Chap. 40 Family decisions

Chap. 40  Family decisions

"If I hadn't lived through it, I wouldn't have believed so many things could happen in one short week," Daryat said.

The family was sitting around a small fire on the beach in front of K'ndar's weyr. Raventh's eyes reflected the flames, making them appear to glow like hot coals. Sandriss's two fire lizards were curled up between his wings, sound asleep. The sea was quiet and gentle, and the stars were out in force.

"It is so good to have you back, Sandriss," she said, "and I can't tell you often enough, Liana, welcome to the family."

"What 'bout me?" the toddler in her lap piped up. Everyone laughed.

"Most ESPECIALLY you, Nattana!" Daryat said.

A log popped and rolled over. Fland took a rod and pushed it back up onto the flames.

K'ndar reflected on how nice it felt to have virtually the entire family here. It wouldn't be for long, of course, and Mardriss wasn't here…but neither was Hanliss. This, he thought, was how it feels to have a Happy family.

Daryat ran her hands over the pot K'ndar had given her. Its texture begged to be caressed. 

"You must introduce me to the woman who made this, K'ndar. It is so lovely, so cunningly made."

"Her name is Terylin, Mum, a gentlewoman if ever there was one. She tried to teach me to ''throw a pot" and the only thing I did was make a bunch of people laugh at me."

"Did you say "Terylin"?, Sandriss said, sitting bolt upright.

"Yes, she was at the market a couple weeks ago. She was going to gift it to me, but I couldn't, I just couldn't, so we bartered. I just today finished making a horse hair necklace for it. I hope to see her at the Gather tomorrow, I owe it to her, and haven't had time to call her fire lizard."

"She GAVE it to you? That's amazing. Did you know she is the best potter on Pern?" Sand said, awed.

"I hadn't until Nyala told me. She said she's famous."

Sand whistled. "That's an understatement. Her pots are..well, let's just say that the wealthy folk on Pern all want her work. I'd bet my boots there's one of her pots on Lessa's table.  On the few occasions I've been lucky enough to see hers, IF they're for sale, they bring in a lot of money. Most people want them just for their beauty. "

"Here, take a look at mine," Daryat said, handing it to Sandriss.

He examined it with his trader's eye. "Yes, yes. This is definitely her work. It's very clever, very well done. If there wasn't a knob on the lid you wouldn't know how to open it."

He handed it back.

Daryat suddenly felt odd to have something so valuable in her hands. She'd never had such a valuable item in her life. Except for her children.

"So, how do you feel about staying here at the weyr now, Glyena? Now that Dad is dead? Do you want to go back?" She asked.

The 7 year old shook her head. "No, Mum, I mean, Mum, I love you, so much. But here, I'll have two sisters! And a room to myself, it's BIG. Alisa is so nice, she knows all about plants, and her partner is a harper. He's already told me what level I'll be in, for school. I want to go to school and learn. I want to …I want to stay here. Jordan is here, and K'ndar, and his dragon. If I want to go home, I can just ask K'ndar to take me, to visit, right? Right?"

K'ndar looked at her with a mix of fondness and trepidation. "Glyena, you have to remember, I'm a dragon rider now. I will be doing a lot of things, flying against Thread, doing sweeps-I'll be gone. Often. It's not as if I'll have a lot of time on my hands."

He wondered if she really understood that.

Glyena nodded.  Daryat said, "Maybe, Glyena, you should live here with the idea that Kandar I mean K'ndar does NOT."

"Okay. If it means that, I still want to stay here."

They fell silent for a few moments. Then K'ndar asked,"And you, Mum? You've made up your mind."

"K'ndar, with Hanliss dead, there is nothing to keep me here. Hariko was disappointed, to say the least, but she understands. I want to be there when Arlita has her baby. Isn't it funny, a few days ago I had no grandchildren and here, very soon, I'll have TWO!"

"Me first," Nattana said. They laughed. Daryat said, "Yes, you little darling, you're first. But you won't be there, at the cothold."

"She will, you know." Sandriss said, his arm around Liana.

"WHAT?"

"Mum, I've enjoyed the trader life. I've seen a lot, been so many places. Pern is so big! One could wander for a lifetime and still not see it all. I've made some very good friends. I've done things I never thought I'd be able to do. I met Liana on the road and we both love the freedom. We love to see what's over the next hill. But…" and he looked down fondly at Nattana in her mother's lap, "Comes a time when a family needs to settle down for a while, give a child stability in her life. Maybe someday, when Natty is old enough, maybe we'll light out for the nomad trader life again. But for now, we plan on settling down."

"Oh!" Daryat, and everyone else said, "Where will you go?"

"Well, I have enough money that I can probably afford to lease a small cothold, raise some livestock, you know, what you and Dad did. But,..well, I told my partner, Lizard, that I intended to be at the Gather…we couldn't make it for the graduation. I made him swear to not tell you, K'ndar," he said.

"Huh. Well, he kept his word," K'ndar said.

"He always does. Anyway, there was some three way communication between Lizard, me and Mard. Lizard can get word to anyone. I think he knows every Runner on the planet. He sent Mardriss a message saying I was here, and  Mardriss sent one back, telling me Dad had died and that you all had already left for the Weyr.

His last words on my message were: 'don't bother leasing. You have a home here anytime you want one'. So….we're going  to build a house. At Home. At our cothold."

Cheers arose all round. Nattana clapped in joy although she hadn't a clue why.

