Free The Rebel of Rhada by Robert Cham Gilman

Mariana’s eyes rested speculatively on the Rhadan. “But we will know, Rebel. One way or another.”
    Kier thought of the kings on Tallan’s world. He had imagined that he might bring them to their senses with assurances of redress from The Magnifico’s son. Now that hope was dead with the boy. What remained was tyranny on the one hand, bloody war on the other. And torture for himself if he remained silent. A bitter choice for a star-voyaging warman.
    “The Empire could not be ruled by a child,” Mariana said, guessing his thoughts.
    “It could have been,” Kier said, “by a boy well served.” He regarded Landro contemptuously. “Well served by honest men.”
    Mariana smiled. “You are an idealist then, Rebel. No, the troops are loyal to me.”
    “You’ve bought them, Mariana. But when did bought men ever stay bought? And what do you have, really? The Vegans.”
    “Tell me what you meant, Rebel, when you spoke of a death warrant for Nyor.”
    “The dynasty was new, Mariana, and Torquas too young to rule unless he was well served. But it was the only way we knew to try to keep the peace-- You have destroyed all that with your bedroom rebellion. You may have me, but what of all the others? The Centauri, the Lyri, the men of Kalgan and Aldebaran and Deneb and Altair and a hundred other systems? What good will your fifty thousand Vegans be against them?”
    Mariana said, “Say more, Rebel.”
    “No more. It’s done now. Everything we fought for at Karma and a dozen other places is finished.”
    Mariana moved closer to Kier. He thought: She is beautiful, the way a tree of ice is beautiful. Intelligent, ambitious, cruel. To have married her to a boy was The Magnifico’s disastrous mistake, the act that would bring the young Empire crashing down.
    She said, “You have fifteen starships, Kier. And twenty thousand warmen--Rhadans, the best in the Empire. Give them to me. Serve the Empire as you always have. I do not want to destroy the Rim worlds, but if I must, I will. You could prevent it, Kier of Rhada.”
    Kier smiled bleakly. Mariana’s ambition was royal enough. But war would not start on the Rim. It would begin here, on Earth, as the disaffected star kings blackened the capital with fire and sword. And the Rhad would be among them, led by Willim of Astraris, burning and killing to avenge their warleader Kier--dead in the hands of Mariana’s Questioner. That, he thought resignedly, was the way it would be. The Rhad were a melancholy race, and Kier felt the weight of the dour centuries in his heart, so it jarred him to hear Mariana’s laughter.
    “Oh, you out-worlders,” she said. “What an ancient breed you are! Glamiss used to say, ‘The Rhad see doom beyond every hill.’ Is it because you live so far away, Rebel?
    Out on the edge of the sky where there are no stars to see in the night? Where is your ambition, you brave captain? I’m offering you the Inner Worlds if you are man enough to take them!”
    “You mean treacherous enough,” Kier said.
    Now Landro laughed. “You see, Queen? He fought at Karma, and he still dreams of his great king. There’s only one way with the Rhad.”
    Mariana turned for a moment to look through the window at the night falling over the city of Nyor. “Glamiss is dead, Kier. The times are changing. Will you speak?”
    Kier shook his head.
    “I have sent the Vykan guard across the river into Jersey. There are no Floridans in the tower. The city is in the hands of the Veg. In the morning we will take your star-ship. What choice have you, Rebel?”
    Kier thought of Kalin and breathed a silent prayer to the beatified Emeric.
    Mariana turned and looked coldly at him. “One last time, Kier. Think carefully.”
    “You will never hold what you have stolen, Mariana. This I know,” Kier said.
    She turned away angrily, her patience at an end. She snapped out a command, and four Vegan Imperials stepped into the room and saluted her. “Take him to the Questioner,” she