Space Viking | Page 7

three hundred men in this
company of his. Why you people ever let him recruit them Satan only
knows," he parenthesized. "I have eight hundred; five hundred
ground-fighters. I'd like to see how they shape up in combat, before we
space out. I can have them ready for action in two hours, and it'd be all
over before midnight."
"No, Captain Harkaman; his Grace would never permit it," Grauffis
vetoed. "You have no idea of the political harm that would do among
the independent lords on whom we're counting for support. You weren't
here on Gram when Duke Ridgerd of Didreksburg had his sister
Sancia's second husband poisoned--"

IV
They halted under the colonnade; beyond, the lower main terrace was
crowded, and a medley of old love songs was wafting from the sound
outlets, for the sixth or eighth time around. He looked at his watch; it
was ninety seconds later than the last time he had done so. Give it
fifteen more minutes to get started, and another fifteen to get away after
the marriage toasts and the felicitations. And no marriage, however
pompous, lasted more than half an hour. An hour, then, till he and
Elaine would be in the aircar, bulleting toward Traskon.
The love songs stopped abruptly; after a momentary silence, a trumpet,
considerably amplified, blared; the "Ducal Salute." The crowd stopped
shifting, the buzz of voices ceased. At the head of the landing-stage
escalators there was a glow of color and the ducal party began moving
down. A platoon of guards in red and yellow, with gilded helmets and
tasseled halberds. An esquire bearing the Sword of State. Duke Angus,

with his council, Otto Harkaman among them; the Duchess Flavia and
her companion-ladies. The household gentlemen, and their ladies. More
guardsmen. There was a great burst of cheering; the news-service
aircars got into position above the procession. Cousin Nikkolay and a
few others stepped out from between the pillars into the sunlight; there
was a similar movement at the other side of the terrace. The ducal party
reached the end of the central walkway, halted and deployed.
"All right; let's shove off," Cousin Nikkolay said, stepping forward.
Ten minutes since they had come outside; another five to get into
position. Fifty minutes, now, till he and Elaine--Lady Elaine Trask of
Traskon, for real and for always--would be going home.
"Sure the car's ready?" he asked, for the hundredth time.
His cousin assured him that it was. Figures in Karvall black and
flame-yellow appeared across the terrace. The music began again, this
time the stately "Nobles' Wedding March," arrogant and at the same
time tender. Sesar Karvall's gentleman-secretary, and the Karvall
lawyer; executives of the steel mills, the Karvall guard-captain. Sesar
himself, with Elaine on his arm; she was wearing a shawl of black and
yellow. He looked around in sudden fright; "For the love of Satan,
where's our shawl?" he demanded, and then relaxed when one of his
gentlemen exhibited it, green and tawny in Traskon colors. The
bridesmaids, led by Lady Lavina Karvall. Finally they halted, ten yards
apart, in front of the Duke.
* * * * *
"Who approaches us?" Duke Angus asked of his guard-captain.
He had a thin, pointed face, almost femininely sensitive, and a small
pointed beard. He was bareheaded except for the narrow golden circlet
which he spent most of his waking time scheming to convert into a
royal crown. The guard-captain repeated the question.
"I am Sir Nikkolay Trask; I bring my cousin and liege-lord, Lucas,

Lord Trask, Baron of Traskon. He comes to receive the
Lady-Demoiselle Elaine, daughter of Lord Sesar Karvall, Baron of
Karvall mills, and the sanction of your Grace to the marriage between
them."
Sir Maxamon Zhorgay, Sesar Karvall's henchman, named himself and
his lord; they brought the Lady-Demoiselle Elaine to be wed to Lord
Trask of Traskon. The Duke, satisfied that these were persons whom he
could address directly, asked if the terms of the marriage-agreement
had been reached; both parties affirmed this. Sir Maxamon passed a
scroll to the Duke; Duke Angus began to read the stiff and precise legal
phraseology.
Marriages between noble houses were not matters to be left open to
dispute; a great deal of spilled blood and burned powder had resulted
from ambiguity on some point of succession or inheritance or dower
rights. Lucas bore it patiently; he didn't want his great-grandchildren
and Elaine's shooting it out over a matter of a misplaced comma.
"And these persons here before us do enter into this marriage freely?"
the Duke asked, when the reading had ended. He stepped forward as he
spoke, and his esquire gave him the two-hand Sword of State, heavy
enough to behead a bisonoid. Trask stepped forward; Sesar Karvall
brought Elaine up. The lawyers and henchmen