that his black-bearded master from a rude and impetuous world might be unable^ to restrain his rage when he, Alen, interpreted the demand and, ignoring the consequences, might beat him, the shopkeeper, to a pulp. The asking price plunged to a reasonable five hundred, which was paid over. The shopkeeper got the judge’s permission to leave and backed out, bowing.
“You see, trader,” Alen told blackbeard, “that it was needless to buy weapons when the spoken word—”
“And now,” said the judge with a sneer, “we are easily out of that dilemma. Watchmen, arrest the three star-travelers and take them to the cages.”
“Your honor!” cried Alen, outraged.
“Money won’t get you out of this one. I charge you with treason.”
“The charge is obsolete—” began the Herald hotly, but he broke off as he realized the vindictive strategy.
“Yes, it is. And one of its obsolete provisions is that treason charges must be tried by the parliament at a regular session, which isn’t due for two hundred days. You’ll be freed and I may be reprimanded, but by my head, for two hundred days you’ll regret that you made a fool of me. Take them away.”
“A trumped-up charge against us. Prison for two hundred days,” said Alen swiftly to the trader as the watchmen closed in.
“Why buy weapons?” mocked the blackbeard, showing his teeth. His left arm whipped up and down, there was a black streak through the air—and the judge was pinned to his throne with a black glass knife through his throat and the sneer of triumph still on his lips.
The trader, before the knife struck, had the clumsy pistol out, with the cover off the glowing match and the cocking piece back. He must have pumped and cocked it under his cloak, thought Alenlnumbly as he told the watchmen, without prompting: “Get back against the wall and turn around.” They did. They wanted to live, and the grinning blackbeard who had made meat of the judge with a flick of the arm was a terrifying figure.
“Well done, Alen,” said the trader. “Take their clubs, El-won. Two for you, two for the Herald. Alen, don’t argue! I had to kill the judge before he raised an alarm—nothing but death will silence his breed. You may have to kill too before
we’re out of this. Take the clubs.” He passed the clumsy pistol to Chief Elwon and said: “Keep it on their backs. The thing that looks like a thumb-safety is a trigger. Put a dart through the first one who tries to make a break. Alen, tell the fellow on the end to turn around and come to me slowly.”
Alen did. Blackbeard swiftly stripped him, tore and knotted his clothes into ropes and bound and gagged him. The others got the same treatment in less than ten minutes.
The trader bolstered the gun and rolled the watchmen out of the line of sight from the door of the chamber. He recovered his knife and wiped it on the judge’s shirt. Alen had to help him prop the body behind the throne’s high back.
“Hide those clubs,” blackbeard said. “Straight faces. Here we go.”
They went out, single file, opening the door only enough to pass. Alen, last in line, told one of the liveried guards nearby: “His honor, Judge Krarl, does not wish to be disturbed.”
“That’s news?” a|ked the tipstaff sardonically. He put his hand on the Herald s arm.’ “Only yesterday he gimme a blast when I brought him a mug of water he asked me for himself. An outrageous interruption, he called me, and he asked for the water himself. What do you think of that?”
“Terrible,” said Alen hastily. He broke away and caught up with the trader and the engineer at the entrance hall. Idlers and loungers were-staring at them as they headed for the waiting wagon.
“I wait!” the driver told them loudly. “I wait long, much. You pay more, more?”
“We pay more,” said the trader. “You start.”
The driver brought out a smoldering piece of punk, lit a pressure torch, lifted the barn-door section of the wagon’s floor to expose the pottery turbine and preheated it with the torch. He pumped squeakily for minutes, spinning a flywheel with his other hand, before the rotor began to turn on its own. Down went the hatch, up onto the seats went the passengers.