Prince of Havoc

by Michael A. Stackpole

  Tormano filled her glass again, then returned the bottle to the silver ice bucket on the desk. "And your brother, who would have been the logical choice, has no standing because he has no realm."

  "Exactly."

  Tormano nodded carefully. "And when you are First Lord of the Star League, you will rid St. Ives of SLDF troops."

  "Using you, Mandrinn, as my personal envoy to engineer the cease-fires and withdrawals."

  Tormano smiled and reached for his champagne flute. "Then a toast to you, Highness. Wisdom and success in all things."

  "Thank you, Mandrinn Liao." She touched her glass to his and considered the resultant ringing a happy sound. "To our loyal friends go rewards and to our enemies, the obscurity of a life squandered."

  24

  Palace of Unity

  Imperial City, Luthien

  Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine

  16 March 3061

  Victor sat huddled in a chair in the Coordinator's briefing room, staring at the projected starfield that represented the Inner Sphere. Gold slashed across the map, indicating the consolidation of his realm with Katherine's Lyran Alliance. The green of the Capellan Confederation had been overlaid on the St. Ives Compact. The Chaos March had fragmented a little more, but the Confederation had also gobbled up more worlds in the Disputed Territories.

  Numb, he looked across the lozenge-shaped black table at the Coordinator. "All the time I was gone I assumed Katherine and Sun-Tzu would make moves. I thought I had left programs in place to deal with them, but I never expected this..."

  Theodore shook his head. "No one anticipated this. Your sister was most subtle."

  Victor closed his eyes and hugged his arms tighter around himself. Yvonne's confession of having lost the Federated Commonwealth had stunned him, and her reportage of how it happened defied logic. There was no reason why his people should have begun to hate Yvonne inside a year. When he'd left the Inner Sphere she was doing just fine. To learn that within a year the populace had decided he had died fighting the Clans and that they wanted Katherine on the throne amazed him.

  It crushed Yvonne. She went to pieces as she told him what had happened, as if she'd held herself together just long enough to report to him. He listened to her and hugged her and stroked her hair. He soaked her tears up with his uniform and told her it was all right. He said it wasn't her fault because, even before Theodore had briefed him, he could see Katherine's fine hand in what had happened.

  When Theodore had come to take Victor for his briefing, Omi had taken charge of Yvonne. She and Tancred were being housed at Omi's Palace of Serene Sanctuary. With a silent nod Omi assured him that she would take care of Yvonne, so he left with the Coordinator to get himself brought up to speed on the Inner Sphere's current events.

  Victor opened his eyes again. "All this through the manipulation of public opinion. I knew she was good, just not how good."

  Theodore nodded wearily. "We had no idea either, and might have missed what she was doing save for two things. First, we had a sleeper agent in the Federated Commonwealth who, quite on his own, had become interested in environmental issues on his world. He organized a small group that staged protests—minor annoyances to the realm, really, but he Was known as a malcontent. People approached him and offered him funding to step up his protests. He agreed, and accepted direction from them concerning timing of events and the particular slant on the protests. They went from general problems to becoming very pointedly anti-Yvonne. The man deemed this shift serious enough to break cover and report to us."

  The Prince nodded. "Have you recovered him yet?"

  "Soon."

  "Good. If he runs into any trouble, I will do what I can to help." A quick laugh shook Victor. "Well, I guess that offer is worth exactly the medium it's been encoded on. What was the other thing that tipped you?"

  "Our comparison of economic data on a planetary level with the reported survey results from your people. We noted a divergence, that the media and government were reporting that matters were worse than individuals themselves seem to think. Apparently everyone who heard the news of how difficult things had become under Yvonne assumed that if they were doing well it was because they were in the minority. They had no reason to stand up and say to friends that their lives were just fine. They were happy and just kept quiet so they wouldn't seem to be gloating."

  "Not at all like Katherine." Victor shook his head. "Yvonne said Katherine shipped many of my personal belongings here. Is that right?"

