Текст книги "Bloodname"

Автор книги: Роберт Торстон

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24

"MechWarrior Horse," said Lenore Shi-Lu, the Inquisitor, her voice oratorical in its resonance. Aidan found it much more impressive than Beck Qwabe's rather thin tenor, especially considering the difference in height between the two court officers. Lenore Shi-Lu was as delicate and pretty as Beck Qwabe was lumbering and homely. Just as with Beck Qwabe, Aidan noticed the hint of falcon in her eyes. Again the difference was pronounced. Shi-Lu's eyes were not gentle like Qwabe's. Hers were the eyes of a hunting falcon, like the one named Warhawk Aidan had known in his own youth.

"MechWarrior Horse," she said, "that could not be your real name."

"It's not," Horse replied. "I don't give out my real name." The words, though spoken softly, echoed through the enormous room.

A shudder went through the observers at the coarse sound of Horse's reply, not only for the contractions, but for the suggestion of defiance. Defiance from a freeborn was not to be tolerated in official ceremonies. Most of the warriors in the chamber had had little contact with freeborn warriors.

"However that may be," said Lenore Shi-Lu, with some contempt for the freeborn in her stentorian voice, "This is an official proceeding, and for official proceedings we must have official records. You must tell us the name you were born with. Come, MechWarrior, no hesitation. We can derive it from your codex anyway."

Horse nodded, knowing that the Inquisitor already knew the name and merely wanted him to speak it. "It's Tyle. My real name is Tyle. I am named after my father."

The word fatheralso created a stir among the observers, for it was a reminder of the foul origins of a freeborn. Genefather or genemother was a term of honor. But the naked words fatherand motherwere so obscene that they were not uttered even as curses.

"Thank you," the Inquisitor said smugly, then led Horse through a series of questions that revealed Aidan's participation in the freeborn training unit. She allowed him to describe the Trial during which he and Aidan had cooperated to defeat two opposing BattleMechs and earn their warrior status.

"And you were aware at the time that this Aidan– Jorge, as you knew him—had already failed in an earlier Trial?"

"He told me, yes."

"Then you also must realize that your own qualifying as a warrior was the result of fraud."

"No, I don't realizethat at all. I would've qualified, with or without help. I'm as good as any trueborn warrior any day."

Had weapons been allowed into the chamber, Horse would have been the victim of multiple shots fired from the council seats.

"It seems," said Lenore Shi-Lu, with an eye toward the angry crowd, "that Star Commander Aidan's arrogance and defiance have influenced your own, MechWarrior. Let me remind you that this is an official proceeding, and any violation of Clan custom will be recorded on your codex."

"I know that."

"And you do not care?"

"No, I don't."

Lenore Shi-Lu nodded and glanced toward the Loremaster, whose gesture indicated that she be done with this witness.

"One last question, MechWarrior Tyle."

"Horse. I don't know how to answer to the name Tyle."

"You will answer to whatever name with which I and the council choose to address you, freeborn. My question, MechWarrior Tyle, is this: Should a warrior whose status came as the result of fraud be allowed to compete for an honorable Bloodname?"

"It don't matter none to me." Horse's use of improper grammar in conjunction with the contraction caused some nearly violent reactions among the Clansmen. "Aidan fought better and was a fairer officer than all the trueborns I have ever encountered."

The Loremaster made a gesture toward Lenore Shi-Lu to end her interrogation of the witness. She seemed pleased to tell him that she had no further questions.

Beck Qwabe then conducted a brief interrogation of Horse intended to establish that Aidan had the respect of his warriors and had fought courageously, especially in the battle over the Pershaw gene heritage. In his mind, Aidan decided that Horse's positive testimony would have no effect on the judgment of the Council. Indeed, to the ears of these Bloodnamed warriors, Horse's words were no more than the unnecessarily provocative utterances of a freebirth.

* * *

"Star Colonel Kael Pershaw, you have described well the valor of Star Commander Aidan during the engagement with Clan Wolf," said Lenore Shi-Lu. She had drawn from Pershaw vivid details of the battle. "You have credited him not only with the act that finally won it, but with the strategy that eventually achieved victory."

"That is correct."

"But only days before you had placed the emblem of deep shame, the dark band, on this same man after, as you testified, he had refused to invoke surkai.Did you not feel shame at giving this recalcitrant warrior such prominence in the combat?"

Kael Pershaw had not expected to have his own name tainted with the brush of Aidan's crimes. A loyal Clansman, he had come here to give evidence againstthe man. Ordinarily he did not take advantage of his right as a Bloodnamed warrior to sit in council.

