Peigard Zalman had turned angrily toward her. "This is a Council of the Bloodnamed of Clan Steel Viper," he growled. "You were never that. And now you may not even claim to be a Clan warrior. You are worse than dead in our eyes, no more than a bandit. Nothing. You no longer exist in the eyes of the Steel Vipers. Have you not even pride enough to stay away from where you are no longer wanted? Do you crawl back like a pup, whipped but still begging to belong?"
While he spoke many of the Bloodnamed rose noisily and turned their backs on her as they had that day four months before. Dawn heard muttered curses of "freebirth" and "coward" and "bandit," but she felt no shame. She felt anger, the adrenaline pumping through her body as though she were entering mortal combat.
The last time she had stood before them they had stripped her of honor and position and place, then cast her out in a way that the Clans, who abhorred waste, rarely did.
Loremaster Stoklas spoke before Dawn could respond. "How dare you mock us by returning against the will of the Clan?"
"I do not mock the way of the Steel Vipers, Arthur Stoklas. But I come to tell you that this Council has condemned me falsely." Setting the bag down, she turned toward the tiers, holding up her arms and opening them wide.
"Bloodnamed of Clan Steel Viper, I call upon you to turn your eyes this way. I am Dawn, the warrior you banished and exiled. I have traveled near and far across the Inner Sphere and seen things you could not even dream, but now I have returned to take my rightful place among you."
The Khan pointed an accusing finger at her. "No more talk. You will leave now and return to whatever bandit existence you have scraped together since your trial."
Dawn shook her head. "Neg, my Khan. In my travels I faced a great foe. I killed him in fair combat, granting him the right to a Circle of Equals that he did not deserve."
Loremaster Stoklas had also risen by now. "You are mad, Dawn. You slay some Inner Sphere bandit and dare to come here claiming that restores your honor?"
"You condemned me as unworthy, banished me and exiled me, sent me to live like a wretch among the pitiful freebirths of the Inner Sphere. But I have returned with proof of my worth."
Dawn bent over and pulled open the duffle bag, freeing the distinctive vapor of carbon dioxide. Reaching inside she pulled out the severed head of a man. It was balding but the remaining long black hairs were a handle for her to hold. The head had been preserved and was still frozen in its death scream, a pale gray-blue in color, a gruesome sight. She brandished the head aloft like a trophy.
"Behold! This is the man I killed, spawn of the greatest enemy humanity has ever known."
Even the Khan drew back at the sight, but no one uttered a sound.
Again Dawn drew strength from his shock. She raised her voice and it rang clear and true in the cavernous Council Hall. "Everyone knows the Great Kerensky killed Stefan Amaris the First and all his kin, believing he had wiped out the blood of that evil line. But I, Dawn of the Steel Vipers, have finished the deed begun three hundred years ago.
"I bring you proof of the end of Amaris for all time. I bring you proof that the deed is finally done. The Usurper and his spawn are finally no more. I bring you the head of the last Amaris!"
Star lord Page 30
