Grave Covenant

  I will not die like this. Keeping his teeth clamped together, he reached up and grasped the hilt of the katana pinning him to the floor. He tugged it to the left using all the strength he could muser, but it barely budged. He realized then that he could feel very little with his left arm and that the elbow didn't seem inclined to work very well. No matter. I will succeed. I am not a bug to be stuck this way in someone's collection!

  He pulled on the sword again, then hit the crossguard with the heel of his right hand. The sword popped free of the floor, then slid partway from his chest. He could feel the blade grating against the bone it had shattered. Each crackle, each little vibration set off torturous tremors. He wanted to stop, wanted to give himself a second to recover, but he knew his downed enemy would never grant him that chance, so he kept pushing.

  The blade came free accompanied by a bubbling hiss. Lung hit. This is very bad. Despair crested over him in a black wave and pounded at him. He started to draw his knees up toward his chest, to curl up into a little ball and wait for the pain to stop.

  No! Only death will free me, and I cannot die here, now. She needs me still. Victor rolled to his right and levered himself up so he could gather his knees beneath himself. He tossed aside the assassin's sword and snatched up the one he had dropped. He inched his way forward, dragging his knees beneath him, then laid the blade across the assassin's throat.

  "You. Stupid. Shit." Victor desperately wished he knew enough Japanese to curse properly. "Davions take a lot of killing."

  He wanted to raise the sword and behead the man with one stroke, but he knew he did not have the strength to do it. Placing his left hand on the back of the blade near the tip, he leaned forward and used his weight to saw the blade through the man's throat. The first stroke severed the carotid artery, spraying blood up over Victor's face and chest. The second ended the man's muted screams and the third cut through the spine. The assassin gurgled to death in a pool of his own blood.

  And not a little of my own is mixed in there. Victor used his sword to get himself to his feet, then he slipped in the blood and sprawled forward over his victim. He broke his fall with his left hand, but it collapsed as pain arced through his arm; His right shoulder hit the floor, but not that hard, so he maintained his grip on his katana.

  Have to keep going. Omi is still in danger. He slid off the dead man's body and slowly crawled forward. He made his way toward a wall. Get up, Victor. You need more mobility.

  Again he got himself to his feet and managed a weak smile despite the agony wracking him. He staggered forward a step or two, with each step bringing a shallow breath that prompted a wet cough. His head began to spin, so he leaned heavily against the wall to steady himself. Keep going.

  The hissing sound from his chest and the burning pain in his lungs reminded him how badly he'd been hurt. I'm bleeding too much. He clamped his arm down over the wound, but he could feel bloody bubbles bursting at the exit site on his back. Not much time. I must save Omi. Not much time. Keep going.

  Another step, then he crashed to the floor. He didn't remember falling, but could feel the burn of his face sliding along the floor's oak planking. He could see a ghostly reflection of himself in the wood's glossy surface and tried to smile in response to it. Always wanted to leave a beautiful corpse.

  Darkness began to nibble at the edges of his sight, but he heard something and forced himself to look in that direction.

  In the dimming distance he saw a figure, a woman, walking toward him through a golden tunnel of light. He recognized the white kimono she wore and the cherry blossoms decorating it, but he could not understand, at first, why the sleeves were different. He could plainly see that they were stained a deep, deep red from wrist to elbow, but he could not determine why.

  Then it hit him with a certainty that rocked him like a physical blow. He made her slit her wrists. She is dead, too.

  He did all he could to smile at her. Don't be afraid, Omi. We will be together, finally. In death we will find our Harmony.

  He looked to her for understanding and a knowing smile, but blackness stole over him before he ever read her response.

  28

  Palace of Serene Sanctuary, Imperial City

  Luthien

  Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine

  5 January 3059

  The evening had started out as an exercise in surreality for Kai Allard-Liao, and events quickly escalated beyond anything he could have imagined. He and the Precentor Martial, who had arrived two days after Kai and Victor, had been invited to share a traditional Combine meal with Theodore and Hohiro Kurita. Things had begun very normally, but Kai quickly realized he was kneeling at a table with the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine and Anastasius Focht, the man who had defeated the Clans at Tukayyid.

