A couple of deaths in this one but nobody anyone liked.
CHAPTER 4 So You Thought You'd Heard the Last of Koreb?
Talana arrived back at High Reaches Weyr with passengers; Atira had decided to accept her offer of a new life and a chance at Impression, and had presented herself and her children and their meagre belongings. Talana had promptly borrowed some furs from the Hold to wrap them, and had returned with her candidate for the next clutch to be laid. She had been impressed by the restrained whimper that was the woman's only reaction to Between though the older child had not unnaturally screamed. Atira tried desperately not to show fear of Mirrith and determinedly patted her foreleg when Talana helped her down.
"They're a little on the big side until you get used to them" explained T'lan "And Mirrith's bigger than most. It's not all puppy fat either." She added, bringing a chuckle from Atira and an indignant SCHNURFF! From Mirrith.
Talana took Atira and the little ones to Keerana for temporary accommodation until there was a clutch. Then she went to report to Pilgra and T'bor.
oOoOo
T'bor had his own problems. On returning from Threadfall he had found that R'mart of Telgar Weyr had sent a small weyrling and an even smaller Brown dragonet and the snide message that as High Reaches was collecting freaks it could have another.
T'bor was furious. He was less furious at the attitude towards High Reaches than at the callousness of fellow dragonmen. And the stupidity of weyrwoman Bedella to let herself be talked into this gross impropriety. Pilgra laid a hand on his arm, sensing his fury.
"Don't frighten the boy." She said quietly.
"T'lan is right." He said between his teeth. "There are dangerous trends that need stopping. The attitude of the Oldtimers is alive and well amongst some modern riders. They were just expressing it more blatantly as a result of turns more than us as dragonriders. We must not let them have the last laugh by becoming like that!" he swallowed his fury to turn to the young boy, who seemed to be all eyes and legs. "Well, lad, you're here to join us, huh? What's your name – and your friend's?"
"Timon, sir, and Denth."
"T'mon you mean."
"Sir, they said he wasn't a proper dragon so I didn't rank a proper contraction, like Lord Jaxom isn't J'xom."
"Wherry teeth!" snapped T'bor. "Of course he's a dragon."
"Sir, I don't think it was wrong to save a dragon life, sir, even if he wasn't a proper dragon, sir." His lip wobbled, so he bit it and thrust out his chin. T'bor groaned inwardly. Not another T'lan, please! He begged fate silently.
"T'mon, you have Impressed. Therefore Denth was intended to be your dragon. Therefore he is a proper dragon, if rather small, and you are a proper rider. He's larger than Ruth was when he hatched so I shouldn't imagine there's be any problems at all." He said more blithely than he felt. "Now sit down boy before you fall down and tell me all about it."
The lad sat, gratefully, and the miniature Brown dragon dropped his head onto the child's knobbly knees.
"Sir, there was this smaller egg. It didn't crack. I thought if Lord Jaxom could save a dragon, why shouldn't I. So I hit the shell, and out came Denth!" Sudden joy spread across his thin face at the memory of Impression. "They said I had done a wrong thing sir, but I'm glad."
"It is never wrong to save a dragon. Lytol taught Lord Jaxom that, and I'm glad it's something you recognise too. There will be a use for Denth. Telgar's loss is our gain. I am sure that we will have every reason to be proud of you both." Yes, R'gar, he thought to himself, I am proud of my people. All of them.
"Oh sir, thank you sir!" The boy's face lit up. He had been expecting even more scolding and anger from the Weyrleader he'd been foisted onto.
oOoOo
T'bor sent for R'gar and got T'lan first. She gave him a brief resume of the High Reaches Hold affair while they waited for R'gar: then T'bor introduced T'mon and Denth to the weyrlingmaster.
"We'll get you sorted into the weyrling barracks, lad" said R'gar. "It'll be a bit awkward for you because the group from Ralenth's clutch are a good few sevendays ahead of you, and he'll be smaller anyhow, but we'll sort something special out for him."
Ralenth had risen four months after Mirrith and had laid her eggs at about the time the twins had been born. R'gar had been very irritable until T'kil agreed to deputise so that he could spend more time with Talana. Now that she was back, Talana was looking forward to taking an interest in the newest batch of weyrlings; and she and R'gar both knew they would have to watch out for the inevitable hazing this lad would get, see it did not pass beyond good-natured teasing.
