LE5739 - Falcon Rising, page 19
Now, suddenly, she came awake and the shock of the reality was worse than a dream. Nomad stood next to her bed. And he was holding her hand. She pulled her hand quickly away. The act had no effect on Nomad. His ancient face remained relatively impassive, with only a hint of distaste for everything in his eyes.
"You should have died, but you are still here," Nomad said. "Everything else from here on in is a gain."
"I remember some of it. It was you, quiaff? You carried me from that place to here."
"Means nothing."
"Do you ever talk straight?"
"Rarely."
Peri put her head back and closed her eyes. She opened them again quickly as a new dream threatened to begin.
"And the bloodname. Diana really won it or was it just one of my dreams?"
"She won. She is a hero among the freeborn population. We talk about her a lot. The trueborns are not exactly thrilled, but they have accepted the reality in true warrior style. Except for Ravill Pryde. He challenged her to a Trial of Refusal against her bloodname victory."
"And did they fight?"
"No. The invasion interfered."
"Invasion?"
Nomad explained the Inner Sphere penetration into the homeworlds, and about the intense fighting now taking place on Huntress.
"The Khans of the other Clans have voted to stay out of this particular war, let the Smoke Jaguars defend their own neighborhood, so to speak."
"What about the Inner Sphere forces? Do not the other Clans fear they might be attacked next?"
"Perhaps. Some say that each Clan is confident it can defeat the Inner Sphere in any other incursion."
Nomad shrugged and clearly would not offer more.
"Was Diana here?" Peri finally asked.
"Once. She seemed distracted. It may be all the war effort."
"There is a war effort? I thought only the Jaguars were fighting."
"Even though Khan Marthe Pryde concurred that the Smoke Jaguars should fight their own battles, she has given orders for all Jade Falcon units to increase all drills, training maneuvers, simulations and other combat preparations. The bloodname contests have been suspended, and challenges and honor duels are strictly forbidden. She does not want to waste a single warrior. Makes a lot of the truebirths antsy. Like Ravill Pryde, who I am sure would like to embarrass your daughter. At any rate, Marthe seems to want the Falcons ready for war."
Peri's turn to nod. She had been in the same sibko with Marthe, after all, and remembered her well. Along with Aidan, Marthe was the best warrior among the cadets, but there was always a sense she was keeping something back. She did not seem to have changed over the years.
"Marthe Pryde may—no, will be—the salvation of the Jade Falcons."
"Salvation. A strange word. But then I have always thought scientists strange."
Peri tried to respond, but against her will her eyelids drooped and she was asleep. There may have been dreams, but they were not as vivid as before. When she awoke, Nomad was no longer there. Apparently he had assured himself that she was well now, for he did not return to the medical center.
She thought of Diana and wondered if she should make any effort to see her, if only to congratulate her on the victory. No, Diana was on a path to an unknown destiny, equipped with a Jade Falcon bloodname, and she needed no help from Peri.
She decided that she would not go to Diana.
Diana did not need her.
Instead, Peri turned her thoughts to Etienne Balzac and what she could do about him.
26
Jade Falcon Hall
Hall of the Khans, near Katyusha
Strana Mechty
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space
6 May 3060
As it happened, things did not turn out as Marthe Pryde expected. Instead of being driven from the homeworlds, the Inner Sphere forces obliterated every trace of the Smoke Jaguars on Huntress. The destruction of a whole Clan was an unspeakable act that had happened only once before in Clan memory. That it should have come at the hands of an enemy the Clans believed to be inferior was an outrage.
Then Victor Steiner-Davion had proceeded to Strana Mechty with a challenge to all the Clans—a Trial of Refusal that would settle the invasion once and for all. When the Ghost Bears refused to participate, the Crusaders took up the challenge while the Nova Cats went over to the enemy. Each of the eight Clans would fight a separate Trial.
