Mirrth rose at dawn, her challenge scream rousing most of the Weyr from slumber. The mating flight lasted well into the morning, and C'bay was not seen until just before dinner when he and the brownrider whose dragon flew Mirrth emerged from the weyr they had secluded themselves in. There was a round of cheers and applause when they entered the kitchen, and Pilana drolly informed him that Mirrth had broken the record for longest mating flight. Urlyra followed that comment up with a suggestion that the two get a restorative brew from the Weyrhealer before returning to nocturnal activities. C'bay demurred, blush profusely, instead collecting two plates of food and going to check on Char.
He found her in the Healer's weyr, with Reema, having a lesson. The queenrider noticed the food and patting Char on the shoulder called an end to the lesson.
"Keep practicing, and we'll try a new exercise in a few days." She said, standing and stretching.
"Thank you, Reema," Char said politely, as Vaeth eeled past C'bay and Reema, returning from wherever he had been before.
"Hello," greenrider and queenrider exchanged pleasant nods, "are you hungry?" C'bay asked, offering Char a plate. Char grinned and nodded eagerly. The Lower Caverns had received a tithe from Delta holding, a small fisher cothall at the mouth of the Great Dunto River. Part of the tithe was a three barrels of fleshy mollusks called 'scallops' for the bright turquoise fluted shells, and Char found in them a new favorite.
"Yes and thank you!" She scooted over a little, making room for Vaeth's head to rest next to her as C'bay took the seat Reema vacated.
"So, Reema's training you?" C'bay asked in the silence that followed.
"Um, yes. She's teaching me Empathy," she explained between savoring bites. It puzzled her that the mental exercises left her so hungry.
"Empathy? You're a pretty empathic person already." C'bay replied, slightly surprised. Char giggled, popping a scallop into Vaeth's mouth. The dragonet chewed slowly and curiously.
"Not like that, but feeling what other creatures or dragons are feeling, like how the dragons talk to us," she further expounded. Vaeth informed her that while the scallop was tasty, it was much too small to serve as anything more than a snack.
"You can do that? I mean, with dragons that aren't Vaeth?" C'bay blinked.
"Reema thinks so. That's why she giving me lessons." Char shrugged. "Iffin' it makes me a better rider, then I want to learn how to do it."
"Can anyone do that?" He asked curiously.
"Reema didn't think so, but she said sometimes Impression uncovers hidden talents so... maybe any rider can? I really don't know, I'm sorry."
"It's alright, I'm being overly nosy." He reassured her with a smile, even as Char felt a sudden pang of regret.
C'bay's regret. Vaeth whispered in her mind, as she gave him another scallop.
"Is... did everything go alright?" Char asked, suddenly having a hunch. C'bay's ears turned red.
"It was alright." He prevaricated at first, staring down at his plate.
"But... you're not happy. I thought mating flights made people happy." Char pressed carefully, struck by the notion that he really did want to talk about it, but was afraid to, at the same time.
"J'daen's... committed to Nene. She's willing to share him when the dragons are involved, but..." his words petered out, too embarrassed to vocalize his crushed hopes.
"I'm sorry." Char genuinely was as Vaeth leaned over to him and pressed his head against the greenrider's thigh.
We love you, he informed C'bay with all the innocence of a child. We want you to be happy too.
C'bay smiled at the little blue, and rubbed his head ridge.
"As long as you and Mirrth are happy, I'm happy," he informed the dragonet.
Let it be, love. Char advised, sensing Vaeth about to rebuke their friend. Vaeth complied, but continued to rest his head against the other's leg.
"Koru told us that even though our dragons are our better halves, we're still allowed to find our own loves." She said after a moment of silence. C'bay chuckled slightly, leaning back in his chair."That sounds like her. She knows us better than we know ourselves sometimes." He sighed and gave Char a chagrined smile.
"I guess I was hoping Mirrth might find me a lover, like how she found me."
Char smiled sympathetically back at him."Ma's fond of saying 'every herb has it's season, so it stands to reason that people do too.'"
C'bay laughed. "That definitely sounds like your mother. Did I hear right, she's going to come stay for a fortnight?"