  At some point they'll take notice of me and send me packing. The special nature of the meeting was not lost upon Kai. He could easily imagine generations of historians arguing over the content and import of this gathering. Indeed it seemed to him that Theodore and Focht had layers to their relationship that he knew nothing about, and he had no doubt that things were happening on multiple levels—including levels he couldn't even dream existed.

  Theodore Kurita inclined his head toward the Precentor Martial. "It appears there has been a breakthrough in the discussions with the Nova Cats. Our liaison officers made them a gift of the holovid of the Star League Constitution's signing, as well as a facsimile copy of the document itself.

  The holovid disk also contained images from Victor's arrival here."

  Focht smiled. "And the Nova Cats were impressed?"

  "As nearly as we can determine, images in both presentations matched up with elements in visions the Nova Cat Khans have apparently been experiencing. We first began speaking with the Nova Cats about two years ago and have seen the greatest movement toward a solution to our problem when and if one of their Khans or prominent warriors has a vision that applies to our situation." Theodore's face brightened. "Apparently the image of Victor Davion as a samurai indicated how sincere we are in making the Star League work. As predicted, this is causing something of a crisis of conscience for them. By the time the counter-invasion goes off, I would expect we will have won them over enough to guarantee neutrality."

  Hohiro smiled. "Imagine if they were to come over and join us."

  Kai nodded. "Phelan's Wolves will be nasty enough, but another Clan joining our fight will mean serious trouble for the Smoke Jaguars."

  Before the Coordinator could comment, a stricken servant whispered a message into Theodore Kurita's ear. The Coordinator's eyes grew wide, then he snapped a command to the servant and another to Hohiro, both of which came so fast Kai could not understand either. Theodore rose immediately and sped from the room.

  "What's happening?" Kai frowned. Have the Clans returned to Luthien on this anniversary of their defeat?

  Hohiro stood. "Something has happened. My father asks me to take you to my sister's palace."

  Victor was supposed to be spending the evening with Omi. "Hohiro, what is it?"

  "Details are sketchy. We will know better when we get there."

  Kai and Focht followed Hohiro and got into a hovercar that whisked them off through darkened streets toward the palace Omi called home. As they drew close, Kai saw an ambulance racing in the opposite direction, lights blazing and siren wailing. A cold lump of ice congealed in his stomach. Something must have happened to Victor. This is not good, not good at all.

  Luthien Constabulary officers surrounded the Palace of Serene Sanctuary and tried to wave the hovercar off, but the driver snarled a command at them, and the officers allowed the car to pass. It slid to a halt behind a line of police vehicles. The doors opened, and the trio of men leaped out to run to the palace entrance.

  One step into the palace Kai felt an icy hand clutch at his heart. He saw blood and plenty of it, not in little droplets, but tiny ribbons that ran back and forth, as if dribbled off a finger on a limp arm. Furth
er in he caught the bright glare of holocameras being used to record the scene. Following Hohiro, he passed through the building and into the garden, then saw Theodore having a conversation with someone Kai took to be a police inspector.

  They stood over two bodies, and Kai noticed that the head of one corpse was no longer connected to his body.

  Theodore looked up, then nodded to the inspector and approached Kai. "You have my deepest apologies for this incident. I do not have the complete story, and will not have it until I have spoken to my daughter. From what I have been told, she is shaken but physically unharmed. She is on her way to Jihen Military Hospital, with Victor."

  "Is Victor okay?"

  "Our people are doing all they can for him." Theodore's hands clenched into fists. "What happened, as nearly as can be made out, is that three men came over the wall into this garden and accosted my daughter and Victor. They threatened to kill both of them, and Victor offered his life for that of my daughter. As the first assailant approached him with sword drawn, Victor dropped to one knee, then used an iai draw-cut to kill the first man. The assassin has a slash on his face and his spine is severed."