The battles took place in the mountains, on the plains, and in the valleys of Strana Mechty, and it was all over in a single day. At Zhaloba Mountain, Marthe and the Falcons smashed the ComStar forces, a victory especially sweet as payback for Tukayyid eight years before. If anyone still doubted whether the Falcons could hold their own, Zhaloba Mountain laid those doubts to rest.
The Star Adders were the only other Clan to win their Trial, while the Wolves fought the little-known St. Ives Lancers to a draw. The Inner Sphere won all the rest, a total of five wins out of eight. The unthinkable had happened. The Crusaders were defeated, on the very soil of Strana Mechty, an outcome no less shocking than the destruction of the Smoke Jaguars and their homeworld.
The Clans were left stunned, and Marthe still wondered at the speed with which her whole universe had changed. There was no longer an ilKhan, the Wardens controlled the Grand Council, and the invasion of the Inner Sphere had come to an abrupt and humiliating end.
The Jaguars were destroyed, the Ghost Bears had relocated to the Inner Sphere, and the Nova Cats had defected. Bitter clashes immediately broke out over rival claims to the assets and worlds of all three. Trials of Possession now raged across the homeworlds, each series triggering another set of Refusals. The Clans were at war again, and it looked like it was going to last for some time.
The Falcons were in the thick of it. When word came that the Ghost Bears planned to gift Tokasha to the Diamond Sharks, Marthe immediately attacked, as did the Goliath Scorpions. The Diamond Sharks retreated, but that did not discourage the Hell's Horses from entering the fray. On other worlds, the Falcons were also fighting the Wolves over Eden, and the Diamond Sharks and Hellions over Barcella.
The situation was bloody and chaotic, and Marthe welcomed the constant action. She had spent too many months shut up in the Grand Council. Today, though, she was strangely pensive. Perhaps it was the day, the weather slightly overcast but uncomfortably warm. The humidity seemed to drip from the dull gray paint of her office walls. Though her desk was piled with disks and urgent hardcopy reports calling for her attention, Marthe sat back and let her mind drift for a moment.
She rarely dwelt on the past, but she would never forget the sight of Victor Davion strolling into the Grand Council two days after the fighting on Strana Mechty. He had uttered some pomposities about their two peoples learning to know each other, then had the gall to announce that the Clans were welcome to join his phony new Star League. Did the Inner Sphere leaders really believe that by throwing together some new alliances and employing the fancy rhetoric of a Victor Davion, they could somehow turn the tide of history? Only the descendants of the great Kerensky would restore the Star League.
Vlad had leapt instantly to his feet. He declared that because the Wolves had abstained from the vote, they were not bound by the Trial of Refusal. Then he warned the other Khans that any cooperation with the Inner Sphere would doom their way of life. Vowing to remain true to the vision of Kerensky, he turned and strode from the chamber. Marthe could not help but admire him.
And agree with him. Victor might think that the Inner Sphere had tamed the Clans, but he was wrong. The Jade Falcons would never join any sham Star League. Nor would she ever renounce her belief that the Falcons would one day take Terra and the whole Inner Sphere in the name of the great Kerensky.
The stravags had thought to teach the Clans a lesson about war by annihilating an entire Clan and every shred of its military might. Lincoln Osis himself had died at the hands of Victor Davion. But it was all done through trickery and deceit. Even the fact that the Inner Sphere had somehow discovered the location of the homeworlds could only have been bought through some treachery or other.
It is infuriating the way that infernal Victor Davion employed Clan rituals of combat against us. It was the only way he could hope to defeat us. It looked so honorable, but what a swindle it was.
Marthe remembered thinking that Davion was making a colossal mistake. The Inner Sphere could never hope to win a Trial of Refusal, not even with the limited battles he was proposing. The Clans had superior warriors, machines, and infinitely more courage and valor. Now she realized they should have known the sneaky little surat would have something up his sleeve. I would like to grab his little neck and squeeze the life out of his little body. Not honorable, perhaps, but satisfying.
