Author's note: I am SO sorry this update took so long. I sincerely thought I would be done with it last month, but then an unexpected surprise decided to rear it's ugly head. Unfortunately, as much as I would like writing to be my full time job, it isn't - so real life has to take priority when these situations happen.
In addition to all of that there was the problem of what to do with Z'char. I seriously wrote up to a certain point near the end of this chapter and froze. For days on end I stared at that blinking courser and wondered what the bloody hell was he going to do? There were so many options of what he could do, and I hope you enjoy the one I went with.
Thankfully we are almost near the end of this portion of the story arc. I have one more chapter to go to tie up any left over lose ends, and then I can start working on the fun stuff!
Thank you guys for sticking with me this far.
The smell hit Kayta as she walked through the door of Z'char's weyr. The cloying stink of sour wine, rotten food, and unwashed bodies filled the air and threatened to make her vomit. She clasped a hand across her mouth and nose and closed her eyes, willing the contents of her stomach to stay where they were. "Z'char! The Weyrleaders of Pern wish to speak to you!"
The only response was a loud snore emanating from somewhere in the darkness.
Kayta stepped further into the room, the toe of her boot nudging a tangled pile of... something... she hoped were just riding straps on the floor. Finally she reached the window and flung it and the curtains open, letting in fresh air and the light from the dawning sun.
Shards and shells! How could a man live like this? The room was a mess; men's and women's clothing lay scattered about and piles of plates covered with the moldy remains of food sat on the table, and so many empty wineskins! They sat here and there, laid limply on the floor, and hung off the back of chairs. The lower caverns refused to clean after you left. Lysith explained. They are afraid of him.
"But I wasn't gone that long! Only a few days!" The Weyrwoman cried in surprise.
"In this humid environment it wouldn't take very long for food and wine to sour if not stored properly." One of the Southern Weyrleaders - T'gellan, Kayta remembered - replied.
"Why is his dragon not warning him of our presence?" Another weyrleader asked.
F'lar turned to Kayta, "What does Lysith have to say? Did she command him to keep his silence like the blue on the beach?"
No. Lysith told her rider when she was asked F'lar's question. He is embarrassed.
Z'char's behavior had been pretty horrible, but why would Calaranth be embarrassed now? He had never seemed to care before... "Why is he embarrassed?"
A curse fell from the lips of a bronzerider as his feet became tangled up in the same riding straps Kayta had encountered. He bent over to free himself and Kayta realized with a sinking heart that they were not straps, but ropes. He held them up to better inspect a brown stain in the light. "Blood?"
"Where is he?" F'lar demanded.
Another loud snore emanated from the curtains separating the living room from the sleeping area.
She jerked her head towards the noise. "In there."
"Ladies first." Another bronzerider made a gesture that she should lead the way.
Kayta sighed and squared her shoulders. She crossed the room and passed through the curtains into room beyond. Surely it would not be any worse than this.
She was wrong.
Z'char lay in bed with two barely clothed beauties while a third sat in the corner, huddled into a ball. She was naked, her black hair hanging in tangles around her face, and there were raw marks on her wrist. She woke up as Kayta entered, whimpering at the sight of the men behind her.
"Shards and shells." Someone murmured. "How could he get away with this madness?"
The queenrider shook her head. She had always known that Z'char had a voracious appetite - Derana had alluded to it many a time when she brought the Weyrwoman her breakfast in the morning - however she had never thought that he would force a woman or that his tastes were so varied.
"Sshh. We won't hurt you." Kayta whispered. She knelt in front of the abused woman, her reasons for being here momentarily forgotten. She recognized her as one of the women who worked in the lower caverns alongside Berjoui who had recently married a holder on one of the other Islands. "We're here to help. Can you stand?"
The woman shook her head. "N-n-no."
The queenrider looked over her shoulder at the faces staring at the scene before them. She understood the woman would not appreciate a man helping her right now, but all the other Weyrwomen remained in the air. N'kar had always been kind to her though - surely he would see to it that this woman was taken care of as well. However his face was not among the ones watching her. "N'kar..."
"N'kar?" The woman gasped. "No. Not him. Please no!"
Kayta frowned, how did this woman know the brownrider from Benden? And why was she so afraid of him? He was one of the gentlest dragonriders she knew! "It's all right. He's a good man."
"No. He can't see me. Please. I won't have him see me."
"Why..."
"Here. Let me." T'gellan pulled a sleeping rug off the bed and wrapped the woman up in it. When he picked her up, she hid her face in his chest so no one else would see her. "You have more important things to worry about."
Kayta nodded. In the bed, Z'char and his other women still slept on soundly. She waited until T'gellan had left the room and then kicked the foot of the bed. "Z'char!"
