IV
They halted under the colonnade; beyond, the lower main terrace wascrowded, and a medley of old love songs was wafting from the soundoutlets, for the sixth or eighth time around. He looked at hiswatch; it was ninety seconds later than the last time he had doneso. Give it fifteen more minutes to get started, and another fifteento get away after the marriage toasts and the felicitations. Andno marriage, however pompous, lasted more than half an hour. Anhour, then, till he and Elaine would be in the aircar, bulletingtoward Traskon.
The love songs stopped abruptly; after a momentary silence, atrumpet, considerably amplified, blared; the "Ducal Salute." Thecrowd stopped shifting, the buzz of voices ceased. At the head ofthe landing-stage escalators there was a glow of color and the ducalparty began moving down. A platoon of guards in red and yellow, withgilded helmets and tasseled halberds. An esquire bearing the Swordof State. Duke Angus, with his council, Otto Harkaman among them;the Duchess Flavia and her companion-ladies. The household gentlemen,and their ladies. More guardsmen. There was a great burst of cheering;the news-service aircars got into position above the procession.Cousin Nikkolay and a few others stepped out from between the pillarsinto the sunlight; there was a similar movement at the other side ofthe terrace. The ducal party reached the end of the central walkway,halted and deployed.
"All right; let's shove off," Cousin Nikkolay said, stepping forward.
Ten minutes since they had come outside; another five to get intoposition. Fifty minutes, now, till he and Elaine--Lady Elaine Traskof Traskon, for real and for always--would be going home.
"Sure the car's ready?" he asked, for the hundredth time.
His cousin assured him that it was. Figures in Karvall black andflame-yellow appeared across the terrace. The music began again,this time the stately "Nobles' Wedding March," arrogant and atthe same time tender. Sesar Karvall's gentleman-secretary, andthe Karvall lawyer; executives of the steel mills, the Karvallguard-captain. Sesar himself, with Elaine on his arm; she waswearing a shawl of black and yellow. He looked around in suddenfright; "For the love of Satan, where's our shawl?" he demanded, andthen relaxed when one of his gentlemen exhibited it, green and tawnyin Traskon colors. The bridesmaids, led by Lady Lavina Karvall.Finally they halted, ten yards apart, in front of the Duke.
* * * * *
"Who approaches us?" Duke Angus asked of his guard-captain.
He had a thin, pointed face, almost femininely sensitive, and asmall pointed beard. He was bareheaded except for the narrow goldencirclet which he spent most of his waking time scheming to convertinto a royal crown. The guard-captain repeated the question.
"I am Sir Nikkolay Trask; I bring my cousin and liege-lord,Lucas, Lord Trask, Baron of Traskon. He comes to receive theLady-Demoiselle Elaine, daughter of Lord Sesar Karvall, Baronof Karvall mills, and the sanction of your Grace to the marriagebetween them."
Sir Maxamon Zhorgay, Sesar Karvall's henchman, named himself andhis lord; they brought the Lady-Demoiselle Elaine to be wed toLord Trask of Traskon. The Duke, satisfied that these were personswhom he could address directly, asked if the terms of themarriage-agreement had been reached; both parties affirmed this.Sir Maxamon passed a scroll to the Duke; Duke Angus began to readthe stiff and precise legal phraseology.
Marriages between noble houses were not matters to be left opento dispute; a great deal of spilled blood and burned powder hadresulted from ambiguity on some point of succession or inheritanceor dower rights. Lucas bore it patiently; he didn't want hisgreat-grandchildren and Elaine's shooting it out over a matterof a misplaced comma.
"And these persons here before us do enter into this marriagefreely?" the Duke asked, when the reading had ended. He steppedforward as he spoke, and his esquire gave him the two-hand Sword ofState, heavy enough to behead a bisonoid. Trask stepped forward;Sesar Karvall brought Elaine up. The lawyers and henchmen obliquedoff to the sides. "How say you, Lord Trask?" he asked, almostconversationally.
