L'stur found C'seld on the Bowl, at a table set with dueling knives. Internally, L'stur sighed, but he advanced anyways. Other riders and weyrfolk began gathering at the edges of the Bowl.
C'seld looked up sharply at him, then gestured to the table.
"Choose your weapon." He said without preamble. L'stur raised an eyebrow at him. "Good morn, C'seld." He replied courteously, but with none of the deference due a Weyrleader.
"The time for pleasantries is past, L'stur. Choose your weapon.." C'seld was keeping his temper firmly under control, but he was clearly livid.
L'stur crossed his arms.
"No."
"No? You refuse to defend your worthless honor?" C'seld inquired insultingly. L'stur fought the impulse to laugh. Instead, he let his gaze bore into C'seld's defiant one.
"No. I have no need to." L'stur shifted slightly then uncrossed his arms, to make a sweeping gesture, taking in the totality of the Weyr.
"Do you honestly believe if you kill me anyone here will follow your leadership?" He asked patiently.
"I sure as Shards won't!" K'lo called from the sidelines, striding forward to stand beside L'stur. Something broke in the crowd.
"Nor I!" Declared a rider wearing a Wingsecond knot. A Bronzerider added to called his support, and suddenly all the riders were shouting their support of L'stur.
All along the wall of the Bowl the dragons bungled from their weyr ledges, until the ground itself vibrated with their accord.
"Enough." L'stur spoke mildly and the Weyr fell into a deafening silence as Joith relayed the message.
L'stur returned his steady gaze to C'seld.
"Thread still fall on Pern, C'seld. Pern still needs you. I will need your Wingleadership." His voice was firm and carried, but with a sense of iron will behind it. "If you find my leadership distasteful, you are of course welcome to petition for a change of Weyr. Alternatively, you can wait for your chance to fly Jentlth, in two Turns."
"Don't try to snake your way out of this with clever words" C'seld hissed, "I know Brinda and Jurille sent you."
"No. I brought them here." K'lo snarled back. "I reached out to them while on sweep. You, you drove me to beg for information about my mate from a Telgar bronzerider!"
C'seld snapped his furious gaze to K'lo, fists balled.
"You dare-!"
"ENOUGH!" L'stur barked as Joith trumpeted. "C'seld, Thread falls tomorrow. You will either be here, ready to lead your Wing or you will be at a different Weyr entirely. Have I made myself clear?"
C'seld turned on his heel and stormed off. The crowd parted before him, jeering as he passed, and cheering at L'stur. Riders clapped L'stur and K'lo on the back, congratulating the former and thanking the latter.
L'stur turned to K'lo, catching his eye.
"Go." He said simply.
"Go sir?" K'lo gave him a perplexed look.
"Go to your mate. Joith has the coordinates for your dragon. Jurille and B'ton know you're coming, and you have my permission to transfer to Telgar for as long as you wish."
K'lo swallowed hard, then hugged L'stur before running off to his blue, already winging down to the Bowl floor.
"He'll be back tomorrow for Fall." Reelu predicted, coming up to him with an older man in tow.
"C'seld?" L'stur asked.
"Oh, I wouldn't wager on him, but no, I mean K'lo. He'd follow you to the Red Star itself." She stepped to one side and waved the other man forward. "This is our headman, Qazoc."
The harpers left everything behind except the clothes on their back and a bag of Marks Bukset tucked into Malulu's belt pouch. Unwilling to trust Redell's goodwill to last to the dawn they rode the runners bareback as fast as the sturdy beasts would take them. Bukset rode behind Malulu in grime silence. His order had been explicitly clear- if they were attacked she was to leave him behind. The Masterharper needed more than a hurried note scribbled and delivered by an overwrought fire lizard. Sopra had returned far too quickly for the Masterharper to pen a reply, and as much as Bukset wanted friendly wings in the sky above them, he sent Sopra to Fort Weyr to beg rescue from a friendly dragonrider.
When Sopra returned from that mission, he flew to Bukset's shoulder and refused to leave him, projecting what he saw aloft into the harper's mind. Bukset blanched. A Wing of six watchwhers flew in formation above them. What was it that Taggram had said to him? 'Watchwhers have many talents left to be discovered.' Grinding his teeth, Bukset cursed the man who had realized how to organize an entire Wing of them. The runners thundered down the track, and in the dark, Bukset cast about for how far out they were from the rendezvous site. Sopra chirped, and shared his relief with Bukset, for a dragon appeared.
Bukset urged his runner on, for his friend on the Fortian blue would be no match for six watchwhers if the dragonkin decided to attack. Sopra cringed and clung to him, and indicated that the Wher Wing was indeed sizing up their rescue.
They burst into a large natural clearing littered with rounded river stones - this clearing used to be a bend in a long since migrated river. Bukset's runner stumbled, tripping on a stone, and the Harper pitched over the equine's head. Ahead of them, Dodgth and M'rsi landed. Malulu jumped off her runner, letting the beast run off in a panic, and rushed back to help Bukset up.
"Go, I'm fine!" He shouted at her as she yanked him up. They ran to the bluepair's side, the runners fleeing the heavy scent of dragon and wher. Bukset physically shoved Malulu up onto M'rsi's outstretched hands as the first wher struck. A runner's scream ripped through the night as a wher proceeded to consume it alive. Malulu and M'rsi both grabbed Bukset and hauled him up, a second wher bringing down the other runner with a horrific crunch of bones and flesh, just a dragonlength away from them. Above the rest of the Wher Wing circled lower, taking up strike positions.
"Brace yourselves!" M'rsi shouted, as Dodgth went between from the ground. The biting cold of between had never be so welcome to either Harper.
Degal waited in the wide courtyard, scanning the sky above HarperHall. There was a sudden rapid flapping of wings, and a dragon landed awkwardly, and Bukset tumbled to the ground, and laid there, temporarily stunned, gasping for breath as Sopra shrieked and flew in panicked circles around him. Dodgth peered down at him, as M'rsi helped Malulu down.
"Are you going to live, Journeyman?" Degal asked, kneeling down next to Bukset. He and Malulu helped the young man sit up.
"Yes, sorry. Sopra, calm down." Bukset reached up and the little brown landed on his forearm, softly scolding. "Master, Redell has someone from Harper Hall helping him."
Sorry for my absence. Being 'essential personnel' means very little free time. I will attempt to post my next chapter within a week.