This makes things so much easier, Fland thought. Now I won't have to face taking three horses back to the cothold by myself. Not that I'm afraid, mind you, but…there are bandits out there.

Hanliss, he thought, the only decent thing you ever did in your life was die.

As if hearing them, Sandriss said, "This way, Fland and Mum needn't take the horses back all by themselves. We'll be with you, with our wagon and draft horses. AND fire lizards, who are more protective than you might expect."  His bronze warbled in agreement.

"And,now that there's a dragon in the family, maybe transportation between here and there will be a lot easier." He said, looking at K'ndar.  "Of course, that being when he's available."

"In a year," K'ndar said, "That point will be moot. I'm not sure what I intend on doing once we no longer have to fly against Thread. I'd like to explore, but I also want to learn more. I want to read as many books as I can. I want to map the steppes. I want to see how the wild creatures live. I would like…well, I thought I'd try my hand at being a trader, but I discovered at the Market that I just don't have the..the.."

""Distrust of the common man?"" Sandriss finished, chuckling.  "But still, I know a good man to be on the road with," Sandriss said. "Lizard. You don't have to do the trading. You can still wander. He's a good man to have at your back, knows every hall, hold and weyr between here and the Northern Reaches, and he's honest."

"Oh, by the way, Lizard told me I owed you this."

He took out a pouch he'd tucked under his shirt. Getting up, he walked around the fire to hand it to K'ndar.

K'ndar knew what it was.

He reached in, felt a warm ovoid. He took it out.

A fire lizard egg. It was warm, and heavy.

"It's almost ready to hatch. I'd say three days from now.   I'm assuming you know how to care for a freshly hatched fire lizard?" Sandriss asked, his expression impish.

WHAT IS THAT?  Raventh asked, suddenly completely alert.

It's a fire lizard egg, Raventh! he said.

"Thank you, Sandriss, thank you so very much. And I would like to thank Lizard, too, for being so helpful to me."

"I don't need to tell you to keep it warm?"

"Nay," K'ndar said, hastily wrapping the egg up in his shirt, next to his belly.

"It's the last of my gold's clutch. They know you, now, they know Raventh, and when your fire lizard is old enough, we can use them to communicate between here and there. No more having to wait on a sweep rider or a Runner," he said. "Don't forget Lizard's, either. They were very effusive about Raventh."

It's about time you got a fire lizard. Now I will have a friend

You mean I'm not your friend?  he teased.

Raventh's anwer was unintelligible but the feeling was unmistakeable: Don't be a fool.

"We're going to stay for the Gather, then, I think, Fland, if you're willing, we'll head for the cothold. Mum, are you riding with us? Or…"

"Originally, I'd planned on it. While I don't think he'd have any troubles, still, it wouldn't be fair to Fland for him to head by himself. Although,..well, I guess you did it for years, Sandriss."

"Aye, at first, Mum, but back then it was safer. You could go days without seeing another soul. But in the last couple of years, there's been many people moving here from the North. Most of them are decent folks, but there are the few that should be in a cell rather than walking about free. For some reason those type seem to mostly be hill folk from Bitra. Strange folk, Bitrans. Seem to have a grudge against just about everyone, and I can't understand why.

About a year after I left the cothold, a couple of Bitrans stole my horse. They had stolen several, had a small herd already.  I was lucky, if they'd seen me they probably would have hurt me.  I thought, you shardin…" he stopped, not wanting to cuss in front of his toddler, "you're not going to take my only horse. So I followed their tracks. Wasn't hard, I'd recognize the track anywhere, the mare had an odd shaped hoof. While tracking them,  I found Lizard, almost dead from bleeding out. The same...people… had jumped him, cut him up, stole everything he had. I tracked them down.  Let's just say I made sure they won't do that again, at least not to me and Lizard.

I have to admit, though, that was the only time I had problems. And it gave me the best business partner ever."

"How did you know they were Bitrans?" Glyena asked.

"They have an odd accent.  Once you hear it, you'll never forget it. That, and they're terrified of Aivas.  I can't for the life figure out why, but they're afraid of it, even though it's dead. They won't touch a thing Aivas introduced."

K'ndar thought of his library books, the concept and existence of them made possible by Aivas.  What a treasure they were, and for people to fear knowledge made no sense to him. Given a choice, he'd take a book before he'd take a mark, even were both free.

"I have to admit, we had an uneventful trip here," Fland said.

"Actually, it was enjoyable. It's a lovely ride, there's plenty of wildlife to see, we didn't have a bit of trouble, or even bad weather."

"I can take you back on Raventh whenever, Mum. I have sweep riding duty for the week after the Gather, but I can still take you home, and bring back whatever Glyena might want," K'ndar said.

"I think I'd like that, K'ndar. It will give me time to get the house ready for Sand and Liana."

"An' ME!" Nattana cried.

"Yes, of course, Natty, you too."

"Mum, well, maybe, I should ask you, Aunt Liana," Glyena said, "I'm going to be here, now. There's my pony at home. She's called Goldie, she's a palomino. I used to ride her until I grew too big. No one's riding her now. Me and K'ndar, we trained her. Would it be okay if I were to give Goldie to Nattana?"

"WANT PONY!" Nattana cried. She wasn't quite sure what a pony was, but she knew she wanted it.

They all roared. Liana, giggling, said, "Well, I guess THAT decision was taken out of my hands."

"So, can we say it's settled?" Fland asked. "K'ndar takes Daryat home and we head out the same time?"

"Works for me," Sandriss said.