  The Coordinator pointed at the other body. "While a second assassin attacked Victor, this third man stopped to check on the condition of his compatriot. My daughter used the first man's katana to behead his friend."

  Kai shivered. He knew Omi well enough to know she had the strength of spirit and even body to do almost anything she needed to do. Even so, cleanly decapitating an enemy was a task from which even the strongest person might shrink. Kai knew people often did extraordinary things when their lives were threatened, but killing another person was seldom what they had to do. Then again, if she felt the threat was to both her and Victor, she wouldn't have hesitated a second.

  The Precentor Martial looked back toward the palace doorway. "The second assassin pursued Victor into the palace itself?"

  "Hai." Theodore hesitated. "What you will see is not pretty. Victor battled the second man through the palace until they got into a corridor."

  Kai followed silently in Theodore's wake, then stopped at the mouth of the corridor. Beyond the Coordinator and around the forensic techs working down there, he saw blood everywhere. One body lay like an island in an ocean of it. Bloody footprints led away from it, and bloody hand prints decorated one wall. Finely spattered droplets even dotted the ceiling as if someone diving into that ocean had splashed blood all about.

  "Again, we do not know exactly what happened here, but Victor was knocked down and stabbed through the chest there at the far end. There is actually a hole in the floor where the sword transfixed him and stuck him there. At the same time his assailant wounded him, Victor seems to have disabled the assailant. Victor freed himself, killed the assassin, and tried to get back to the garden." Theodore pointed to the bloody smear closest to them. "He made it this far when Omi found him."

  As the Coordinator spoke, Kai could see the fight in his mind's eye. He saw Victor go down and get stabbed. He watched his friend trapped on his back, tugging at the sword, centimeter by centimeter working it free, and then killing his would-be murderer. He could hear Victor's ragged breath as he slipped and stumbled and dragged himself to his feet again. The fire burning in Victor's gray eyes stared out at him from a mask of blood, then he saw his friend go down again, for the final time.

  Kai sank to his knees as a lump rose to his throat and choked him. Victor had always been the one who believed in him, who had pushed him and promoted him. Victor had always been a friend who demanded the most from others, but never stinted in rewarding them for their efforts. If not for Victor and his encouragement, I would not be what I am today. He is the best friend a person could ever have, and yet when he needed me, I wasn't here for him.

  Kai felt hands on his shoulders. He looked up and saw the Precentor Martial standing above them. "There was nothing you could have done, no way you could have been here."

  "You're right, Precentor Martial, but I still don't feel absolved of my guilt."

  "The guilt here is mine to bear." Theodore's voice came heavy and thick with emotion. "It was inconceivable to my daughter that anyone would have wanted to do her or Victor harm. She was right, for she is beloved by the people, but my enemies would use her and Victor against me. When she asked to spend the evening alone here with Victor, much as she spent it during the fight for Luthien, I chose to indulge her."

  Focht frowned. "There was no security here tonight?"

  Theodore's head came up. "I did not leave her unprotected. I respected her privacy, but there were patrols in the area. Apparently they were compromised."

  He allowed Victor and Omi to be here alone tonight? Kai rose to his feet again. "You trusted Victor to see to your daughter's safe-keeping."

  Theodore nodded. "I am sorry to have discovered in this manner that my trust was well placed, but of it I had no doubt."

  Kai and Focht exchanged knowing glances, then turned back to Theodore as the police inspector approached them. The man whispered in the Coordinator's ear, and Theodore went white. He nodded to the man, who immediately headed toward the front door, shouting orders to uniformed constabulary.

  Theodore waved the others after him. "Come, we go to the hospital."

  Cold dread clutched at Kai's throat. "It's Victor, isn't it?"

  "Hai." The Coordinator's voice sank to a whisper. "There have been . .. complications."

