Bloodname

"Kael Pershaw, you musttake me as bondsman. It is Clan law."

"No, not law. Only custom. I reject the custom. If you were my bondsman, I would remember your shameful history every time I saw your face. To lose a battle because of the actions of freebirths. I could not bear that. If you must have the custom, I take you as bondsman and immediately free you. May you come to understand Kerensky's blessing, Star Captain Dwillt Radick."

He could sense Radick fuming at the other end, but the Wolf Clansman could do nothing. It was not mere custom, but Clan law, that gave Pershaw the right to dictate all terms. Pershaw thought the defeat, against odds and with so much freebirth help, was humiliating enough. Why subject Dwillt Radick to any more? He would carry this shame with him long enough, perhaps for the rest of his life.

Then a messenger came to him with the news. Lanja was alive but injured, and the hero of the battle had returned, having dragged Lanja across nearly a third of the battlefield.

As Jorge staggered toward him, Pershaw could not repress the disgust he felt for this man's freebirth origins.

* * *

When Aidan woke up later, lying on a cot in Pershaw's office back inside Glory Station, Pershaw was sitting beside him, idly fingering the severely ripped dark band.

"Bast's picture is gone," Pershaw said laconically.

"Must have dropped off. I am sorry. I am not supposed to speak without permission."

"Under the circumstances, we can ignore that rule. We can, in fact, ignore the dark band."

With a pull that sent pain down Aidan's back, Kael Pershaw ripped the dark band off.

"Now you can speak as you always have, disrespectfully and rudely. Consider it your reward for wi

"Do not award me anything. I am Clan. What we must do, we do."

Pershaw laughed abruptly. It was a chilling sound. Aidan wondered if anyone on Glory Station had ever heard Pershaw laugh. It was not real laughter, of course, but more the delighted growl of a creature about to pounce, the happy scream of the jade falcon before it seized its prey on the mountainside. It was the laugh of nightmare monsters.

"You are such a fraud, Jorge. I could almost like you. 'What we must do, we do.' Spoken like a true-born, Jorge, but filth in the mouth of a freebirth."

Pershaw stood up and walked to the window behind his desk. Aidan tried to sit up, but the immediate dizziness forced him to lie back.

Standing with his back to Aidan, Pershaw spoke without turning around. "I have just delivered the vilest humiliation to the leader of the Clan Wolf warriors. I could hear his hatred in his voice. And despite my satisfaction at wi

Aidan could find nothing to say. He had no wish to be arrogant, no need to exacerbate the shame.

"How is Lanja?" Aidan asked.

"She died," Kael Pershaw said quietly.

"I am sorry."

"Yes. Your courage in dragging her to camp has proven to be fruitless."

"That is not what I am sorry about."

"I do not know what you mean, but I order you not to tell me. When you are well enough to go, you are dismissed."

Pershaw walked out of the room. His strides were long, longer than usual, as if he needed to hurry away.

Aidan closed his eyes. In his mind's eye, he saw his Summonerfall onto the command dome, this time with him in it. That might have given him some feeling of victory. Nothing Kael Pershaw had said could provide it.

As his eyes came open suddenly, he wondered how much longer he could bear the trueborn's continual scorn.

* * *

Dwillt Radick raged at his subordinate, Craig Ward.

"If you had seen his objective, perhaps you would have taken care to shoot better, hit the freebirth's 'Mech at an angle to force its fall in another direction."

"It was not possible. I was attempting to protect the dome. He unexpectedly bent his 'Mech over the dome before I had a chance to divert fire. He was deliberately drawing the fire in. He—"

"I know all that! I have studied the tapes. You failed, Craig Ward!"

The accusation was too much, the charge that set off the explosion.

"Perhaps I did misjudge! We all do in the heat of battle. Even you."

"Not to that degree, Star Commander."

"Then let me ask you this, Dwillt Radick. What misconception of strategy led you to establish a permanent command center instead of accepting the responsibility of directing the battle from your cockpit in-"

"I could charge you for that."

"Take it to a Circle of Equals."

"Perhaps I will. When we return." Radick took a deep breath. This Craig Ward, he felt, would plague him for years to come. "Establishing a permanent communications center is more efficient than directing from a command 'Mech. The techs can follow every phase of the battle as the leader directs while fighting off the enemy."

"And leaders have done so for centuries. You ca

"I set up the battle like a soldier, like the great military experts of former times, using all the facets of strategy, tactics, and logistics."

For a moment Craig Ward remembered his place. "With all due respect, sir, perhaps thinking like a soldier is inferior to thinking like a commander."

"As you did? Blundering into an engagement where you had the clear advantage, but then losing it? Was that action from the mind of a commander?"

Craig Ward saw, from the way Dwillt Radick shook with fury, that he had overstepped his bounds. Quickly he invoked all the cautious subordinate rituals that slowly defused Radick and brought the two of them back to their normal, uneasy peace.

21

Kael Pershaw's glare was more piercing than a xenon searchlight. Any other recipient of that gaze would have reconsidered the action that drew it. But Aidan was not just any other. He thrived on glares. Especially from Kael Pershaw.

"I knew you were freebirth, Jorge, and I knew you were arrogant and stupid, but I did not think you would interrupt a sacred ritual with a foolish and insulting gesture. If not for the valor of your recent performance, I would consider shooting you on the spot."

"If you do not accept my case, then I promise to meet you in the Circle of Equals to prove it."

Resplendent in their ceremonial dress, the gathered Jade Falcon warriors muttered among themselves, an ominous sound. Some of them would gladly join with Kael Pershaw to kill this upstart freebirth who had so airily insulted one of their most cherished rites.

"What ma

"That is true. As a freeborn warrior, I would have no right to make the claim, and you would be justified in shooting me immediately."