"Seyla," the two warriors affirmed.
The Oathmaster set each coin in a separate slot of the Well of Decision, a kind of gravity funnel, then pressed a button that sent them tumbling down into the funnel. Although the container was transparent, so rapidly did the coins whirl that it became impossible to distinguish one from the other.
To Aidan, the wait to see which coin would emerge first from the funnel's lower cylinder seemed endless. He and Joanna had decided that winning the role of hunter, and thus the choice of how the two would fight, was the outcome to be desired. Because Lopar was reputed to be a fine 'Mech pilot, Joanna thought it logical to choose some other style of fighting. Aidan had protested that he would rather fight in the style to which the other warrior was accustomed. He wanted no taint on any of his victories, he said. But Joanna was adamant, and Aidan finally gave in. Now, however, Aidan was not so sure. Looking across at the fierce-faced Lopar, he decided that, if luck deemed him the hunter, he would choose BattleMechs and beat Lopar at his own game.
When finally one coin emerged, then the other, the Oathmaster took care to remove them in correct order, the hunter coin in her right hand, the venue coin in her left.
"The hunter is Lopar," she said, holding out her hands, "and Aidan will choose the venue." It really did not matter one way or the other, Aidan thought, because he was sure Lopar would choose the same style. Perhaps the choice of venue was going to turn out to be the advantage. Then Lopar astonished Aidan and everybody else in the room.
"The hunter does not choose to permit this upstart to die honorably in a BattleMech. I will fight him in hand-to-hand combat. The only weapon will be a hunting knife. Minimal clothing. Victory will go to he who survives the combat with his life."
Death hunts were rare in the Jade Falcon Clan, but the rules of the Trial of Bloodright did sanction them. Many in the hall, their hatred still directed so force- fully at Aidan, seemed to approve of Lopar's scornful choice.
I had thought that I could exploit your hatred, Aidan thought, but now, Lopar, it will exploit you.
"So it is," said the Oathmaster, who then turned to Aidan. "What is your choice of venue? Where will you be hunted, Star Commander Aidan?"
"In Trial Field B, in the forest leading to the Trial of Position site. Tonight at midnight."
Some of the assembled warriors were obviously mystified. They could not know that the forest was where Aidan had slain a quintet of freeborn ambushers on the way to his first Trial of Position, which he was now so famous for having failed.
That was exactly why the forest was exactly the right place for Aidan to begin his formal quest for the great honor of a Bloodname. It was the place most fitting, for was this not where it had all begun? And should he fail, Joanna would see to it that this forest would become his body's final home.
33
Night noises surrounded him. Though another warrior might have found the sounds eerie or disturbing, to Aidan they were comforting. After Glory Station, what could be worse? Here at least were no strange lizards, no tree pumas. This forest was familiar to him, parts of it engraved in his memory from his two previous experiences in the place. The first time had been during his trueborn cadet training, when he had slain the four freeborns here. The second had been as a freeborn, when he had, ironically, saved some members of his unit from being killed.
From her investigation of the records, Marthe had learned that Lopar's scores in hand-to-hand combat drills were excellent, but Aidan had also scored high. Their scores, Marthe told him, were nearly identical.
"You start even," she had said. "Though your familiarity with the terrain might give you an edge."
"Not really," he told her. "If he is adept at hand-to-hand, the terrain will make no difference. If I have an advantage, it might be my general knowledge of Ironhold. For one thing, the forest will be impenetrably dark tonight because there will be no moon. I am used to the dark, and I like it. My experiences on Glory will also serve me in good stead. The Glory Station swamp and jungle may be the worst and deepest on any of the Clan worlds, and I certainly navigated them often enough. Nothing in any of Lopar's past assignments can match that."
But now all speculation was behind him. He felt for the knife, which was sheathed in his belt. For clothing, he had chosen trousers and a shirt that were almost skin-tight, on the theory that the cloth would not rustle and give him away as he moved through the woods. On his feet were the softest leather sandals.
