Текст книги "Bloodname"

Автор книги: Роберт Торстон

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Текущая страница: 17 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

33

Night noises surrounded him. Though another warrior might have found the sounds eerie or disturbing, to Aidan they were comforting. After Glory Station, what could be worse? Here at least were no strange lizards, no tree pumas. This forest was familiar to him, parts of it engraved in his memory from his two previous experiences in the place. The first time had been during his trueborn cadet training, when he had slain the four freeborns here. The second had been as a freeborn, when he had, ironically, saved some members of his unit from being killed.

From her investigation of the records, Marthe had learned that Lopar's scores in hand-to-hand combat drills were excellent, but Aidan had also scored high. Their scores, Marthe told him, were nearly identical.

"You start even," she had said. "Though your familiarity with the terrain might give you an edge."

"Not really," he told her. "If he is adept at hand-to-hand, the terrain will make no difference. If I have an advantage, it might be my general knowledge of Ironhold. For one thing, the forest will be impenetrably dark tonight because there will be no moon. I am used to the dark, and I like it. My experiences on Glory will also serve me in good stead. The Glory Station swamp and jungle may be the worst and deepest on any of the Clan worlds, and I certainly navigated them often enough. Nothing in any of Lopar's past assignments can match that."

But now all speculation was behind him. He felt for the knife, which was sheathed in his belt. For clothing, he had chosen trousers and a shirt that were almost skin-tight, on the theory that the cloth would not rustle and give him away as he moved through the woods. On his feet were the softest leather sandals.

The night was pitch-black, and Aidan wished that Lopar had had the foresight to include IR goggles in the equipment specified for the battle. The dark was so complete that anyone moving about in this forest would inevitably run into unseen obstacles.

Perched on a low branch, listening for any sound that would reveal Lopar's location, Aidan had remained in place for a long while. When he heard no noise likely to have a human source, he began to wonder if Lopar might be doing the same thing—sitting still somewhere, waiting to catch Aidan if he should make some telltale sound.

How long could one of these Bloodright battles go on? If he and Lopar sat waiting like this at opposite ends of the forest, would some official eventually step in and judge both of them losers, allowing the warrior next in line to draw a bye?

No, that could not happen. The terms set forth by the hunter must hold. Lopar had not specified a time limit, but he had stated that the match was to the death. They could hold up the whole Trial of Bloodright by doing nothing the whole night long, but daylight must come eventually. The waiting game would end then. Aidan would also lose his best advantage, for his knowledge of the terrain meant even less in the light.

Trying to move as soundlessly as possible, he edged off the branch and jumped down into some soft grass, certain he had made no significant noise. He stayed near the tree, leaning against it momentarily as he listened, trying to distinguish among the cries, screams, whistles, shrieks, and other voices of the forest. He recognized the sad trill of the small but efficient bird of prey that was the Ironhold version of the nighthawk. He also made out other animal types moving through the forest, sometimes slowly, sometimes skittishly.

Nothing he heard sounded remotely like a Clan warrior on the prowl.

Aidan took a tentative step forward into a darkness so heavy it almost had weight. Though his eyes had adjusted to it by now, he still could not see his feet. Sometimes other dark shapes seemed to emerge from the blackness of the night, but he could not be sure which were trees and which were not. Most of the curving shapes hanging down were probably branches, but Ironhold had its share of poisonous snakes, some of which inhabited this forest.

He continued to edge forward cautiously, setting his feet down carefully with each step, hoping that if he contacted anything but the ground it would be harmless. After going only a short way, his outstretched hand touched a tree from which moisture dripped heavily. Or at least he thought it was moisture at first. Tasting it, Aidan knew it was neither water, nor dew, nor any kind of tree sap. It was blood. Reaching up with his hand, he fumbled against something warm and soft. His touch dislodged it, and it crashed to the ground with a loud thud. Again, touch and smell told him that the object was—or had been—some manner of forest animal, but he could not identify it in the dark.

From some distance away, he heard Lopar's exultant shout. "Now I know where you are, freebirth!"

Even with the insult, Aidan had the good sense to keep his own mouth shut. And I have a good idea where youare, he gloated silently.

* * *

Kael Pershaw was observing the battle on a monitor that viewed the forest through a thermal imager. The imager distorted some of the flora and fauna, but it made following the movements of Aidan and Lopar fairly easy.