Char nodded, beaming. "And she's bringing Liree! I finally get to meet the little prune."
Snow fell in thick flurries, whiting out the rolling plains around the solitary stand of skybroom. To the passing rider, it appeared that only an old beastshelter, built during the last Interval, nestled beneath those tight branches. Closer inspection would have revealed that both the roof and sides had been carefully lined with overlapping plates of slate, but only a most thorough search would have revealed the iron lined trap door under the thin layer of last summer's straw, although few if any people accessed this 'hold' via this route.
Beneath the mammoth trees and following their ever questing roots lay an old, horizontal mine shaft, a fold in the earth, whose coal had long since been mined back during the Second Interval. Rediscovered by a shunned mason some twenty turns back, it now served as the headquarters for the self declared 'WherLord.'
Galnees, the defacto Lady of Retribution, the name of the underground fortress, looked up from her ledger. Redell was an exacting man, and she was double checking her numbers before answering his question. This he allowed, because he preferred correctness over haste.
"We have grains and cereals enough to last us out the winter, in addition to those in the Stores, for barter. Meat we will either have to ration, or supplement with hunting." She already knew which he preferred, and expected a hunting party to be pulled from the holdless on a regular basis, at least until the winter gave way to spring. "We have enough dried fruits and stored vegetables to keep scurvy at bay, but fresh fruits should be a domestic priority with our allies in the south."
Redell nodded, stroking his bushy red beard. "And medical supplies?"
"Fully stocked, both here and the Stores. You shall be able to barter the extra in addition to the Healer's services."
"Good. Remind Tanflic that he doesn't get paid unless he actually heals people." He reached up and stroked the egg laden queen draped over his shoulders as he stood in front of the tall iron pot bellied stove, as wide as he was tall, and with a tempered glass plate on the front, allowing him to look at the dancing flames. Ceramic pipes drew fresh air in from behind the beastshelter above, and others drew the hot exhaust out, under the sands of the Hatchery and under specially fitted tiles that made the nearly perfectly flat hallway, until they exited behind a cataract. While there was a similarly situated stove in every room of Retribution, usually only the kitchen and that Hatchery were lit, the constant temperature of being so far below the surface more than pleasant for most of the inhabitants. The Hatching sands were empty of eggs at the moment, although the large bulk of the sleeping bronze filled most of it, his wing still heavily bandaged.
"He knows. You will be pleased to know none of the Stores have been discovered." She added, carefully redirecting the conversation. She disliked the Healer almost as much as Redell, but he was the only master level craftsman they had been able to add to their ranks. The stone mason that had found and restored Retribution to it's habitable condition had died in Gather brawl six turns before, much to Redell's honest regret. With the loss of the twenty-three unaffiliated holds, Retribution was currently host to a large number of displaced holdless that looked to him for shelter and protection.
"How could they? The Stores fall outside the Weyr's preview." Redell repiled. The Stores, in essence large warehouses that held all the extra goods were also home to a regiment of fighting men and a mated pair of watchwhers. Rumors suggested this Stores, three in all weren't actually located on the Northern continent, but islands to the east, islands Redell had once been exiled to.
Redell looked up, meeting her gaze. He was not the man she was expecting when she first began intercepting messages to HarperHall of his return. He was ruthless, to be sure, but he was also incredibly fair, and the dissatisfied holders that joined his ranks of 'allies' did so as often from that fairness as from his force of charisma.
"Something on your mind?"
"I was wondering if the Stores were located on any of the islands you visited during your exile." She said truthfully, for he permitted no lies. It was well known in Retribution that he had spent two Turns island hopping to get back to the mainland. Redell's eyes crinkled a little, the closest he came to a smile when bemused.
"They are." He surprised her by admitting that much. In the four Turns that she had been his Lady he had never spoken of his own time as an exile. That she had pieced together from the rumors. She sensed in him a rare gregarious mood, and decided to push her luck, "You sailed then, from island to island?"
