LE5739 - Falcon Rising, page 18
* * *
"The fool!" Joanna shouted angrily. Since many in the holovid arena audience had gone silent, her words echoed around the spacious room. Several turned to look at her, some of them surely believing that Joanna must be on their side.
"What do you mean?" Horse asked, in a decidedly softer voice.
"She is going to get both of them killed. These damned Prydes, they—"
"You include Diana in that? You think she is winning the bloodname?"
"Of course she is. But she may have it for only seconds if she is not careful. Then she will be dead. With an earned bloodname, but dead."
* * *
"You are trembling," Nomad said as he touched Peri's arm. He had not seen any of the last few minutes in the bloodname match, but had kept his attention firmly on her face, which was deathly pale.
"I am all right. I will last. Any moment now this, this fight will be over. Diana will—Diana will—I do not know what this is all about. Why is she there? What is happening?"
"Come, hold my hand, I will walk you someplace, to someplace where they can help, to—"
"Get your bloody wrinkled solahma hands off me! I... I stay to the end!"
"I am not solahma. I am just old, freeborn."
"Who bloody cares? Look, Diana is attacking. The other one, what is wrong with the other one?"
* * *
This is my bloodname, damn it! I will have it.
The remaining active medium pulse laser on Leif's 'Mech was still firing, but inaccurately. The arm itself was wavering. She must have hit it somewhere. Her left-arm PPC was inoperative, but the one on her right arm was still usable, as were the medium pulse lasers on her torso. Concentrating all still-active weapons on the Black Lanner's right arm, she disabled it rapidly, then she activated her commline for transmission.
"MechWarrior Leif, I have you. You are disabled. You surrender, quiaff?"'
"Neg," he responded calmly. "Tradition says you have to finish me off. Do it."
It seemed as if the entire surface of Styx was now on fire. The liquid had already begun to overflow the pool's banks, spreading the fire with it. It would soon accumulate around the feet of the Black Lanner.
* * *
"What has happened?" Peri asked blearily.
"Diana has won. The Lanner cannot respond, counterattack. It can't do much of anything but walk into her to knock her over, and I don't think any Jade Falcon warrior would end a bloodname match in that way."
"You are sure she has won?"
"Positive."
"I must get back."
"Get back where?"
"The hospital. I feel—"
She did not say what she felt, but merely stepped off the stool, gave a meek groan, and fell unconscious to the floor.
Feeling his age, Nomad stepped off his own stool and knelt by Peri. She was breathing heavily, with the choked gasp of someone injured.
There must be something internal, he thought. Something reinjured maybe.
Nobody else was paying attention to either of them. Most of the people in the bar were intent on the contest, and most of them looked drunker than Nomad.
It's up to me then, he thought and, leaning down, gathered up Peri into his arms with surprising agility. It would not only have surprised others, it astonished him.
A few steps outside the tavern and he thought he could never make it. The trip meant carrying her through many streets. He managed several muscle-straining blocks, until the weight of Peri had made his ancient arms numb. He came to a complete stop, breathing heavily. There were no other people in the street. Peri's breathing had subsided. She was either better. Or dying.
He could not let her die. For Kerensky's sake. For Aidan Pryde's sake.
He started to get up.
Peri stirred and opened her eyes.
"What are we doing here?"
"You passed out. I think you are still hurt."
She grimaced. "I know I am. Must get to a hospital."
"I've been trying that. It's not easy when you're an old relic, believe me."
"I will try to walk."
She tried to put her legs onto the road. They collapsed immediately.
"My turn," Nomad said and picked her up. Her eyes were getting woozy again.
He felt stronger. The rest had helped.
Before she became unconscious again, Peri whispered, "Diana. The bloodname. She won?"
"I am sure she did."
"Sure? That is not enough. Take me back. I need to see her win."
"She won it. She is now Diana Pryde."
"That makes me strangely happy," she said and shut her eyes.
As Nomad carried her down the street, his pace picked up and he felt his heart beating with what seemed a new strength. He started thinking back to the days when he was Aidan Pryde's tech, and he forgot about the heavy burden he was carrying.
* * *
"Leif, I will back away. Let you take your 'Mech past me, away from the flames."
The flames were leaping higher now.
"Good idea perhaps. Unfortunately, my 'Mech will not move. I kept that a secret from you. Its legs were disabled even before you got the last arm. Good work, Diana. I hail you and your bloodname."
"Eject then. You might hit the ceiling, but at least it is worth the risk."
"Sorry. Mechanism jammed. No chance."
"Climb out of the cockpit. I will bring the Nova as close as I can. I can make a bridge with the 'Mech's arm. You can walk across to me on it, or I can get in as close as I can and you could jump across the gap or—"
"And have you humiliate me the way you did when you rescued that other warrior?"
"That was no humiliation. I saved a warrior to fight again."
"The old waste argument, eh? Do not waste a nut or a bolt or a 'Mech or a warrior."
The flames must have started to burn something inside the Black Lanner's left leg. It began to tilt sideways, toward the mass of fire now on the surface of Styx.
"Get out, Leif! We can do something. Do you want to die?"
"It is honorable. This is the bloodname battle, after all."
