The Rebel of Rhada by Robert Cham Gilman Read Free Book Online Page B

captain of The Magnifico’s, one of the men who had brought a semblance of peace to the home planet after generations of war. They recognized the harness of the troops from the starship as Rhadan and had begun to wave and cheer. Already, there were some hundreds of Nyori braving the rain; the word was spreading, and more were coming to join the throng. A battle with the Rhadans would most certainly be “a public display,” and it would undoubtedly cause considerable “delay.” Thus, the Vegan commander acted as soldiers have acted for twenty thousand years. He bucked the problem along to higher authority by sending for Landro, the Imperial warleader.
    At this point, Kier of Rhada, flanked by Cavour and Gret--the Vulk absurdly resplendent atop a Rhadan war mare--emerged from the starship and rode silently to the edge of the Rhadan perimeter. Immediately, the portal half closed behind them, so that even a concerted rush by the Imperials could not overrun the starship. The people of Nyor had begun to shout greetings to the popular young man known as The Rebel, but the obviously grim meaning of the Rhadan deployment was not lost on them, and they stirred uneasily.
    For the better part of thirty minutes, the fighting men on the landing ground sat their mounts in silence, Rhadans gripping their flails, Vegans with their axes to hand.
    As the tension mounted, Kier murmured a word to Gret, and the Vulk smiled broadly and took up his instrument.
    He began to play a hiring air, the melody of a song of the people, a ballad about a Vegan star king of a century ago whose doings were still the subject of much ribaldry.
    The people cheered, and the Vegan troopers smiled. Pride in the amorous doings of their nobility was a very Vegan characteristic. Less warlike than the spartan Rhadans, the Imperials began to call out to the visitors in friendly terms, to the embarrassment of their frustrated commander.
    Gret, playing the fool, made his mare prance and step in time to the music, and the people cheered more loudly, relieved at this small sign of nonwarlike intent on the part of the Rhadans.
    Sitting beside the young star king, Cavour said quietly, “I see what he meant by saying he might be useful.”
    “I expect more than this from Gret,” Kier said.
    Cavour raised his eyes to the activity atop the wall. Even at this distance he could see that the war engines were fully manned. And now a smaller but far more resplendent body of troops was issuing from the city.
    Like a wave, silence spread across the crowd of Nyori. Gret’s music ended as the people turned to look at the Imperial warleader’s bodyguard cantering toward the first rank of Vegan Imperials. At the head of the guardsmen rode Landro.
    Kier noted that he was in court dress and not in war harness. He murmured to Cavour, “I may have misjudged him.”
    “As a bird misjudges a snake, Kier.”
    Landro paused for a word with the Imperial commander and then rode on alone, the scales of his Vegan horse glistening wetly in the silvery light of the afternoon.
    Kier moved his mount through the lines to meet him. The two men stopped with their animals’ heads only a meter apart, and the Rhadan mare laid her ears back and bared her teeth at her distant, distant relative. She twisted her head to look at her master, rolling her eyes. “Kill?” she asked. Kier soothed her, patting her arching, sweating neck, and told her no.
    “What nasty beasts you Rhadans keep, cousin,” Landro said.
    Kier, who only by the greatest stretch of genealogical imagination could be considered a cousin of Landro’s, replied, “They suit us, Leader.” He spoke in Vegan dialect, rather than Imperial, as a courtesy to the Veg.
    Landro accepted the compliment and said, “Welcome to Nyor. But why all the warlike preparations?” He smiled dryly. “Have you come to conquer us with a squadron of warmen?”
    “I came because I was called, Landro. I landed as Rhadans always land. We Rim-world people have