  Theodore glanced down at the table. "They are at my daughter's palace." He hesitated for a moment. "It is perhaps best that I will say this here, in a soundproofed room, but I would offer you the hospitality of Luthien for as long as you want it or need it I have no idea what you may have had planned for the future. This news must certainly come as a shock, but it would be best not to act hastily because of it"

  "No, no haste." Victor sighed. "I thought Katherine might try something military, which is why I left Phelan behind to keep her honest. Turns out she moved in a way that prevented him from doing anything."

  Theodore smiled. "Khan Kell was interested in mounting a campaign to dislodge your sister, but I pointed out to him that he could do no such thing. Worse than the appearance of Combine ships over New Avalon would be the appearance of Clan ships. I told him he had to wait for your return before acting. If you want to go to war to win your realm back, his Wolves and my warriors will gladly go with you."

  "I appreciate that more than you know, Theodore, and I will tell Phelan the same thing, but I don't know." Victor opened his hands and looked at them. "On one hand I know my sister murdered my mother and has systematically done all she could to undermine me. She is evil and to leave her on the throne will likely result in untold troubles in the future. The only recourse would seem to be to go to war to end her reign.

  "Op the other hand, I've just spent two years involved in some of the nastiest fighting I've seen in my career. Using the sword you gave me on my first trip here, I beheaded the ilKhan of the clans. If his is the last blood on my hands, I'll be very happy."

  "I should be very happy few you, Victor, if I thought that could possibly be the case." Theodore shook his head sadly. "Warfare is not the only choice here, however. In November the members of the Star League will meet at the second Whitting Conference, to discuss matters of concern and to select a new First Lord. By the way, the Star League Constitution was amended to allow the First Lord's election by a simple majority."

  "Interesting, but since there are now only six realms that vote: CapCom, FedCom, League, Compact, Combine, and Free Rasalhague Republic, any majority vote would automatically be the two-thirds vote previously required. Who proposed the change?"

  "Thomas Marik, and it passed unanimously." The Coordinator smiled sheepishly. "It was readily apparent to all of us that Sun-Tzu's election occurred because you did something your sister did not expect. No one wants to have the next First Lord chosen by lot, so a simple majority seemed to make sense."

  "And if there's a tie, ComStar casts the tie-breaker."

  "True, though, at the time, we had seven states able to vote, so their input wasn't a considered factor." The older man smiled. "I had hopes that you would have been the next First Lord."

  Victor nodded. "You know, deep down I guess I hoped I would be, too. Now that seems long ago and very far away."

  "At the Whitting meeting I intend to bring up the issue of Katherine's usurpation of your throne. I'm certain she'll claim it is an internal political matter—much as Sun-Tzu will claim when the issue of the St. Ives Compact comes up. I doubt I will get anywhere with her. I know she wants to be First Lord, and there is no way she can allow you to be at the head of a realm because you would be selected before her in a heartbeat."

  "Nice to hear, but you're right, we'll have no standing at the conference." He chuckled. "I imagine I won't even be invited to go. I suspect that the moment Sun-Tzu hears I've returned, he'll send me a note of th
anks and relieve me of my command duties, and Katherine certainly won't appoint me commander in chief of the Star League Defense Forces after she's elected."

  Theodore's head came up. "You do not sound particularly saddened by that prospect."

  "No, I guess I don't." Victor shrugged. "I know I'm not tracking emotionally at the moment, and I'm damned tired, but if I never had to issue another order in my life, I could be happy. It's rather funny, actually, because in that final conversation I had with the ilKhan, he asked me to kill him because he said a warrior cannot live without being a warrior. For him, being a warrior was inbred, it was his destiny, and we fought a war to prove to the Clans that warfare was a choice, and one that should be rejected whenever possible.

  "Here, now, I have a chance to exercise that choice. I went off with the cream of the warriors in the Inner Sphere. We defeated the Clans. I did my job and now I could easily slip away into obscurity."