"Circumstances dictate improvisation. Any commander in the field knows that." He stared at Lenore Shi-Lu, as if to infer that her experience did not provide her with a true comprehension of the actions of warriors on active duty. She had come out of cadet training as a warrior with an extraordinary cadet record, but Khan Elias Crichell had ordered her immediately to his command staff, where she was one of his top advisers. She had seen very little battle.

"Star Commander Aidan's plan had merit," he said, invoking his command voice. "There were the unknown combatants obscured from normal detection in the swamp, and Clan Wolf's forces were stretched out across the battlefield. Clan Wolf was thus attacked from front and rear—and, for that matter, from underneath, by an Elemental assault. Where the plan of battle originates is of less importance than the judgment of the commander. I, as commander, approved the plan. It could not have gone forward without me. That is the kind of improvisation under battle stress of which I speak, Inquisitor."

Lenore Shi-Lu had performed enough council interrogations to know when she had been successfully countered, and she bowed her head slightly in acknowledgment of his skill.

During his question period, Beck Qwabe returned to the matter of the conflict with Clan Wolf. "Then do you say that Star Commander Aidan's battle prowess and his strategy do not necessarily qualify him to compete for a Bloodname?"

"No, they do not. They are no more, and no less, than I would expect from any warrior under my command."

"Yet you have verified his claim to compete for the Bloodname."

"He is allowed, by virtue of the matrilineal name. The deplorable facts of his life have no effect on that. I was forced to approve the claim."

The Loremaster interrupted. "Beck Qwabe, we do not need any further verification of the warrior's claim to the Bloodname. It is not his achievements as a warrior or the matrilineal genetic ancestry that are at issue in this council. We are concerned with the circumstances by which Star Commander Aidan earned the privilege of warrior status. The council must judge his right to that status before he can be allowed to battle for a Bloodname."

"I stand properly corrected, Loremaster," Beck Qwabe demurred. "I merely wish to establish that Star Commander Aidan's codex is untainted, even if his character may be."

"A worthy purpose, Beck Qwabe. Please go on."

In his final statements, Kael Pershaw indicated that Star Commander Aidan, in spite of his achievements, was difficult to control and discipline.

"Kael Pershaw," Lenore Shi-Lu said, in her second round of interrogation, "do you believe that Star Commander Aidan's first failed Trial is the one that should apply, that the second Trial should be canceled out and he reassume his caste role as tech? You hesitate. Why?"

"With all due respect, Lenore Shi-Lu, I must say that I roundly despise Star Commander Aidan. However, your questions trouble me. If he has effectively carried out his duties as a warrior, which I believe he has, then should his codex be summarily erased?"

"I believe it is my role to ask the questions here, Star Colonel."

"And my role is to be honest, quiaff?And, in all honesty, I believe that Star Commander Aidan performed his duties with ability and, as noted, valor. He has been a warrior. Fraudulently earned or not, his status may indeed be verified by his actions. I came here to condemn him, yet I must say that the only blemishes to his record under my command are related to personality traits and not actions. I begin to wonder if perhaps his second Trial was, after all, the correct one."

Again sensing her disadvantage, Lenore Shi-Lu quickly dismissed Kael Pershaw, who resumed his seat on the council. Aidan studied the man, at least as well as he could from a distance. He found no clue in the officer's expression as to why he had actually given Aidan's cause some support. There never would be, Aidan suspected.

A few character witnesses came forward to verify Ter Roshak's military records, then the trial went into the next phase: the interrogation of the accused parties. Joanna took a deep breath as she heard her name being called.

25

Lenore Shi-Lu led Joanna through her questions meticulously. Almost all her questions, and those of the Advocate, came from the council members, via computer monitors. The questions reflected the warriors' concerns in this very delicate matter, while it was the Inquisitor's task to frame the questions in the way that would have the most impact. Lenore Shi-Lu rose brilliantly to the occasion. It was only minutes before the woman's politely phrased queries began to exasperate Joanna, but she realized that anyone's questions, conducted over a long period of time, would probably do so. Her testimony was rendered even more difficult because she could sense, even without looking, the intense gazes of both Aidan and Ter Roshak upon her.

* * *

Ter Roshak had spent the last evening writing in a journal he had kept since his cadet days. In it he poured out his thoughts.

He wrote that, whatever happened, his career as a Clan warrior was now finished. Even in the unlikely event that the council cleared him of all charges, he could never return to his position as Falconer Commander of training. His authority would be undermined by the cloud of doubt and suspicion that would follow him everywhere. He could not have that.