The night was pitch-black, and Aidan wished that Lopar had had the foresight to include IR goggles in the equipment specified for the battle. The dark was so complete that anyone moving about in this forest would inevitably run into unseen obstacles.
Perched on a low branch, listening for any sound that would reveal Lopar's location, Aidan had remained in place for a long while. When he heard no noise likely to have a human source, he began to wonder if Lopar might be doing the same thing—sitting still somewhere, waiting to catch Aidan if he should make some telltale sound.
How long could one of these Bloodright battles go on? If he and Lopar sat waiting like this at opposite ends of the forest, would some official eventually step in and judge both of them losers, allowing the warrior next in line to draw a bye?
No, that could not happen. The terms set forth by the hunter must hold. Lopar had not specified a time limit, but he had stated that the match was to the death. They could hold up the whole Trial of Bloodright by doing nothing the whole night long, but daylight must come eventually. The waiting game would end then. Aidan would also lose his best advantage, for his knowledge of the terrain meant even less in the light.
Trying to move as soundlessly as possible, he edged off the branch and jumped down into some soft grass, certain he had made no significant noise. He stayed near the tree, leaning against it momentarily as he listened, trying to distinguish among the cries, screams, whistles, shrieks, and other voices of the forest. He recognized the sad trill of the small but efficient bird of prey that was the Ironhold version of the nighthawk. He also made out other animal types moving through the forest, sometimes slowly, sometimes skittishly.
Nothing he heard sounded remotely like a Clan warrior on the prowl.
Aidan took a tentative step forward into a darkness so heavy it almost had weight. Though his eyes had adjusted to it by now, he still could not see his feet. Sometimes other dark shapes seemed to emerge from the blackness of the night, but he could not be sure which were trees and which were not. Most of the curving shapes hanging down were probably branches, but Ironhold had its share of poisonous snakes, some of which inhabited this forest.
He continued to edge forward cautiously, setting his feet down carefully with each step, hoping that if he contacted anything but the ground it would be harmless. After going only a short way, his outstretched hand touched a tree from which moisture dripped heavily. Or at least he thought it was moisture at first. Tasting it, Aidan knew it was neither water, nor dew, nor any kind of tree sap. It was blood. Reaching up with his hand, he fumbled against something warm and soft. His touch dislodged it, and it crashed to the ground with a loud thud. Again, touch and smell told him that the object was—or had been—some manner of forest animal, but he could not identify it in the dark.
From some distance away, he heard Lopar's exultant shout. "Now I know where you are, freebirth!"
Even with the insult, Aidan had the good sense to keep his own mouth shut. And I have a good idea where you are, he gloated silently.
* * *
Kael Pershaw was observing the battle on a monitor that viewed the forest through a thermal imager. The imager distorted some of the flora and fauna, but it made following the movements of Aidan and Lopar fairly easy.
Lopar's first actions had puzzled him mightily. The warrior seemed skilled at moving with stealth, yet he did not seem to be stalking Aidan. Instead, he tracked four different animals, killing each one by efficiently slitting its throat. Then he arranged their bodies precariously on low
-hanging branches. It was not till much later when Aidan dislodged one of the dead forms that Pershaw understood Lopar's scheme. The warrior had no guarantee that Aidan would get under any particular branch, but it was only one of several traps the clever Lopar had set. Besides hunting and killing the animals, Lopar had also spent his first hours in the forest sharpening stakes and setting them into the ground. Then he located vines by touch, tying them between trees so that each vine ran at what was probably calculated to be at Aidan's neck level. During the several hours Lopar spent setting his traps, he seemed unconcerned about running into Aidan. Nor had he any need to worry, for Aidan had simply stayed in place the whole time.
Pershaw had requested permission to observe the Bloodname contest so that he could track Aidan's progress. Perhaps it would help him resolve his questions about the young man. When he had believed Aidan to be a freeborn, the warrior's rebellious ways had seemed part of his inferior nature. But ever since discovering that Aidan was actually a true, Pershaw had become confused about how to react to the young man. Then, when Lenore Shi-Lu had questioned Aidan's rights to be a warrior because he had failed his first Trial, Pershaw began to reconsider his own views. Considering the obstacles Aidan had encountered, his achievements had been extraordinary. And no matter the caste to which he had belonged, he had fought well and bravely.