"Your Denth could be a great help." T'lan told T'mon. "When he grows, he'll be nippier even than the greens, and we can fly him to help protect the queens' wing. Some of the greens are so wherry headed they don't help much. A Brown like Denth should be a lot steadier."
Like T'bor, Talana was furious at the attitudes that had upset this boy and wanted to prove that he could show his and his dragon's worth. She hoped that Denth would survive; the boy was to young to have to handle that sort of tragedy. If anyone ever was old enough; but to have your life halved before you were even adult – that would be terrible. Talana considered T'mon's situation for a moment; then bespoke Ramoth to pass on the matter to Lessa and F'lar. Better to have an unofficial word than to have a confrontation. She mentioned this to Orth, and left it to him to reason with T'bor over his desire to fly over to Telgar and plant a fist in several faces. Not that she did not sympathise with this desire, especially when she discovered that T'mon had been viciously beaten for his 'offence'. Reluctantly the boy told her that his father, a Brown rider, had been angry at him for bringing shame upon their line. T'lana had snorted and made pointed comments on the shame of bullying little kids as compared with the right behaviour of helping dragonkind.
oOoOo
Talana had been thinking a lot about her foster father, Sarel after talking to the cotholders at High Reaches Hold; and her conversation with T'mon gave her food for thought.
"I didn't treat him that well." She told R'gar as they lay together. R'gar snorted.
"I should think he'd know why." He said.
"But the way T'mon has been treated, and Seela at Fort brings home that Weyrfolk can become callous." She told him. "I'd be a hypocrite to condemn such behaviour and then not find it in myself to be more compassionate than I am."
"You little idiot, you are compassionate." He said, caressing her.
"But I find it difficult not to get impatient with weeping ninnies and cringing fools."
"You don't suffer fools, sweeting, but you try to be patient with them. No-one can ask more." R'gar knew that Talana set herself impossibly high standards and he loved her the more for it; he just wished she'd not have crises of conscience at just pre-dawn. Well, there was one way of silencing her cares; and rolling over to press her down on the bed he took it.
oOoOo
Next day, Talana set off on Mirrith to see Sarel. He was making sure the last of the winter fodder was in before the bad weather set in in earnest and dropped a bale and backed in terror from Mirrith as she landed in the meadow furthest from the Runners. T'lan slipped easily from her back and went over.
"Ah – Talana - I mean, T'lan." He remembered. "I had no idea they got so big. Ah – what - what did you- ah, what can I do for you?"
Talana stood a moment; then she embraced him roughly.
"I wanted to see you – father." She said. "I wanted to say I'm sorry I was - harsh - last time we met."
He held her, and wept.
"You had every right. I've wished over and over I'd done something different so I'd not lost you."
Awkwardly she thumped his back reassuringly.
"We live in different worlds now – but I still love you." She found it was true – that one did not stop loving people just because they had hurt one. She knew that now she could visit Sarel anytime without resenting him; and she was glad.
oOoOo
After spending some time with Sarel just chatting about life in the Weyr, she promised to bring her sons to visit when they were big enough, and flew off. She had time, she thought, to pop in and visit a cousin of the same age as herself, the younger sister of Lindanna whom she had mentioned to R'gar as a prolific mother. Lindanna's sister, Zaylinda was a few months younger than Talana and they had often played together as children. She had seen less of the family after her mother died, for their mother, Zaylana was her mother's sister and they had been close.
Reactions in the small hold where Talana's relations lived were mixed as a large green-sheened golden queen came in to land. Some fled. Others stared. Children looked longingly from cover. Talana's uncle Lindan came forward in some trepidation.
"Weyrwoman? Can we be of assistance?" He asked politely but warily.
"Lindan? Don't you know me?"
He stared.
"No, weyrwoman, I can't say I do." He replied as Zaylana joined him with an air close to hostility at Talana's question.
"It's me – T'lana, as I now am. Zaylana, don't you know your sister-daughter?
