Bloodname

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 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 u

* * *

"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."