The older MechWarrior shook his head. "Now I think you're going for a prize in understatement. Shin and I got shot to pieces when that reinforced company of bogies dropped down on us. Sun-Tzu proved about as useful as a Rifleman'stissue-paper aft armor and there was only so much Cassandra could do fighting alone. You and Hohiro fought beautifully together. You really tore up the enemy."

Victor raked his blond hair with the fingers of one hand. In Outreach's dry atmosphere, it had all but dried from his recent shower. "We did some damage, but Kai and Ragnar sent them packing."

Just then, Kai, Cassandra, and Ragnar stepped from the ballroom and Victor straightened up. He set his beer down on the railing and fished a gold coin from his pocket. "Kai," he called, then flipped the coin to his friend, who deftly caught it in one hand.

"Fifty Kroner?" Kai frowned. "What's this for?"

"Remember we placed a little bet about the exercise? Ten Kroner a head to the winner?"

Kai started to toss the coin back. "I only got four."

Victor held his hand up. "You can owe me. Hell, you and Ragnar saved my butt out there. I ought to pay you a thousand times that."

Kai smiled self-consciously and blushed. "My duty and my honor." He clapped Ragnar on the back. "If not for a reliable pilot protecting my rear, I never could have done it."

Ragnar blushed, the color deepening when Cassandra added, "I'd like to have a decent wingman sometime. Next exercise, Ragnar's with me."

Sun-Tzu grumbled from his corner, but Victor barely noticed as Hohiro and his sister stepped from the reception inside. Meeting Victor's gaze, she returned his smile of pleasure. Hohiro read the expression on his sister's face, then looked angrily at Victor.

So much for our alliance.Victor turned away and recovered his beer. Only Galen's greeting warned him of their approach.

"Evening, Hohiro. How nice to see you again, Lady Omi."

"Evening, gentlemen." Hohiro smiled politely and Omi gave them a silent nod. "I have just been telling my sister about today's exercise. Once again, Victor, I must thank you for helping me when that lance overran my position."

Victor shrugged. "That's what wingmen are for."

"True, but most wingmen who had warned their partner about the folly of a maneuver would have let him die."

Hohiro swallowed audibly. "Especially when their partner expressly forbade them to come help."

Galen shot Victor a wink. "There's your problem, Hohiro. Victor is so contrary that if you toss him into a gravity well, he floats up. I know of only one way to get him to obey orders like that."

Victor rubbed his jaw. "Yeah, quite an effective little persuader you are."

Slipping her right hand from her brother's elbow, Omi pressed her hands together. "I believe Hohiro characterized your action as both bold and heroic."

He said that?Victor blinked. "He probably realizes that in the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth, a bold MechWarrior is one who manages to survive his own stupidity, and a hero is a bold MechWarrior who survives rescuing other bold MechWarriors from even greater stupidity." His gaze flicked over at Kai. "Happily, there are exceptions to that rule."

Omi smiled. "And I think present company proves an exception as well." She stepped away from her brother, placing herself between him and Victor. "In fact, if you are of a mind to, Prince Victor, I would gladly take the walk you suggested months ago."

Victor looked up at Hohiro, knowing Hohiro was aware that he and Omi had taken more than one walk together since that first invitation. "If your brother does not mind."

Hohiro smiled solemnly. "I trusted you with my life today and you safeguarded it better than I did. I believe I can trust you with one whom I hold more dear than life itself."

"Arigato gozaimas,Hohiro -sama." Victor offered his left arm to Omi, and she slipped her hand through the crook of his elbow. "I accept the weight of your trust and am honored by it."

"That is well, Victor Davion." Hohiro's eyes became dark slivers. "Our lives are too short and our duties too great for us to add yet more fuel to a centuries-old bonfire. Perhaps someday you and I, too, will be able to walk together as friends."

17

Grand Council Chamber, Hall of Khans

Strana Mechty, Beyond the Periphery

19 June 3051

Flanked by two Elementals in black armor. Phelan Wolf marched to the small dais just to the side of the high bench. Taking his place on the black marble stand added at least another head to his height, but still left him that much shorter than the armored figures to either side. A shiver ran down his spine as he looked out at the Khans gathered in the dimly lit, semi-circular chamber.

Though not nearly as large as the Clan Council Chamber of the Wolf Clan, the dark room seemed much more oppressive. The places for member Khans were carved from granite, with red velvet cushions on the seats and backs. They were arranged in five rows of eight, with the center aisle splitting the rows in half. The black stone used for their desktops was streaked with a pattern of white that reminded Phelan of the luminescent nebula clouds and stars seen from the observation deck of a JumpShip.

The slate wall paneling and recessed lighting increased the gloom and deepened his anxiety. Even the seventeen colorful banners hanging down from the ceiling did not break the graveyard mood of the room. Three obvious breaks in the spacing and six empty seats in the Khans' area suggested to Phelan that three of the original twenty Clans no longer existed. Phelan shuddered to realize that a people able to destroy parts of their own society would surely have no qualms about destroying the states of the Inner Sphere.

Even more unsettling was the style of clothing the Khans wore here in the Grand Council. Except for Phelan, the only other person whose face was not hidden by a mask was Conal Ward. Each Khan wore an exquisite headpiece that transformed him from a human into an anthropomorphic representation of his or her Clan. Phelan had seen the masks worn by the Smoke Jaguars, Jade Falcons, Ghost Bears, and Wolves during his adoption into the Wolf Clan warrior caste, but a baker's dozen new images confronted him in the Chamber. It brought home to him again that it was much more than mere distance separating the Clans from the Successor States.

Phelan glanced over at Conal Ward and gave him a slight nod.

Ward, whom the assembly had chosen to act as Loremaster while they elected an ilKhan, replied with a nod of his own, then turned to face the assembled Khans. "Let the chamber be sealed so that none of this debate may escape. If the accusations prove baseless, the questions we ask will blow away and be forgotten like ashes. Otherwise, the accused will have thirty days to prepare a defense."

In unison, the assembled Khans intoned, "Seyla."

The two Elementals split up and left Phelan alone on the dais. One took up a position by the side door through which the Loremaster and Phelan had entered the room. The other mounted the stepped aisle that split the chamber in two and stood with his back to the chamber's double doors.

The self-importance in Conal's voice did nothing to ease Phelan's mind. "Phelan Wolf, do you know why you have been summoned here before the Khans?"

The look on Conal's face told Phelan the Loremaster had something up his sleeve. Still, Phelan refrained from telling the Khans what Natasha had instructed him to answer. "It is not my ken to know the will of the Khans, Loremaster, but only to do all I may to fulfill their wishes."