  * * *

  Victor found himself in a place, and his inability to identify it as anything more than that scared him. He appeared to be in a sphere of clarity surrounded by a white fog that glowed without giving off any warmth. Up, off in the distance, he saw a bright disk, a light, that looked to him like a sun seen through clouds.

  He noticed it was very quiet and nothing seemed to move in the fog.

  He looked down at his chest and saw a ragged little wound about three centimeters beneath his right nipple. In many ways it looked far too small to have caused him so much pain. He remembered that the sword actually hurt more coming out than it had going in. The lack of a hiss from air escaping his punctured lung surprised him more than his nakedness. Something is definitely not right here. "That is hardly accurate."

  Without doing anything conscious to move, Victor spun around and found himself facing a man in a white robe. He recognized the face, but only because he'd seen it on coins and in old holovids. "You look like my father."

  "I am your father." Hanse Davion smiled. "In the hereafter you lose a little gray from your hair, a little weight from around your waist—you become what you were at your peak."

  "The hereafter?"

  Hanse frowned slightly. "You're dead, son. I've come to take you with me."

  "Iie!" Another voice, more gruff and insistent, burst into the sphere. Another man materialized, wearing a samurai's armor that was completely red. Slightly shorter than Victor's father, but bearing himself equally regally, the man bowed his head toward Victor. "He is meant to come with me."

  "What are you talking about?" Hanse scoffed at the interloper. "This is my son, of whom I am most proud. He belongs with me, Takashi. No surprise your wanting him, though, because you have always wanted what was mine."

  "Ha! I only wished to save what was yours from your incompetence." Omi's grandfather smiled slyly. "Your son died to protect my granddaughter's life. He fought for her honor like a samurai, met his death like a samurai. He is meant to be with samurai for the rest of eternity."

  Hanse's blue eyes narrowed. "I was going to ignore the how of his death, which would never have happened if your people weren't so oppressed that assassination is the only form of expression open to them."

  Victor's jaw hung agape. He refused to believe he was dead. He knew he was having what some called a "near-death-experience," but he also knew that scientists had theorized that such things were flights of imagination. The light within the void was a reflection of his body's sensory apparatus shutting down, providing him only a pinpoint of a w
indow on the world. This is all in my head.

  Takashi looked sternly at him. "This is happening to you,

  Victor. If it were not, if you were not dead, we would not know what you were thinking."

  Victor frowned. "If this is just my imagination, of course you can know what I'm thinking, since I'm just imagining you with the ability to read my mind."

  Hanse smiled. "I've always told you he was a smart boy."

  "And that is exactly the reason he will choose to go with me." Takashi extended his hand toward Victor. "You have proven yourself a consummate warrior. You have known great victories and great defeats, yet you always push yourself on to new heights, past new challenges. This is what makes you samurai."

  "Nonsense, Takashi—that's what makes him a Davion." Hanse extended his hand toward Victor. "Come with me, son. Trust me. I know what's best for you. Follow me, you'll see."

  "No."

  Hanse looked surprised. "No?" Takashi beamed. "He comes with me."

  "No!" Victor shook his head. "I'm going with neither of you."

  Hanse folded his arms across his chest. "You can't make your own way over here."

  Takashi nodded in agreement. "Not allowed, not allowed at all."

  "Then I'll go back to where I can make my own way."

  Both men laughed at him. Hanse gave him a kindly smile. "Son, there are limited paths for you to tread. You've walked the Davion path all your life, and now you've flirted with the Kurita path. For you there are no other choices."

  "That can't be right."

  Takashi smiled. "Hai, it is so."

  Victor's right hand rose to his throat in his surprise at their agreement. Despite being naked, he felt the cold stone smoothness of the jade pendant Kai had given him. Sun Hou-Tzu. Kai gave it to me to remind me to always be myself. Victor began to smile as he saw the expression on his father's face sour. I must always be myself.