Minister, always
with a personal message, to which Grauffis replied in kind.

Not only the form but also the content of the messages from Gram
underwent change. His Majesty was most dissatisfied. His Majesty was
deeply disappointed. His Majesty felt that His Majesty's colonial
realm of Tanith was not contributing sufficiently to the Royal
Exchequer. And his Majesty felt that Prince Trask was placing
entirely too much emphasis upon trade and not enough upon raiding;
after all, why barter with barbarians when it was possible to take
what you wanted from them by force?

And there was the matter of the _Blue Comet_, Count Lionel of
Newhaven's ship. His Majesty was most displeased that the Count of
Newhaven was trading with Tanith from his own spaceport. All goods
from Tanith should pass through the Wardshaven spaceport.

"Look, Rovard," he told the audiovisual camera which was recording
his reply to Grauffis. "You saw the _Space Scourge_ when she came
in, didn't you? That's what happens to a ship that raids a planet
where there's anything worth taking. Beowulf is lousy with
fissionables; they'll give us all the plutonium we can load, in
exchange for gadolinium, which we sell them at about twice
Sword-World prices. We trade plutonium on Amaterasu for gadolinium,
and get it for about half Sword-World prices." He pressed the
stop-button, until he could remember the ancient formula. "You may
quote me as saying that whoever has advised His Majesty that that
isn't good business is no friend to His Majesty or to the Realm.

"As for the complaint about the _Blue Comet_; as long as she is
owned and operated by the Count of Newhaven, who is a stockholder
in the Tanith Adventure, she has every right to trade here."

He wondered why His Majesty didn't stop Lionel of Newhaven from
sending the _Blue Comet_ out from Gram. He found out from her
skipper, the next time she came in.

* * * * *

"He doesn't dare, that's why. He's King as long as the great lords
like Count Lionel and Joris of Bigglersport and Alan of Northport
want him to be. Count Lionel has more men and more guns and
contragravity than he has, now, and that's without the help he'd get
from everybody else. Everything's quiet on Gram now, even the war on
Southmain Continent's stopped. Everybody wants to keep it that way.
Even King Angus isn't crazy enough to do anything to start a war.
Not yet, anyhow."

"Not _yet_?"

The captain of