The Navigator of Rhada Read Online Free PDF Page A

Baltus said. “The Aurori Navigators will pilot the Aurori starships. The Navigators of Gonlan will pilot ours. The clergy cannot afford to take sides in a dispute such as this.”
    “The Navigators have already taken sides, Baltus,” Gret said flatly. “Their enemy is the Empire. It hasn’t always been so, nor will it always be so. But since Torquas X’s time, there has been conflict between the Order and the government of the Empire.”
    “Well, then,” Tirzah said brusquely, “what is that to us?”
    “Only this. The Auroran enclave is important to the Order. So important, I fear, that it might cause them to abandon their traditional evenhandedness. If you attack Aurora, Rhada may come under an interdict.”
    “Impossible,” Crespus declared. “The Ten Worlds of Rhada are devout and God-fearing. Excommunicate us? Impossible, I say. Why, more than likely the Navigators will favor us in any war with the Aurori. Firstly, because the treacherous attack on the betrothal feast was a betrayal of the laws of hospitality and a breach of the peace of God. And secondly, because the Aurori have attacked the bond-father and bond-son of a holy Navigator. Kynan-- you know the boy, Gret. Kreon’s adoptive son.”
    “You have sent for him, of course.”
    “We have, naturally. Kreon insists on seeing him. Some of our people even consider him the heir to Gonlan, now that Karston may be dead,” said LaRoss, speaking for the first time.
    Gret turned his attention fully to the First Minister. Vulks did not “see” as humans did. Their perceptions were stimulated by mental energies and that universal principle that the ancient priest-kings of long-ago-destroyed Vulka called “the life force.”
    With great effort and human cooperation, the Vulk could enter the human mind. Even without a human’s acquiescence, a mature Vulk could sense much that transpired within a man. But LaRoss, Kreon’s First Minister, was that human rarity to Gret: a completely shielded personality. No inkling of what went on within the minister’s tightly controlled brain reached the questing Vulk. “Do you believe Karston dead, Minister?” Gret asked. La Ross shrugged and wrapped his dark cloak around him against the chill air in the hall. “I can only tell you what I saw with my own eyes, Vulk. It would be well if you told it to Alberic just as I tell it to you. He is a Rhad and a warman, and he should understand what it means.” He walked to the narrow window and stood for a moment studying the stony seacoast far below. Night was falling, and the long swells of the Gonlan Sea broke in bursts of dark silver on the rocky coast.
    LaRoss spoke quietly. “It was a happy occasion, as you might imagine. Kreon and Karston went to Star Field as friends and allies. There was no need--or so we thought --for anything more than a ceremonial escort. After all, Karston and Janessa were promised when they were still children, and there has never been war between Aurora and Gonlan.” He regarded the Royal Vulk of Rhada with narrowed eyes. “Between Aurora and Rhada, yes. Before Gonlan became part of the Rhadan Palatinate--in Aaron the Devil’s time--the Rhad and the Aurori warred and raided. But I forget that you must remember that yourself. You were Aaron’s councilor--”
    The Vulk smiled thinly. “I was Aaron of Rhada’s fool and minstrel, Minister. In those days, Vulks had no titles.” LaRoss gave a mock bow. “Forgive me. I forget that it was Kier who changed all that. The great king of the Rhad.”
    “He was,” Gret said, “and well you know it. The very greatest of the Rhad. Greater even than the beatified Emeric. But go on.”
    “There’s little enough to tell, actually. We arrived at Star Field, and the Elector greeted us well--” LaRoss grimaced. “I admit to being at least partially at fault in this. I have always favored the Auroran alliance for us. I thought the Elector an honorable man. I was wrong. First Kreon was taken ill at the