31
At each ceremony preceding the succeeding contests in the Trial of Bloodright, Aidan could not mistake the hostility of the warriors competing against him. None spoke to him, though some muttered or growled insults under their breath. There was one muscular warrior who looked too big to fit into a normal 'Mech cockpit. His name was Megasa, and he was a Star Commander. The only time he spoke to Aidan, he said, "I hope to draw you somewhere in the competition. If so, I will end your life so that you can no longer stain the glory of Clan Jade Falcon." He walked away without waiting for a response, his thick legs giving him a rather comical gait, as if he had to make a special effort to keep one thigh from scraping away layers of skin from the other.
He asked Marthe about Megasa, but she seemed reluctant to respond. "I judge him to be the most dangerous competitor in this entire Trial of Bloodright. As far as the draw goes, he is in the other half from you. You can only meet him in the final battle. Let us hope some misfortune falls him before that time."
"On the contrary," Aidan said, "I hope to meet him."
Marthe smiled, reminding him of the way she was when they were young together in the sibko. He liked it.
"The more I see of you," she said, "the more I think you shouldwin this Bloodname. Pryde would be an apt name for you. I do not exaggerate when I say you are the most prideful individual I have known."
He shrugged. "Perhaps. But my desire to meet Me-gasa is more than that. If I defeat him, it will remove the taint these warriors believe I would lay on the Bloodname. Anyone else, and they will believe it is merely a matter of fortune, and not my skill. Or even the workings of fate."
"Fate? You have beliefs about fate? That is not like you."
"Not fate in the conventional sense. But sometimes I think there is a kind of fate that is guiding me, maybe all of us."
"A kind of guidance system operating humans?"
"You might say that."
"No, I would not say that. It sounds like nonsense to me. Andwe have tomorrow to discuss. Your opponent will be? Say the name, Aidan."
"His name is Lopar, and he is a skilled BattleMech pilot."
"Not just skilled. He is so good that at times he seems to be of a piece with his 'Mech, as though they constructed him to sit in its cockpit back at the factory. You could beat him in a head-to-head confrontation, but why bother? You want to make him, and any other opponent, fight you away from their natural element."
As Marthe continued her briefing, Horse came into the small, bare room. While Marthe and Aidan conferred, he sat watching in one of the two remaining chairs. Across the way sat Joanna, nodding in agreement at several pieces of the advice Marthe gave. She had seemed to shudder when Horse walked into the room.
When Marthe was done, she left and Joanna took up Aidan's preparation by testing his physical responses. She tossed him a ball that he had to catch in one hand. He was quick, the ball invariably slapping into his palm. They also performed an intricate exercise with sticks, passing them back and forth in a prearranged but arhythmic order.
At a pause in the exercise, Horse caught Aidan's gaze. "Is it worth it, all this?" he asked. "You definitely need one of these stupid Bloodnames?"
"Yes, Horse, getting a Bloodname is worth it. It is the only way one can hope to have his genes selected for the gene pool."
"The gene pool, the Bloodname, they're just some jewelry to wear. You have already proven yourself as a warrior."
"Shut up, free—" A glance from Aidan told Joanna not to use the ugly word, so she finished it with,"— born. You are a member of Aidan's entourage. You have no right to belittle the Trial of Bloodright. It is an honorable tradition. You are jealous because you cannot participate in it."
Horse shook his head. "Not at all. Even if I were a trueborn, I would not want a Bloodname."
Joanna laughed abruptly. It was her cruel laugh, one that once had struck terror in the hearts and minds of cadets. "You are incompletely named, Horse. They should call you Horse's Tail. If you were trueborn, indeed! You can never know what it means to be trueborn, never know what it means to have a Bloodname, never—"
"And why have you not yet won a Bloodname? Aren't you good enough?"
It was lucky for Horse that Aidan stood between him and Joanna. From the way she started to come at Horse, even a skilled warrior like Horse would have been pushed back through the wall. Aidan stopped her before that could happen.
"You are my advisors, you two," he said. "I need your help, not your squabbling."
"You should get rid of that one, Aidan," Joanna growled. "The kind of advice he gives would put you in your grave."
"Not so, Joanna," Aidan said. "I need to see both sides of the matter. How can I respond instinctively if I am not a realist about everything?"
"I fail to see how his mutterings can assist you in any way. They denigrate the ideal of the Bloodname."
"And that is why Horse is helpful. His point of view lets me keep that ideal in perspective."
"I have no idea what you mean."
"I want this Bloodname so deeply, so thoroughly, that the perspective shows me its worth."
"Well, when it comes to competing for a Bloodname, remember that I have preceded you. I can say that no amount of philosophy ever drew an ounce of an opponent's blood."
Aidan knew how bitter Joanna was that she had not yet succeeded in winning a Bloodname in her house line, but Marthe returned to save him from further discussion.
At the odd look on her face, Aidan asked what was the matter.
Marthe did not answer immediately, as if trying to decide whether to reveal her thoughts. "An oath is being taken among all the competitors for the Bloodname," she said finally.
"I have heard of no such oath."
"That is because it concerns you. The oath condemns your participation in this Trial of Bloodright. Megasa is the one who started it. From what I have heard, the oath states that your opponents will try to kill you rather than just attempt to defeat you. Every competitor has taken the vow."
Aidan merely nodded, his lips pressed tightly together.
"Does this not concern you?" Marthe asked.
"Of course it does. But it comes as no great surprise. It is odd to be so hated, but I will find a way to use this. Anything can be used to advantage in combat."
"Withdraw, Aidan," Horse said quietly.
"No, he cannot," Joanna insisted.
"And I will not," Aidan said. "I failed in my first Trial here on Ironhold. If I fail again, at this Bloodright Trial, then I prefer to die."
A wave of sadness suddenly overcame Marthe. It might even have flickered briefly in her eyes, but the next moment she had her emotions once more totally under control. No one else in the room seemed to have noticed the lapse.
32
The Bloodright coin gave Aidan confidence. Something about the emblem of a jade falcon in flight on one side reminded him of the peregrine that he had raised and hunted with in his boyhood. He had named the peregrine Warhawk, after a mythological falcon in a story that sibparent Glynn so often told and after the massive BattleMech of the same name.
He could not recall precisely the falcon story Glynn had told with her typical dramatic flourishes. He mainly remembered that it ended with the falcon facing another of its kind high in the sky above a mountain peak. The Warhawk of the story had swooped down in a magnificent dive and managed to bite off the other falcon's head in mid-air. Thinking of it now, Aidan thought of how exaggerated were that tale and all the other ones with which Glynn had regaled the children of the sibko. But the stories had excited their imaginations and, as a result, had shaped their lives and values. Had Aidan not heard Glynn's story of Warhawk, he might never have wished to raise his own bird. Nor might he have felt such a fierce need to pursue his own destiny to this moment. It had all led up to this, where he stood fingering a coin showing a falcon like Warhawk as he awaited his chance to win the Bloodname he craved with every fiber of his being.