Lopar's first actions had puzzled him mightily. The warrior seemed skilled at moving with stealth, yet he did not seem to be stalking Aidan. Instead, he tracked four different animals, killing each one by efficiently slitting its throat. Then he arranged their bodies precariously on low-hanging branches. It was not till much later when Aidan dislodged one of the dead forms that Pershaw understood Lopar's scheme. The warrior had no guarantee that Aidan would get under any particular branch, but it was only one of several traps the clever Lopar had set. Besides hunting and killing the animals, Lopar had also spent his first hours in the forest sharpening stakes and setting them into the ground. Then he located vines by touch, tying them between trees so that each vine ran at what was probably calculated to be at Aidan's neck level. During the several hours Lopar spent setting his traps, he seemed unconcerned about running into Aidan. Nor had he any need to worry, for Aidan had simply stayed in place the whole time.

Pershaw had requested permission to observe the Bloodname contest so that he could track Aidan's progress. Perhaps it would help him resolve his questions about the young man. When he had believed Aidan to be a freeborn, the warrior's rebellious ways had seemed part of his inferior nature. But ever since discovering that Aidan was actually a true, Pershaw had become confused about how to react to the young man. Then, when Lenore Shi-Lu had questioned Aidan's rights to be a warrior because he had failed his first Trial, Pershaw began to reconsider his own views. Considering the obstacles Aidan had encountered, his achievements had been extraordinary. And no matter the caste to which he had belonged, he had fought well and bravely.

But all that would mean nothing if Aidan did not work out Lopar's strategy. Otherwise he would be dead soon enough.

* * *

Aidan got away from the tree as fast as he could, heedless of whether Lopar could hear him running. Was that a breeze in the trees above him or was it Lopar up there, laughing? Suddenly he collided with one of the vines Lopar had stretched between two trees. Because Aidan had just taken a leap upward to avoid the dark shape of what might have been either a bush or a boar, the vine caught him at shoulder level instead of snapping across his neck. Ducking under the vine, he stumbled forward and fell. Though he scrambled quickly to his feet, he was disoriented.

Lopar had obviously done some survival training. So had Aidan, once. He struggled to remember anything at all he could use. He also cursed himself for having been too complacent. By lying in wait, he had given Lopar plenty of time to set his snares. Aidan had confidently assumed that the forest was his terrain, but Lopar had quickly adapted to it. Whatever advantage Aidan might have had, it was lost now. He was truly the hunted.

Somehow he had to turn that around.

Feeling ahead of him in the darkness, he went slower now, stepping cautiously. Discovering another of the vines stretched between trees, he cut it with his knife, then rolled it up loosely and slung it over his shoulder. A bit further on, he tripped on something and very nearly came down onto one of the sharpened stakes. Ripping it from the ground, he examined it by touch. Lopar's knife strokes had been smooth and even, for the wood came to a symmetrical point. He rammed the stake into his belt.

More alert now, Aidan was also using his sense of smell, which detected another of the slain animals. Carefully testing the branches of the tree in which it lay, he found that the body had been lodged between two branches. It was still warm, which meant the beast had not died long before. Pressing his back against the tree bark, Aidan listened for any sound that might be Lopar.

He heard nothing.

Leaving the stake at the base of the tree in order to find it again easily, he climbed stealthily up the tree, finding himself a place next to the animal. Feeling along the animal's fur, he located the spot where its heart would be. After cutting into the beast's hide, he felt for the heart through the ribs, then used the hunting knife to cut the organ away from its moorings. Working the heart out slowly and carefully, he finally lifted it from the rib cage. It was a small heart, a compact and strong muscle. Aidan held it close to his face and briefly touched its surface with his tongue. Its taste was somewhat salty, together with a sour flavor he could not identify. The blood smell was strong upon it.

Taking the looped vine off his shoulder, he placed it delicately on the animal, then put the heart carefully inside the loop so he could remove his shirt. He cut off a piece of the vine and used it to help fashion his shirt into a sack. With another section of vine, he made a kind of belt that he tied around the waistband of his trousers. After gently placing the animal heart into the improvised sack, he attached the whole thing to his belt. The rest of the vine he let drop soundlessly to the forest floor.

Then he crouched in the tree and yelled, "Lopar, I tire of these games. Are you a warrior or a coward who slinks around a forest leaving child-traps for his opponent? You called for combat that was hand-to-hand. Let us settle this matter once and for all."

