he's doing, and buying combat
contragravity. Lucas, why don't you come back? You have no idea what
a reputation you have on Gram, now. Everybody would rally to you."

He shook his head, "I have a throne, here on Tanith. On Gram I want
nothing. I'm sorry for the way Angus turned out, I thought he'd make
a good King. But since he's made an intolerable King, the lords and
people of Gram will have to get rid of him for themselves. I have my
own tasks, here."

Rathmore shrugged. "I was afraid that would be it," he said. "Well,
I offered my sword; I won't take it back. I can help you in what
you're doing on Tanith."

* * * * *

The captain of the free Space Viking _Damnthing_ was named
Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan, which meant that he was some
Sword-Worlder's acknowledged bastard by a woman of one of the Old
Federation planets. His mother's people could have been Nergalers;
he had coarse black hair, a mahogany-brown skin, and red-brown,
almost maroon, eyes. He tasted the wine the robot poured for him
and expressed appreciation, then began unwrapping the parcel he
had brought in.

"Something I found while raiding on Tetragrammaton," he said.
"I thought you might like to have it. It was made on Gram."

It was an automatic pistol, with a belt and holster. The leather was
bisonoid-hide; the buckle of the belt was an oval enameled with a
crescent, pale blue on black. The pistol was a plain 10-mm military
model with grooved plastic grips; on the receiver it bore the stamp
of the House of Hoylbar, the firearms manufacturers of Glaspyth.
Evidently it was one of the arms Duke Omfray had provided for Andray
Dunnan's original mercenary company.

"Tetragrammaton?" He glanced over to the Big Board; there was no
previous report from that planet. "How long ago?"

"I'd say about three hundred hours. I came from there directly, less
than two hundred and fifty hours. Dunnan's ships had left the planet
three days before I got there."

That was practically sizzling hot. Well, something like that had to
happen, sooner or later. The Space Viking was asking him if he knew
what sort of a place Tetragrammaton was.

Neobarbarian, trying to recivilize in a crude way. Small population,
concentrated on one continent; farming and fisheries. A little heavy
industry, in a small way, at a couple of towns. They had some nuclear
power, introduced a century or so ago by traders from Marduk, one of
the really civilize