Chapter 20 Flight of the Maidens
Explicit
M'tin awoke with a start, feeling very sore. It was barely light out. He could tell by the way the weyr was so dim. He glanced around the weyr he was in and did not recognize it. He searched his mind for Dagmath. His blue dragon was sound asleep. M'tin thought about the situation for a minute more, casting about in his mind as to where he was and what had happened the night before. Then it came to him. He had moved up from the weyrling quarters yesterday and had held a party in honor of it.
Yesterday had also been the first real Gather day since the institution of "Gather Day" at the planet wide meeting-dinner-dance several months ago. Thread had been falling in its usual day after day after day for 2 seven-day periods. It had moved on across the continent and the Gather day had been unusually boisterous-at least for the smaller dragons' riders
M'tin had made friends with a couple of new riders. Eljax from Ista and Zeeb from Fort. Both just out of the weyrling barracks, too. In fact, as M'tin looked around, he recognized Zeeb's back and Eljax's side from where he sat. And there was Dru, his pal from here at Benden, next to him. They were all in his new weyr, which was much larger than the barracks room. At least, for slender young men such as they. He burrowed back under the furs and came up behind Dru, hugging him around the waist. Dru murmured in his sleep and slid an arm back and around M'tin. He was asleep in moments.
"Torene, Torene," Annalisa said quietly but urgently, nearly in tears.
"Lis?" Torene queried, hurrying to the doorway to the cavern hall.
"Come in, come in, what's the matter?" Torene asked, startled. The youngest of the queenriders looked frantic and harried.
"It's Ragath! She keeps saying that I'm too young, that I haven't done it yet. That she's too young, she's not ready yet! What does she mean?" Annalisa fell, crying, into the Weyrwoman's arms.
Torene hugged the girl close, but knew immediately what Ragath meant. Ragath was getting ready to rise to mate, somehow knew about it and knew that her beloved mate was not ready yet. But that was neither here nor there. When the golden dragon rose to mate, her life's partner had to be ready to mate, too!
"Lis, I know what's happening. And Ragath is right. It is happening too soon, but there is nothing we can do about that now. We just have to prepare you the best we can. Lis', Ragath is preparing to rise to mate." Torene felt the young girl jerk in surprise and begin to struggle away from Torene.
"Rag is right! We're too young! I'm too young!" Annalisa pushed away from Torene as she said this.
"I know, but we cannot stop it. I have a few questions for you, so listen closely because this is happening whether we want it to at this time or not!" Torene said, looking closely at the girl.
"Have you ever been with a man?" Torene asked.
"NO!" Lis exclaimed, beginning to pace.
"Have you cycled yet? Do you know what that means? Torene asked.
"Yes! And of course I have cycled, I am sixteen!" Annalisa snorted.
"I was a virgin when Brianth flew Amaranth, but that was by choice" Torene said, and I knew what was coming. Your dear dragon has precipitated things a little bit," Torene said soothingly, "but it will work out, you'll see."
"Is Brianth going to be among the bronzes for Ragath?" Lis asked hopefully.
Torene looked at Annalisa, weighing the question, "Why, Lis, does Ragath have some favorites?"
"No," Annalisa blurted out, "I do. Since learning about this from the weyrlingmaster, I have only wanted Brianth to fly Ragath." Which Torene took as a roundabout way to say that Lis wanted M'hall to bed her. She took a deep breath. Was she magnanimous enough to let that happen? Was her husband, who was well acquainted with the opposite sex, in love with her, Torene, enough to take this flight for what it was?
Brianth and Amaranth both snorted and the sound was loud in her ear. I'm sorry, Torene shot the thought to both her dragon companions.
"Lis, I am not sure what might be possible. Let's go take a look at Ragath and by then, I will have thought of several gentle men who will take wonderful care of you during this highly emotionally charged event, all right?" Torene said, then paused as she called to her dragon, and asked her to tell M'hall where she had gone.
She watched and waited while Lis nodded, although the girl was pale with nerves and was wringing her hands together.
Torene steered Annalisa to the ledge of the Weyrleaders' compartment and they watched as Amaranth sprang up and then landed on the very ledge where the girls waited. They mounted up and allowed Amaranth to sweep up to the ledge where the bulk of the dragons were sunning and Ragath was pacing. The girls dismounted and walked towards Ragath, who burst out with I am too young and Annalisa is too young! She has not lain with a man yet! That should happen before this lust flight!
Yes, Torene said to Ragath and Annalisa both, this is not the way we ever want the rising to happen, with an untried human, but we are all still too new to you, to your species, that sometimes things go awry! Lis should have been trained sooner, but we have no way of calculating when you would be rising the first time. I'm so sorry it happened this way, but it will be alright. There are several men who are quite gentle, and will treat Lis with respect, teaching her what she needs to know.
