bonded

[dragonofdispair]

The man at her feet did not try to rise. Instead, he began to raise his right wrist to offer it to his captor, only to lower it at her words:

"Every instinct I have tells me to shoot you now." Mayu Hazen of the Jade Falcons, was not a gentle person. She had demonstrated that numerous times since she'd landed on the planet and taken control of the faltering garrison there. Fair. Honorable. Intelligent. Patient. She had demonstrated all of those and more, but there was no gentleness in her. But even for her, her voice now was cold with threat.

It was not an idle threat. She stood there above him in what warm clothing she'd had in her 'Mech when the combat started -- little more than a pair of combat boots and a flak jacket, pulled over the thin shorts and tank top she'd worn in the cockpit. She had to be freezing in the six inches of snow, but her gun, aimed between her prisoner's eyes, never wavered.

Her prisoner, Karch, who had only hours ago been her ally, made himself comfortable in the snow. He tried not to show that he was shivering. "Every instinct you have except one." He watched her eyes narrow -- he'd scored a hit, though he wasn't certain how much, if any, grace it would give him -- and hurried to continue, "I sacrificed my own honor for that of my Clan."

He had. He had worked to undermine her in every way he could imagine during her stay -- to no avail. She had countered him as fast as he moved, without even noticing that she was doing so. And he in turn, had continued to misjudge her reactions. So when the endgame had come, he'd done that last thing left to him and during the opening salvo of the Trial of Possession: he'd fired on her, stripping the armor from her back and penetrating her internal structure in several places. He still remembered the triumph he'd felt at finally, finally succeeding at bringing the Falcon surat low and winning the planet for his Clan. When she'd demanded to know what in Kerensky's name he was doing, he'd answered, thinking it only honorable that she know why she was about to die.

"I am MechWarrior Karch, of the Wolf Watch."

He'd expected her to surrender. She'd been out maneuvered, her 'Mech was crippled, her warriors were outnumbered. Instead he'd heard her orders to her warriors. "Choose your targets freely, and show these treacherous curs what it means to cross talons with the Jade Falcons." Then his comm had gone dead as she'd cut him out of her transmissions, and she'd turned and fired on him.

He'd been wrong, he'd thought, as explosions rocked his 'Mech, his legs both blown clean off by her missiles. Her 'Mech had not been crippled, not even close, and though her warriors had been outnumbered, they had the Falcon's spirit. He'd watched the combat unfold from his ejected cockpit and listened as, despite the bloody free-for-all the Trial had become, Mayu Hazen had continued to broadcast her chosen targets, challenging them to single combat within the melee. Her warriors had abided by it, even if they did not do the same.

He'd watched the Wolves fall to the talons of the Falcons. He had not been surprised when she'd refused to grant the last three Wolves hegira -- honor did not demand that she allow her enemies retreat, and his treachery had angered her beyond her graciousness. In return, they'd fought, feral, as only those who fought to take as many of the enemy with them when they died could. The result had been foregone.

Now his life depended on his ability to convince her that he was honorable.

He shivered, and this time it wasn't from the cold.

"My honor," he said slowly, "yours, all of ours, is subordinate to that of our Clans." He gazed into her eyes, and tried to do so without fear. He wasn't certain how successful he was, but she did not give any sign that his weakness had been noticed, so she must not have seen it. "I have only done what you would have, had you been in my position."

She didn't flinch. He'd hoped she would, hoped he'd finally figured her out, but to no avail. He'd misjudged her again. Her eyes were hard as grey stones as she replied. "You fired on me, in the middle of an honorable Trial, without so much as announcing your true loyalty or your target." He shivered again. "I have killed my own for less." He couldn't help but look away from her. A fanatic, he thought. "I should kill you."

Karch forced himself to look back at her. He thought he had her measure now, and could not risk so much as a hint of dishonesty. "But you will not."

She didn't answer directly. "You will serve." A statement, not a question.

His choices, after all, were to serve, or to die.

"I will serve." He offered his wrist again. This time she did not stop him.

She did not let go of the gun until the bondcord was wrapped around his wrist, and then, he suspected, only because she needed both hands to tie it. He was mildly surprised when she did not draw it again.

As she led him back to the ships -- the two Jade Falcon dropships and the Wolf one, it and its crew now isorla belonging to Mayu and her warriors -- he looked down at the new three-stranded cord around his wrist. A prison without walls, until he could prove himself to his captor. Prowess and integrity he had no doubt he could prove -- he'd done so twice before, first after his capture by the Smoke Jaguars and then with Jade Falcons when he'd been captured from them.

He wondered though if she would ever trust him enough to cut the cord representing fidelity...