But all that would mean nothing if Aidan did not work out Lopar's strategy. Otherwise he would be dead soon enough.
* * *
Aidan got away from the tree as fast as he could, heedless of whether Lopar could hear him running. Was that a breeze in the trees above him or was it Lopar up there, laughing? Suddenly he collided with one of the vines Lopar had stretched between two trees. Because Aidan had just taken a leap upward to avoid the dark shape of what might have been either a bush or a boar, the vine caught him at shoulder level instead of snapping across his neck. Ducking under the vine, he stumbled forward and fell. Though he scrambled quickly to his feet, he was disoriented.
Lopar had obviously done some survival training. So had Aidan, once. He struggled to remember anything at all he could use. He also cursed himself for having been too complacent. By lying in wait, he had given Lopar plenty of time to set his snares. Aidan had confidently assumed that the forest was his terrain, but Lopar had quickly adapted to it. Whatever advantage Aidan might have had, it was lost now. He was truly the hunted.
Somehow he had to turn that around.
Feeling ahead of him in the darkness, he went slower now, stepping cautiously. Discovering another of the vines stretched between trees, he cut it with his knife, then rolled it up loosely and slung it over his shoulder. A bit further on, he tripped on something and very nearly came down onto one of the sharpened stakes. Ripping it from the ground, he examined it by touch. Lopar's knife strokes had been smooth and even, for the wood came to a symmetrical point. He rammed the stake into his belt.
More alert now, Aidan was also using his sense of smell, which detected another of the slain animals. Carefully testing the branches of the tree in which it lay, he found that the body had been lodged between two branches. It was still warm, which meant the beast had not died long before. Pressing his back against the tree bark, Aidan listened for any sound that might be Lopar.
He heard nothing.
Leaving the stake at the base of the tree in order to find it again easily, he climbed stealthily up the tree, finding himself a place next to the animal. Feeling along the animal's fur, he located the spot where its heart would be. After cutting into the beast's hide, he felt for the heart through the ribs, then used the hunting knife to cut the organ away from its moorings. Working the heart out slowly and carefully, he finally lifted it from the rib cage. It was a small heart, a compact and strong muscle. Aidan held it close to his face and briefly touched its surface with his tongue. Its taste was somewhat salty, together with a sour flavor he could not identify. The blood smell was strong upon it.
Taking the looped vine off his shoulder, he placed it delicately on the animal, then put the heart carefully inside the loop so he could remove his shirt. He cut off a piece of the vine and used it to help fashion his shirt into a sack. With another section of vine, he made a kind of belt that he tied around the waistband of his trousers. After gently placing the animal heart into the improvised sack, he attached the whole thing to his belt. The rest of the vine he let drop soundlessly to the forest floor.
Then he crouched in the tree and yelled, "Lopar, I tire of these games. Are you a warrior or a coward who slinks around a forest leaving child-traps for his opponent? You called for combat that was hand-to-hand. Let us settle this matter once and for all."
He was counting on Lopar's being vexed at being called a coward. After shouting a few more insults to make sure Lopar was aware of his location, Aidan climbed quickly to a higher branch. The sack made the climb difficult, but not impossible. The thought crossed his mind that what he hoped to do to Lopar was poetry. Not the kind he sometimes read in his secret library, but a crude and cruel kind, a match for the kind of warrior Lopar was.
Finally Aidan heard a sound that was not one of the normal forest noises. It was the first time he had detected Lopar. Perhaps angered by the taunts, Lopar had become careless. The sound of his arrival was faint, the soft crunch of a shoed foot crushing vegetation.
Aidan took the sack from its improvised resting place and held it out in front of him. Lopar was now under the tree, he was sure of it. Taking the sack in one hand, he began to swing it slowly back and forth, increasing its arc slightly with each swing. When he had it swinging quickly, Aidan flung the sack away. When it landed a few steps away from the tree, it sounded, as he had hoped, much like the movement of a human foot through the brush. The weight of the heart plus the cloth brushing against the ground vegetation made a convincing rustling sound.