"Annalisa," Torene said gently, "I have chosen four bronzes to rise with Ragath, along with Brianth," Torene paused here as Annalisa gasped, "Lis, listen to me. These are good men, gentle men. The queenriders whose dragons have been caught by these men's dragons have all affirmed that they are gentle, patient and caring. But by the time you get to that part of the flight, you may not need much gentle treatment. It can get quite heated and you will become quite aroused. Your dragon will help you with that."
"There will be other dragons there, to augment the choices for Ragath, but a few of them will drop out at the last second. Halleth, Polenta, and Shelmith will most probably drop out, but they will urge the other dragons on in the flight. So now you have a respectable retinue of bronze dragons."
Torene continued, "Let me introduce you to your suitors," and she turned Annalisa around to meet the men who had arrived while Torene was talking to Lis.
"You know Jess, Berales' good friend," Jess nodded, not attempting to touch Lis. " N'klaus here, is one of the first dragonriders, from Carenath and Faranth's first hatching." N'klaus smiled gently, and he too, did not attempt to touch Lis, figuring correctly that the young girl was trying to absorb a lot of information in a very short time, and that a touch of any kind might undo her tightly held composure.
A couple of other men came up while the introductions were being made, and Torene turned to them.
"Peter and Shih Lao are also from that first hatching, so all four men are well experienced, know what is going to happen and are very gentle." Here Annalisa took a deep breath and looked at each of the men around her, giving each a tremulous smile.
"I want to thank you all in advance, for treating me with such regard and respect. Believe me when I say that it will be a first to be handled gently, although I am still a virgin, it is only through sheer fast running that has kept me that way," Annalisa ducked her head a moment, then raised her eyes slowly along with her head and stood tall and unflinching. The respect in the four dragonriders' eyes could be discerned from where Torene was standing off to the side of the group. Torene heaved a great sigh of relief. It was going to work out well. "This is where I must leave you, Lis," she said. Glancing at Torene, Lis nodded acknowledgement, steadier now. Torene bolted back to her waiting dragon, glad she'd had the foresight to grab her riding gear. Amaranth sprang up and swept out over the caldron and blinked out.
M'hall was in the cavern dining room and cleared his throat to make the announcement. "Queen riders. Queen riders, we have a queen coming into estrus. Please vacate the premises," M'hall called out, then watched as all the women scattered to get riding gear and head out the main archway. He ticked them off in his head as he saw them: Uloa, Jean, Kathy, Jenette, Nyassa, Sevya and Tarrie. He saw Torene on Amaranth blink out. Where was Julie? Was she even around? Oh! There she was, and she was hustling from the back of the prep area in the kitchen, so maybe she'd been down in the cold room. He waited until the noise of the retreating queens had died down.
"This flight has been declared open to only sixth year bronzes and above, at the request of Queenrider Annalisa," M'hall said loudly, knowing he was going to get a fight from the younger men, but he had to protect Annalisa from some of the younger, heavier handed men to whom the lust flight was the opportunity to be overly lustful.
"Hey! What's this, M'hall! You picking your lays now? G'rd sneered. D'van came up next to him and added his presence to that of his best friend.
"It is at the request of our youngest queenrider, Annalisa," M'hall said, although he doubted the two heard or cared. Lane had come up to stand near David and G'rel on the far side of the two voicing their displeasure. Lane met M'hall's eyes, nodded and turned away. The message was clear. Lane had come clean about the mating flight over the lake. Had alerted his Weyrleader of the dark motives that seemed to control Brian, G'rd and D'van these days. M'hall, in turn, had alerted the other bronze riders to be on guard around the three.
"I believe N'klaus told you not to speak to our Weyrleader in such a manner," David said, moving over to in front of G'rd, "If I recall, you were quite nasty about Tarrie's wish to be alone with her beloved. Maybe you need to be transferred back to Fort, where Sean will refresh your training and re-teach you some manners!" M'hall came to stand next to David, pretty much saying he agreed with his Wingsecond without saying a word.
"Lay off, David," G'rd said, turning away and heading back the way he had come. He didn't want to return to Fort. He had hated Fort, and wouldn't have survived Fort if there had been less dragonriders for Sean to deal with. If M'hall was strict, Sean was a martinet. G'rd was sure everyone was out to get him. From Sean all the way down to that little punk, T'man.
T'man! What a name, G'rd sneered to himself. That little twig didn't even have a dragon. He had a castoff. What color was that thing anyway? Blue? Brown? Why hadn't they killed that thing when they killed those flightless things and the rest of the eggs!?
Ragath began to glow golden as the lust of estrus hit her. She rose up and looked over the herd of beasts in their enclosure, chose one and with an incredible leap into the air, coasted out over the enclosure and then pounced on her first bullock.