The women woke up first. Upon seeing Kayta and the other dragonriders, they squeaked and squealed and ran out of the room. The Weyrwoman kicked the bed again and the bronzerider finally stirred. He groaned and sat up, blinking at them rapidly with bleary eyes. "Oh, well, hello there love. You're new... Are you here to relieve the others?"
He leaned forward, weaving slightly back and forth, and reached out to grab her arm. She stepped out of his reach though, and he fell out of the bed onto the floor, his arms and legs sprawled wide. "Someone sober him up please."
Two riders came forward. They each grabbed an arm, pulled him to his feet, and half walked him, half dragged him to the bathing chamber. There was a yelp as, Kayta assumed, he was shoved into the tub or doused with cold water. Perhaps she should warn them to be careful - he was still the Weyrleader after all - but after how he had treated her, and after finding the woman, she was not feeling very considerate towards him at the moment. Outside Calaranth crooned worriedly.
"Lysith, please reassure Calaranth that his rider will be fine. Unlike Z'char, the mainlanders do not believe in executing dragonriders." However what would happen to him after he regained consciousness was still unclear as the council of Weryleaders had not been able to decide on a suitable course of action. It had been decided that he would be stripped of his weyrleadership and grounded from future mating flights, but they could not banish him, as F'lar had done to the oldtimers, and, after hearing of his crimes, no other Weyr wanted him. Perhaps they would assign two other bronze or brownriders to follow him at all times...
Another dragonrider poking his head into the already crowded room. "The others are waking up."
Shards and Shells, Kayta cursed silently. "Lysith?"
Some of the riders have noticed the other dragons in the skies. They are waking their dragons and trying to escape. The sound of the Queen's bugle echoed through the Weyr. You will not leave! I am your Queen. You will listen to me!
Other dragon cries filled the morning air; worried croons, bugles, and even full on roars, punctuated by men shouting as they awoke and discovered the flights of dragons surrounding them. "Perhaps, we'd better address the Weyr first and deal with him later..."
"Coming through!" T'gellan exited from Z'char's weyr, carrying what appeared to be bundle of sleeping rugs. N'kar stepped back as the bronze rider passed by. The bundle moved and he caught a glimpse of short black hair and brown eyes blinking under the bright morning sun. Their eyes met for a brief moment and then the girl - for it had to be a girl, judging from how small she looked in T'gellan's arms - flinched and hid her face again.
She looked familiar, almost like...
Kayta asked Lysith to ask us to start rounding up the dragonriders and other weyrfolk and have them gather in the dining cavern. Elanth's voice interrupted N'kar's thoughts. She will address them once everyone is there.
The dragonman tore his eyes away from the woman T'gellan was carrying. "Alright." He would need Islanders to help him locate all of the weyrs spread across the beach and assist him if any tried to fight back. He approached where N'bel, M'rocav, and N'nyal rested in the sand at their dragon's feet. "The Weyrwoman has requested we gather the dragonriders in the dining caverns."
"Have your dragons bespeak them then." M'rocav said.
"Our dragons cannot hear yours."
"Really? Why not?"
"The Weyrleaders believe it is because of the time your dragons have spent apart from ours."
"Then you better start walking. There aren't many of us, but we're spread out." M'rocav waved his hand towards the far side of the beach. "The older riders are closer to the beach, the younger ones are more inland."
N'kar raised his eyebrows. While Kayta insisted that these were good men, clearly they were used to delegating their work out to the other riders. "It would help us greatly if you would join us. The others may try to resist."
"I doubt it - they've either been celebrating Kayta's absence or hiding..."
"We'll go with you and your men." N'bel spoke up, cutting the younger man off. When M'rocav opened his mouth to disagree, he continued speaking, not letting him get a word in edgewise. "They are assisting us with reclaiming our Weyr. We cannot expect to let them do all the work. Will any of the other's be joining us?"
"Just D'mor and R'nahl." N'kar replied.
N'bel nodded. "M'rocav, go with R'nahl to the North side of the Weyr. N'kar and I will address the weyrs to the South. N'nyal, take D'mor with you to the Weyrling barracks and the Lower Caverns. Harnarth, please ask Lysith to let Kayta know that we should have everyone gathered in half a candlemark... possibly less if she has already started spreading the word herself."
"I believe Lysith is busy keeping the others from leaving." The brownrider could see the small golden dragon a dragonlength or so away. She displayed behaviour normally only seen at a hatching; she crouched low to the ground, her eyes red and whirling as her head moved back and forth.
"Well, then, let's go and reassure them."
One of the bronzeriders tasked with taking care of Z'char stepped out of the washroom and glanced at Kayta. "Where does he keep his clothes in this mess?"