And he was now too old to return to active duty as a warrior. Age was the one unpardonable sin among the Clans, and few had been able to surmount it.

He could have requested demotion to a lower caste, to live out his life performing some useful service, becoming proficient at some craft. But what real warrior could accept that? What glory could he find in adjusting a calibration or shaping clay into pots?

No, only death awaited him now. And he aimed to face it with the will and ferocity of a proper Clan warrior. This trial was merely a tedium he had to endure. He knew the outcome, almost to the exact numbers. Oh, it was possible that some council members might switch their vote at the last moment, but it was not likely to change things.

In the days before the trial, Roshak had spoken with all the Bloodnamed warriors he knew, especially those who owed him favors. Persuading several of them of the inevitability of the verdict, he told them he wished to reduce the level of dishonor so that he could take proper measures. If he could get the verdict down to three-to-one, or at least four-to-one, he could enact his plan, the one recourse that would allow him to finish off his life with some sense of honor, but the one secret he could not commit to his journal.

Whatever happened in the council, he wrote, the life of Ter Roshak is over. There is no more need for this journal.

When he had closed the covers of the last volume of his journal, he took the many he had filled over the years and fed them to a fire he built outside his quarters. Watching the flames consume the pages was like watching the destruction of his life. Each page was a period of time. As it went up in flames, that period disappeared, as if eliminated by the hand of an unseen god. There was no god, seen or unseen, Roshak thought. Or perhaps he, Ter Roshak, was the god. He took some satisfaction in enacting his supreme judgment on the life of one of his imperfect minions. The pages, as they gave themselves to the fire, did not curl submissively. Rather, like the man who had written them, they danced among the flames as if defying them.

Ter Roshak had not expected that Star Captain Joanna would be one of the witnesses. Her role in his deception had been so small, at the level of a functionary running errands for him, that he lamented her becoming one of the defendants. But, with all her cleverness and wary suspicion, she had uncovered just enough of his deception to make the accusation justified. She should have turned him in back then, but she had not, and so her career would be dragged down along with his and Aidan's.

Unless, of course, his new plan worked. There wasan outside chance of that happening, but victory was not his goal. He merely wanted to die, and to die in the same manner he had lived. As a warrior. Dying as a warrior meant more to him than any achievement in his past, and certainly more than any fraud.

* * *

"Star Captain Joanna, you knew Star Commander Aidan was being given a second chance, quiaff?"

"As well you know."

The Loremaster interrupted. "There is to be no sarcasm, insult, or anger in your responses, Star Captain Joanna."

She glanced at the Loremaster. She did not know his name. He was a bit old for a warrior, with many touches of gray in his hair and weariness in his eyes.

"I am sorry, Loremaster. I intended no disrespect, but I will be more careful in my words."

"Thank you, Star Captain Joanna."

"What did you know at that time?" Lenore Shi-Lu asked.

"I knew that he was being given a second chance. I trained him in how to act his role of freebir—of freeborn. In the last days of training, I was the training officer for his unit. I was also in the BattleMech that ended his Trial after he had made the required kill."

"Then it is safe to say that you were implicated in the fraud, quiaff?"

"Aff. Quite safe to say, Inquisitor."

"How do you justify your concealment of the facts?"

"Orders. I was following the orders of Falconer Commander Ter Roshak. Furthermore, he had solicited my vow of secrecy before I knew about what he had planned."

"Once you discovered that Ter Roshak's orders were based on fraud, did it not occur to you that this released you from vows of obedience and secrecy?"

"No, it did not. Vows must be kept."

"There is not a higher vow, that owed to your Clan?"

Joanna felt trapped by Lenore Shi-Lu's grim words. "Inquisitor," she replied, "I am aware of the theories of the higher vow, and I have considered them often. But I did not want to see a capable officer destroyed, one whose record as a training officer has been, I believe, unsurpassed. I believed that Ter Roshak's abilities surpassed the higher vow, and I still do."

Ter Roshak's eyebrows shot up at Joanna's remark. He knew that she had many good warrior qualities, but had not suspected loyalty to be one of them.

"You have a unique sense of Clan philosophy, Star Commander Joanna."

"Perhaps it is because on the field a warrior must go up against scum—"

"Star Captain Joanna!" the Loremaster shouted, and she quickly apologized.

"I believed I did right," she said quietly.

"Purely out of loyalty."