He sensed Lopar springing toward the noise. Guessing at his opponent's progress, Aidan leaped from the high branch, away from the tree, his legs out. His quick mental calculations paid off. He came down on top of Lopar, his right foot kicking the head of his foe, his left the shoulder.
Both warriors went down, and for a moment there was a confused struggle in the dark. Lopar ripped out with his hunting knife and delivered a glancing blow to Aidan's arm, making a shallow cut. Aidan, who had deliberately left his own knife in its belt sheath, concentrated on using his free hand to subdue Lopar. Managing to get both hands on the man's knife arm, he pushed it away. Maintaining his hold on the arm, Aidan shoved it against a nearby tree.
Still gripping the knife tightly, Lopar reached up with his other hand to grab a clump of Aidan's hair, which he pulled roughly. The pain brought tears to Aidan's eyes, but he did not let go his grip on Lopar's arm. After ramming the arm against the tree bark again, he felt something land at his feet. It had to be the knife. Releasing Lopar's arm, he broke the man's hold of his hair by jabbing upward with his closed-fingered hand into the side of his foe's arm. When he dug the fingers into Lopar's arm, it was with enough force to draw blood and make the warrior let go of his hair.
Though both warriors were skilled in martial arts, the training was useless in the pitch dark of a forest where one could not aim at his target. Aidan had reduced the fight to the level of a brawl, which, as a former freeborn warrior, he knew something about.
From what Aidan could hear and sense, Lopar was scrabbling around on the ground looking for his knife.
"Take your time, Lopar," he said. "I will let you find it. I would not kill you while you are weaponless."
That stopped Lopar. "What kind of freebirth scum are you? You do not even fight like a trueborn warrior. Weapon or no weapon, I would kill you immediately."
"I know that. I have reasons to want this battle judged on the merits of its participants and not on our luck. Get your knife."
Aidan drew his knife and held it loosely in front of him. Moving sideways, he felt around with his foot in the area where he thought the sack containing the animal heart mi
ght have fallen. He found it easily, mentally noting its location.
Lopar stopped his fumbling around, and Aidan knew he had retrieved the knife. This would be interesting, he thought. With no light and only their vague dark shapes to go by, they would have to guess at each other's next moves. It would be more like animal instinct. An animal did not need to calculate, did not need to speculate on its enemy's tactics. It just attacked, clawed, bit, crushed. If it could have held a knife in its paws, it would not parry and thrust, it would shove the blade forward as many times as necessary. It would not worry about the other animal's knife.
"Are you ready, freebirth?"
"I am not a freeborn."
"Go ahead and prove it."
"I will."
Lopar lunged, but Aidan was ready for him. Like an animal, he moved to his left, then thrust the knife out in front of him. It made contact with something, with some part of Lopar's body. The man groaned. As Lopar slid past, Aidan struck again, this time connecting in what was obviously a glancing blow.
He moved away, toward where he had detected the sack. The dark form that was Lopar did not stop to reset himself, but instead turned and sprang, knife blade forward. It hit Aidan in the shoulder, but he reacted quickly. He moved backward with the thrust of the knife, and the blade did not enter deeply. His own knife-swing at Lopar was also ineffective, except that it made Lopar veer away.
Reaching down, Aidan picked up the sack. He felt by its weight that it still contained the animal heart. Good. As Lopar's dark form came toward him again, Aidan swung the sack at what he thought was the man's head. It landed firmly against the side of Lopar's skull, knocking him off his feet. As the other warrior fell, Aidan tried to stab him in the area he guessed to be the stomach. But even as Lopar was slipping to the ground, he managed unexpectedly to seize Aidan's knife arm. He gave the arm a savage twist, and the knife flew out of Aidan's hand. It bounced off the side of a nearby tree, vanishing forever into the darkness. He knew Lopar would not grant him the same privilege of searching for his weapon.
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