He was counting on Lopar's being vexed at being called a coward. After shouting a few more insults to make sure Lopar was aware of his location, Aidan climbed quickly to a higher branch. The sack made the climb difficult, but not impossible. The thought crossed his mind that what he hoped to do to Lopar was poetry. Not the kind he sometimes read in his secret library, but a crude and cruel kind, a match for the kind of warrior Lopar was.

Finally Aidan heard a sound that was not one of the normal forest noises. It was the first time he had detected Lopar. Perhaps angered by the taunts, Lopar had become careless. The sound of his arrival was faint, the soft crunch of a shoed foot crushing vegetation.

Aidan took the sack from its improvised resting place and held it out in front of him. Lopar was now under the tree, he was sure of it. Taking the sack in one hand, he began to swing it slowly back and forth, increasing its arc slightly with each swing. When he had it swinging quickly, Aidan flung the sack away. When it landed a few steps away from the tree, it sounded, as he had hoped, much like the movement of a human foot through the brush. The weight of the heart plus the cloth brushing against the ground vegetation made a convincing rustling sound.

He sensed Lopar springing toward the noise. Guessing at his opponent's progress, Aidan leaped from the high branch, away from the tree, his legs out. His quick mental calculations paid off. He came down on top of Lopar, his right foot kicking the head of his foe, his left the shoulder.

Both warriors went down, and for a moment there was a confused struggle in the dark. Lopar ripped out with his hunting knife and delivered a glancing blow to Aidan's arm, making a shallow cut. Aidan, who had deliberately left his own knife in its belt sheath, concentrated on using his free hand to subdue Lopar. Managing to get both hands on the man's knife arm, he pushed it away. Maintaining his hold on the arm, Aidan shoved it against a nearby tree.

Still gripping the knife tightly, Lopar reached up with his other hand to grab a clump of Aidan's hair, which he pulled roughly. The pain brought tears to Aidan's eyes, but he did not let go his grip on Lopar's arm. After ramming the arm against the tree bark again, he felt something land at his feet. It had to be the knife. Releasing Lopar's arm, he broke the man's hold of his hair by jabbing upward with his closed-fingered hand into the side of his foe's arm. When he dug the fingers into Lopar's arm, it was with enough force to draw blood and make the warrior let go of his hair.

Though both warriors were skilled in martial arts, the training was useless in the pitch dark of a forest where one could not aim at his target. Aidan had reduced the fight to the level of a brawl, which, as a former freeborn warrior, he knew something about.

From what Aidan could hear and sense, Lopar was scrabbling around on the ground looking for his knife.

"Take your time, Lopar," he said. "I will let you find it. I would not kill you while you are weaponless."

That stopped Lopar. "What kind of freebirth scum are you? You do not even fight like a trueborn warrior. Weapon or no weapon, I would kill you immediately."

"I know that. I have reasons to want this battle judged on the merits of its participants and not on our luck. Get your knife."

Aidan drew his knife and held it loosely in front of him. Moving sideways, he felt around with his foot in the area where he thought the sack containing the animal heart might have fallen. He found it easily, mentally noting its location.

Lopar stopped his fumbling around, and Aidan knew he had retrieved the knife. This would be interesting, he thought. With no light and only their vague dark shapes to go by, they would have to guess at each other's next moves. It would be more like animal instinct. An animal did not need to calculate, did not need to speculate on its enemy's tactics. It just attacked, clawed, bit, crushed. If it could have held a knife in its paws, it would not parry and thrust, it would shove the blade forward as many times as necessary. It would not worry about the other animal's knife.

"Are you ready, freebirth?"

"I am not a freeborn."

"Go ahead and prove it."

"I will."

Lopar lunged, but Aidan was ready for him. Like an animal, he moved to his left, then thrust the knife out in front of him. It made contact with something, with some part of Lopar's body. The man groaned. As Lopar slid past, Aidan struck again, this time connecting in what was obviously a glancing blow.

He moved away, toward where he had detected the sack. The dark form that was Lopar did not stop to reset himself, but instead turned and sprang, knife blade forward. It hit Aidan in the shoulder, but he reacted quickly. He moved backward with the thrust of the knife, and the blade did not enter deeply. His own knife-swing at Lopar was also ineffective, except that it made Lopar veer away.