"With all my heart, your Grace."
"And you, Lady-Demoiselle Elaine?"
"It is my dearest wish, your Grace."
The Duke took the sword by the blade and extended it; they laidtheir hands on the jeweled pommel.
"And do you, and your houses, avow us, Angus, Duke of Wardshaven,to be your sovereign prince, and pledge fealty to us and to ourlegitimate and lawful successors?"
"We do." Not only he and Elaine, but all around them, and all thethrong in the gardens, answered, the spectators in shouts. Veryclearly, above it all, somebody, with more enthusiasm thandiscretion, was bawling: "_Long live Angus the First of Gram!_"
"And we, Angus, do confer upon you two, and your houses, the rightto wear our badge as you see fit, and pledge ourself to maintainyour rights against any and all who may presume to invade them. Andwe declare that this marriage between you two, and this agreementbetween your respective houses, does please us, and we avow you two,Lucas and Elaine, to be lawfully wed, and who so questions thismarriage challenges us, in our teeth and to our despite."
That wasn't exactly the wording used by a ducal lord on Gram. It wasthe formula employed by a planetary king, like Napolyon of Flambergeor Rodolf of Excalibur. And, now that he thought of it, Angus hadconsistently used the royal first-person plural. Maybe that fellowwho had shouted about Angus the First of Gram had only been doingwhat he'd been paid to do. This was being telecast, and Omfray ofGlaspyth and Ridgerd of Didreksburg would both be listening; as ofnow, they'd start hiring mercenaries. Maybe that would get rid ofDunnan for him.
The Duke gave the two-hand sword back to his esquire. The youngknight who was carrying the green and tawny shawl handed it to him,and Elaine dropped the black and yellow one from her shoulders,the only time a respectable woman ever did that in public, and hermother caught and folded it. He stepped forward and draped the Traskcolors over her shoulders, and then took her in his arms. Thecheering broke out again, and some of Sesar Karvall's guardsmenbegan firing a pom-pom somewhere.
* * * * *
It took a little longer than he had expected to finish with thetoasts and shake hands with those who crowded around. Finally, theexit march started, down the long walkway to the landing stage,and the Duke and his party moved away to the rear to prepare forthe wedding feast at which everybody but the bride and groom wouldcelebrate. One of the bridesmaids gave Elaine a huge sheaf offlowers, which she was to toss back from the escalator; she held itin the crook of one arm and clung to his with the other.
"Darling; we really made it!" she was whispering, as though it weretoo wonderful to believe.
Well, wasn't it?
One of the news cars--orange and blue, that was Westlands Telecast& Teleprint--had floated just ahead of them and was letting downtoward the landing stage. For a moment, he was angry; that wentbeyond the outer-orbit limits of journalistic propriety, even forWestlands T & T. Then he laughed; today he was too happy for angerabout anything. At the foot of the escalator, Elaine kicked off hergilded slippers--there was another pair in the car; he'd seen tothat personally--and they stepped onto the escalator and turnedabout. The bridesmaids rushed forward, and began struggling for theslippers, to the damage and disarray of their gowns, and when theywere half way up, Elaine heaved the bouquet and it burst apart amongthem like a bomb of colored fragrance, and the girls below snatchedat the flowers, shrieking deliriously. Elaine stood, blowing kissesto everybody, and he was shaking his clasped hands over his head,until they were at the top.
When they turned and stepped off, the orange and blue aircar hadlet down directly in front of them, blocking their way. Now he wasreally furious, and started forward with a curse. Then he saw whowas in the car.
Andray Dunnan, his thin face contorted and the narrow mustachewrithing on his upper lip; he had a slit beside the window openand was tilting the barrel of a submachine gun up and out of it.
He shouted, and at the same time tripped Elaine and flung her down.He was throwing himself forward
to cover her when there was ablasting multiple report. Something sledged him in the chest;his right leg crumpled under him. He fell--
He fell and fell and fell, endlessly, through darkness, out ofconsciousness.
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