Lost destiny

by Michael A. Stackpole

  "Kai, look out!"

  At Deirdre's warning, Kai threw himself forward onto his face and rolled to right. He saw Corbin pass through where he had just stood, then heard a heavy crunch as the Elemental tackled one of the birches holding up the lean-to. Corbin sank toward the ground, but he still clung to the tree and landed on his knees.

  Kai grabbed half of the lean-to's crossbar and levered himself upright. As Corbin shook his head to clear it, Kai limped forward and swung the long club at the Elemental. It shattered across the man's broad back, but drove him face-first into the tree again. Rebounding, Corbin settled back on his haunches and Kai saw blood glistening on the tree's white bark.

  The Mech Warrior arced punch after punch in at Corbin's head. Each blow hit solidly and snapped Corbin's head around, but the man refused to go down. Kai's knuckles became slicked with the blood from Corbin's torn scalp and mashed nose. "Go down, damn you, go down!"

  Corbin grinned up through a bloody mask. "Is that the best you can do?"

  His right hand caught Kai in the ribs again, but Corbin's speed had lost its edge. The blow landed heavy and hard, knocking Kai back and making him hiss with pain, but he did not fall. Gritting his teeth, Kai sprang forward through the air as Corbin regained his feet. He caught the Elemental in the face with a flying kick.

  Corbin flew back in a mist of blood and a hail of tooth fragments. He hit the ground on the same shoulder that had tackled the tree, and the resulting snap told Kai something had gone. Even so, the Clanner pushed up off the ground with his left arm and got one knee under him. Coming around, right arm dangling at his side, he snarled, "Maybe there is some fight to you after all."

  Corbin charged, his left hand outstretched and twitching with murderous intent. It grabbed Kai's right shoulder and started to crush it even as Kai fell back before the assault. Grabbing the slick material of Corbin's bodysuit, Kai rolled onto his back and posted his left leg up into the Elemental's belly. At the top of the arc, Kai pushed off, and with a heave sent his enemy flying through the air.

  Corbin slammed into the ground on top of the cold firepit in the center of the camp. A cloud of gray ashes rose up to smother the man lying halfway in and out of the circle of stones. Rolling over onto his hands and knees, Kai crawled toward the moaning Elemental, vaguely aware that the Clansman's head was at a peculiar angle to his shoulders.

  Kneeling beside Corbin's head, Kai raised a fireblackened rock in both hands. "Bury me in an unmarked grave, will you?" Kai stared down at the blood mingling with ashes. "Not in this lifetime, you don't."

  "No, Kai, stop!"

  He looked up and met Deirdre's terrified stare. "He has to die," he said.

  "Kai," she whispered, "he's already dead." She reached out toward him. "Please, Kai, you aren't like your father!"

  He looked from the mangled Corbin to Deirdre and back again, still somewhat dazed from the adrenaline rage that had saved his life. "My father? What are you talking about?"

  She covered her face in her hands and slumped forward. Kai tossed the stone aside and struggled to his feet. He dropped to his knees again and took her in his arms. "What is it about my father? Tell me."

  "Your father is a murderer." She buried her head against his chest, but he sensed she would have pulled back if not for her trapped leg. "He murdered my father in the fights on Solaris."

  Kai shook his head. "He never fought anyone named Lear."

  "I know. My father was Peter Armstrong, the first man he killed in the games on Solaris. Your father ambushed and killed him. My father never had a chance." Her voice grew small. "For a year or two, when I was just a little girl, my father was a martyr. The evil Justin Xiang had killed my father, as loyal a son of House Davion as ever there was in the Inner Sphere. Wolfson and Capet were also heroes. When my mother remarried, I didn't want to change my name even though my stepfather was a good man—a surgeon ... Roy Lear. At school, I had many friends and everyone liked me.

  "Then your father turned out to be some agent who helped win the war. People started to refer to my father as a no-good renegade. The same kids who used to want to hear stories about my father now teased me. They said he was as bad as the Usurper, Stefan Amaris, and that they were glad Justin Allard had killed him. Some of their parents even said I was tainted by bad blood and they wouldn't let their children play with me."