Reaching down, Aidan picked up the sack. He felt by its weight that it still contained the animal heart. Good. As Lopar's dark form came toward him again, Aidan swung the sack at what he thought was the man's head. It landed firmly against the side of Lopar's skull, knocking him off his feet. As the other warrior fell, Aidan tried to stab him in the area he guessed to be the stomach. But even as Lopar was slipping to the ground, he managed unexpectedly to seize Aidan's knife arm. He gave the arm a savage twist, and the knife flew out of Aidan's hand. It bounced off the side of a nearby tree, vanishing forever into the darkness. He knew Lopar would not grant him the same privilege of searching for his weapon.

Aidan tried to back away from Lopar, who was now on the ground, but his opponent grabbed his ankles and pulled them forward. His feet flying out from under him, Aidan fell onto his back. For the first time, he cursed the dark setting he had chosen. Just when he needed to know precisely where Lopar was, he could not see a damn thing.

From the noises just beyond his feet, which Lopar had now released, Aidan surmised that his adversary was struggling to stand up. He rolled sideways and felt Lopar land on the ground beside him in a miscalculated move. Lopar's error gave Aidan a chance to get halfway up and swing the sack again. It made ineffectual contact, but from the sound of Lopar letting his breath out, Aidan guessed that it had grazed the man's face.

He knew there was no point staying in this position and trading blows with Lopar, especially when his blows were from a wet sack, while Lopar's were made with the knife Aidan's generosity had permitted him. As Aidan made one last glancing blow with the sack, he felt it come apart, letting the heart fall to the ground. The only good thing about the maneuver was that it gave him time to get to his feet and scramble to the tree with the dead animal caught in its branches.

Sensing Lopar coming up behind him, Aidan felt around for the stake and vine he had left there. He found the vine first. Turning quickly, he whipped it out at Lopar. It flicked across the other man's face, making him yelp with pain, temporarily stopping him in his tracks. Feeling around some more, Aidan found the sharpened stake leaning against the tree where he had left it. Grabbing the shaft, he wielded it like a long knife, directing it at the center of the dark form leaping toward him.

The force of his thrust with the stick was enough. The point, so carefully honed by its victim, penetrated Lopar's midsection, drawing a groan that momentarily drowned out the myriad noises of the forest. Aidan got out of the way, and Lopar fell against the tree trunk. Hearing his foe choke, Aidan sensed that he was coughing up blood. The stickiness on Aidan's bare arm was probably blood from the wound itself.

With Lopar so close to him, Aidan knew he could not relax for an instant, even though every nerve in his body felt strained to the limit. His enemy still had his knife.

As he expected, Lopar weakly jabbed the knife at him, but Aidan merely twisted the man's wrist, then heard the knife fall.

"Lopar, you asked for a fight to the death."

"That is true."

"I do not wish to kill you, and your wound may not be mortal."

"That is also true, freebirth."

"Admit I am not a freeborn."

"Never."

"You may ask the judges to release you from the hunter requirements of a fight to the death."

"Never."

"Well, then, I must kill you, even though it is not my wish."

Taking the vine in both hands, Aidan wrapped it around Lopar's neck and squeezed it tightly until Lopar went limp. Then he did something that was as brutally primitive as it was insulting to his victim and to all the other Jade Falcon warriors who had vowed to kill him. Retrieving the heart of the dead animal from the ground, Aidan took it and stuffed it into Lopar's mouth.

Carefully, almost reverently, he removed the dead animal from its place among the branches of the tree and dragged it away. At the edge of the forest, he buried it in a shallow grave, dug with Lopar's hunting knife.

34

Someone eavesdropping on the next strategy conference between Aidan and his entourage might have wondered if he had stumbled into one of the Bloodright contests instead. The group argued furiously and for some time, but in the end Aidan won his point.

"If I am to become a Bloodnamed warrior," he said, "I must do it my way. Caution may have gotten me through the Grand Melee, but it nearly finished me in the fight with Lopar. I appreciate all you have done for me, but we must plan aggressively if I am to finish this."

Though Marthe had been his most heated opponent, she finally capitulated the point. "It is true that you can only win with the abilities you have, Aidan. And your greatest may be tenacity."

* * *

When Aidan had gone, Marthe smiled at Joanna, who resisted the urge to return it. "You were right, Marthe," she said. "He needed to be pushed to find his own way. I admire your cleverness in accomplishing the goal."

