put in a few of our own, a little
better camouflaged than theirs."

There were more troops on the third stage down. They formed a procession
down a long empty hallway, a few scared-looking slaves peeping from
doorways at them. There were more troops where the corridor ended in
great double doors, emblazoned with a straight broad-sword diagonally
across an eight-pointed star. Emblematology of planets conquered by the
Space Vikings always included swords and stars. An officer gave a
signal; the doors started to slide apart, and within, from a
screen-speaker, came a fanfare of trumpets.

At first, all he could see was the projection-screen, far ahead, and the
tessellated aisle stretching toward it. The trumpets stopped, and they
advanced, and then he saw the Lords-Master.

They were massed, standing among benches on either side, and if anything
Pyairr Ravney had understated their numbers. They all wore black,
trimmed with gold; he wondered if the coincidence that these were also
the Imperial colors might be useful. Queer garments, tightly fitted
tunics at the top which became flowing robes below the waist, deeply
scalloped at the edges. The sleeves were exaggeratedly wide; a knife or
a pistol, and not necessarily a small one, could be concealed in every
one. He was sure that thought had entered Vann Shatrak's mind. They were
armed, not with dress-daggers, but with swords; long, straight
cross-hilted broadswords. They were the first actual swords he had ever
seen, except in museums or on the stage.

There was a bench of gold and onyx at the front, where, normally the
seven-man Presidium sat, and in front of it were thronelike seats for
the Chiefs of Managements, equivalent to the Imperial Council of
Ministers. Because of the projection screen that had been installed,
they had all been moved to an improvised dais on the left. There was
another dais on the right, under a canopy of black and gold velvet,
emblazoned with the gold sun and superimposed black cogwheel of the
Empire. There were three thrones, for himself, Shatrak, and Erskyll,
and a number of lesser but still imposing chairs for their staffs.

* * * * *

They took their seats. He slipped the earplug of his memophone into his
left ear and pressed the stud in the middle of his Grand Star of the
Order of Odin. The memophone began giving him the names of the Presidium
and of the Chiefs of Managements. He wondered how many upper-sla