"Little Talana? I thought you were dead. That idiot Sarel told me what he'd done." She put her hands on her hips and tossed back her hair. "I told him right about, I can tell you!" She said. "Told him he should have brought you here. We'd have come up with something." She hugged Talana to her. "Well you seem to have done well for yourself. Our little Talana a weyrwoman!"
Talana hugged her back; and was taken off to see the latest babies. She managed to impart the knowledge that she was herself a mother now, that the babies were partially weaned – Lanelly not believing in hanging about when Talana's milk started to fail – and that they were too small to travel really yet. In the middle of this, Zaylinda flung herself on Talana, and begged her,
"Please Talana help me! Take me on search so I don't have to marry him!"
"What's this?" Snapped Talana, suddenly incisive.
"But it's such an honour – I thought you wanted to marry him!" Said Lindan, looking confused.
"I thought it would be nice to be rich – I didn't know what he was like until the other day!" the girl cried.
"Tell me about it." Talana did not want half stories.
"He holds land next to father's." explained Zaylinda. "It was a good marriage from that point of view although I'm only a commoner; and I was – well, I just thought it would be nice to be rich. But a few days ago, I found a holder girl on the borders of our lands crying because he had had her, and he – he'd whipped her and – and bitten her on –on well, it was pretty awful!" She finished. Her father stared at her.
"Girl, why didn't you tell me?" He asked." Of course you must not marry such a brute."
"I didn't think you'd believe me." She said. "I didn't realise people could do such things, worse even than Oldtimers did, and I thought it would sound made up." Her father put an arm around her and raised his eyes to heaven at Talana.
"Foolish child" he told her "Don't you think that I'd realise you could never make up anything that dreadful?"
"Who is this obnoxious lordling?" asked Talana.
"His name is Lord Koreb" said Zaylana "And I had doubts about him as a bridegroom from the first."
Talana's eyes had lit with a kind of unholy enthusiasm.
"Koreb." She said softly. "I might have known." She smiled a grim smile. "Koreb and I have –unfinished business."
Her uncle gasped.
"Y-you know him? W- what has he done?"
"He kicked Mirrith when she hatched. Also he nearly caused the death of my man – he got his father to come and try to knife him."
"Well, it's different now – we can tell him to get lost. Lord Deckter won't let him walk all over us." Said Zaylana.
"You have too much faith in authority." Said her husband. "We might have been able to hide Talana until Meron forgot about her, but I doubted that at the time. And Larnel and Koreb are next to us – they'd be able to cause so much damage and we could do nothing about it. The best thing to do is for Zaylinda to go to the weyr as she suggested."
"I'm happy to take her" said Talana "And I think she's got a good chance of Impressing; but I'm not letting Koreb walk all over my kin. I've laid him out once and he's not hard, just a bully."
Her aunt wrung her hands and her uncle looked unhappy. One of her male cousins ran in.
"Father! That Lord Koreb fellow's coming."
"Mirrith, stay behind the barn for a little while" Talana instructed.
"If you wish. Why?"
"Koreb comes. I would not like to spoil the surprise."
"Zaylin, give me some breeches and a tunic." She said to her cousin.
"Cousin?" he looked nonplussed.
"D'you think I can fight in this?" She fingered her dress.
"FIGHT?" Came from several throats.
"Of course. He's insulting my kin by suggesting a union with his foul self; and he's raped a girl – probably many – most brutally. I am sworn as a dragonrider of Pern to protect the people. I did not protect her but I can prevent it ever happening again – by one means or another."
Her uncle shuddered at the chill in her voice but her aunt nodded approval.
"Can you do it?" She asked practically.
"I learned some knife fighting as a matter of weyrling training; and I asked my father to give me some tips when I was visiting at Benden." She said. "He wasn't too keen but I pointed out that what happened before can happen again. And Mnementh backed me up." Her aunt's expression betrayed no surprise; Talana had been fairly certain that her mother had hidden nothing from her sister. There were questions from various cousins, but she ignored them and quickly changed. She went outside in time to see Koreb and two cronies riding up.
oOoOo
T'lan was the last person Koreb had been expecting to see. He stared at her then scowled.
"Whaddya think you're doing here, runty – your green died and you're begging for work?"