Marthe laughed softly. "After the Trial of Refusal, I sensed that something had gone out of him. Call it the fighting spirit—for want of a better term. We had to help him recover it. And that we have done. Even Horse did his part."

"I merely followed your instructions, Star Captain."

Joanna was taken aback. "You mean this . . . this Mech Warrior's insults were part of the plan, too?"

Marthe shrugged and Horse would say no more on the matter to Joanna.

* * *

On the parade ground, Megasa strode proudly past Aidan. He waited until he had actually gone by to say to a member of his entourage, loudly enough for Aidan to hear, "If I fight that one, it will be an easy battle. If he hides, I will find him by his stench. If he turns and fights, I will home the missiles in on his stink."

Aidan whirled angrily, but when he spoke, his voice was cool, detached. "Perhaps you wish to fight here and now, Megasa. Forget Bloodright, forget Blood-names? "

Megasa laughed. "I have no wish to beat you so easily."

"You would not last long against me in hand-to-hand combat."

"Are you sure? You will find no big sticks or animal hearts on this parade ground."

"Then I will smother you. With my stench."

The joke relieved the tension, and Megasa's companions led him away. Aidan had longed to blast Megasa off a battlefield, but he would save it for the Trial combat. He would live to gloat over the fallen Megasa.

* * *

Kael Pershaw watched the next round of Bloodright battles from the command center, where elaborate hol-otank images of some of the individual contests were projected. He joined Joanna and the other members of Aidan's entourage, but took care to stand well away from Mech Warrior Horse, whom he despised more than most freeborns. There was a continual flare of defiance in Horse's eyes that made trueborns particularly uncomfortable around him.

In the coin ceremony for the next contest, Aidan's coin had emerged second from the gravity funnel. As the hunter, he chose conventional BattleMechs. As venue, his adversary, a Star Captain named Jenna, had chosen a mountain range in the far north of Ironhold. At first the holotank mountains were small and the BattleMechs like the tiny toy versions with which sibko children play in their holotanks. As the two fighting machines tracked one another, however, each trying to find some terrain most favorable to his skills, the holo projections grew larger. In the vast area below the spectators, it was not long before they were viewing a pair of 'Mechs approximately one-third their normal size engaged in a hard-fought contest on rugged terrain.

At this point Jenna's strategy became obvious. Knowing that Aidan would be piloting a seventy-ton Summoner,she had chosen a lighter 'Mech, a fifty-five ton, jump-capable Stormcrowthat she could use more effectively in mountainous terrain. Kael Pershaw was not sure, however, whether the Stormcrowwould be successful in the long run. The ability to move about the mountain faster than the Summonerwould, he thought, be enough to prolong the battle but not to win it. Still, he admired the audaciousness of the choice.

Aidan's aggressiveness would be a help rather than a hindrance in the fight with Star Captain Jenna. At one point, he could have remained in an easily defended cliffside, shooting at Jenna across a wide crevasse, the two of them exchanging LRM volleys that did about equal damage to their 'Mechs. Most other warriors would have taken that approach. What Aidan did was jump his Summonerfrom the cliff to a precarious icy perch above and off to one side of Jenna's Stormcrow.From here he fired his LRMs straight down, not so much at Jenna's 'Mech but at the junction between the cliff face and the ledge where she stood. As the LRM warheads battered the rock, the ground beneath the feet of Jenna's 'Mech began to show cracks. Aidan fired again. The Stormcrowseemed to sway with the ledge beneath it, then the cracks opened further and the ledge collapsed into the crevasse, taking with it both Stormcrowand its brave pilot.

The end came so suddenly that Kael Pershaw almost did not follow it. When the Stormcrowsuddenly disappeared, he silently uttered words of praise for Aidan and words of regret for Star Captain Jenna.

* * *

"You have fought three major battles," Horse said, "the Grand Melee and the two first rounds of the Bloodright. All three of your opponents are dead. Is a Bloodname worth all this, well, blood?"

"You know it is, Horse."

Horse said nothing. He had never truly understood his friend.