"Do not eat the flesh, Ragath," Annalisa said aloud and to her dragon telepathically. She glanced over at M'hall, who had joined them from the caldron floor and he nodded. She really hoped Brianth would catch Ragath. Much as she knew that M'hall loved only Torene, she wasn't too sure about the other men beginning to close their circle around her. She quickly brought her mind back to Ragath when the young queen finished off the first four-legged mammal and darted out and plucked the second one, a smaller bullock, off the ground.
Oh, how she wanted to taste that tempting morsel! But there was Annalisa, her dear Annalisa, telling her to only blood it. That she needed quick energy to rise higher than she had ever flown before! She threw that empty vessel aside and chose a bird this time. One of those cumbersome, oily birds. As she finished the bird, Ragath stood up on her back claws and beat the air with her luminous wings, screaming out her challenge to them, her suitors! The bronzes gathered around saw the shapeliness of this young golden dragon and responded with loud bugles! They could hardly wait! She stretched up to let them see her beautiful long neck. Then she spread her wings so they could see her beautiful, lighter than air wonderful wing membranes and talons at the tips of her wings. Really giving the bronzes a show and getting them all worked up.
She screamed once more, then flung herself into the air with an incredible spring and left them all in the dust! Ragath glanced under her wing towards the ground and saw a blue blur coming from the direction of the weyrlings' barracks, and behind the blue blur, the retinue of her bronze dragons.
Jess, Peter, David, M'hall, Shih Lao and T'mas followed their dragons' flight visually until they were out of sight. Then they ushered Annalisa into the mating chamber and closed the door behind them. M'hall, T'mas and David had pretty much agreed with their dragons in letting Jess, Peter and Shih Lao have the honors of this flight.
The little blue! M'hall had almost forgotten about the blue dragon. It was probably Dagmath again, which meant M'tin was playing around instead of working. Again. Apparently, he had not learned a thing.
M'hall looked at Annalisa and she was handling it well. She noticed peripherally who had left the circle and were sitting down. She was also noticing Shih Lao's kind gentle eyes, nice face and lean build.
M'hall looked at David and T'mas and gestured to them to come with him. He was going to catch M'tin in the act.
The three men left quietly and then ran up the two flights of stone steps to the third-year quarters.
As the dragons rose higher, and the men were barely themselves anymore, they took one more glance around at the others in contention and something arrested two of the men's attention.
The look on Shih Lao's face. Longing. Jess and Peter had known Shih Lao almost as long as they had known each other, and had never known Shih Lao to show any emotion other than looking pleased when his dragon won a queen. Never.
Jess stepped back and turned away, and asked Hallath to return, which the great bronze did immediately. He had seen the look of longing echoed in Firth.
Peter was aware that Jess and Halleth had dropped out, but there was still a third dragon out there who did not have a rider in the chamber. Peter and Jess' eyes met and Jess shook his head, so Peter called Polenth back.
"Any moment," Jess said quietly, "let's hope Firth catches Ragath before the little blue goes."
They let themselves out of the chamber as Ragath, alerted to an overhead assault by the broad shadow that fell over her, did a wing-over maneuver to give Annalisa a little more time and shot up a little higher. She felt the presence of another dragon coming up fast and dodged again.
With the room now empty of everyone else, Shih Lao moved over to Annalisa and took the trembling young girl into his arms.
"Don't be afraid, Lis," the dark-eyed man said, his eyes soft and wide with emotion, "I have never wanted anything in my life the way I want you." The girl looked up, clear eyed and brave and said, "I'm not afraid. I'm anxious! Anxious I won't measure up. Torene said that every man she had chosen for me was gentle and kind, because of what she knows about you. I have had to scrap and fight to keep myself safe, and I am afraid I am.."
Here Shih Lao shook his head and stopped her mid-sentence with a finger to her soft lips, "Annalisa, you could never disappoint me. I have wanted to be with you since you first came to Benden before you even stood on the hatching floor." Annalisa's eyes grew wide with surprise.
Shih Lao continued, closing the small gap between them and taking her into his arms. "Your haunted eyes and tousled hair, I just wanted to set you free from whatever it was that was after you."
Annalisa looked Shih Lao full in the face and found herself drowning in the love she saw in his eyes. "You have?" Her voice failed her and came out a little squeak.
Shih Lao kissed her lightly, then allowed the kiss to deepen until she was responding passionately. He had to hurry this along a little bit. They were both getting dragon lust crazed, and he wanted Annalisa laid gently on the couch, not tossed there and consumed by the dragons' lust. Shih Lao bent and scooped the young girl up, holding her lightly in case she wanted down, and talking to her about what was to come over the next half hour to hour, he strolled over to the couch against the back wall of the chamber.