"You want to die that way, as the victim of—of a freebirth?"
"You are a warrior, Diana. You have earned the bloodname."
Diana was about to move her Nova forward in some desperate attempt at a rescue, but the Black Lanner began to fall. She listened on the commline for Leif to scream, but he did not.
There would be a few jokes made later about the way this bloodmatch ended. The Black Lanner at first seemed to stretch across the pool, but there was a shift in the cavern floor as the 'Mech hit it heavily, then the Black Lanner shifted just enough for it to slip head-first into the pool, flames momentarily encircling it before most of the fire was stifled by the 'Mech's bulk. Only half of it became submerged, but of course that half contained the cockpit. On all the holovids there was a semi-comic scene that to some looked like the 'Mech had bent down for a drink, then fallen into the pool, leaving its legs pointing straight upward. From that picture the jokes were created. Some of them had to do with 'Mech stalagmites.
* * *
Samantha turned away from the holovid depiction in disgust and began to pace. Grelev, understanding her revulsion, quickly switched off the holovid. The small version of Falconfire Cavern flicked off in a crackle of static.
Grelev, rarely at a loss for words, could not speak. He knew he was hot exactly a man of refined tastes, but the scene had been too grisly for him.
He did not have to speak, since there was a knock on the door.
"What is it?" Grelev shouted.
"Transmission from the Khan," a muffled voice replied.
Grelev opened the door and took the envelope from the messenger.
"Read it," Samantha said.
He opened the envelope and took out the half-sheet of paper.
"It is coded. I cannot read it."
Stopping her pacing, Samantha took the paper from him, spent some time reading it (apparently translating the code section by section), crumpled it and cast it away from her. Her revulsion had been replaced by anger.
"Dirty stravags!" she said.
"Who?"
"The Inner Sphere. Their troops are in Clan space. They are attacking the Smoke Jaguars on Huntress!"
"Dirty stravags," Grelev muttered, though the news seemed beyond comprehension.
"Clearly a new phase has begun in the war. I do not know how we will respond. But we are more ready than anybody believes. I saw that on my tour here. Come with me, Grelev.
We must arrange transport off Ironhold. I must get back to Strana Mechty."
She walked toward the door, then looked back, past Grelev at the now-imageless holovid field. "We still need more good warriors," she said. "Warriors like that one."
She gestured toward the field where, after all, Diana had been.
"Like Diana Pryde," she said and strode out of the room.
24
Airfield outside Ironhold City
Ironhold
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space
13 March 3060
Diana came storming off the hovercraft that had transported her back to Ironhold City. A large number of silent spectators had come out to the airfield, looking like mourners at a funeral.
Probably trueborns here to jeer at me, resentful of my victory, here to hurl insults. I'll fight them if I have to. All of them at once!
But they were not all trueborns. A group of freeborns located somewhere in the middle of crowd began to cheer. It was unusual for freeborns to pay attention to a bloodname contest—it was just something trueborn warriors did—but the quest of a freeborn for the harshly fought-for surname had stirred their interest. After the first freeborns cheered, others in the crowd joined in and the acclaim for her surged to a deafening level. Trueborns among them vocalized their disapproval, but most of their grumbling was drowned out.
Diana paid them no heed, whether supporters or enemies. It was just noise to her. She was annoyed by both the praise and the disapproval. She started walking past them.
Coming through the crowd, creating their own path much as Diana was creating hers, Joanna and Horse hurried toward her.
Joanna started talking before they reached Diana. "That was some show, Diana. You violated most of what I told you. You ignored the strategy we discussed. And—"
Joanna had reached Diana now and she planted herself in front of her, stopping Diana's progress at the same time.
"And what, Joanna?"
"And you have the bloody bloodname, you wretched stravag. Congratulations!"
Then an extraordinary thing happened. Horse, watching from behind, said later he had not really believed it happened. Joanna embraced Diana. It was a brief embrace that ended abruptly, but it was a definite embrace.
"I would have done it all differently, of course," Joanna said, pulling away.
"Spoken like a warrior who could not herself win a bloodname," Horse said dryly. For a moment Joanna's eyes flashed in anger, then she realized Horse was merely chiding her, and she relaxed.
Turning toward Diana, Horse said, "I can see in your eyes you are upset."
Diana nodded. "He did not have to die. I was ready to rescue him. I offered—"
"That does not matter. The warrior made his choice. In old days, sea captains went down with their ships, soldiers fell on explosive devices, surrounded warriors fought till the last of them was killed."
"I know, but there is honor in what you say. What honor comes with a death as useless as that?"
"From some points of view, it was—"
"Look who is coming," Joanna interrupted. "The bantam surat. Strutting his heart out, as usual."
Horse and Diana looked where Joanna pointed. The approach of Ravill Pryde did indeed have a comic appearance. Each step was deliberate, accompanied by swings of his arms that advertised his arrogance.
He was still dressed in the Oathmaster's ceremonial uniform, which featured a long cape decorated with varicolored falcon feathers. Since he was short, the cape kicked up dust behind him as it dragged along the ground. He did not speak until he had stopped in front of Diana. Even with a fairly high lift to his boots, he was a few centimeters shorter than Diana.