  Victor leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "And, Theodore, believe me, I don't say any of this to denigrate the Combine's warrior tradition. I cherish it and am arrogant enough to think I understand it. One of the things I understand is that sometimes a warrior leaves his vocation behind to adopt a new one. He enters a monastery just as Yorinaga Kurita did."

  "Or as your own Morgan Kell did,"

  "Right."

  ''Yet both of them returned to the warrior path when needed."

  The younger man smiled. "Perhaps I'll do that, too."

  "What would you do instead of fighting?"

  "Well, you've offered me the hospitality of your world, and Omi has a garden that needs tending." Victor hung his head for a moment. "Does it sound strange that I would like to putter around in a garden, bringing life forth instead of sowing destruction everywhere?"

  "Not strange, and decidedly most honorable." Theodore leaned forward on the table as well. "This choice you face, it is not one I ever had a chance to make. You never met my father, but he was much like your own. He pushed me to become the heir he wanted because I was his only child and because he knew his realm was in a difficult position. He did not have your mother's influence to temper him.

  "Knowing my father, and having known yours, I think they would wonder about this choice you mention, but they would also respect.

  Warfare is too horrible a thing for one to approach as a hobby or vocation. That you even realize there is a choice, a chance to choose something else, marks you as being very special."

  "Domo arigato." Victor stretched and covered a yawn with his hand. "Forgive me, but this has been something of a draining day."

  "Indeed, I can imagine it has." The Coordinator stood and walked to the briefing room's door. "I'll summon a driver to take you to Omi's palace."

  "Again, thank you." Victor smiled at Theodore. "And I never did thank you for letting Omi and me be together. Because of your wishes, we had been resigned to living apart. In fact," Victor laughed, "I had once considered the idea of abdicating so politics would no longer separate us." —

  The Coordinator smiled. "I had opposed your union initially because of the tensions between your nation and mine, but I always assumed that if love existed between you, it would win out."

  "Your daughter always was faithful to your wishes."

  "I know." Theodore waved Victor through the door and out into a hallway. "I don't know if you are aware of it, but I married my wife in secret, very much against my father's wishes. I am pleased Omi found a way to blend her independence of spirit and her devotion to her duty."

  "She's a very special woman. She's the only one I've ever loved, and the only one I can ever imagine loving."

  "Then, thank you, Victor. I now know my daughter's future is assured." The Coordinator sketched a brief bow to him. "I'll send a driver for you. Good night. Rest well."

  Victor returned the bow and watched Theodore walk away. As the sound of the other man's footsteps faded, Victor suddenly realized he was alone for the first time in forever. This prompted a smile, but it died quickly as a shiver ran up his spine. I realty am alone. My nation is gone.

  The image of Omi waiting for him banished that shiver, but another peculiar sensation rose in its place. He turned and stared at a deep patch of shadow off to his left. He narrowed his eyes and felt certain there was nothing there, but he couldn't shake the sensation of being watched. Just when he thought he'd actually seen through the shadow, to see the corner where wall abutted wall, a piece of the shadow detached itself and moved into the light.

  "Komban wa, sensei." Victor bowed toward the man. "I had wondered at your absence."

  Minora Kurita returned the bow. Though he actually stood a few centimeters taller than Victor, his slight build, marginally oversized head, and thick glasses gave an impression of his being smaller than the Prince. Had Victor been shown a picture of him and asked if he could kick his butt in a fight, he'd have answered yes without reservation.

  But a holograph cannot convey the power in that body, Prior to his first visit to Luthien, Victor had known little of Omi's younger brother. Intelligence Secretariat files had described and dismissed him as a mystic, a non-player in the Combine's power structure. Victor's attitude toward Minora changed after his wounding, when the younger Kurita had worked with him to guide and heal him. While Victor's therapy regimen consisted of t'ai chi chuan exercises that helped strengthen his body, Minora supplemented them with chants and other esoteric exercises meant to strengthen his life force. Though initially skeptical, Victor had recovered sooner than his own doctors predicted he could, lending certain weight to Minoru's therapy.

