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piece of stage property no longer required for this scene but needed for the
next. Von Schlichten took out his geek-speaker, wiped and pouched it, and took
his cigarette case from his pocket.
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"Well, this is the limit!" Paula Quinton, who had come up during the filming
of the scene, exploded. "I thought you had to kill him yourself in order to
encourage your soldiers; I didn't think you wanted to make a movie of it to
show your friends. I'm through; you can find yourself a new adjutant!"
Von Schlichten tapped the cigarette on the gold-and-platinum case and stared
at her through his monocle.
"You can't resign," he told her. "Resignations of officers are not being
accepted until the end of hostilities. In any case, I shouldn't care to have
you go; you're the best adjutant, Hideyoshi
O'Leary not ex-cepted, I ever had. Sit down, colonel." He lit the cigarette.
"Your politico-
military education still needs a little filling in.
"At Grank, we have two ships. One is the Northern Lights, sister ship of the
Northern Star. The other is the cruiser Procyon, the only real warship on
Uller, with a main battery of four 200-mm guns. How King Yoorkerk was able to
get control of those ships I don't know, but there will be a board of inquiry
and maybe a couple of courts-martial, when things get stabilized to a point
where we can afford such luxuries. As it is, we need those ships desperately,
and as soon as he gets in, I'm sending Hideyoshi O'Leary to Grank with the
Northern Star and a load of Kragan Rifles, to pry them loose. The audio-visual
of which this is the last scene is going to be one of the crowbars he's going
to use."
"Oh! I get it!" Her eyes widened with pleasure at having finally caught on;
she accepted the cigarette and the light von Schlichten offered. "Good old
ner-venkrieg!"
"Yes. A little idea I adapted from my Nazi ancestors of four hundred and fifty
years ago.
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Hideyoshi's going to treat King Yoorkerk to a movie-show. Want to bet he won't
loosen up and release Procyon and Northern Lights and unblockade the Grank
Residency after he sees that shot of
Firkked's head leering at him off the point of that overgrown asagai? As I
said, that's only the last scene, too. I've been having scenes shot all
through this fight; some of them are really horrifying."
"But why did you have to fight Frrkked yourself ?" she asked. "You took an
awful chance, with two hand*-, to his four."
*
"Not so awful, remember what F told you about" the physical limitations of
Ullerans. But I had- to kill him myself, with a sword; according to local
custom , that makes me King of Skilk."
"Why, your Majesty!" She rose and curtsied mockingly. "But I thought you were
going to make Jonk-
vank King of Skilk."
He shook his head. "Just Viceroy," he corrected. "I'm handing the Spear of
State down to him, not up to him; he'll reign as my vassal, and, consequently,
as vassal of the Company, and before long, he won't be much more at Krink
either. That'll take a little longer-there'll have to be military missions,
and economic missions, and trade-agreements, and all the rest of it, first-but
he's on the way to becoming a puppet-prince."
Half an hour later, a large and excessively ornate air-launch, specially built
at the Konkrook shipyards for King Jonkvank, was sighted coming over the
mountain from the east. An escort of combat-cars was sent to meet it, and a
battalion of Kragans and the survivors of Firkked's court were drawn up on the
Palace roof.
"His Majesty, Jonkvank, King of Krink!" the former herald of King Firkked's
court, now herald to
King Carlos von Schlichten, shouted, banging on a brass shield with the flat
of his sword, as
Jonkvank descended from his launch, attended by a group of his nobles and his
Spear of State, with
Hideyoshi O'Leary and Francis X. Shapiro shepherding them. As the guests
advanced across the roof, the herald banged again on his shield.
"His Majesty, Carlos von Schlichten,"-which came out more or less as Karlok
vonk Zlikdenk- "King, by right of combat, of Skilk!"
Von Schlichten advanced to meet his fellow-monarch, his own Spear of State,
with Firkked's head still grinning from it, two paces behind him.
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Jonkvank stopped, his face contorted with saurian rage.
"What is this?" he demanded. "You told me that I could be King of Skilk; is
this how a Terran keeps his word?"
"A Terran's word is always good, Jonkvank," von Schlichten replied, omitting
the titles, as was proper in one sovereign addressing another. "My word was
that you should reign in Skilk, and my word stands. But these things must be
done decently, according to custom and law. I killed Firkked in single combat.
Had I not done so, the Spear of Skilk would have been left lying, for any of
the young of Firkked to pick up. Is that not the law?"
Jonkvank nodded grudgingly. "It is the law," he admitted.
"Good. Now, since I killed Firkked in lawful manner, his Spear is mine, and
what is mine I can give as I please. I now give you the Spear of Skilk, to
carry in my name, as I promised."
The Kragan who was carrying the ceremonial weapon tossed the head of Firkked
from the point;
another Kragan kicked it aside and advanced to wipe the spear-blade with a
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rag. Von Schlichten took the Spear and gave it to Jonkvank.
"This is not good!" one of the Skilkan nobles protested. He had a better right
than any of the others to protest; he had, a few hours before, ridden in at
the head of a company of his retainers to swear loyalty to the Company. "That
you should rule over us, yes. You killed Firkked in single combat, and you are
the soldier of the Company, which is mighty, as all here have seen. But that
this foreigner be given the Spear of Skilk, that is not good!"
Some of the others, emboldened by his example, were jabbering agreement.
"Listen, all of you!" von Schlichten shouted. "Here is no question of Krink
ruling over Skilk.
Does it matter who holds the Spear of Skilk, when he does so in my name? And
King Jonkvank will be no foreigner. He will come and live among you, and later
he will travel back and forth between
Krink and Skilk, and he will leave the Spear of Krink in Krink, and the Spear
of Skilk in Skilk, and in Skilk he will be a Skilkan."
That seemed to satisfy everybody except Jonkvank, and he had wit enough not to
make an issue of it. He even had the Spear of Krink carried back aboard his
launch, out of sight, and when he accompanied von Schlichten, an hour later,
to see Hideyoshi O'Leary off for Grank, he had the
Spear of Skilk carried behind him. When he was alone with von Schlichten, in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]