"Aff, but they are not Clan, are they?"

"Your point being?"

Phelan winked at her. "It's an old Kell Hound tradition called 'bragging rights.' "

Ranna shook her head and disengaged her hand. "As they are not Clan, neither are you a Kell Hound. Do not be surprised if they react poorly to your effort to teach them humility." She arched an eyebrow at him. "And, my love, your speech is deteriorating."

Phelan winced. "And your grandmother isn't—I mean, is not—here to accept the blame, is she?"

"No, nor is she here to tell you to be careful." Ranna nodded toward Captain Moran and the knot of people near her. "We already have many enemies, Khan Phelan, both inside the Clans and out. There is no reason to make things worse."

Phelan started to tell Ranna not to worry, but her words resonated with truth. The familiar surroundings of Arc-Royal and the perverse delight he took in annoying people he regarded as pompous had made him slip into old patterns of behavior. He was glad for the chance to recover some of the esteem he had lost by joining the Clans, but he knew Ranna was right in reminding him, subtly, that he was now more than he had been when yet a member of the Inner Sphere. He was still the son of Morgan Kell, but now he represented more than just his family. The Wolf Clan had made him one of their two Khans, and with that came responsibility for more than just himself.

"Your wisdom is taken to my heart, Ranna." He let his gratitude to her burn the smugness out of his smile. "I will comport myself as befitting a Khan."

"I had never thought you would do otherwise, Khan Phelan Ward." Her head dipped as she acknowledged a wave from Caitlin Kell. "If you will excuse me."

"Of course." He smiled at her, watching her walk away gracefully in spite of the black woolen skirt clutching at her legs in what a Clan warrior could only experience as an awkward and binding way. "You will join me, Ragnar?"

"As my Khan wishes."

"Good." Phelan noticed that others had joined the circle of losers from the morning's game. He fought down his desire to gloat and, surprisingly, found it not so hard to banish. Instead he felt a sense of shame at having entertained so petty and unworthy an emotion.

Standing beside Victor and Galen were the other two members of Victor's command lance. Both men were of oriental descent, though Kai's lighter skin and the softer tilt of his almond-shaped eyes made his mixed blood obvious. Their gray color also contrasted sharply with the dark brown of Shin Yodama's. The Draconis Combine officer stood a few centimeters shorter than Kai and looked a decade older. Phelan thought he saw the edges of a black and gold tattoo peeking out from the neckline of his shirt.

"Good evening." Phelan nodded to Galen, then smiled at Kai. "I can see easily why you are the Solaris champion." He shifted his gaze to Shin. "And why the Coordinator still has an heir."

Shin stiffened and then executed a short bow. Phelan read a hint of shame on Shin's face. Coordinator Takashi Kurita had been murdered only a few months before, and Shin had been in charge of Takashi's bodyguards.

Kai nodded at Phelan, the hint of a blush coloring his face. "Considering that my modified Centurionout-massed your Wolfhoundby fifteen tons, you would be a favorite on Solaris. It would have taken many other fighters months of plotting to do what you managed on the fly out there."

"Lucky shots," Phelan shrugged. "I do not think you have anything to fear from me. Even if Iwere allowed to travel beyond the treaty line to Solaris, I would not welcome a rematch with live ammunition. As I recall, neither one of us would have survived our fight."

"Point well taken."

Michelle Moran tossed off the last of the beer in her mug. "I wouldn't think that your getting to Solaris would be that difficult, Khan Phelan. His Highness seems to be quite adept at getting all manner of hostiles anywhere he wants them."

"That may well be, Captain Moran, but for Khan Phelan to travel to Solaris would be an abrogation of the agreement the ilKhan made with ComStar." Ragnar kept a half-smile on his face. "The Precentor Martial has been reluctant to grant any Clan personnel the right to cross that line."

Victor nodded. "At this point things are so touchy that even a rumorof a Clansman crossing the line would set off the war again."

Moran waved that comment away with an empty mug. "Was there ever really an end to the fighting, Highness? Look at Morges and Crimond invaded last year, and now the raiding going on in the Lyran holdings. Anything this side of the line, including Arc-Royal here, is open season. The old Federated Suns seems to be intact, though."

Victor stiffened and clenched his jaw. "Ja,Captain Moran, the Federated Suns seemsintact, but it is not. It participates in the defense against the Clans by sending its men and women here to die. It supplies materiel for war and assistance for recovery."

"But no one in the Suns is under the threat of invasion!" Moran handed the beer mug to one of her men and used her freed hands to help express her anger. "The

Federated Suns never loses worlds. In the Fourth Succession War your father managed to increase the size of the Federated Suns by a fourth, then relied on the Lyran Commonwealth to foot the bill for his conquests. Never mind the fact that we lost worlds to the Combine. Now we suffer the brunt of the invasion and the Federated Suns offers us a band-aid to staunch an arterial wound."

"Captain! Remember who you are talking to!" Galen Cox barked.

"It's all right," Victor said quietly, folding his arms across his chest and turning back to Moran. "We are doing all we can."

"No you're not." Moran pressed her fingertips to her temples, then brought her open hands down. "We opposed the Clans with one hand tied behind our backs. If all the troops in the Federated Commonwealth had been used to fight the Clans, we could have driven them back."

"You don't seriously suggest that we should take all the troops from the Federated Suns and bring them here, do you?"

"Why not?"

The Prince looked surprised. "Because the Clans are not the only threats to the Federated Commonwealth. Romano Liao would have attacked if we had stripped troops from the border with the Capellan Confederation."

Moran shook her head vehemently. "Nonsense. Besides, the St. Ives Compact, a nation that the Capellans still claim is legally part of their nation, devoted a greater percentage of its troops to opposing the Clans than the old Federated Suns did. And please don't say that the Free Worlds League was a threat. As long as you have Joshua Marik there on New Avalon as a hostage, Thomas won't do anything that could jeopardize his son's life."

"There's something you're forgetting here, Captain Moran. It is that I am Victor Ian Steiner-Davion.I was raised right here, in the Lyran half of the Federated Commonwealth. I went to the Nagelring and graduated with honors. And all my service has been here. My only trip back to New Avalon came at the time of my father's death."

Victor's voice began to rise and Phelan began to feel for him. "Captain Moran, I feel the pain of the losses we have suffered here in the Federated Commonwealth precisely because of who I am. I regret your brother's death on Trellwan, but I also rejoice in your skill. I am pleased and proud to have done all I could to defeat the Clans, and I wish I could do more. Yes, my father was Hanse Davion, but my mother is Melissa Steiner, and that ties me as closely to the Lyran Commonwealth as you can imagine."