He nodded, still caressing his queen, his eyes growing distant. "For about a Turn. The winds only blow in the correct direction half of the Turn. Thread fell on the barren island the Dragonmen abandoned me to on my second full day. There was a shallow cave, with a pool of brackish water that I sheltered in. Once Thread cleared, so did the sky, and I could see another island, taller than I was on, and with a large lagoon."
"How did you get there? Surely they didn't leave you a boat."
A humorless smile touched his lips.
"They didn't. The dragonriders gave me an oilskin bag, with all the things they expected me to survive on. I ate all the food in one sitting, lashed the field knife to my leg, and filled the bag with air, tying it off to make a floating bladder. Everything else I left in the cave, so if they came back looking for me, they'd think Thread got me. Then I swam. It took almost two days to get there." His other queen, sitting on the firelizard perch over the iron stove gave a soft chirp. "It's alright, Hubris." He turned his attention back to Galnees. "From the highest point of that island, I could see three more islands, the furthest of which had trees."
Galnees's eyes widened.
"How is that possible?" She sputtered. Forty Turns into the Pass and not one of those islands should have had even a blade of grass.
"There is a worm, very much like the sand worm, that lives on that island. It eats Thread. Areas where the soil is too thin to to support the worms, is threadbare, but the lee side of the island, which forms a shallow, bowl like valley, was thick with jungle. I found these two's nests in the sandy beaches of that island. It took a fortnight to reach that island, and I spent three months there, recovering my strength and building the double hulled canoe."
"Forgive me, but did any of the other islands you visit have those worms?" Galnees asked, excited at the endless possibilities such worms provided.
"Of the more than sixty islands I ultimately visited on my trip back, only two others had the worms. And I transplanted them to the Store islands." He added, almost off-handedly.
"Oh." She glanced down at her ledger, chagrined. Of course he had already seen the merit in such creatures. "I suppose it's too soon to consider setting up holds on those islands."
"It's not a bad idea." He said with a slow nod, surprising her again. "We need to settle our displaced allies. I will task the WherWing with finding viable islands."
Degal looked up and wondered why he ever considered the MasterHarpership an honor. Reports and lists covered his sandtable, several having already found their way onto the floor.
"How many?" He asked wearily, of the young man sitting across from him, blowing softly on his mug of klah.
"Twenty-nine. Two babes in arms are unaccounted for." Bukset replied quietly, his brown firelizard curled possessively around his neck, half hidden by his cloak's hood.
"And you are certain this is Redell's doing?" Degal pressed.
"Fits the pattern. All the men and women of the hold were executed with their throats cut, the young children vanished, no trails in or out, but wher prints found on site. And this is the holding that detained him before he was moved to Telgar for the trial." Bukset explained, running a gloved hand through his thick mess of brown hair.
"So this was a revenge attack." It wasn't really a question. Bukset nodded.
"Who has he left then?"Degal asked, feeling entirely too old.
"He's already murdered everyone who had a hand in directly testifying against him, or helped in his detainment, so that just leaves the Telgarans, and Lord Farkin." Bukset replied after a long sip of his klah.
"He won't go after the Telgarans again, that message has been received." Degal said slowly, with a sinking pit in his stomach. "He wants Ruatha."
Language notes: double hulled canoe = outrigger style canoe, like the ancient Polynesians' used.
Finally! I get to Retribution Hold.
I have to admit in the original story notes for WeyrWatch Retribution was like the dwelling of Lady Holdless in (I think it was) The Girl Who Heard Dragons. Don't quote me on it though. The thing is, Redell's sanctuary was going to be a nondescript cliffside dwelling, admittedly inspired by the cliff dwellings in the American Southwest. Then I read about ICBM silos in the Midwest being decommissioned and turned into living spaces and Retribution was born.
Also, in response to a comment that came to me on DeviantArt, I don't see why a man couldn't have been the wher Queen handler. Wind Blossom didn't have Kitti Ping's gender role bias, one of the changes she could easily have made is allowed impression indeterminate of biological sex.
Please, I thrive on feedback and constructive criticism.
Lastly, as always, if you see any glaring grammatical or spelling errors, please let me know ASAP.