Space Viking Page 3

  III

  The gaily-dressed crowd formed a semicircle facing the landing-stageescalators; everybody was staring in embarrassed curiosity, thosebehind craning over the shoulders of those in front. The ladies haddrawn up their shawls in frigid formality; many had even coveredtheir heads. There were four news-service cars hovering above;whatever was going on was getting a planetwide screen showing. TheKarvall guardsmen were trying to get through; their sergeant wassaying, over and over, "Please, ladies and gentlemen; your pardon,noble sir," and getting nowhere.

  Otto Harkaman swore disgustedly and shoved the sergeant aside."Make way, here!" he bellowed. "Let these guards pass." With that,he almost hurled a gaily-dressed gentleman aside on either hand;they both turned to glare angrily, then got hastily out of his way.Meditating briefly on the uses of bad manners in an emergency, Traskfollowed, with the others; the big Space Viking plowed to the front,where Sesar Karvall and Rovard Grauffis and several others were standing.

  Facing them, four men in black cloaks stood with their backs tothe escalators. Two were commonfolk retainers; hired gunmen, to beprecise. They were at pains to keep their hands plainly in sight,and seemed to be wishing themselves elsewhere. The man in front worea diamond sunburst jewel on his beret, and his cloak was lined withpale blue silk. His thin, pointed face was deeply lined about themouth and penciled with a thin black mustache. His eyes showedwhite all around the irises, and now and then his mouth would twitchin an involuntary grimace. Andray Dunnan; Trask wondered briefly howsoon he would have to look at him from twenty-five meters over thesights of a pistol. The face of the slightly taller man who stood athis shoulder was paper-white, expressionless, with a black beard.His name was Nevil Ormm, nobody was quite sure whence he had come,and he was Dunnan's henchman and constant companion.

  "You lie!" Dunnan was shouting. "You lie damnably, in your stinkingteeth, all of you! You've intercepted every message she's tried tosend me."

  "My daughter has sent you no messages, Lord Dunnan," Sesar Karvallsaid, with forced patience. "None but the one I just gave you, thatshe wants nothing whatever to do with you."

  "You think I believe that? You're holding her a prisoner; Satanonly knows how you've been torturing her to force her into thisabominable marriage--"

  There was a stir among the bystanders; that was more thanwell-mannered restraint could stand. Out of the murmur ofincredulous voices, one woman's was quite audible:

  "Well, really! He actually _is_ crazy!"

  Dunnan, like everybody else, heard it. "Crazy, am I?" he blazed."Because I can see through this hypocritical sham? Here's LucasTrask, he wants an interest in Karvall mills, and here's SesarKarvall, he wants access to iron deposits on Traskon land. Andmy loving uncle, he wants the help of both of them in stealingOmfray of Glaspyth's duchy. And here's this loan-shark of a Ffayle,trying to claw my lands away from me, and Rovard Grauffis, the fetchdogof my uncle who won't lift a finger to save his kinsman from ruin,and this foreigner Harkaman who's swindled me out of command ofthe _Enterprise_. You're all plotting against me--"

  "Sir Nevil," Grauffis said, "you can see that Lord Dunnan's nothimself. If you're a good friend to him, you'll get him out of herebefore Duke Angus arrives."

  Ormm leaned forward and spoke urgently in Dunnan's ear. Dunnanpushed him angrily away.

  "Great Satan, are you against me, too?" he demanded.

  Ormm caught his arm. "You fool, do you want to ruin everything,now--" He lowered his voice; the rest was inaudible.

  "No, curse you, I won't go till I've spoken to her, face to face--"

  * * * * *

  There was another stir among the spectators; the crowd was parting,and Elaine was coming through, followed by her mother and LadySandrasan and five or six other matrons. They all had their shawlsover their heads, right ends over left shoulders; they all stoppedexcept Elaine, who took a few steps forward and confronted AndrayDunnan. He had never seen her look more beautiful, but it was theicy beauty of a honed dagger.

