ed them. There was fighting going on in several places inside
the Palace, and the city was still in a turmoil. Somebody managed
to get in touch with the captains of the _Damnthing_, the _Harpy_
and the _Curse of Cagn_ and bring them to the Palace. Trask attempted
to reason with them, to no avail.

"Prince Trask, you're my friend, and you've always dealt fairly with
me," Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan said. "But you know just how far
any Space Viking captain can control his crew. These men didn't come
here to correct the political mistakes of Marduk. They came here for
what they could haul away. I could get myself killed trying to stop
them now...."

"I wouldn't even try," the captain of the _Curse of Cagn_ put in.
"I came here for what I could make out of this planet, myself."

"You can try to stop them," said the captain of the _Harpy_.
"You'll find it even harder than what you're doing now."

Trask looked at some of the reports that had come in from elsewhere
on the planet. Harkaman had landed on one of the big cities to the
east, and the people had risen against Makann's local bosses and
were helping wipe out the People's Watchmen with arms they had been
furnished. Valkanhayn's exec had landed on a large concentration
camp where close to ten thousand of Makann's political enemies had
been penned; he had distributed all his available weapons and was
calling for more. Gompertz of the _Grendelsbane_ was at Drepplin;
he reported just the reverse. The people there had risen in support
of the Makann regime, and he wanted authorization to use nuclear
weapons against them.

"Could you talk your people into going to some other city?" Trask
asked. "We have a city for you; big industrial center. It ought to
be fine looting. Drepplin."

"The people there are Mardukan subjects, too," Bentrik began. Then
he shrugged. "It's not what we'd like to do, it's what we have to.
By all means, gentlemen. Take your men to Drepplin, and nobody will
object to anything you do."

"And when you have that place looted out, try Abaddon. You were
aground there, Captain Esthersan. You know what all Dunnan left there."

* * * * *

A couple of Space Vikings--no, Royal Army of Tanith men--brought in
the old woman, dirty, in rags, almost exhausted.

"She wants to talk to Prince Bentrik; won't talk to anybody else.
Says she knows where the King is."

Bentrik rose quickly, brought her to a chair, poured a glass of