The Navigator of Rhada by Robert Cham Gilman
Authors: Robert Cham Gilman
Tags: Science-Fiction, Young Adult
Ads: Link
yet. We are forced to use starships of a million metric tons to transport a bale of goods from Gonlanburg to the other shore of the Gonlan Sea! We can’t build a hovercar that will carry us a hundred kilometers without needing to recharge batteries!” He broke off suddenly. “I apologize, Nav Kynan. I feel this so strongly that I risk offending you and your calling. But it is all part of why I am with you--and against men I have known and served most of my adult life. If one warlock can enter a sanctuary of the Order, it is a beginning. I know I run the risk of being burned for heresy and blasphemy-- but I don’t really believe the Order is so unenlightened now. In Hu Chien’s time, yes. But not now.”
Kynan regarded the warlock for a long time, listening to the sound of the wind and the rain. Presently he said quietly. “It may be that what you say contains some truth. But there may be war coming. It isn’t the time to challenge dogma men have lived by since Glamiss’s time.” “Let me help you prevent it, Nav Kynan. Perhaps I’ll earn my reward in that way.”
“I am only a priest, Baltus, not a prince of the Order.” The warlock leaned across the withers of the silver mare and placed his hand over Kynan’s. “You are the bond-son of my star king, Nav. That is hope enough for me.”
Kynan sat silently for a time and then inclined his head to touch the warlock’s knuckles in the ancient Rhad ritual gesture of acceptance of fealty. “So be it, then,” he said. “For better or worse, we are bound.” Then he spoke softly to the silver mare and led off up the leveling path to the wind-scoured plateau, where lay the path to Gonlanburg.
It was near the hour of dawn when they reached the town, but the stormy darkness was unbroken. The stone houses, most of them roofed with turf, stood shuttered against the weather. The soft pads of the horses’ feet made no sound on the wet and muddy cobblestones.
Kynan avoided the watch and skirted the main square of the city, heading the small procession toward the bare field that served the place as a port.
Even at a distance Kynan, Janessa, and the warlock could see the glow of the Lyri starship. The fields of energy surrounding it ionized the raindrops and made them radiate with sympathetic forces.
The intensity of the light and the rate at which it was brightening indicated to Kynan’s practiced eye that the great ship was making ready to depart.
Janessa urged Skua forward to ride side by side with the Navigator. “What is it?” she asked.
“Listen,” Kynan warned.
The rain rustled on the turfed roofs of Gonlanburg, and in the distance the three fugitives could hear the soft clatter of arms. “LaRoss and Tirzah have sent a detachment to hold the starship,” Baltus said softly.
“Brother Evart would never let them aboard,” Kynan said.
“True enough. But they can certainly prevent us from reaching the ship.”
“I don’t think Rhad warmen would interfere with me,” Kynan said with a confidence he didn’t feel.
The air had begun to hum in resonance with the power increase in the ancient engines of the starship. The farther houses were outlined, dark and squat, against the luminosity originating at the port.
Kynan’s mare reached the square nearest the field, and now the three of them could see the starship clearly. It was an awe-inspiring sight, even at this distance. The kilometer-long hull pulsed with patterns of light, the magnetic lines of force surrounding the great vessel swirling and changing as the negative charges built up. The nose cone of the control section was fully polarized, so that it looked crystalline, almost invisible, and the control instruments and consoles were dark shapes suspended in space. Kynan could see Brother Evart’s cowled figure reclining in the First Pilot’s couch and, less distinctly, the outline of Brothers Clement and Pius, the novices who were assisting in the takeoff.
Janessa caught Kynan’s mailed
Kynan regarded the warlock for a long time, listening to the sound of the wind and the rain. Presently he said quietly. “It may be that what you say contains some truth. But there may be war coming. It isn’t the time to challenge dogma men have lived by since Glamiss’s time.” “Let me help you prevent it, Nav Kynan. Perhaps I’ll earn my reward in that way.”
“I am only a priest, Baltus, not a prince of the Order.” The warlock leaned across the withers of the silver mare and placed his hand over Kynan’s. “You are the bond-son of my star king, Nav. That is hope enough for me.”
Kynan sat silently for a time and then inclined his head to touch the warlock’s knuckles in the ancient Rhad ritual gesture of acceptance of fealty. “So be it, then,” he said. “For better or worse, we are bound.” Then he spoke softly to the silver mare and led off up the leveling path to the wind-scoured plateau, where lay the path to Gonlanburg.
It was near the hour of dawn when they reached the town, but the stormy darkness was unbroken. The stone houses, most of them roofed with turf, stood shuttered against the weather. The soft pads of the horses’ feet made no sound on the wet and muddy cobblestones.
Kynan avoided the watch and skirted the main square of the city, heading the small procession toward the bare field that served the place as a port.
Even at a distance Kynan, Janessa, and the warlock could see the glow of the Lyri starship. The fields of energy surrounding it ionized the raindrops and made them radiate with sympathetic forces.
The intensity of the light and the rate at which it was brightening indicated to Kynan’s practiced eye that the great ship was making ready to depart.
Janessa urged Skua forward to ride side by side with the Navigator. “What is it?” she asked.
“Listen,” Kynan warned.
The rain rustled on the turfed roofs of Gonlanburg, and in the distance the three fugitives could hear the soft clatter of arms. “LaRoss and Tirzah have sent a detachment to hold the starship,” Baltus said softly.
“Brother Evart would never let them aboard,” Kynan said.
“True enough. But they can certainly prevent us from reaching the ship.”
“I don’t think Rhad warmen would interfere with me,” Kynan said with a confidence he didn’t feel.
The air had begun to hum in resonance with the power increase in the ancient engines of the starship. The farther houses were outlined, dark and squat, against the luminosity originating at the port.
Kynan’s mare reached the square nearest the field, and now the three of them could see the starship clearly. It was an awe-inspiring sight, even at this distance. The kilometer-long hull pulsed with patterns of light, the magnetic lines of force surrounding the great vessel swirling and changing as the negative charges built up. The nose cone of the control section was fully polarized, so that it looked crystalline, almost invisible, and the control instruments and consoles were dark shapes suspended in space. Kynan could see Brother Evart’s cowled figure reclining in the First Pilot’s couch and, less distinctly, the outline of Brothers Clement and Pius, the novices who were assisting in the takeoff.
Janessa caught Kynan’s mailed
Similar Books