  Kai pulled back, spotted his knife, and picked it up again.

  Slowly he began to dig at the ground surrounding her leg. "That's why you became a doctor?"

  Deirdre looked down at the ground but focused on nothing. "No. I became a doctor because I had so often fantasized about being able to save my father had I been there. I joined the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth as a way of proving I was not from a traitor family. I wanted to give something back to the Federated Commonwealth to atone for whatever my father had done. Whatever his crimes had been, I didn't think they deserved death."

  "My father's not a murderer." Kai scooped some of the dirt from the hole around her leg and pulled free a slender wooden stake that had been pointing downward. "He didn't want your father to die."

  "How can you say that? He ambushed him and killed him. It's on a holovid available almost anywhere."

  "I know." Kai pulled a second stake free from the hole. "When I was a child, in school, I got into one of those 'my father is tougher than your father' arguments that ended up with another child running home in tears. I told him my father could kill his father."

  Deirdre shuddered. "Other children used to tease me about Justin Allard coming after me, too."

  Kai sat back on his haunches, a lump rising in his throat even as he began to speak. "My father took me home that day and showed me the holovid of the fight with your father. He turned the sound off and told me what he had been thinking instead of letting me hear the announcer describe the fight in glowing, dramatic terms. His job was to play the stereotype of a treacherous Liao fighter, both to justify his split with the Federated Suns and to attract the attention of Maximilian Liao. With the first barrage he loosed against your father, he knew he'd damaged your father's 'Mech too much to continue the fight. He wanted your father to punch out and kept hoping he would."

  "He didn't. He died in that Griffin."

  "I know. My father said he'd underestimated the strength of the training Philip Capet had given his proteges. My father then told me that killing men was nothing to be proud of. He said killing was a last resort, when nothing else would work." Kai glanced back at Corbin. "Case in point."

  Deirdre reached out and brought Kai's chin up. "Exception to the rule. You did have a choice: you could have surrendered to him. You didn't, but chose to fight to save me." Her blue eyes met his. "After the way I've treated you, why would you do that?"

  Kai pulled his chin from her hand and dug at the ground some more. "You saved my life. I owed you."

  "No, Kai, not good enough." She picked up one of the birch stakes and started helping him free her leg. "I've been so hateful to you over the time I've known you, but I was very attracted to you that morning on Skondia. I was thinking the New Year would be very good to me, indeed."

  Kai laughed lightly, then stopped as a twinge of pain shot from his ribs. "Yeah, I was thinking that, too."

  Deirdre swallowed hard. "Then when General Redburn introduced us, I felt I'd betrayed myself and my father. After that, I lashed out at you, trying to drive you away and make you hurt the way I felt your father had hurt me. I kept trying to find a way to focus my hatred on you, but the harder I tried, the less I found in you to hate."

  As she spoke, Kai felt the distance between them melt away. In the two years he'd known Deirdre Lear, he had always puzzled about the apparent duality of her feelings toward him. Now that he understood, her actions made sense. The part of him that had been afraid she hated him for being himself wanted to shout with joy. He wanted to sweep her into his arms and never let her go.

  But a cold dread twitched to life in his belly and seemed t
o rise up to claw at his throat. Now you know her secret, Kai Allard, but that does not change the fact that you are a killer born of a killer. You are her antithesis and she will at ways revile you for that fact.

  Kai's faced closed. "You just didn't look hard enough Doctor. There's plenty there to hate, like my penchant for making mistakes, getting other folks killed, or forcing people to do things they don't want to do, like shooting someone. Why was I willing to sacrifice myself for you? Because the world would be better off with you in it than with me."

  He ripped the last stake from the hole. "You're free."

  She slowly pulled her leg from the hole. "You're wrong, Kai."

  "Wrong?" He frowned. "Your leg is no longer trapped."

  "Not about that." She shook her head, then refused to meet his gaze. "The world wouldn't be, better off without you because I, for one, would be much worse off without you here."

  "You'd survive. You know enough."

  "Physically, yes, perhaps." She shocked him by leaning forward and lightly brushing his lips with hers. "Inside, I'd die without you."

