hlichten shouted. "Here is no question of
Krink ruling over Skilk. Does it matter who holds the Spear of Skilk,
when he does so in my name? And King Jonkvank will be no foreigner. He
will come and live among you, and later he will travel back and forth
between Krink and Skilk, and he will leave the Spear of Krink in
Krink, and the Spear of Skilk in Skilk, and in Skilk he will be a
Skilkan."

That seemed to satisfy everybody except Jonkvank, and he had wit
enough not to make an issue of it. He even had the Spear of Krink
carried back aboard his launch, out of sight, and when he accompanied
von Schlichten, an hour later, to see Hideyoshi O'Leary off for Grank,
he had the Spear of Skilk carried behind him. When he was alone with
von Schlichten, in the room that had been King Firkked's bedchamber,
however, he exploded: "What is all this foolishness which you promised
these people in my name and which I must now carry out? That I am to
leave the Spear of Skilk in Skilk and the Spear of Krink in Krink, and
come here to live...."

"You wish to hold Skilk?" von Schlichten asked.

"I intend to hold Skilk. To begin with, there shall be a great killing
here. A very great killing: of all those who advised that fool of a
Firkked to start this business; of those who gave shelter to the false
prophet, Rakkeed, when he was here; of the faithless priests who gave
ear to his abominable heresies and allowed him to spew out his
blasphemies in the temples; of those who sent spies to Krink, to
corrupt and pervert my soldiers and nobles; of those who...."

"All that is as it should be," von Schlichten agreed. "Except that it
must be done quickly and all at once, before the memories of these
crimes fade from the minds of the people. And great care must be taken
to kill only those who can be proven to be guilty of something; thus
it will be said that the justice of King Jonkvank is terrible to
evildoers but a protection and a shield to those who keep the peace
and obey the laws. Thus you will gain the name of being a wise and
just king. And when the priests are to be killed it should be done
under the direction of those other priests who were faithful to the
gods and whom King Firkked drove out of their temples, and it must be
done in the name of the gods. Thus will you be esteemed a pious, and
not an impious, king. As to why you must be a Skilkan in Skilk, you
heard the words of Flurknurk, and how the others agreed with him. It
must not b