Chapter Three: Conference
Cerlia pulled her dragon's strap over her head, and the gold snorted impatiently. Of course, neither of them knew exactly what to expect, but for exactly that reason, they just couldn't wait to go. The queen shivered the strap down, and quickly enough, Cerlia had finished setting up the straps. Sometimes, she wished they didn't need straps, but then, especially queenriders and bronzeriders, their beasts were too big; it would be dangerous without the straps. They'd fall.
Walking over to Saerith's side, she admired her queen, looking up at her. Beautiful, beautiful dragon, she mused to herself. She lightly thumped the gold on the shoulder, and the dragon crooned before letting her forearm rise, so Cerlia would have an easier time to slip between the neckridges. Once she was on, she glanced about, then she said to her dragon, Bring us up to the rim, dear.
Saerith nodded her wedge-shaped head, and she hopped off the ledge, opening her wings so the air would be caught under her sails. She swooped up, and adjusting her wings as necessary, she landed neatly on the rim. Turning to look at the wary watchdragon, she bugled a greeting, and the blue weyrling bugled back. Now, they only had to wait for Karidth and Peria.
They didn't take too long to arrive, and the younger queen, who was, interestingly enough, slightly bigger than Saerith landed near the senior pair. The two golds crooned to each other in salutations, and the two women nodded at one another. Cerlia noticed that the other woman's dragon was newly oiled, and as she noticed this, she wondered if she should have it done it too. Ah well, what was done was done.
Cerlia lifted her arm, and in ancient tradition, pumped her arm to indicate to leave. Both queens simultaneously leapt from the rim, and once they gained a safe height, went between.
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Neither of them had been to the settlement's location and had both gotten their coordinates from a sweep rider that had been there before. As they appeared in the air above the landing of the earthens, they circled it at first, carefully observing it first.
It was large, and it didn't seem they were anywhere near done finishing it yet. So far, there seemed to be four somewhat complete buildings surrounding a green courtyard, which had an interesting sort of statue of a sort in the middle of it. There were also other structures being built more away from the main buildings, but clearly connected. One seemed to be a low building, at the edge of a large gravel field. Both weyrwomen wondered what it would be for.
Karidth says that we should go down now. Saerith said, then she added, Someone's seen us.
Who? Where?
The gold dragon transmitted to her an image of an orange dragon, on top of a tower, and Cerlia searched for it. Surely enough, she saw the strange coloured dragon, and they were peering back at them. Was that good or not? Well, it wasn't as if they were coming in for a secret attack. Cerlia turned to look at Peria, and she motioned that they should begin to land.
Where do you want us to land? Saerith asked.
In that courtyard. It's big enough for both of us. Please tell Peria.
As they made their way down, it was obvious the watchdragon of the earthens had alerted his people, because soon enough, quite a few dragons began to mass at the tops of the buildings, which seemed to have a thick sort of pipe running all along the edge, giving the dragons somewhere to perch. Good design, Cerlia said to herself, efficient like a weyr bowl.
Peria wasn't as calm as Cerlia was, and as she noticed them grouping, she began to panic. It wasn't like she expected. It was almost a… a rainbow! She could blues, reds, oranges, blacks, silvers, greens, whites, cyans, purples and even some other type that had a curious sort of thick hide on its body. They were all big, none smaller then a brown! Karidth soothed her rider, and soon enough, the junior weyrwoman relaxed. She was safe with her dragon. She wouldn't let anything happen to her, and vice versa.
The two queens landed gracefully, and folding their wings, they looked around as their riders began to dismount. At first, the two golds thought they couldn't understand the other dragons, but they soon realized that they were silent. All of them. It was a strange thing.
It didn't take too long for three people to swiftly walk over to them, also wearing strange-looking clothing, but it had differences to the original black rider. As the two weyrwomen glanced to each other, they agreed that these must be high-ranking persons of their people. As they neared, their eye was first taken to the middle person, a woman with remarkably red hair, nothing you'd see in Pern naturally. The two men beside her looked average, though the one on her right was a rather well-built man with a bald head, and on her left was a more thin, rugged looking man.