  22

  Diosd

  Wolf Clan Occupation Zone

  2 April 3052

  Phelan smiled to see the ilKhan had chosen to preside over the Trial of Bloodright being held in the Grand Hall of what had once been the Third Rasalhague Freeman's base. Various members of the Wolf Clan stood at the far end of the hall, but Phelan recognized none of them. He knew most of the Thirteenth Wolf Guards were resting up from the previous two days of fighting, and Phelan would have liked to be doing the same.

  The ilKhan waited until an Elemental brought in one of the gravity-well devices, then he started the ceremony. "I jam the Oathmaster and accept responsibility for representing House Ward here. Do you concur in this?"

  "Seyla," said both Phelan and his opponent.

  "Then what transpires here will bind us all until we all shall fall." Ulric, who looked a bit weary himself, nodded approval. "As this is your third battle, you know well the honor for which you fight. You, Phelan Wolf, have seen twenty years. Why are you worthy?"

  "I was chosen by Cyrilla Ward to be heir to this Blood-name. I was adopted into the Warrior Caste after proving my worthiness through service as a bondsman. I trained and tested out as a Warrior. Singlehandedly I conquered Gunzburg, and on Satalice I captured Prince Ragnar of Rasalhague. On Hyperion I led the defense of the Simmons Dam and hunted renegades in the badlands. On Diosd I participated in the coursing and killing of the Third Freeman's Command Lance. Prior to the battle today, I defeated an Elemental, Dean, and a flyer, Glynis, for the right to participate here."

  "And you, Lajos, have seen twenty-eight years. Why are you worthy?"

  Phelan's opponent in the Bloodright contest began to recite his accomplishments. A MechWarrior, like Phelan, he moved stiffly on the left side of his body. White gauze totally covered his left arm and hand, making it look as if he were wearing a mitten. The flesh around his left eye was badly burned and glistened with clear unguents.

  He should be in a hospital, not getting ready to fight, Phelan thought as Lajos finished his recitation.

  The ilKhan clasped his hands together solemnly. "The heroism and courage displayed by both of you have been established and verified. Your claims are not without substance. No matter what fate you meet in this battle, the brightness of your light will not be diminished." Ulric waved both men forward. "Present the tokens of your legitimate right to participate here."

  Phelan held his coin up to the ilKhan. Ulric took it, then crouched to pluck Lajos' coin from his left hand. He placed both coins in their respective slots. "The horrible chaos of war is reflected in this Trial of Bloodright. When one coin has successfully stalked the other and they complete their transit through this cone, the hunting coin will be superior. That Warrior is given the choice of style for the fight. The owner of the inferior coin then decides the venue for the fight. In this way, each will fight on a battlefield not wholly of his choosing. Do you understand this?"

  "Seyla."

  As the ilKhan sent the coins on their spiral courses down through the gravity well, Phelan looked at Lajos. If I were him, I would choose to fight augmented. Burned that badly, fighting from a 'Mech is the only way he can defeat me. Hell, he can barely stand up now. I would slaughter him in a fistfight. He looked up and watched the coins sink below the lip of the funnel. No matter how battered Lajos looked, Phelan knew the man was here because of his prowess as a Warrior and deserved respect for that.

  The two coins clattered down into the decision post. The ilKhan slid the clear pipe from the center of the post and held it up. He freed the top coin from its transparent prison, then read the name on it. "Phelan, you are the hunter."

  Phelan saw Lajos wince as the decision was announced. He knows he does not stand a chance. It's over before it begins.

  "Phelan, how do you choose to fight?" The MechWarrior gave the ilKhan a grim smile. "Augmented, my Khan."

  Phelan worked his right arm around in a circle and heard the joint pop as it loosened up. "You would think they would let us rest before sending us out for this Bloodname fight, quiaff?"

  The other MechWarrior in the elevator nodded. "You came out of the fighting a bit better than I did, I think. You Wolf Guards are an odd lot, but you fight well."

  Phelan leaned back and hooked his thumbs through his gunbelt. "You are with the Eighth Dragoons, quiaff? You were fighting over at the oil refinery in the Oljen Valley. Are you the Lajos who took his Adder into the refinery to torch it and drive the militia out?"

