Read "The Rebel of Valkyr" by Alfred Coppel online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Like great silver fish leaping up into the bowl of night, the ships of the Valkyr fleet rose from Kalgan. Within the pulsing hulls five thousand warriors rode, ready for battle. Against the mighty forces of the assembled star-kings, the army of Valkyr counted for almost nothing; but the savage fighting men of the Edge carried with them their talisman Alys Imperatrix, uncrowned sovereign of the Galaxy, Heiress to the Thousand Emperors the daughter of their beloved warrior-prince, Gilmer, conqueror of Kaidor.
In the lead vessel, Nevitta dogged the harried Navigators, urging greater speed. Below decks, the war chargers snorted and stomped the steel decks, sensing the tension of the coming clash in the close, smoky air of the spaceships.