Shih Lao looked down at the beautiful young girl, all pale skin, pale hair and wide eyes, and felt a deep stirring within him. He was nearly undone when Annalisa tightened her hold on him, bringing herself closer to him, and kissed him gently on the cheek, "Thank you, Lao, for loving me." She followed that light feathery kiss with a light kiss on his lips. His arms tightened and he struggled not to devour her. He stood her gently on her feet and began to disrobe her, piece by piece, and Annalisa took the initiative, reaching up and undoing Lao's outer shirt.
Ragath felt the increased sensation of good emotions and decided that Annalisa had chosen well, was handling the emotions and felt ready for the next step. Ragath, feeling lust settling over her like a curtain shutting out the outside, did a quick scan of the sky, positioning Firth above and slightly behind her and the little blue still climbing with them, but beginning to flag and desperate to reach her before Firth. But it was too late for little blue, Ragath had already given herself over to Firth, just as her beloved Annalisa had given herself over to Shih Lao. Ragath did a languorous rollover and shortened her wing vanes so that Firth could twine necks with her, spread his wings out above her and she spread her wings out completely under him and allowed her legs to go lax.
They collapsed, naked on the couch, he continued to kiss her, her mouth, her neck, her breasts, her blond mound and took his first taste of her. She quivered from head to toe, and he felt the wetness of readiness. Lao went up on one elbow and was slowly nosing the head of his member into the curly blond hair when they both felt the overwhelming lustful feelings from both their dragons. Annalisa wrapped her legs around Lao's back and hauled him in closer just as Firth penetrated Ragath deeply.
In unison, the two earthbound creatures called out the other's name repeatedly while riding the first wave of exquisite pleasure.
The three men were just opening the door to M'tin's quarters when that rider staggered out, looked left and right, then headed straight for the overhang.
Jess, the closest to the ledge, reached out to detain the young man, but M'hall stopped him with a shake of his head. It seemed callous, but M'hall knew the weyr would be better off without the lazy work ethic of this person.
And at that moment the dragons around the caldera rim began to keen. M'tin's dragon must have died. He hoped that Shih Lao and Annalisa and their dragons had been caught up with each other and missed the keening. Once the act was in play, the dragons were nigh deaf and blind to anything except themselves.
The three men opened the door into M'tin's quarters and sure enough, there were three young men enraptured with each other, oblivious that the fourth member of their party had just suicided. They did break apart, though, when the light and chilly air from the open door hit them. They became aware of their dragons keening and the fact that they had company.
Eljax and Zeeb, new to Benden, were not aware that they were now in the presence of their Weyrleader.
"What's with all the dragons keening?" Eljax asked as Zeeb got out of bed and swaggered over to the three men, sure that they had come to join the party.
Dru, the last to surface, was extremely aware, as he had been last time M'tin had been so tirelessly animated, that this was not a good visit. He stood up, wrapped a blanket around himself and tried to step in front of Zeeb, who roughly shoved him aside.
"Wait your turn, nut," Zeeb said, turning back to the three men, showing off his full maleness.
"I think you might be just the tiniest bit confused here, guys," M'hall said, "I am your Weyrleader. Your partner, M'tin, just committed suicide over the balcony because he once again was more attuned to his needs than the needs of his dragon. Dagmath burst his heart trying to fly our young queen," here M'hall paused, waiting for the information to sink in.
Dru reacted first. He fell to his knees, sobbing. It took Zeeb and Eljax a little longer to absorb all that they had just heard.
"Wait. His dragon tried to fly a QUEEN? Eljax asked incredulously.
Dru was nodding and trying to speak through his sobs, "It's like…last time…Mar…mar…tin fell for…Queen..rider..Julie. Dag..tried….to..fly..queen," Dru was still sobbing, yet fairly coherent, "M'tin…fell..for..Lis. Dag..tried..to…fly…Rag."
M'hall, Peter and T'mas pulled the three men out of their quarters and marched them over to the balcony. The oddly bent form of M'tin still lay where he had thrown himself. The keening of the dragons had not yet diminished.
"I want the three of you out of here by tomorrow evening. I have had enough of your laziness, your shirking duties, your proclivities," M'hall ground out between his teeth, glaring down at the three naked young men, "I do not care where you go as long as it is away from here and it is not Ista Weyr!
"But…" Eljax started to say.
"But NOTHING!" M'hall roared, "I want you GONE! You are a disgrace to dragonriders! Maybe another Weyrleader can whip you into shape. Maybe F'Mar up at High Reaches can. I refuse to do so anymore!" And with that the three dragonriders turned on their heels and strode back the way they had come, leaving the three others behind, still at the balcony, looking anywhere but down, not even remembering they were nude.
M'hall checked in with Brianth, and all had gone well with the flight and the participants. Shih Lao had performed his task with gentleness and thoroughness. The Queenriders were back and the day was settling down a bit. The dragons had slacked off their keening and Jess had seen to the removal of the body in the courtyard to the back of the beast barn.
M'hall saw to the transport of the body to the home of his father. Little needed to be said beyond the facts.