The queenrider nodded towards a dresser in the corner that was half obscured by Z'char's wherhide. "How is he?"
"He seems to be sobering up some, but it still may be awhile before he's coherent enough to understand. Klah would help speed matters up."
"So would a fall off a dragon." T'gellan had returned. "But here is the klah. The dark haired woman in the lower caverns... Berzwee..."
"Berjoui." Kayta corrected him.
"... Sent it along with some other refreshments."
"Good." The other bronzerider took the pot of steaming liquid from his hands and headed back into the bathing room with it and clothes for Z'char.
"How long until the others are rounded up?" F'lar asked. He glanced around the room as if considering sitting down for a moment, however all of the available surfaces were cluttered aside from the bed - and, after their earlier discovery, no one seemed inclined to want to go near it. Kayta couldn't blame them.
"Per the message Harnarth passed on from N'bel to Lysith - it should take half a candlemark. That was a little while ago, so it should be almost time."
F'lar settled for leaning against the wall. "I've asked the Queens to land and for their riders to meet us with the other weyrleaders at the dining cavern."
Kayta nodded, but eyed the entrance to the bathing room. Something seemed off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it yet. But even though she repeatedly reassured herself that the bronzeriders had everything under control, she couldn't quite shake the feeling. "Do you think they'll be fine here without us?"
"Of course."
She nodded and followed F'lar out of the weyrleader's quarters and into the weyrbowl. Men and women from across the Weyr were heading towards the dining cavern, one or two stopping here and there to gaze up at the dragons flying overhead and amassed on the cliffs behind the bowl. As the Weyrwoman passed them, they dragged their eyes away from the sky to stare at her and whisper to each other. She tried to tell herself that it didn't matter what they said - she was their leader and doing this for the best of everyone involved - but the distrustful and hate-filled stares from her fellow islander dragonriders still stung, and the hopeful gazes of the lower caverns folk worried her. What if she failed them?
The din of the dining cavern shushed as she entered. She paused for a moment, feeling her courage wavering as all the dragonmen who had stood by and watched Z'char condemn her turned to face her. A movement at the back of the large room caught her eye, and she looked up to find N'kar standing beside N'bel. The brownrider gave her a little nod. Kayta smiled at him briefly and then forced herself to march towards the front of the crowd.
She waited until the last of the stragglers entered before starting to speak, but even so she hesitated as she was totally unsure of what to say. While F'lar and the others may have ousted T'ron, R'gul and the other oldtimers from High Reaches and Fort Weyr, she could not follow their precedent as she was not exiling any of the Islanders.
"As of two days ago, this Weyr is now known to the rest of Pern. From this point on we will be joining them in protecting Pern from thread and whatever other emergencies might plague our world." She paused and licked her lips nervously. "In return, they will support us with supplies until the holds can get back on their feet. However there are some other stipulations..." She launched into relaying the agreement that she had made with Benden and the other Weyrs of Pern, noticing as she did that the majority of her riders were unhappy with the news - which she had expected. However, there was a surprising amount of riders who actually seemed excited about the changes. While she had known a few, like W'fiel, were her supporters, and that others were neural, there was still a fair number who she had thought were Z'char's men. Perhaps they had only been following him to avoid problems...
"What of Z'char?" A dragonrider cried out.
Of course they would ask about their leader. It was only natural. However, she had been hoping that they would have discussed the changes in his role prior to this meeting. "Due to his crimes against this Weyr and the holds it protects, Z'char will be removed as Weyrleader. Several Bronzeriders will be joining our ranks and assisting with the running and the training of the Weyr until Lysith rises."
"Will you execute him as he was going to do to you?" Another dragonrider asked.
"No. The Mainland do not believe in execution for dragonriders. We need every dragon to fight threadfall. However he will be..."
Several dragons cried out at once; the cacophony of bugles and roars echoing throughout the weyrbowl until several had to clap their hands over their ears to block out the noise.
Lysith! Kayta reached out to her dragon, but the gold's mind was in chaos.
He escaped! He knocked out the guard riders and escaped! I will kill him!
No! Reach out to his dragon! Tell him not to leave! The Queenrider was distantly aware of dragonmen rushing around her as she forced her dragon to calm herself. Make him stay!
He will not listen!
YOU ARE THE QUEEN! MAKE HIM LISTEN!
The mainlanders ran out onto sandy weyrbowl, bolting towards the Weyrleader's quarters. They were too late; the renegade bronzerider had already reached his dragon and had launched himself skyward. The dragons above him swooped down in an attempt to force Calaranth to land, but the dragon blinked between.
Kayta held her breath - surely in his drunken state Z'char had not been able to summon an image to go between on in that chaos - but the death keen never came.
The Weyrleader had escaped.