  "It is good to see you again, too, Victor." Minora gave him a slight smile. "I have been about, but I did not wish to be seen. It is good that you saw me now."

  "I didn't see you. I felt being seen."

  "An even more useful skill to cultivate." The younger Kurita snaked his hands into the opposite sleeves of the red robe he wore. "You have continued your exercises. This pleases me."

  "I am glad. You strengthened me."

  "No, I merely showed you how to find your strength."

  Victor gave him an appreciative nod. "Without your help, I would not have recovered from my wounds, so I am grateful. If there is anything I can do to repay you ..."

  "There is."

  "Name it, though, in my present state, I think you'll find my generosity knows very tiny bounds."

  "What I want you have coin to pay for." Minora reached up and adjusted his glasses. "You slew the ilKhan with a sword. Tell me of the stroke."

  "The stroke?" Victor's eyes tightened. The ilKhan's death had been a highlight to the news of the task force's return, as if all the malevolence of the Clans had been embodied in one man and destroyed with his death. Victor thought back, peeling away layers of memory. He'd not thought about his fight with Osis for a long time. Why not?

  He looked up. "I was in a 'Mech and Osis challenged me to meet him as an equal. He offered to acquaint me with death. I left my 'Mech and carried my katana with me. I told him I wasn't going to fight him, that I'd killed before, and that I'd died, and I wanted no more of killing. I told him he was defeated and I saw in his eyes that he knew the whole Crusade had been folly. After he made that realization, he begged me to kill him."

  "And this is when you took him, to give him an honorable death?"

  Victor shook his head. "No. He was no longer a warrior. He had no honor and no right to make that request. He knew it, but made it anyway. He told me a warrior could not live if not as a warrior, but I told him his sentence was to live as something other than a warrior. Then I turned my back on him and started walking back to my 'Mech.

  "I heard the rasp of his feet on the stone, saw his shadow fall over me but, even before that, I knew he was coming for me." Victor felt his heart pound, his breath quicken. "I spun and drew and cut, all without thought. I barely remember the stroke. I recall the sun hot on my back, looking down at his head, watching his blood try to link body and head again."


  He focused on Minora. "I'm sorry I cannot tell you more."

  "You have told me enough." Minora bowed his head. "Listen to me, Victor. You are a weapon of great power. You have destroyed our enemy and, like a sharp sword, have been returned to the scabbard. You may like that safe darkness, and you have earned it. For the man who had everything, as you did, having nothing is the only gift left for you."

  Victor smiled. "I'd not thought of it that,way. Thank you. You are most kind, as everyone else has been."

  Minoru's right hand came out of the left sleeve, his index finger held aloft. "The others, they speak to you from ninjo— a sense of compassion. I speak to you from giri—the demands of duty. In a scabbard you may rest now, but it will not always be so. Duty will call to you and you will answer." a chill worked its way up Victor's spine. Minoru's words, though spoken softly, carried the weight of a 'Mech's tread. It is as if speaking to the Nova Cat Khans. "I cannot say I understand exactly what you mean ..."

  "Understanding is for the future, Victor." Minora looked past him, then whirled away.

  Theodore came around a corner further down the corridor with a woman dressed in the uniform of the Otomo, his bodyguard unit. "Victor, this is Tai-i Lainie Shimazu. She will conduct you to my daughter's home. You may trust her as much as you trust your Smoke Jaguar bodyguard."

  Victor gave the woman a quick bow. "I am in good hands, then."

  She returned his bow, but said nothing and drifted toward the palace foyer to give him and Theodore a last moment alone.

  The Coordinator shook his head. "I apologize for having kept you so long, both in the briefing and here, waiting for me to bring Lainie back to you."

  "Not a problem, Theodore." Victor smiled. "Today I've been given a lot to think about, and I was just getting a head start on it all."

  25

  Musashi House

  Imperial City, Luthien