Marthe's fingers curled into a strangling position. She raised her hands to where the short stravag's neck would have been and just then heard the sound of someone clearing his throat from her office doorway. She looked up to see Rhonell standing there patiently, apparently undisturbed by the fact that his Khan was strangling the air in front of her! He announced the arrival of Samantha Clees.
Marthe dropped her hands, feeling somewhat sheepish. "Send her in, Rhonell."
She leaned back and closed her eyes for a second. No good. The face of Victor Davion appeared before her. The invading Clans still held territory in the Inner Sphere. This phony new Star League concocted by the Inner Sphere might move against her there, to wipe out the advances made by the Falcons.
A slight tapping on the door broke her reverie, followed by Samantha's entrance into the room. Though she did not sit down, neither did she begin her usual pacing. "You sent for me, Marthe?"
Marthe noticed that Samantha's eyes were tired, with what looked like smudges beneath them. There were lines of tension emerging from the corners of her mouth. War was exhilarating but it also took its toll.
"Aye, Samantha. It is time for us to speak of urgent matters. The invasion is over, but that does not mean we shall not return to the Inner Sphere."
Samantha nodded. "We must press for our advantage there as we are doing here at home."
"Aye, Samantha, but we are not strong enough to resume the invasion on our own, and it will be some time before the Clans will unite behind such an operation again. For now let us focus on what we can do—take back possession of the invasion corridor and drive the viper from our midst."
Samantha frowned. "The Steel Vipers have tried our patience long enough, quiaff? It was a slap in the face when they made Andrews their saKhan. I have long hated the whole Clan, but I despise Brett Andrews."
Marthe nodded. "Aff, but your own report indicates that our military is still not fully staffed or trained. I want all routines and training regimens doubled, tripled. We will need the falcon screaming, raging for a fight. We will fight the Vipers in the invasion corridor, but armed with plans and strategies as well as 'Mechs. Brash courage will not be enough. This time we will take a lesson from the Inner Sphere. We will out-think the Steel Vipers and catch them where they are most vulnerable—in their arrogance and over-confidence. We will move against them. But only when we are ready."
"Are you not being too cautious, my Khan?" Marthe knew Samantha used the honorific to show that she meant no disrespect in disagreeing. She had come to rely on Samantha for both her loyalty and her frankness, and took no offense.
"Perhaps not cautious enough. Do not worry, Samantha. We will be in the field soon, and it will not be an easy fight. But we will win, I promise you that. Meanwhile, we will continue to sharpen our talons."
The two Khans of the Jade Falcons began then to discuss in earnest various possibilities for an assault against the Vipers, studying the holomap Marthe called up of the invasion corridor. As they spoke in voices that became increasingly spirited, Marthe felt more like her old self than she had in a long while. At one point she even picked up a pile of papers and flung them across the desk, pleased at the way they spread across the surface messily.
27
Ironhold Science Research and Education Center
Ironhold City, Ironhold
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space
7 May 3060
As she sat tensely in the waiting room of Etienne Balzac's office, Peri kept going over her meeting with Marthe Pryde several days ago. She had been summoned to Strana Mechty by saKhan Samantha Clees, who had interviewed her briefly during her tour of Ironhold. The circumstances of that interview had resulted in the saKhan's bringing Peri's suspicions before the Khan.
Peri had left Marthe's office feeling less than confident about the way the interview had gone. She feared the risk she had agreed to take. She shut her eyes and recalled the meeting. . .
. . . She had been shocked when she walked into the office of the Khan to see the many changes in Marthe's face. Her emotionless eyes seemed weary. Her mouth was tight, and new thin lines were etched around them. Her skin, once so ruddy from the outdoor life, had paled, perhaps from too much indoor deskwork. She still stood tall and strong, though.
Since they were from the same sibko and therefore the same age, Peri was more than normally conscious of Marthe's years. She knew that age was obvious enough on her own face—those in lower castes tended to age less gracefully than warriors, even trueborns who had once been warriors—but she had not expected to see it in Marthe.
