A landing ramp dropped down from the battered craft. It neatly spanned the scorched and still-smoking patch of soil. A port opened. Men came out, following a jaunty small figure with belligerent gray whiskers.
They dragged an enigmatic object behind them.
Hoddan came out of the yacht. His grandfather said waspishly:
"This the castle?"
He waved at the ma.s.sive pile of cut gray stone, with walls twenty feet thick and sixty high.
"Yes, sir," said Hoddan.
"Hm-m-m," snorted his grandfather. "Looks flimsy to me!" He waved his hand again. "You remember your cousins."
Familiar, matter-of-fact nods came from the men of the battered ship.
Hoddan hadn"t seen any of them for years, but they were his kin. They wore commonplace, workaday garments, but carried weapons slung negligently over their shoulders. They dragged the cryptic object behind them without particular formation or apparent discipline, but somehow they looked capable.
Hoddan and his grandfather strolled to the castle gate, their companions a little to their rear. They came to the gate. Nothing happened. n.o.body challenged. There was the feel of peevish refusal to a.s.sociate with persons who landed in s.p.a.ceships.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Shall we hail?" asked Hoddan.
"Nah!" snorted his grandfather. "I know his kind! Make him make the advances." He waved to his descendents. "Open it up."
Somebody casually pulled back a cover and reached in and threw switches.
"Found a power broadcast unit," grunted Hoddan"s grandfather, "on a ship we took. Hooked it to the ship"s s.p.a.ce-drive. When y"can"t use the s.p.a.ce-drive, you still got power. Your Cousin Oliver whipped this thing up to use it."
The enigmatic object made a spiteful noise. The castle gate shuddered and fell halfway from its hinges. The thing made a second noise. Stones splintered and began to collapse. Hoddan admired. Three more unpleasing but not violently loud sounds. Half the wall on either side of the gate was rubble, collapsing partly inside and partly outside the castle"s proper boundary.
Figures began to wave hysterically from the battlements. Hoddan"s grandfather yawned slightly.
"I always like to talk to people," he observed, "when they"re worryin"
about what I"m likely to do to them, instead of what maybe they can do to me."
Figures appeared on the ground level. They"d come out of a sally port to one side. They were even extravagantly cordial when Hoddan"s grandfather admitted that it might be convenient to talk over his business inside the castle, where there would be an easy-chair to sit in.
Presently they sat beside the fireplace in the great hall. Don Loris, jittering, shivered next to Hoddan"s grandfather. The Lady Fani appeared, icy-cold and defiant. She walked with frigid dignity to a place beside her father. Hoddan"s grandfather regarded her with a wicked, estimating gaze.
"Not bad!" he said brightly. "Not bad at all!" Then he turned to Hoddan.
"Those retainers coming?"
"On the way," said Hoddan. He was not happy. The Lady Fani had pa.s.sed her eyes over him exactly as if he did not exist.
There was a murmurous noise. The dozen spearmen came marching into the great hall. They carried loot. It dripped on the floor and they blandly ignored such things as stray golden coins rolling off away from them.
Stay-at-home inhabitants of the castle gazed at them in joyous wonderment.
Nedda came with them. The Lady Fani made a very slight, almost imperceptible movement. Hoddan said desperately:
"Fani, I know you hate me, though I can"t guess why. But here"s a thing that ... has to be taken care of! We made a raid on Walden ... that"s where the loot came from ... and my men kidnaped this girl ... her name is Nedda ... and brought her on the ship as a present to me ... because she"d admitted that she knew me! Nedda"s in an awful fix, Fani! She"s alone and friendless, and ... somebody has to take care of her! Her father"ll come for her eventually, no doubt, but somebody"s got to take care of her in the meantime, and I can"t do it!" Hoddan felt hysterical at the bare idea. "I can"t!"
The Lady Fani looked at Nedda. And Nedda wore the brave look of a girl so determinedly sweet that n.o.body could possibly bear it.
"I"m ... very sorry," said Nedda bravely, "that I"ve been the cause of poor Bron turning pirate and getting into such dreadful trouble. I cry over it every night before I go to sleep. He treated me as if I were his sister, and the other men were so gentle and respectful that I ... I think it will break my heart when they are punished. When I think of them being executed with all that dreadful, hopeless formality--"
"On Darth," said the Lady Fani practically, "we"re not very formal about such things. Just cutting somebody"s throat is usually enough. But he treated you like a sister, did he? Thal?"
Thal swallowed. He"d been beaming a moment before, with his arms full of silver plate, jewelry, laces, and other bits of booty from the town of Ensfield. But now he said desperately:
"Yes, Lady Fani. But not the way I"d"ve treated my sister. My sisters, Lady Fani, bit me when they were little, slapped me when they were bigger, and scorned me when I grew up. I"m fond of "em! But if one of my sisters"d ever lectured me because I wasn"t refined, or shook a finger at me because I wasn"t gentlemanly-- Lady Fani, I"d"ve strangled her!"
There was a certain gleam in the Lady Fani"s eye as she said warmly to Hoddan:
"Of course I"ll take care of the poor thing! I"ll let her sleep with my maids and I"m sure one of them can spare clothes for her to wear, and I"ll take care of her until a s.p.a.ce liner comes along and she can be shipped back to her family. And you can come to see her whenever you please, to make sure she"s all right!"
Hoddan"s eyes tended to grow wild. His grandfather cleared his throat loudly. Hoddan said doggedly:
"You, Fani, asked each of my men if they"d fight for you. They said yes.
You sent them to cut my throat. They didn"t. But they"re not disgraced!
I want that clear! They"re good men! They"re not disgraced for failing to a.s.sa.s.sinate me!"
"Of course they aren"t," conceded the Lady Fani sweetly. "Whoever heard of such a thing?"
Hoddan wiped his forehead. Don Loris opened his mouth fretfully.
Hoddan"s grandfather forestalled him.
"You"ve heard about that big pirate fleet that"s been floating around these parts? Eh? It"s my grandson"s. I run a squadron of it for him.
Wonderful boy, my grandson! Bloodthirsty crews on those ships, but they love that boy!"
"Very--" Don Loris caught his breath. "Very interesting."
"He likes your men," confided Hoddan"s grandfather. "Used them twice.
Says they make nice, well-behaved pirates. He"s going to give them stun-pistols and cannon like the one that smashed your gate. Only men on Darth with guns like that! Seize the s.p.a.ceport and put in power broadcast, and make sure n.o.body else gets stun-weapons. Run the country.
Your men"ll love it. Love that boy, too! Follow him anywhere. Loot."
Don Loris quivered. It was horribly plausible. He"d had the scheme of the only stun-weapon-armed force on Darth, himself. He knew his men tended to revere Hoddan because of the plunder his followers seemed always to acquire. Don Loris was in a very, very uncomfortable situation. Bored men from the battered s.p.a.cecraft stood about his great hall. They were unimpressed. He knew that they, at least, were casually sure that they could bring his castle down about his ears in minutes if they chose.
"But ... if my men--" Don Loris quavered. "What about me?"
"Minor problem," said Hoddan"s grandfather blandly. "The usual thing would be _pfft!_ Cut your throat." He rose. "Decide that later, no doubt. Yes, Bron?"
"I"ve brought back my men," growled Hoddan, "and Nedda"s taken care of.
We"re through here."
He headed abruptly for the great hall"s farthest door. His grandfather followed him briskly, and the negligent, matter-of-fact armed men who were mostly Hoddan"s first and second cousins came after them. Outside the castle, Hoddan said angrily:
"Why did you tell such a preposterous story, grandfather?"