"No, not just loyalty. I realized that Star Commander Aidan would not have a real warrior's life by posing as a freebirth. Even if his qualifying broke the rules, he would get no real reward for it, considering the kind of workhorse backwater assignments that would be, and have been, his destiny. I did not see any harm as long as he could not do any harm. I had not anticipated the harm he has done."

"Well-spoken, Star Captain. However, as your forced presence here shows, your action was, at the very least, questionable, quiaff?"

"Aff."

"Do you believe that Star Commander Aidan is worthy of the Bloodname he seeks?"

"With all due respect, Inquisitor, I thought that his Bloodname worthiness was not an issue in these proceedings."

Lenore Shi-Lu smiled. "You are correct, Star Captain. But most members of the council wish to know. I nevertheless withdraw the question. Let me substitute another that is also on the mind of many council members. Do you believe that Ter Roshak's actions were in any way justified?"

"No!"

"You have no sympathy with his backing of a warrior candidate whom he apparently believed to have suffered an unfortunate defeat in his Trial?"

"No! Star Commander Aidan, regardless of his considerable abilities, had failed. If a cadet fails, he gets no second chance. That is the way of the Clan."

"But he has received a second chance and done well, quiaff?Why do you remain silent? Would not the defenders of Glory Station have gone down to defeat if not for the valor of Star Commander Aidan?"

"They would. But perhaps that might have been for the best."

"Oh? Explain."

"The shame that he has brought down on the rest of the warriors of Glory Station may not be worth the victory."

"You consider defeat better than victory for reasons of, well, ethics? An intriguing view, Star Captain."

"I know nothing about ethics. I only know the shame."

"You have explained yourself honestly, Star Captain Joanna. I have no more questions."

Beck Qwabe's interrogation was brief and perfunctory. He obviously did not want to confuse the council members with any more of Joanna's strange responses, most of which were dangerous to his case. And at the moment, it looked as though any case he might conceivably make was rapidly fading from view.

As Joanna went back to her seat at the table, the Loremaster called on Aidan to bring forth his testimony. When Aidan stood up, his face was remarkably calm.

26

Aidan did not know what the outcome of this trial would be, but believed the justness of his own cause would prevail. There was a poem in one of the books of his secret library. It dealt with some old, now-forgotten hero whose strength was that of ten men because his heart was pure. Aidan could not be sure of the purity of his heart, but he did feel inordinately strong.

As Lenore Shi-Lu approached, he thought idly of what an odd pair they made—he so tall, she so small. Looking down at her, he experienced a strange attraction. It was not the first time he was attracted to a woman, of course, for there had been Marthe, Peri, and a few others he had known only briefly. This time seemed peculiar, however. This woman held his fate in her hands. He should neither respect her nor find her intriguing sexually, yet he felt both.

As Lenore Shi-Lu scanned the computer screen, Aidan took the opportunity to cast his eyes about the audience looking for Marthe. She was still there, watching impassively. And she did not look away. He wished he could talk to her.

"Star Commander Aidan," Lenore Shi-Lu said abruptly, startling him out of his reverie. The loudness and authority in her voice made his awareness of her sexuality drift away with her words. "Are you well?"

"I am fine."

"I thought we had lost you there for a moment. Before I begin my interrogation, the Loremaster informs me that he must speak to you first. Loremaster?"

The Loremaster glanced at Khan Elias Crichell, who signaled his assent with a nod. "Under the authorization of the Khan, I have made a formal poll of the members of the council," the Loremaster announced. "The outcome of the poll is that the council will agree to reduce all charges against you, including the charge of treason, in exchange for one thing."

The Loremaster paused for a moment, letting his words sink in. "If you will give up your claim to eligibility to compete for a Bloodname, we are prepared to excuse most of the other infractions. Before you respond, I must explain the reason for this unprecedented offer. Khan Elias Crichell is willing to verify your warrior status as long as you are not Blood-named. It is, he believes, a worthy compromise that endorses your performance of duty as a warrior while taking into account the fraudulent means by which you earned the status. Further, it is his judgment that, regardless of your origins, you have lost the right to compete for a Bloodname because you failed in your first and only official trial. He believes you are an estimable warrior who might ascend to the highest ranks of command. However, should you win a Bloodname, you would burden it with a serious taint. More than two-thirds of the Bloodnamed warriors present agree. What say you, Star Commander Aidan?"

Aidan's calm left him in a rush, and he wanted to let out a scream of rage. The next moment, he reminded himself of his vow to conduct himself with dignity. He did not want to give these warriors any satisfaction, any endorsement of their view that he was tainted, or a fraud, or such a coward that he would accept this insulting offer.