Samantha Clees was there too, and she sat quietly in a chair against the opposite wall, while Marthe and Peri talked.
Marthe's face softened a bit as she welcomed Peri. That shocked Peri almost as much as had the signs of age. She did not recall any moment from the past when Marthe had been friendly with her.
"Sit, Peri."
She indicated a chair to the left of her desk. Taking it, Peri noted that Marthe omitted the use of her labname. Warriors, resenting the scientists' adoption of surnames, could not abide that the names be spoken in their presence. After Peri sat, Marthe rose and walked around to the front of her desk. The setup, with the already taller Marthe looking down at her, made Peri even more aware of the fact she was talking to a Khan.
"Been a long time, Peri, quiaff?"
"Aff."
"We have not seen each other much over the years."
"Hardly at all."
"But of course I have kept track of your progress."
Peri did not know whether to believe that or not. What reason could a warrior ristar like Marthe, who had now become Khan, have for keeping track of someone like her? Peri knew she was just a small bureaucrat in an overly bureaucratic caste. Maybe Marthe was being obliquely sarcastic, knowing that Peri had been a cadet who'd flushed out of warrior training. Or maybe the Khan still harbored some sentiment toward one who had formerly been her sibkin.
Before Peri could further ponder that line of thought, Marthe went on to praise Peri's report on the LAMs, especially the unorthodox way she had used them in combat action on Huntress.
"Also, I am told you helped to save Horse, a warrior invaluable to me."
Then she began to speak of Diana's victory in the bloodname contest, commending her and noting several dramatic moments of the winning battle. Suddenly Marthe stopped talking and said, "What is wrong, Peri?"
"Frankly, my Khan, it is all this talk of Diana. You keep calling her 'my daughter' and referring to me as her mother."
"Do you deny that these are the facts?"
"Neg, my Khan. I am just not comfortable with them. Biologically, Diana Pryde is my daughter. When a child is little, there is no other choice but to act as her mother. One cares for a daughter in much the same way one has to keep laboratory animals healthy. But, you see, I was trueborn, and freeborns are, well, different when it comes to parents and children. Mothers, especially, give their children a lot of attention and become terribly emotional with them. But it was not our way, Diana's and mine. I was not only trueborn, I was a scientist who worked long hours."
"So you and Diana Pryde are not especially close."
"There is a tie. I am glad she has become the warrior she desired to be so ferociously, and she has regularly kept in touch with me. Well, not exactly regularly but often enough. And I was content when she won her bloodname."
Marthe's smile was sudden and disconcerting. "Content? You got out of a hospital bed, dragged yourself across half of Ironhold City, and nearly died because—in spite of your obvious pain—you would not leave the holovid broadcast until it was over and you had to be carried back across half the city."
"You know about that?"
"I am Khan. I have more sources than anyone."
"I suppose there was some, well, emotion in my need to know what happened to her. However, I suspect we are now through with the parts of our lives that intersect, and I wish her well. I have not seen her since."
"But she came to see you when you were still unconscious, quiaff?"
"How did you know that?"
Marthe spread her arms. "Khan, quiaff?"'
"Aff. But I think that was courtesy, and there is no need for us to see each other again."
There was an uneasy pause, and Marthe moved away from the desk and walked over to where Samantha sat.
"SaKhan Clees has briefed me on the matter of the secret genetic experiments you have uncovered among your caste. Actually, Peri, this is not the first such report to reach my ears. We have undertaken other investigations that lend extra weight to your claims. One even involved a person from the past who still links us—Star Commander Joanna. She discovered evidence that helps to substantiate your claims that the conspiracy of scientists involves those from several Clans. The conspiracy is, in fact, so vast and so complicated that there is virtually nothing we can do about it."
"Nothing?"
"Peri, they are so organized they could form their own Clan. They even have their own mercenaries, mostly recruits from the bandit caste whom they use as bodyguards and, occasionally, as in your case, assassins."