The two men glanced at each other, but the woman stared at them head on, her gaze steady. "Welcome to Memory of Earth Settlement, Weyrwomen. I am Admiral Xeria, and this is Captains Loran and Don." Her voice was curiously emotionless.
At first, they were startled to hear their title on the lips of the foreign woman. How did she know? Cerlia nodded, and she indicated to herself and Peria, "I'm Cerlia and this is Peria." She paused, and she wondered what should she say next. Should she just go straight to the issue? Would these people understand? Perhaps they didn't have dragons of their own, "It has come to our attention that a very interesting command was sent to us. Do you know of what I'm talking about?"
"Of course I do," she snapped, her tone icy, "and I assume that you've come to plead against it?"
"Plead?" Peria repeated, "We have come to do no such thing! We wanted to know if it had been a misunderstanding. You understand your black rider told us to evacuate the weyr and leave our dragons behind?"
"And it wasn't clear enough?" she asked, her eyebrows rising.
"We'd never leave our dragons behind. They are bound to us, as we are to them. We'd die without them." Cerlia dropped her eyes for a moment, and then glanced back up.
Clearly, the men hadn't expected her last statement. Looking at each other, they almost seemed to shrug at one another. But the Admiral, as she had introduced herself, wasn't shaken. "No doubt you're attached to them, but please don't exaggerate. If we're going to have a profitable meeting, we must keep such things to a minimum."
"We're not exaggerating. If we die, our dragon goes between immediately after us, and if they die, most of us will follow them too. I would." Peria blurted, her face deepening into a shade of red.
Neither party spoke for a couple moments after Peria's last comment. Cerlia, because she was contemplating this. If her Saerith ever died… would she follow her dragon selflessly as the dragon would if she died? Or would she live a half-woman? Though, she remembered the tales of Brekke, the ex-queenrider. She didn't need to live as a half-woman. But then, just the thought of losing Saerith was enough to make her tremble. Looking over to the earthens, she waited for them to respond first.
It was the bald-headed man that spoke first. Don was his name. "And what would this between be?"
Shocked, the two women glanced at each other. "You don't know what between is? That black, cold nothingness that one passes through as your dragon teleports?" Peria answered, and adding the last word after a moment's pause. They would probably understand better if they used the word the ancients used.
"Your dragons teleport?" Loran, the other captain said.
"Yours don't?" Cerlia retorted.
"It matters not," the Admiral interrupted, getting them back on to the present issue. "Will you comply?"
"To abandon our dragons, of course not!" the Senior Weyrwoman replied.
"You are willing to put hundreds of lives at risk because you're not willing to let go of your little pets?" Admiral Xeria said, her voice coldly low.
"They are not pets. They are a part of us, as we are a part of them. Nothing will get between us and them," Cerlia said. At her words, the two queen dragons bugled, and their eyes were whirling a quick reddish-yellow, angry at what these strangers were commanding.
"Coming from the Earth Colonization Headquarters, you will comply, otherwise it will have to be met with necessary persuasion. Disloyalty is not tolerated."
"Exactly. We will never be disloyal to our dragons."
At the weyrwoman's last statement, the three earthens glanced at one another, and finally, the redheaded woman turned to face them again. Her eyes were angry, and she was clearly not happy with how the unexpected meeting had gone. Coldly, she said, "Very well. You have pronounced vendetta. May I be the first to inform you that was stupidity on your part."
Anger blazed in Cerlia's eyes, but the Admiral had already begun to walk off, but the two men remained, watching her. Seeing no reason now to remain, she nodded to Peria and the two faced their gold dragons, who had lowered their necks and raised their forearms. They gracefully mounted the great beasts, and as the gold dragons opened their wings and pushed down on them, they rose, all eyes on them.
Once they were high enough, they blinked between. T'ral would not be happy.
TO BE CONTIUNED