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Updated: May 8, 2025
"Keegark, Konkrook, and the Free Cities, of course, will be relatively easy. They're in arms against us now, and we can take them over by force. We had to make that deal with Jonkvank, or, rather, I did, so that will be a slower process, but we'll get it done in time.
"Full telecast, audio-visual," the girl replied. "Just a minute, general." He put in his geek-speaker. Within a few minutes, a saurian Ullran face was looking out of it at him; a harsh-lined, elderly, face, with an old scar, quartz-crusted, along one side. "Your Majesty," von Schlichten greeted him. Jonkvank pronounced something intended to correspond to von Schlichten's name.
At Skilk, King Firkked's afraid his feudal nobility is going to force a Runnymede on him, so he's been currying favor with the urban merchants; that makes him as pro-Rakkeed and as anti-Terran as they are. At Krink, King Jonkvank has the support of his barons, but he's afraid of his urban bourgeoisie, and we pay him a handsome subsidy, so he's pro-Terran and anti-Rakkeed.
Jonkvank stopped, his face contorted with saurian rage. "What is this?" he demanded. "You told me that I could be King of Skilk; is this how a Terran keeps his word?" "A Terran's word is always good, Jonkvank," von Schlichten replied, omitting the titles, as was proper in one sovereign addressing another. "My word was that you should reign in Skilk, and my word stands.
The audio-visual of which this is the last scene is going to be one of the crowbars he's going to use." "But why did you have to fight Firkked, yourself?" she asked. "I had to kill him, myself, with a sword; according to local custom, that makes me King of Skilk." "Why, your Majesty!" She rose and curtsied mockingly. "But I thought you were going to make Jonkvank King of Skilk."
He's probably wondering why we aren't bombing him, now." "He doesn't know we've sold the Palace to King Jonkvank for an army," von Schlichten said. "And that reminds me; how much contragravity could Firkked scrape together, for an attack on us? I've been expecting a geek Luftwaffe over here, at any moment." Colonel Cheng-Li studied the smoking tip of his cigarette for a moment.
"And tonight, we will kill more; we are preparing bombs of great destruction, which we will rain down upon Skilk until there is not one stone left upon another, or one infant of a day's age left alive!" Jonkvank reacted as he was intended to. "Oh, no, general; don't do all that!" he exclaimed. "You promised me that I should have Skilk, on the word of a Terran.
King Jonkvank, whom von Schlichten called, was highly elated. "We are killing traitors wherever we find them!" he exulted. "The city is yellow with their blood; their heads are piled everywhere! How is it with you at Skilk? Do the heads fall?" "We have killed many, also," von Schlichten boasted.
"And the city hoodlums, and priests from the temples of one sect that followed Rakkeed, and the whole passel of Skilkan fifth columnists." "How long do you think it'd take, with the equipment you have, to airlift all of Jonkvank's loyal troops into the city?" "Not before this time tomorrow." "All right. Are you in radio communication with Jonkvank now?"
But these things must be done decently, according to custom and law. I killed Firkked in single combat. Had I not done so, the Spear of Skilk would have been left lying, for any of the young of Firkked to pick up. Is that not the law?" Jonkvank nodded grudgingly. "It is the law," he admitted. "Good.
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