Free The Warlock of Rhada by Robert Cham Gilman Page A

Asa.”
    “The Lord Ulm refuses to send more men, Glamiss Warleader. He declares that fifty are more than enough to punish a village of weyrherders.”
    Glamiss frowned. He had not really expected Ulm to respond favorably to his request, but neither had he expected a flat refusal. Ulm, for all his bravado and bombast, was a compromising man. It had cost him lands and power on Vyka.
    The Vulk waited.
    “Was there something else, Vulk Asa?” Glamiss asked in a hard and angry voice.
    “Rahel says that what the Lord Ulm says is not what the Lord Ulm intends. She says that the Bishop-Navigator Kaifa arrived at Vara with the starship Gloria in Coelis during the night--”
    Glamiss frowned. “So soon? Emeric said--” He broke off and stared appraisingly down the slope to where Emeric the Rhadan was packing his kit and strapping on his weapons among the warmen. A faint suspicion struggled against his trust and affection for the Navigator. Were the Navigators playing with him? Were there plots within plots here? The Order’s ways were often devious, sometimes even treacherous.
    “There is more, Glamiss Warleader.”
    Glamiss looked at the Vulk’s face. Like a smooth stone, he thought, an ageless, immutable permanence lived in that face. He shivered slightly and made the sign of the Star on his palate with his tongue. “Say on, Vulka Asa. What more is there?”
    “This morning the warband’s horses were loaded aboard the Gloria, together with war machines. She believes the men will go aboard soon with Lord Ulm, the Bishop, and the two Inquisitors who came with him from Aurora.”
    Glamiss felt the prickling warning of threatened disaster. “How do you read this, Asa?”
    The Vulk turned slightly toward Nav Emeric, who was strapping his mailed shirt now, arming himself. “Wouldn’t you prefer to discuss this with the lord Nav Emeric?”
    Glamiss’s eyes narrowed. “I would not. I asked you a question. Answer it, Vulk.”
    Asa inclined his head. “My sister-wife, she-who-shares-with-me, and I believe that we were sent into this valley as a diversion, Glamiss Warleader. The Inquisition knows more of the strangeness here than you believe--”
    “And Emeric?” Glamiss asked harshly.
    “The lord Navigator is as innocent as I, Warleader. His order does not share all things with all its members.”
    “Can I believe that?”
    “Yes, you can believe it. The Bishop has known of the witchcraft in Trama for a long time--or so Rahel thinks. The plan to use Ulm’s warband to cleanse the valley comes from Algol, from the Grand Master Talvas, himself.”
    “Then why was I sent here with a small force?” Glamiss demanded.
    “You are young, Glamiss,” the Vulk said, “but you know the ways of the world. The answer is in your mind. I see it there.”
    “Ulm wants me dead.”
    “Yes, Warleader.”
    “He daren’t risk a simple dagger or a challenge--”
    The Vulk smiled thinly. “You are too popular with the warband for that. He will tell the soldiers that you have turned rebel--that you are bewitched by the dark powers in Trama. The Bishop-Navigator will support him--in exchange for a free hand for the Inquisition in this place.”
    “Well now,” Glamiss said, holding his heavy Vykan sword thoughtfully. “I have come up in the world, Vulk Asa. Who would have thought a poor herdsman’s son would rate a plot for his execution? With the connivance of the holy Order, at that.”
    Emeric, overhearing, stood at his shoulder. “What’s this about executions, Glamiss? And the Order?”
    Glamiss fixed his friend with a cold stare. “It seems you are expendible, Nav Emeric, for all that you’re a noble of the Northern Rhad. Ulm is embarking the warband on the Gloria --but not exactly to come to our assistance here. He’s weeded out the troopers loyal to me for this foray, and now he’s coming with the warband to kill us. With the aid and blessing of the holy Order, friend priest. What do you make of that?” Disbelief