The Game of Stars and Comets by Andre Norton Page B

Kade said. "Across the star paths this beast serves warriors, wearing no collar but this," he lifted his hand, displaying the reins. "As the Kwitu, grass is for its eating, not the flesh of men."
    The hostility he was certain he read in the native's eyes did not diminish. Kade knew that with time pressing he must force matters. He whistled, the stallion nickered, and across the field the lead mare answered inquiringly. He had taken the precaution of looping her reins to the empty saddle pad, and now she came at a canter to join them, her sisters drifting after.
    Buk was nowhere in sight, but Kade could not be sure that the Overman was not watching. Should the alien use the collar controls now—At least after his first attempt at escape Dokital had not moved, although Kade left a way open for him.
    "Warriors ride," the Terran remarked. He put out his left hand and drew his fingers down the mare's soft nose.
    "There is no warrior." For the first time the Ikkinni spoke. "It wears the collar." The heat of anger was searing, though the native did not even glance toward the stunner at Kade's belt.
    "That is perhaps so," Kade agreed. "A warrior fights with a spear, a slave with magic knotted by night."
    Dokital gave no answer to that charge. He stepped out of his corner refuge as if he were being pushed toward the horses and the rider by his desperate need to learn some truth. "The net holds it not?"
    "The net is of Klor, how could it hold it which is not of Klor?"
    Dokital blinked as he digested that bit of simple logic. But he had intelligence enough to not only accept Kade's answer but come back with a counter-argument to cross as a fencer's blade crosses his opponent's.
    "The beast is not of Klor, how then can such be slave to those on Klor?"
    "There is magic, and magic. Some kinds sweep from star to star, others bind the men of one world only. There is nothing to be learned without trial. The knots were netted for it, and that was a trial. Now let another trial be made."
    For a moment, a very long moment, there was silence. Kade heard the ripple of breeze through the grass, the distant call of a sky high bird. He loosed the mare's reins, gathered them into his own hand.
    Dokital moved, raising his palm up and out, taking one step and then another toward the mare. She turned her head, regarded the Ikkinni placidly. Then her nose came down to lip the native's fingers and Dokital stood valiantly, a tremor visible up his arm, yet he stood.
    "Up!" Kade ordered, with a rasp which might have come from Buk's lips.
    If Dokital had not appeared to absorb the information of the impromptu class in horsemanship it was surface indifference only. He mounted the mare clumsily. But he was safely on the riding pad when Kade walked the stallion out into the open land, leading the mare, the other horses trailing.
    The walk became a cautious trot and the mare pushed a little ahead, until Ikkinni and Terran were riding almost thigh to thigh. Kade could read no expression on the native's face, but he was certain a measure of the other's rigid tenseness had vanished. And now Kade dared to increase the pace to a canter. They circled, were heading back toward the clustered buildings of the post, and Kade cut the speed back to a walk.
    "A warrior rides," he said.
    Dokital's hand went up to the collar he wore. "There is no warrior wearing this, starwalker," his head came around, his eyes were again red flames of eagerness. "Break these from us and you shall see warriors! But this must be soon."
    A note in that alerted Kade. "Why?"
    "The word has been passed. These are evil." Dokital combed his fingers in the mare's cropped mane. "There is said kill, kill!"
    "Who kills? Those of the collars?"
    "Those of the collars. With more from beyond." Dokital pointed with his chin toward the land which cupped the Terran post. There was the scarred landing apron, the winding river, the drifts of fast-growing grass broken by groves of trees, but it was a land at peace