traskon New House.
There'd be a lot of that coming to Gram, after Otto Harkaman took the
Enterprise to space.
"I'll have to come back, some time, and visit them," Elaine whispered
to him. "They'll miss me."
"You'll find a lot of new friends at your new home," he whispered back.
"You wait till tomorrow."
"I'm going to put a word in the Duke's ear about that fellow," Sesar
Karvall, still thinking of Dunnan, was saying. "If he speaks to him,
maybe it'll do some good."
"I doubt it. I don't think Duke Angus has any influence over him at all."
Dunnan's mother had been the Duke's younger sister; from his father he
had inherited what had originally been a prosperous barony. Now it
was mortgaged to the top of the manor-house aerial-mast. The Duke
had once assumed Dunnan's debts, and refused to do so again. Dunnan
had gone to space a few times, as a junior officer on trade-and-raid
voyages into the Old Federation. He was supposed to be a fair
astrogator. He had expected his uncle to give him command of the
Enterprise, which had been ridiculous. Disappointed in that, he had
recruited a mercenary company and was seeking military employment:

It was suspected that he was in correspondence with his uncle's worst
enemy, Duke Omfray of Glaspyth.
And he was obsessively in love with Elaine Karvall, a passion which
seemed to nourish itself on its own hopelessness. Maybe it would be a
good idea to take that space trip right away. There ought to be a ship
leaving Bigglersport for one of the other Sword-Worlds, before long.
* * * * *
They paused at the head of the escalators; the garden below was
thronged with guests, the bright shawls of the ladies and the coats of
the men making shifting color-patterns among the flower-beds and on
the lawns and under the trees. Serving-robots, flame-yellow and black
in the Karvall colors, floated about playing soft music and offering
refreshments. There was a continuous spiral of changing costume-color
around the circular robo-table. Voices babbled happily like a mountain
river.
As they stood looking down, another aircar circled low; green and gold,
lettered PANPLANET NEWS SERVICE. Sesar Karvall swore in
irritation.
"Didn't there use to be something they called privacy?" he asked.
"It's a big story, Sesar."
It was; more than the marriage of two people who happened to be in
love with each other. It was the marriage of the farming and ranching
barony of Traskon and the Karvall steel mills. More, it was public
announcement that the wealth and fighting-men of both baronies were
now aligned behind Duke Angus of Wardshaven. So it was a general
holiday. Every industry had closed down at noon today, and would be
closed until morning-after-next, and there would be dancing in every
park and feasting in every tavern. To Sword-Worlders, any excuse for a
holiday was better than none.
"They're our people, Sesar; they have a right to have a good time with

us. I know everybody at Traskon is watching this by screen."
He raised his hand and waved to the news car, and when it swung its
pickup around, he waved again. Then they went down the long
escalator.
Lady Lavina Karvall was the center of a cluster of matrons and
dowagers, around which tomorrow's bridesmaids fluttered like
many-colored butterflies. She took possession of her daughter and
dragged her into the feminine circle. He saw Rovard Grauffis, small
and saturnine, Duke Angus' henchman, and Burt Sandrasan, Lady
Lavina's brother. They spoke, and then an upper-servant, his tabard
blazoned with the yellow flame and black hammer of Karvall mills,
approached his master with some tale of domestic crisis, and the two
went away together.
"You haven't met Captain Harkaman, Lucas," Rovard Grauffis said. "I
wish you'd come over and say hello and have a drink with him. I know
your attitude, but he's a good sort. Personally, I wish we had a few like
him around here."
That was his main