T'lan walked forward to about half a length's distance from him.
"I can't let a creep like you marry my cousin Zaylinda." She said. "Moreover, I know about how you treat your people. We've unfinished business, Koreb."
Koreb laughed scornfully, and dismounted from his runner. He passed the reins to one of his cronies.
"This won't take long." He sneered, drawing his belt knife. Talana noted clinically how like Meron's his voice had become.
"Mirrith" she said conversationally "Prevent those others from interfering."
The front length or so of Mirrith appeared grinning from behind the stone barn; and she stalked between Koreb and his companions. One of the runners reared, throwing the young man; and he deemed it a prudent excuse to chase it. The other held his beast in check but retreated.
"WHAT?" Koreb half turned.
Talana took the opportunity to fling off the loose tunic and reveal the tight bodice she wore underneath; the tunic she kept wound round her left arm. The surprise had him off balance and she moved in, thrusting with her own short knife before he could recover, forcing him to take the defensive. He half recovered and managed,
"So – Nabol gets the opportunity to send another Queen Between for all time."
Talana kept her temper only with difficulty; she knew he intended to make her angry and throw herself at him. Talana knew that Koreb relied on his strength in fighting; she had to stay out of reach of his free hand or she would be at his mercy. But she had thought about this day many times, and had planned several moves. She let Koreb force her back, taunting her all the while, as she kept just out of his reach. She was watching his chest to gauge his actions the way F'lar had taught her, the way he'd been taught by C'gan. Then she seemed to slip! Koreb was over her in a moment, Knife poised for the death blow; but there was the moment's hesitation as he wondered whether to humiliate her by taking her first that she knew would pass his mind; and she yelled with her 'inner voice'
"YOU!"
Koreb reeled backwards and simultaneously she was rising, not off balance at all, driving the knife upwards. She knew she had the line wrong for the heart as she moved, and changed the blow to a cut as her knife entered his body. Koreb threw his arms wide in pain, terror and surprise; and Talana fell back in horror as his guts fell from the ruined silken tunic, squirming and grey-purple like some obscene form of Thread; and Koreb scrabbled frantically to try to remake his belly. Talana took a step backward and found herself against a hard chest.
"You need to finish him off. You can't let him die that way." R'gar's quiet voice spoke. Talana didn't think to ask what he was doing there. The habit of obedience to that tone of voice from him was ingrained, and she swallowed, approaching the kneeling figure with a lap-full of intestines. Her strike was swift and sure, into the throat and up into the brain; and the young man fell over. Talana let go of the knife and turned and flung herself into R'gar's waiting arms. He held her. The voices of the dragons in her mind spoke to her and soothed her, helped her face the fact that she had actually killed. She had not the inhibitions that the weyrbred did, and she knew that it was the only way of dealing with Koreb, but she felt sick and ill. Presently she emerged from R'gar's tunic, and he stroked her face.
"Why didn't you call me in to do that?" He asked, roughly. "When Laranth told me what you were up to, I was terrified! And that last stunt – if Laranth hadn't been listening in on you – " he shook his head, and held her to him. "Don't you EVER do anything like that again." He told her.
oOoOo
Talana was recovering in her uncle's hold and had introduced R'gar to her relatives when her lover happened to glance out of the window. He sighed.
"I knew that would happen."
"What, dear?" Talana looked alarmed.
"Larnel" he said laconically. "Thought those lace clad snots would run for him as soon as Koreb looked to be in trouble. Why do you think I haven't taken you home? I didn't want him to attack your kin. This is between him and me. It is I suppose inevitable."
"It's my fight." Said Talana. "I killed his son."
"I have prior claim." His voice was uncompromising. "He tried to kill me treacherously first." He strode out of the door and Talana started to follow. Her aunt put a hand on her arm to stop her, but Talana threw it off. Zaylana shook her head. This was all very frightening; and dragongirls fighting as well as their menfolk! It didn't seem right – but Zayli's daughter…not perhaps that surprising. And hadn't her true sire rid them of the tyrant Fax!
oOoOo
Larnel recognised R'gar.
"What have you done with my son, dragon shit?" he snarled.
"I've done nothing. He duelled T'lan; and lost." R'gar shrugged.
