The Navigator of Rhada Read Online Free Page B

expected to do nothing?”
    The Vulk inclined his head. “I admit your provocation has been great, and the men of Gonlan are honorable. The noble Rhad takes all this into consideration. But he asks that you think what war on the Rim will mean.” The thin lips formed a sad smile. “I know better than most what civil strife brings. I remember the Dark Time. Long before any of you were born, I fled from world to world in peril of my life because I was a Vulk, and for my kind there is safety only in the rule of laws--laws that crumble in war. Five hundred years ago men fought with spears and swords and dropped stones from the starships. Now, thanks to science”--he nodded ironically to the warlock--”we have rediscovered gunpowder and the art of bombing cities. Are we to light the fuse here on the Rim? What are laws for, then? What is the purpose of the Empire and the nation-states if not to bring justice without war?”
    General Crespus stared red-eyed at the Vulk. “The nation-state exists for the protection of its people and its honor. Perhaps you’ve been too long on the Inner Planets, where things are done differently. Here on the Rim we are not afraid of war.”
    “Spoken like a true general, Crespus,” Gret murmured. “Yes, it’s so I have served the Rhad at Nyor--the first Vulk to be an ambassador to the Imperial Court from a Rim world, thanks to Kier and Ariane. None of you would remember them, for it was long ago, before you were born. But they had a vision of a Second Stellar Empire greater than the first: a supernation of worlds at peace, governed by laws and just men. It has not yet come to pass--but it must, or the Dark Time will come again. War is a cancer. It spreads swiftly. If Gonlan and Aurora begin to fight, all the Rhadan worlds will become involved. Loyalty to the Empire will disintegrate--because the Rhad are all like you. ‘Blood and honor,’ General. The clergy will take sides. Men of the Order will fight one another for their home worlds. It takes very little to start a war, gentlemen. It is very difficult to stop one. I ask that you consider carefully. Your star king, Alberic of Rhada, asks it--implores it, if you will. Return Janessa to Aurora.”
    “Never,” Tirzah declared, his hand on his flail. “What will happen to Gonlan if our king can be poisoned and our prince kidnaped without fear of retaliation?”
    Gret sighed. He felt suddenly old and weary. He wished sadly for the comforting mind-touch of Erit, his sister-wife. But she was far away, on Rhada. No, he would have to face this alone, knowing that he could not prevail against human pride and anger.
    “The Order of Navigators maintains an enclave on Aurora,” he said. “They are mining sacred ores there. What do you imagine they will do if you attack the planet?”
    The cold, rain-laden wind from the sea swayed the tapestries hanging on the walls of the ancient hall. Gret shivered for a moment, thinking that he was, indeed, growing old at last because he stood here with these warmen talking of peace and battle, and yet a part of him yearned for the comforting warmth of his quarters in the star king’s great house on Rhada. There was a time, he thought, when electric heat and soothing surroundings would have been the farthest things from his mind while engaged on such a mission as this.
    Baltus, the warlock, rather more scientist than warman, was the only hope for a peaceful settlement here, Gret knew. He wondered if he had done a wise thing in invoking the threat of the Navigators, however. In times past, the Order had persecuted warlocks unmercifully for delving into the ancient mysteries and intruding into the priestly preserves of Golden Age knowledge. The persecutions were almost unknown now, but the memory of those desperate times during the Interregnum between the Empires was a heritage of all warlocks, some of whom were now members of the AbasNav party.
    “The Order will behave the way the Order has always behaved,”