" '... better to think about.' I know. I remember."

The ilKhan stood. "I convene this Grand Council and I note to you that we are still under the Martial Code handed down by Nicholas Kerensky. We are at war, and we shall conduct our business as befits that circumstance."

A Smoke Jaguar stood. "I would challenge that assertion, ilKhan. Your agreement with Anastasius Focht prevents us from continuing our invasion. Yet, while it prevents us from pressing forward, his ComStar forces strike behind our lines. You have not bargained well for us, and we must remove you from office so your agreement with him can be repudiated."

The ilKhan's smile sent a chill through Phelan. "You claim we are no longer at war, then use the fact that we are under attack as justification for what you demand. You have failed to convince me we are at peace."

The Smoke Jaguar nodded slowly. "I accept that judgement reluctantly, but I will not contest it. The matter at hand is most grave, ilKhan. I place before the Grand Council a motion that you have failed to carry out our wishes in striking your deal with Anastasius Focht. You bargained in good faith with a man who is treacherous—as the aforementioned attacks on us show. I say you should be stripped of your office and the agreement with Focht destroyed."

A Nova Cat rose to second the motion and Ulric accepted it with an expressionless face. "The motion is then for my removal and the repudiation of the agreement with Anastasius Focht? Very well, this is what shall be debated. Because we are under the Martial Code, we shall only allow one speaker for and one speaker against the motion."

With his right hand, he motioned toward the standing Smoke Jaguar. "You, Lincoln Osis, will speak for your motion." His left hand swung wide and pointed at Phelan. "And you, Phelan Ward, will speak against it."

The ilKhan half-turned back toward his seat, then straightened around again. "By the way, Lincoln, it may interest you to know that Focht has reported that the Primus who initiated the strikes behind our lines has been retired. As I am certain you know from the few worlds your Clan has occupied, all ComStar resistance has stopped."

What am I going to say?He looked at Natasha, but she just shook her head.

"Be yourself, Phelan. Listen to what Osis offers, then destroy it."

Be myself.He nodded and watched Osis move to the center of the room.

The Elemental opened his arms to encompass all but Clan Wolf members. "Trothkin, we have seen that this agreement only benefits the Wolf Clan. Because ilKhan Ulric has carefully engineered a line across which we will not go for three generations, he will remain IlKhan until he dies, resigns, or is forced out. In this manner, he has assured his dominance over us in a way that Nicholas Kerensky never intended when he created the office of ilKhan."

Osis balled his left hand into a fist and brought it back in toward his shoulder. "Ulric and the Wolf Clan have consistently violated the spirit of our agreement concerning the conquest of the Inner Sphere. In accepting the right to negotiate a battle with Focht, he prevented any of the rest of us from consulting with him or offering advice on the agreement. We are now all bound by a pact that we had no part in creating. Furthermore, Ulric did not act as ilKhan in the assault on Tukayyid. He failed to coordinate our actions, and because of that, our effort to conquer the world was for naught."

The Elemental turned to face Ulric. "Your distaste for this invasion is well known. Your negotiation of this deal with Focht served your goal of stopping the invasion, not our goal of reestablishing the Star League. As war leader, you have brought us peace, and that peace is useless to us. I should not have to call for a vote to remove you, I should only have to listen to you tender your resignation. As you will not do so, I do call for a vote.

"We must strip you of command and press forward to our original goal. That is the will of the Clans. That is the destiny we must fulfill and we shall not let you or your agreement stand in our way."

Osis returned to his seat and Ulric looked at Phelan. The young MechWarrior wished he could read the man's face to learn what he was thinking, know how he would handle things, but he could not. Phelan tugged at his belt and touched the cool metal of the buckle. Be yourself.

"Trothkin," he said almost skittishly as the word nearly stuck in his throat, "I do not have the benefit of knowing what arguments and discussions were offered when the Clans began to move into the Inner Sphere. I was, as you know, captured in one of the first engagements in the Periphery. Because of that, I can only speak to what I have seen of the Clans and what I know of the ilKhan."

Phelan saw a smile slowly spread across Natasha's face and he took heart in it. "You, Lincoln Osis, accused the ilKhan of doing all this for the benefit of his Clan, and you said his reluctance to engage in this crusade was well known. How is it then that the Wolf Clan, whose invasion corridor contained more worlds than any other, has progressed so far and so fast? Are ilKhan Ulric's actions those of a timid, avaricious, or reluctant leader? Clearly they are not."

Phelan narrowed his eyes as he studied the Clan totems placed before him. "The ilKhan has seen what you have not. You all dreamed of an Inner Sphere torn by war and utterly unable to withstand your onslaught. True, their level of technology is not as high as yours, but it approaches it swiftly.

At the end of the first year of your invasions, you had made great headway, but the Inner Sphere had already learned tactics that put you at a disadvantage. At Wolcott, the Draconis Combine beat you at your own bidding game. One member of your own Bloodname House died because he so poorly negotiated that battle. And again at Twycross we tasted defeat."

He clasped his hands at the small of his back. "In the time it took us to elect Ulric ilKhan, the Inner Sphere came together. They trained together and exchanged information. They learned from each other and new technology began to be shared between their ruling Houses. We managed, with a few exceptions, to unite people who had not worked together since before our ancestors left the Inner Sphere. And, yes, we learned, too, during our time away and shifted our tactics, but they beat us."

He pointed at Osis and the other Smoke Jaguar Khan. "You lost a battle for Luthien. The Jade Falcons failed in their attempt to capture Victor Davion. We did take worlds, but these crucial victories eluded us.

"We have dismissed these losses and have blamed them on circumstance. At Twycross, for example, Kai Allard-Liao tricked the Jade Falcons into a trap. On Luthien you met the Wolf Dragoons and the Kell Hounds, in addition to the best the Draconis Combine had to offer. Again on Alyina, Kai Allard spoiled the trap we laid for Victor Davion. Then Allard eluded us for four months and finally ended up freeing ourpeople so that they could liberate the planet from ComStar. And Victor Davion led an elite unit to Teniente to free Hohiro Kurita—who we did not even know we had trapped!"

Phelan felt his heart begin to pound again, but it was no longer from nervousness. Suddenly he saw what Ulric had always wanted from him. I am a fusion between the Clans and the Inner Sphere. I know, I understand, what Ulric could only ever hope was true.He nodded his head, then slammed his fist into his left palm.

"Special people, you say. Special circumstances, you sputter. I disagree with every cell in my body! Yes, Kai is special, and so is Victor and so are the Dragoons and the Hounds and the Genyosha, but they are notunique. There are countless special people in the Successor States. The Com Guards, before they fought us at Tukayyid, were untried forces. The Wolf Dragoons you faced are all orphans adopted at the end of the last war or freeborn offspring of those Wolf Clan members who originally ventured out into the Successor States.