  "Lord Dunnan, what do you wish to say to me?" she asked. "Say itquickly and then go; you are not welcome here."

  "Elaine!" Dunnan cried, taking a step forward. "Why do you coveryour head; why do you speak to me as a stranger? I am Andray,who loves you. Why are you letting them force you into thiswicked marriage?"

  "No one is forcing me; I am marrying Lord Trask willingly andhappily, because I love him. Now, please, go and make no moretrouble at my wedding."

  "That's a lie! They're making you say that! You don't have to marryhim; they can't make you. Come with me now. They won't dare stopyou. I'll take you away from all these cruel, greedy people. Youlove me, you've always loved me. You've told me you loved me,again and again--"

  Yes, in his own private dream-world, a world of fantasy that had nowbecome Andray Dunnan's reality, in which an Elaine Karvall whom hisimagination had created existed only to love him. Confronted by thereal Elaine, he simply rejected the reality.

  "I never loved you, Lord Dunnan, and I never told you so. I neverhated you, either, but you are making it very hard for me not to.Now go, and never let me see you again."

  With that, she turned and started back through the crowd, whichparted in front of her. Her mother and her aunt and the other ladiesfollowed.

  "You lied to me!" Dunnan shrieked after her. "You lied all the time.You're as bad as the rest of them, all scheming and plotting againstme, betraying me. I know what it's about; you all want to cheat meof my rights, and keep my usurping uncle on the ducal throne. Andyou, you false-hearted harlot, you're the worst of them all!"

  Sir Nevil Ormm caught his shoulder and spun him around, propellinghim toward the escalators. Dunnan struggled, screaming inarticulatelylike a wounded wolf. Ormm was cursing furiously.

  "You two!" he shouted. "Help me, here. Get hold of him."

  Dunnan was still howling as they forced him onto the escalator, thebacks of the two retainers' cloaks, badged with the Dunnan crescent,light blue on black, hiding him. After a little, an aircar with theblue crescent blazonry lifted and sped away.

  "Lucas, he's crazy," Sesar Karvall was insisting. "Elaine hasn'tspoken fifty words to him since he came back from his last voyage--"

  He laughed and put a hand on Karvall's shoulder. "I know that,Sesar. You don't think, do you, that I need assurance of it?"

  "Crazy, I'll say he's crazy," Rovard Grauffis put in. "Did youhear what he said about his rights? Wait till his Grace hearsabout that."

  "Does he lay claim to the ducal throne, Sir Rovard?" Otto Harkamanasked, sharply and seriously.

  "Oh, he claims that his mother was born a year and a half beforeDuke Angus and the true date of her birth falsified to give Angusthe succession. Why, his present Grace was three years old when shewas born. I was old Duke Fergus' esquire; I carried Angus on myshoulder when Andray Dunnan's mother was presented to the lordsand barons the day after she was born."

  "Of course he's crazy," Alex Gorram agreed. "I don't know whythe Duke doesn't have him put under psychiatric treatment."

  "I'd put him under treatment," Harkaman said, drawing a fingeracross under his beard. "Crazy men who pretend to thrones are bombsthat ought to be deactivated, before they blow things up."

  "We couldn't do that," Grauffis said. "After all, he's Duke Angus'nephew--"

  "I could do it," Harkaman said. "He only has three hundred men inthis company of his. Why you people ever let him recruit them Satanonly knows," he parenthesized. "I have eight hundred; five hundredground-fighters. I'd like to see how they shape up in combat, beforewe space out. I can have them ready for action in two hours, andit'd be all over before midnight."

  "No, Captain Harkaman; his Grace would never permit it," Grauffisvetoed. "You have no idea of the political harm that would do amongthe independent lords on whom we're counting for support. Youweren't here on Gram when Duke Ridgerd of Didreksburg had his sisterSancia's second husband poisoned--"