midnight
Why you people ever let him recruit them Satan only knows , '' he parenthesized . `` I have eight hundred ; five hundred ground-fighters . I 'd like to see how they shape up in combat , before we space out . I can have them ready for action in two hours , and it 'd be all over before midnight . '' `` No , Captain Harkaman ; his Grace would never permit it , '' Grauffis vetoed . `` You have no idea of the political harm that would do among the independent lords on whom we 're counting for support . You were n't here on Gram when Duke Ridgerd of Didreksburg had his sister Sancia 's second husband poisoned -- ''