  The dark-haired man carefully raised his gauze-swathed left arm and pointed to the left side of his face. "Might have reconsidered if I had known the breach in my cockpit canopy and neurohelmet would leave me open to a toasting."

  Phelan noted Lajos wore long pants, and could easily imagine gauze covering his leg from top to bottom. "You do look a bit raw there. I hate burns."

  "No one likes burns, Phelan." Lajos smiled sheepishly. "When your coin came out on top, I assumed you would opt to fight unaugmented. That you chose a 'Mech allows me to acquit myself admirably. My thanks."

  Phelan nodded as the elevator came to a halt on the 'Mech-bay level of the captured Rasalhague facility. Before the door opened, the ilKhan's voice crackled over the speaker built into the ceiling. "Lajos and Phelan, this is your third Bloodright contest. You both have progressed to a point that other Warriors only dream about. Take pride in this. When these doors open, the battle will be joined. To the victor goes great glory, and to the subdued great honor."

  "Seyla," the two Warriors breathed as one.

  The doors slowly opened, giving both men a breathtaking view of the 'Mech bay. Rank upon rank of battle-scarred war machines stood like some terrifying legion waiting to be magically activated. Though Phelan had been witness to such scenes on a dozen different worlds, the silent assemblage of so many devastating machines never failed to impress him.

  On the right stood Lajos' Adder. New armor plating stood out in patchy relief against the fire-blackened hull of the short, squat BattleMech. From the configuration Lajos had chosen, Phelan knew the 'Mech was armed exclusively with a dozen extended-range medium lasers. The weapons were mounted on the 'Mech's arms, but given Lajos' injuries, only half of them would be useful. Likewise, his leg injury would make using the Adder's jump jets nearly suicidal.

  Opposite the Adder stood Phelan's Wolfhound. The tall, sleek BattleMech looked less like a war machine than the avatar of some war god. Black by design, except where the red of the unit designators marked its shoulders, the Mech's lupine cockpit assembly gave it an animation the Adder lacked. The Wolfhound's weaponry amounted to only a third of the lasers on Lajos' 'Mech, but the Wolfhound's speed and agility and its built-in electronic counter-measures equipment made it an even opponent for the larger 'Mech.

  "Skill, Phelan."

  Phelan stepped from the elevator. "And you, Lajos."

  Lajos never saw Phelan's left hand a
s he exited the elevator. The roundhouse left caught Lajos by surprise when it crashed into the unburned part of his face. The punch snapped his head around and dropped him to the hangar's ferrocrete floor.

  Phelan stood over him and sucked at his bruised knuckles. "Sorry, Lajos, but the ilKhan did say the battle was joined when we left the elevators. I would fight you straight up, but not with the way you are hurting. Bloodright contest or not, I do not have to baptize it with blood every step of the way."

  * * *

  Phelan shuddered as he studied the datascreen again. Pale lines of green scrolled up over his face as his eyes darted from line to line in a vain search for anything that would prove him wrong. This cannot be. It is impossible.

  Phelan had set out carefully to pierce the mystery of the Precentor Martial's identity. He wrote out all he knew for certain about the man, then ranked the information according to its veritableness and the strength of the sources. Anything he knew from the Precentor Martial himself, Phelan rated highly, though he reserved final judgment until he knew whether the man might have been lying for his own purposes.

  He resolved to apply Occam's Razor: the simplest solution to the problem would most likely be correct. Phelan discovered quickly, however, that the problem had no simple solution or, at least, no simple solution he could accept and turn over to the ilKhan. The easiest answer was, of course, that Focht had been raised and educated by ComStar for his position, and that anything he had said about his past was a cover story to hide the fact that ComStar had been training warriors for a long time.

  The door to Phelan's chamber opened and Ulric entered, appearing ghostlike in the circle of light cast by Phelan's desk lamp. "I have just come from the infirmary," the ilKhan said. "Lajos is chagrined at his defeat, but I think he is pleased to still be alive. I also spoke with the doctors about Glynis, who they say may have turned the corner. She is still in a coma, but her body is healing."