the _Blue Comet_, who was one of Count Lionel's
vassal barons, was silent for a moment.

"You ought to know, Prince Trask," he said. "Andray Dunnan's
grandmother was the King's mother. Her father was old Baron Zarvas
of Blackcliffe. He was what was called an invalid, the last twenty
years of his life. He was always attended by two male nurses about
the size of Otto Harkaman. He was also said to be slightly
eccentric."

The unfortunate grandfather of Duke Angus had always been a subject
nice people avoided. The unfortunate grandfather of King Angus was
probably a subject everybody who valued their necks avoided.

Lothar Ffayle had also come out on the _Blue Comet_. He was just as
outspoken.

"I'm not going back. I'm transferring most of the funds of the Bank
of Wardshaven out here; from now on, it'll be a branch of the Bank
of Tanith. This is where the business is being done. It's getting
impossible to do business at all in Wardshaven. What little business
there is to do."

"Just what's been happening?"

"Well, taxation, first. It seems the more money came in from here,
the higher taxes got on Gram. Discriminatory taxes, too; pinched the
small landholding and industrial barons and favored a few big ones.
Baron Spasso and his crowd."

"Baron Spasso, now?"

Ffayle nodded. "Of about half of Glaspyth. A lot of the Glaspyth
barons lost their baronies--some of them their heads--after Duke
Omfray was run out. It seems there was a plot against the life of
His Majesty. It was exposed by the zeal and vigilance of Sir Garvan
Spasso, who was elevated to the peerage and rewarded with the lands
of the conspirators."

"You said business was bad, as business?"

Ffayle nodded again. "The big Tanith boom has busted. It got
oversold; everybody wanted in on it. And they should never have
built those two last ships, the _Speedwell_ and the _Goodhope_;
the return on them didn't justify it. Then, you're creating your
own industries and building your own equipment and armament here;
that's caused a slump in industry on Gram. I'm glad Lavina Karvall
has enough money invested to live on. And finally, the consumers'
goods market is getting flooded with stuff that's coming in from
here and competing with Gram industry."

Well, that was understandable. One of the ships that made the
shuttle-trip to Gram would carry enough in her strong rooms, in gold
and jewels and the like, to pay a handsome profit on the voyage. The
bulk-goods tha