"With all due respect, Loremaster, to you, to all warriors present, and to the honored Khan Elias Crichell, I cannot accept."

The rest of his speech was drowned out by the commotion that immediately erupted. Some warriors stood up, shaking their fists. A few tried to climb over their tables to rush down at him. Others merely roared their disapproval. He heard their cries as a long, scrambled message, one voice weaving in and out of another. "Freebirth! You are a disgrace to . . . right have you to dishonor the . . . to be strangled until your face turns . . . guts ripped out and eaten by . . . dare you refuse the Khan's generous and . . . will kill you! I will ... cut them into a thousand pieces and—"

It was all the Loremaster could do to bring the uproar to a semblance of order. It took a long time, during which Aidan stood impassively, not looking at anyone, but not looking down either.

Joanna was impressed. Aidan kept surprising her, and this was one of the best shocks yet. She almost admired him for it. She knew that the offer, though presented in generous terms, was absurd, offensive. How could any trueborn warrior accept it? From the moment a trueborn dropped from the canister, he or she was geared to fulfill his or her destiny, especially through prowess in warfare, with the single goal of earning a Bloodname and contributing to the sacred gene pool.

The council's gesture was political, an attempt to extricate the Clan leadership from a serious dilemma. But Aidan had probably doomed himself with his refusal. Sentiment would go even stronger against him now. The Khan had backed him into a corner and directed the vote. This council session would, in effect, block Aidan from going after the Bloodname. Khan Elias Crichell was known for crafty political strategies. Well, Joanna thought, he had just brought off another coup.

Though some warriors continued to squirm in agitation, all the while speaking to one another in angry whispers, the room returned to relative quiet. Lenore Shi-Lu began her interrogation. Her first questions concerned autobiographical details, which Aidan provided succinctly and without emotion.

"Star Commander Aidan," she said suddenly and with no preparatory questions, "when you were posing as a freeborn here on Ironhold, were you aware Ter Roshak had violated Clan law?"

"I knew that I was not supposed to receive a second chance."

"Yet you took it when offered, quiaff?"

"Aff. I only wanted to be a warrior. I had failed the first time because I was too bold. If not for that, I would have succeeded in my Trial."

"You would have won, you say, if you had modified your strategy. Yet, how can a Clan warrior be toobold? Can you answer that?"

"No. I cannot. I believe I misstated. I lost, as cadets do, because I deserved to lose. I accept that."

"As you so easily accepted the second Trial."

"Yes, I suppose you could put it that way. Inquisitor, I have been a warrior for a while now. As a warrior, I can look back on that time and say, in all honesty, that I should have not been granted a second chance. But I also believe it is too late for the Clan to renege. I have served the Jade Falcons well, and as a warrior."

"Then in your estimation, pragmatism replaces proper procedure, quiaff?"

"Aff. Whatever happens here, I am a warrior."

Though spoken softly, Aidan's words reverberated through the chamber, which immediately erupted into a new babble of protests.

Aidan stood, alone and calm, at the center of a whirlwind. Joanna, in spite of herself, admired him.

He was right in a way, she thought. His brand of defiance, of standing up to others, of speaking his mind at all costs—that too was part of the Clan. The refusal to step back, that was the way of the Clan as much as any other rite or custom. Aidan never stepped back. Who could expect him to do so now, renouncing the means by which he had earned his warrior status? Though such speculation might upset some of the assembled warriors, it made perfect sense to Joanna.

In a strange way, Aidan is my ally, she thought. The two of us are much alike. Perhaps that is why I hate him more than any other. And perhaps that is why my destiny seems so entwined with his.

Aidan's responses to Lenore Shi-Lu's subsequent questions were desultory. No, he had not known how Ter Roshak had manipulated the events leading to his second chance. Yes, he had suspected chicanery and confronted Ter Roshak with his suspicions. No, Ter Roshak had admitted nothing of substance to Aidan. (Ter Roshak, almost everyone knew, would have been too shrewd to make that error.) Yes, the Trial of Position had been run fairly, and he had earned his warrior status through superior strategy.

Beck Qwabe's few questions added little to Aidan's testimony. When Aidan returned to his place at the table, he did not quaver before the rumble of sustained hatred against him; his calm remained. During his interrogation, he had not become ruffled, an achievement that—for Aidan—approached the superhuman. He knew what he would do, and as he heard the Lore-master calling Roshak's name, he already suspected what Ter Roshak would do.

The man stood up. His spine erect and his shoulders militarily straight, for the first time he looked like the Roshak of old.