* * *
Aidan had watched Ter Roshak come in. The two had not met since Aidan left Ironhold several years before. Roshak had vowed to kill Aidan if he revealed any part of his deception. Though the threat had not frightened Aidan, he had remembered it often enough.
He wondered briefly if he should regret his action, which would surely ruin Roshak's career. But what good was such a career if the man violated Clan law? Of the three under various accusations here in Clan council, Roshak was the only one who deserved to be on trial. Neither Aidan nor Joanna had ordered murder. Of course, murder was not the issue. Few of the Clansmen sitting in judgment would think twice about the elimination of a sibko of freeborns. No, it was Roshak's manipulation of events in defiance of Clan law that was the terrible deed.
Aidan, however, was appalled by the murder that Roshak had planned with such calculation. Perhaps the Terran books in Aidan's secret library had corrupted his mind.
Clan culture did not hold life so dear as did Terran, he knew, but the killing of cadets with warrior potential merely to create an identity for him was not moral. Yet sometimes he even scoffed at himself. What did he care about morality? Murder like the one Roshak had committed might have been a mistake, an error of command judgment, but morality was not a factor in Clan actions.
Warriors were still filing into the chamber. It would be some time before the trial would begin, and Aidan was restless. He wanted to speak with Joanna, but they could drag him out of the room for so much as nodding to her. Silence was the order of the day, not only for the defendants and the witnesses, but for the warriors sitting in judgment. In council and in warfare, it was the Jade Falcon way to focus all attention on the matter at hand. During the actual session, a warrior could speak if he or she stood and was acknowledged by the Loremaster, who acted as director of the proceedings.
The only speech allowed at present was between the officers of the court, who were sitting at the long table across from Roshak. They maintained an incessant if undecipherable murmur. In the whole time since Roshak had entered the room, he had not looked at any of the officers of the court.
The Advocate for all three defendants finished off his conversation with the Inquisitor and with Khan Elias Crichell, who sat aloof and, truth to tell, apparently oblivious to events. The Advocate stood up and walked toward the table where Aidan and Joanna sat. His name was Beck Qwabe, which was about all Aidan knew about him. Almost Aidan's height, he was as tall as the Inquisitor was short, and had unusually gentle eyes for a Jade Falcon Clansman. Aidan had seen falcons with such eyes, and they generally proved to be poor hunters. He hoped that the comparison would not carry over to Beck Qwabe.
"The proceedings will begin soon," Qwabe said. "I am instructed to tell you that you may reduce participation in the trial by admitting guilt, invoking the rite of forgiveness, and taking your chance on whatever punishment the Khan chooses for you. Based on what I know about the two of you, I believe that you would reject such an offer, quineg?"
Both Aidan and Joanna ritually responded, "Neg."
Beck Qwabe gave them their last instructions on trial procedures. Aidan had received this same briefing so often since arriving on Ironhold that his mind wandered. As had Joanna's, his gaze traveled out toward the warriors looking down at the defendants. If the cruelty in many of those eyes was any indication, he and the others did not stand a chance.
Suddenly one pair of eyes caught his attention, not because of their malice or even their coldness, but because of their familiarity. They belonged to someone sitting far up in the tiers, so far away that the eyes were little more than dots. Yet Aidan knew from the eyes and the erectness of her posture that it was Marthe staring down at him. It could be no other.
And it was logical. With two victories in her Trial, one of them over Aidan, Marthe had entered the warrior ranks at the level of Star Commander. Enough time had passed for her to rise further and to have fought for a Bloodname, for another of the Pryde Bloodnames. Though this was the first time Aidan had chosen to compete for a Bloodname, he had known of two other times that a Pryde Bloodname had become available during his years as a warrior. Marthe must have fought for one of them and won it.
He did not know why, but he felt some satisfaction that Marthe had preceded him to Bloodname status. Because they had been so close in the sibko, he had always expected them to succeed together in all Clan enterprises. When she had surged ahead of him in cadet training and subsequently cooled toward him, Aidan had been unhappy for a long while. Perhaps a very long while. Perhaps until now.
Beck Qwabe was summoned back to the Judgment Table, and at a nod from Khan Elias Crichell, the trial began.
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 father also 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 father and mother were 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 realize that 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 against the 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 rec
ourse 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.
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