* * *

Marthe saw that what might be termed the psychological advantage was shifting to Aidan's favor. In the next battle, his opponent, perceiving that Aidan had twice survived in unusual terrain, had chosen as venue one of the many Trial fields on Ironhold. Marthe leaned against a rail to watch the holo projection of the battle. She could not stand with the rest of Aidan's entourage without revealing her true role in Aidan's Bloodname quest. Joanna and Horse viewed the battle from a section of seats in the next tier up. Arms folded, Kael Pershaw stood on the same level as Marthe, but directly across from her.

Aidan's foe, a Star Commander Grayling, had come onto the field in a Timber Wolf,a 'Mech especially popular with Clan Wolf but uncommon among Jade Falcon warriors. With the double LRM-20 racks mounted on its shoulders, the Timber Wolflooked like a beast of burden, carrying heavy loads on bowed shoulders.

The two 'Mechs kept their distance at first, firing long-range missiles at one another in a way that suggested this battle might be a prolonged one. The missiles did considerable damage, distributed evenly between both sides. Armor lay spread around both 'Mechs.

Then the Timber Wolfstarted to close in on the Summoner.Lumbering forward, using its large lasers now, the 'Mech was sketching lines of damage across the surface of Aidan's 'Mech.

Aidan had studied Grayling's codex, however, and knew that the man almost invariably fought by the book. To counter the Timber Wolf'splodding slowness, he started his 'Mech toward it, gradually breaking into a run straight at his foe. Then he fired off a volley of LRMs directly in front of him, letting the smoke and dust thrown off by the explosion envelop his 'Mech. Aidan was gambling that Grayling was concentrating on the visual spectrum display of the primary view screen. In the instant it would take for his opponent to track the Summoneron the secondary screen, Aidan maneuvered it to one side, suddenly emerging from the thinning cloud of smoke to come at the Timber Wolf froma different angle.

With&ut slowing down, Aidan came at the Timber Wolf,relentlessly unloading his entire supply of short-range missiles. According to the plan Aidan and his team had devised, the goal was to take out the LRM packs on each of the Wolf'sshoulders.

And the strategy worked. First one blew up, then the other, followed almost immediately by the Timber Wolfitself. The observers (including Aidan, viewing from his cockpit) were relieved to see Star Captain Grayling shoot out the 'Mech in his ejection seat just before the 'Mech exploded.

"That was lucky," Kael Pershaw said as he passed Joanna at the command center door. Joanna made no reply, but she definitely agreed.

* * *

Megasa had also reached round four, but he and Aidan were not scheduled to fight one another. Not yet.

Many warriors had gathered on the various tiers to view the combats involving Aidan and Megasa. Megasa, in his Mad Dog,quickly vanquished an opponent in an Executioner.Indeed, the fight was over so soon that he was able to come to the command center in time to watch Aidan's contest.

Aidan's coin had made him hunter, while his opponent chose as venue an island in the middle of a lake. Aidan was not so concerned how or where the contest would be fought. It was more that he was so exhausted from the previous contests that he wanted to polish this one off quickly. If he was going to fight in the final Bloodright battle, he wanted to be ready for it. Joanna supplied the strategy for an island battle, basing it on a fight in which she had participated several years before.

For this fight, Aidan's Summonerwas configured entirely with long-range missiles, plus a narc beacon. Marthe wondered if it might not be wise to keep some of the other armament or at least add some medium lasers, but both Joanna and Aidan wanted to go for everything.

"What if he gets in close?"

"I will risk it," Aidan said.

"He will risk it," Joanna said.

"Yeah, risk," Horse coarsely agreed.

* * *

Aidan's foe, a MechWarrior named Machiko, would be in a Hellbringer.That would not affect Aidan's strategy, which had been devised to operate against whatever type 'Mech entered the field against him.

Joanna studied the terrain, which was relatively flat for an island. She decided that Machiko had chosen it to prevent Aidan from being able to carry out any elaborate maneuvers. If Aidan kept his distance, however, the strategy for this battle was viable.

As soon as he saw the signal to begin, Aidan executed a ground-skimming jump right at the Hellbringer.Machiko meanwhile took the opportunity to chip away at the Summoner's armor with her medium laser and a PPC.

As soon as he was close enough, Aidan fired his narc missile beacon launcher at the Hellbringer.The specialized missile struck the other 'Mech and attached itself. His mission successful, Aidan jumped back to his original point near the shore of the island. He was conscious of the water lapping gently at his heels as he fired volley after volley at the Hellbringer,each missile homing in on the song that the narc beacon sang to it.