"You lie."
"Not one of my habits; I'm no spawn of Meron. Cut out the preliminaries, you're wasting my time. I presume you're hoping to finish what you started in the Weyr."
Larnel drew his knife. He had put on a little more weight, R'gar noted; and that was to the good. He employed the same tactics as before, this time secure in the knowledge that the ground was firm, and the day overcast. Dancing lightly on his feet he waited until the man was blowing hard before he moved in. His first instinct was to wound the man and satisfy honour; but he looked into the cruel eyes and knew that if he did not finish this he would never have a moment's peace if ever Talana or his children were in Nabol. Larnel would not ever let the matter go; and with a calmness that surprised himself R'gar ran his knife directly into the man's heart under his guard.
oOoOo
R'gar had sustained a slight wound during the fight, for Larnel was practised with the knife. R'gar was only too thankful that Koreb had been to lazy to learn more than the rudiments and had not practised to care about taking a wound himself. Zaylana assisted T'lan in dressing it, and Zaylinda watched, big eyed.
"Will I have to fight people if I Impress?" She blurted out. R'gar smiled at her.
"No, child, it's not standard for Weyrwomen to fight. Your cousin T'lana just does her own thing." He smiled at Talana.
"I went to the weyr dressed as a boy" Talana explained. "Koreb was the bully of the candidates. He couldn't make me crawl, so he's always hated me. I've known for a long time that we would fight one day. He was bad for Pern, and had no respect for dragons."
"Dragonmen try not to fight." R'gar added. "But when we have no choice, we like to win. I'll go and see Lord Deckter and explain the situation."
"You're not going between with that open wound." Said Talana. "You rate the rest of us about it often enough. You'll stay here overnight and I'll see Lord Deckter."
oOoOo
Lord Holder Deckter was honoured at being visited by a Queenrider, and told Talana so when she introduced herself. She gave him a rather wry smile.
"You may feel differently in a few minutes, my lord." She said. "I come to report a double duel that I and my weyrmate – who presents his apologies for not attending through being wounded – were involved in a duel which has resulted in the deaths of two of your kinsmen."
"Oh yes?" Said Deckter hopefully. The only kin he felt were not fully expendable were his sons; and he knew they'd never be stupid enough to duel.
"I fought and killed Koreb, who once kicked Mirrith; my weyrmate R'gar was forced to fight Larnel who had fought him before." She reported. Deckter knew the story of Koreb's expulsion and his father's subsequent actions, and all that surprised him was that the weyrfolk had taken so long to take action. A pragmatic man he recognised that he was well rid of them – as well as having lands now to give as a reward to a supporter. He nodded in the business like way that set him apart from most of the Lords Holder.
"Thank you for telling me this, Weyrwoman T'lana." He said. "I recognise the weyr has had a long standing quarrel with those two. But tell me – " his curiosity could not be contained "- how did a little bit of a thing like you kill a brute like Koreb?"
"I'm faster." She said. "And his fighting style is non existent. He relies on keeping people too scared to fight him." Deckter nodded.
"I didn't know weyrwomen fought." He said.
"They don't. But he kicked Mirrith; and he's been raping girls. That makes it a woman's business. Besides, he was trying to get his hands on my uncle's lands by marrying my cousin. It's all quite complex." She said. "By the way, I hope you don't mind, I'm taking my cousin and probably one of my male cousins on search. It's a little early, but I want to avoid any reprisals from Larnel and Koreb's cronies."
"I will see to it that there are no reprisals weyrwoman; but take on search whoever is worthy. Nabol is proud to supply dragonmen and women."
oOoOo
Talana stayed politely to take refreshment with Lord Deckter, and found him a pleasant man, blunt and to the point. They enjoyed a pleasant chat about his plans and ambitions for Nabol; and she filled him in on how well Sh'rilla and Tyrin were doing. She was pleased to note that he was genuinely pleased for them, and that he had already started extensive programs for poverty relief. She returned to R'gar reassured about the future of Nabol.
"Of course" she said "It requires his heir to do as well as him. But I hear his sons are good solid men."
"It's just as well." R'gar said. "It means you won't have to interfere when he dies."
She threw a pillow at him.