Free The Rebel of Rhada by Robert Cham Gilman Page A

said.
    The guards moved Kier to the door. Mariana said, “Good-by, Rebel. We won’t meet again.”
    When they had gone, Mariana turned to Landro. “Find out what he knows of Sarissa.”
    “What can he know?”
    Mariana said impatiently. “The issue is still in doubt there.”
    “You don’t trust the cyborg?”
    Mariana’s eyes narrowed as she regarded the Vegan. “Far more than I’d trust any man,” she said.
    Landro inclined his head. There was a touch of mockery in his manner. “Then, Queen, you will be interested in my latest news.”
    “You’ve had word from Sarissa? Why wasn’t I told at once?” Her lovely face was set in anger.
    “There was no time. Until now, Queen.”
    “What is it, then?”
    “It’s Kelber,” said Landro, smirking foolishly.
    Mariana waited, reining her impatience and anger. In time, Landro would have to be taught a lesson. When all this was done, her lover would have outlived his usefulness.
    “A Sarissan starship landed in Connecticut late this afternoon. A courier arrived only an hour ago.”
    “From the cyborg?”
    “Please. From the Sarissan star king,” Landro said. “It seems that there has been a fire in the city of Sardis. The entire Street of Night was destroyed.”
    “And Kelber?”
    “Dead, Queen.”
    Mariana walked swiftly to the window and stood in thoughtful silence. Full night had fallen over Nyor. The torchlights of the watch flickered in the rainy darkness. “You think the cyborg killed him,” she said finally.
    “Who can say, Queen?”
    Mariana turned, a decision made. “All right. You leave for Sarissa tonight. Within the hour. Tallan can’t be left alone.”
    “As you command, love,” Landro said.
    “Why do you look like that?” Mariana asked irritably.
    “I was only thinking that before you learned of Kelber’s death, you spoke of ‘the cyborg.’ But now that you suspect an act of murder, it’s become ‘Tallan,’ as though he were a man.” Landro fidgeted nervously with the silver clasps in his hair and asked in an arch voice, “So who can you trust now, my queen?”
     
     

7
     
    The maneuvering of starships at low speeds and in atmosphere requires the coordinated efforts of a control team specially trained in Ionics, Planetary Magnetic Effects, and Pilotage. In the absence of such rated personnel, close maneuvering at low levels should not be attempted.
    Golden Age fragment found at Station One, Astraris
     
    To study, to learn, to safeguard that which is holy, and above all, to dare: that is the duty of a Navigator.
    Attributed to Emeric of Rhada, Grand Master of Navigators,
early Second Stellar Empire period
     
    Kalin, the Navigator, stood in the entry valve of the Rhadan starship and watched the swift and orderly withdrawal of the last warmen of the perimeter guard. As the horses padded aboard, he could hear them complaining at a new confinement. They were restless because there had been no battle with their armored cousins of Vega.
    The arbalests had been stowed, and Nevus paced the landing ground, urging the warmen to greater speed and more silence. Through the rainy darkness Kalin could see the cooking fires of the Imperials and, beyond that, barely visible in the gloomy night, the few torchlights of Nyor.
    The young priest-Navigator stood tensely, waiting moment by moment for the alarm that must surely come from the Imperial pickets when they discovered the swift and secret withdrawal of the Rhadans. But there was no sound but the soft padding of the disgruntled war horses and an occasional soft chink of iron as a weapon touched against harness. The rain and the darkness were covering the maneuver perfectly, as Kier had foreseen that they would.
    The last troopers filed through into the interior of the starship, and Kalin rubbed his sweating palms against the coarse cloth of his robe. Underneath he could feel the unyielding scales of god-metal that protected him from neck to thigh.
    Now Nevus stepped through the valve and