Sun-Tzu took up the story from there. "There rose among the Star League many powers and many people of avarice. Among these were the Amaris, from whom sprang the monster Stefan, an abomination who slew the Star League's rightful ruler, shattered the Liao creation of Star League, and plunged humanity into a dark age."

Romano nodded proudly as her son hit every word perfectly in his recitation. "Onceagain did the Liao acknowledge their divine charge and accept the mantle of First Lord of the Star League. Alas, for mankind, the Amaris plague had infected the other Great Houses. Davion, Steiner, Marik, and Kurita each believed itself the legitimate claimant to the Star League throne. They engaged in wars, the first, second, and third, that proceeded to strip mankind of the gifts of wisdom the Liao had imparted. With a vengeance, the false Lords of the Great Houses did hunt down and try to destroy the Liao, but they knew no success until ..."

Kali leaped up and snatched the thread of the story from her mother. "Until a viper came to nest within the Liao bosom. The false Lords knew the Liao weakness was its compassion, so they sent to them a man broken and reviled for his Capellan blood. But this man, this embodiment of evil, was not broken. Rather, he was a vessel of treachery, fashioned and controlled by Hanse Davion. And his name was Justin Xiang."

Sun-Tzu accepted the story from his sister, but stripped away the blood-lust she had woven into the telling. "This Justin Xiang betrayed the kindness the Liao showed him. He seduced the weakest of the Liao and carried Candace off to his Lord's domain, robbing the Liao of their beloved St. Ives." He started to add the line, "And one day this treachery will be avenged," but his mother slammed a fist into the throne's arm to cut him off.

"This treachery has, this day, been avenged! A martyr in the service of the Liao succeeded in exacting retribution for Justin Xiang's foul treason. He and his bitch lie dead on New Avalon, where they foolishly believed themselves safe from my wrath."

Romano's eyes focused distantly as she continued to rant, but Sun-Tzu heard none of her words. Allard dead? Candace, too?The frightful look of victory on his mother's face told him she truly believed what she had said, but Sun-Tzu had learned long ago that his mother's beliefs and reality were not always one and the same.

"Father, is this true? Can this be?"

Tsen Shang nodded wearily. "ComStar thought the news of sufficient import to forward it throughout their network.

Speculation is that your Uncle Tormana will be made Regent of the St. Ives Compact, at least temporarily. Kai will be summoned home from the front with the Clans to rule."

Sun-Tzu frowned in concentration as he tried to block out the chortling sounds of his mother's and sister's gloating. "If Kai returns, what are the chances he will lead troops against us? St. Ives soldiers are fighting the Clans right now. What are the chances they will have some of this advanced Clan technology salvaged and in working order by the time they get here?"

His father shrugged. "I do not know."

"Are you not the head of our intelligence service?" Sun-Tzu snapped. "Surely the Maskirovka is keeping track of Candace's troops. Just because we have struck the head from the Davion intelligence serpent does not mean we can relax."

Tsen Shang's head came up and fire sparked in his eyes, but it died quickly. "Yes, son,we have reports, but they are highly unreliable. The Clans have chewed up everything else that has been thrown at them, so I expect no better for the St. Ives troops."

"I pray you are correct, Father." Sun-Tzu glanced at his mother. "She may hold her sister's children in contempt, but you and I cannotafford that luxury. She believes herself inviolate, but I harbor no such illusions. If we have not yet been hit, it was not because of Candace's inability to strike, but because she withheld her wrath. Her heirs—Kai, Cassandra, or even Kuan Yin or Quintus—may not feel so restrained."

Sun-Tzu chewed his lower lip. "Mark me, Father, they will come. It may wait until after the Clans have been defeated, but one day they will seek to avenge Candace and Justin." He looked at his mother one last time. And when that time comes, I must be ready to preserve my nation.

1

Mar Negro, Alyina

TreUshire, Jade Falcon Occupation Zone

5 January 3052

Gray smoke cloaked the dark ocean, hiding Kai Allard as his head broke the surface of the water. The eerie quiet, marred only by his ragged, air-sucking gasps, surprised him. This is a war zone, but I don't hear anything!He fought down the irrational fear that his 'Mech's collision with a Clan OmniMech might have deafened as well as knocked him out. No, if that were true, I wouldn't hear either my breathing or the waves.

Kai turned in the direction of the cliff from where his 'Mech had plunged into the waters of Mar Negro. In answer to Prince Victor Davion's urgent call, Kai and his lance had rushed to Victor's defense. Equipped with experimental myomer muscles, Kai's modified Centurionhad swiftly outdistanced his companions. Reaching the battle zone first, he saw Hanse Davion's heir in a damaged BattleMech beset by four of the Clans' finest.

I just went berserk! I got too close and let that one 'Mech drag me off the cliff.Kai looked up at the twenty meters of chalky cliff rising above him at the shoreline and remembered the long drop in the OmniMech's deadly embrace. Hitting the water, he'd blacked put, knowing that the shelf went down a full kilometer here.

When he came to again, he was still in the cockpit of Yen-lo-wang,his Centurion,trapped under the ocean in the arms of a Clan OmniMech. But instead of plunging to the bottom of the sea, the 'Mechs' descent had been interrupted by a ledge only ten meters or so down. Having been under for only half an hour, Kai wriggled free of the cockpit and swam up from that depth without having to worry about decompression.

Reaching the base of the cliff, Kai pulled himself onto a half-submerged rock and took inventory of his gear. The cooling vest from his 'Mech doubled as a bullet-proof vest, but it and the shorts he wore would do little to ward off the cold of the coming night. His heavy, duraplast-armor boots would protect him from the knees down, but they were hardly made for walking. What did count for something was the survival knife sticking up from the sheath in the right boot, and Kai smiled as he fingered the hilt.

"Well, Victor, I get to test your Christmas gift under true battlefield conditions."

Instantly an unfocused dread began to churn in his stomach. I don't even know if Victor survived! I should have been more careful, I should have been there to make sure. If he died because of me ...Kai forced himself to his feet and quickly mounted the narrow pathway that zigzagged up the cliff-face. Though his fear urged him to reckless speed, another part of him remained cautious. Slowing his pace as he neared the top of the cliff, Kai noted the bright white gash that marked where the cliff-edge had crumbled beneath the feet of his 'Mech.

White and black smoke spiraled together in a fog that drifted eerily across the plateau's surface. Barely four hours earlier, this had been a verdant jungle, the kind of place Alyina's Ministry of Tourism might have touted as typical of their world. Yet mere minutes of combat had pitted and scarred the landscape. Blackened stumps that once were trees dotted the plain like gravestones strewn across a graveyard. The only remaining scraps of green were scattered clumps of earth that artillery fire had blasted from the ground.