"MechWarrior Diana," he said in formal voice. "It is my duty to state that, in this Trial of Bloodright, you have officially won the Pryde bloodname and henceforth will be known as Diana Pryde."
Joanna's brows furrowed. This kind of speech usually came in a formal ceremony later. Why was Ravill Pryde saying it now? Was he so inept that he had not bothered to learn the proper formalities?
Oh, well, it does not matter. Risa Pryde is dead, long live Ravill Pryde.
She was immediately aware of the oddness of her thought. Although she had invoked a timeworn cliche, she realized how strange it was to apply it to warriors, who did not seek or expect long lives. Certainly, to stay a warrior and live as long as Joanna had was unusual among the Clans.
"I accept the bloodname with the full cognizance of the honor the Clan has afforded me," Diana said. It was a common ritual response that she had prepared some time ago.
Ravill Pryde was supposed to respond with some formula about how the warrior had earned the honor and was welcomed into the bloodnamed ranks, but instead he stared at Diana wordlessly for a long while. Then he spoke in a lowered voice. "This is a bleak day for Clan Jade Falcon, with a freebirth bringing dishonor to the bloodname she has won in as ugly a battle as I have ever seen. Diana Pryde, I accuse you of bringing dishonor to the Pryde bloodname with your absurd quest and your repellent victory and—"
The pause he took was clearly planned, perhaps in order to be dramatic, and he raised his voice to finish the sentence.
"—Diana Pryde, I challenge you to a Trial of Refusal on the issue of this tainted bloodname victory. It cannot be allowed. This bloodname to which so many Prydes have brought great honor cannot be borne by a freeborn warrior. It must be rejected, and I will do so at this Trial."
The challenge was so unexpected and unprecedented that nearby members of the crowd who heard it were stunned and quiet. The few who knew that Ravill Pryde had officially sponsored Diana were even more confused than the rest. A muttering started among those in the crowd, that soon spread among the entire group. Some responded with anger, at Ravill's audacity, while others cheered the chance that he could eliminate this upstart or at least deprive her of the now-tainted bloodname.
Joanna took a step toward Ravill, but Horse's strong grip on her arm held her back. He also whispered to her not to say a word.
Diana spoke quietly. "I accept your challenge, Star Colonel. I will be happy to defeat you in a Trial."
Ravill glared at Diana. There was a momentary flicker in his eyes that Joanna thought might have been admiration. What did he admire? she wondered. Her clear defiance, so characteristic of a Jade Falcon warrior? Her terse words, that reflected a warrior's no-nonsense ways? Or merely the fact that she had, quite honorably, not decorated her acceptance with useless, wasteful insults?
"Very well then. This is neither the time nor the place for further formalities. We will fight tomorrow at Jade Falcon headquarters, quiaff?"
"Aff."
"Your challenge will have to be postponed, Oathmaster," interrupted a new voice. All turned to see Grelev, the Mech-Warrior assigned by the saKhan to Ravill Pryde.
Since Ravill had never liked Grelev, he was livid at the interruption, and his face was growing red with anger as he whirled to face the arrogant young warrior. A cloud of dust rose from beneath the cape as it swung around a bit slower than Ravill.
"How dare you tell me what I—"
Grelev smiled slightly as he interrupted again. "By order of the saKhan. I have just received a dispatch from her summoning you and all other high command officers on Iron-hold to a conclave at Jade Falcon Tower."
"What is this about?" Ravill demanded angrily.
"You will be informed, Star Colonel."
Ravill Pryde strode away, following Grelev, without any further words. The crowd slowly dispersed, leaving Joanna, Diana, and Horse alone and puzzled in the center of the airfield.
"I wonder what's up," Horse said.
"It is not for a freeborn like you to wonder about such things," Joanna told him. "Come, Diana. I can help you to beat Ravill Pryde. I beat him once already, did I not?"
"I would have taken him on right now," Diana muttered.
"And wound up with a bloodname for the shortest period in recorded history, kestrel."
They spent the next few hours discussing how to proceed with the unexpected challenge from Ravill Pryde. But the hours proved to be wasted. The next day came the announcement that all challenges, trials, and further bloodname contests had been suspended by the saKhan due to a surprise attack by the Inner Sphere against the Smoke Jaguar homeworld of Huntress. Horse was especially shocked, since he had so recently been there. Many of his thoughts were of Sentania Buhallin, the solahma warrior he had befriended there, and the Smoke Jaguar Galaxy Commander, Russou Howell, who had been his enemy.
25
Elizabeth Hazen Medical Center
Ironhold City, Ironhold
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space
19 March 3060
For Peri it had been one of those times when reality and dreams intermingled and she could not tell one from the other. The rule of thumb for her was, if it was vivid, it must be a dream. Some of it was even fun. The image of Nomad inside a Nova, handling the controls with the expertise of a seasoned warrior but his small aged head looking ridiculous inside a neurohelmet. Diana attacking Etienne Balzac, twisting her fist into the skin of his face. Naiad standing on Peri's chest and shouting that she was victorious, she had won her bloodname, Naiad Pryde. Joanna singing stirring anthems in a choir.
