Chap. 147 Treed...for a while

Chap. 147  Treed…for a while

K'ndar stared down at the five raiders, who were craning their necks to judge his precarious perch atop a column of rock. Raventh was at his side, peering down at the men, Siskin just behind his head.  

This column was alone in the midst of a large clearing, much larger than the one they'd landed in earlier. Wish we'd found this one first, he thought. There's plenty of room here to land.

It couldn't be helped. Those humans, they couldn't have held on for long.

Still, I am so proud of you.

Thank you. It was fun. One of the raiders. I remember him. Raventh said.

You do? From where? 

From the horse auction. When the fight broke out, and all us dragons came to protect you from the men who were hunting you. One of them-he's down there.  The one who shot at us. I remember his face.

Huh. That meant that these raiders were probably Lord Toric's men, from Southern Hold. Or maybe not…maybe they were just plain ol' criminals, one of whom just happened to have been in the melee.

"Watch them, Siskin," he said.  Siskin's eyes whirled an affirmative.

"So, dragonrider! You're like a cuorl in a tree, you are. Trapped. Where's your mate now? The one we nailed? Ran away with his tail between his legs?" the leader of the raiders called.

I feel like a cuorl, K'ndar thought, referring to the native animal that lived in trees.  They were known to be intelligent, mischievous, nimble acrobats that were universally hated by the woodsmen for their prodigious appetite for the nuts of imported Terran deciduous trees.

"You know what we do to cuorls, dragonman? We shoot them out of the trees," one said.

"Ha ha, and when they land, we cut their bollocks off!" another taunted.

K'ndar chittered at the men in an almost perfect imitation of the cuorl's call. He wanted to keep the raiders here as long as possible, until F'mart returned with reinforcements. IF he returned-Kenth was probably being looked over by a dragon healer right now. Would he be grounded? Would F'mart just leave him here on his own? 

No. F'mart would return, no doubt, if for no other reason that he loved nothing better than a knockdown drag out brawl.

"Perhaps, but, that'd be difficult given that you're out of arrows and bolts," K'ndar said, laughing.

"Not quite, arsehole," one said, and with a sudden movement, raised his crossbow and fired at K'ndar's head.

He saw the bolt coming right at him, then suddenly spin off as if it'd hit a solid object. It fell back towards the men, causing them to scatter momentarily.

He struggled to keep his face deadpan, while wondering what happened? 

"Got any more?" he yelled, for lack of anything more antagonizing. He chittered again.

The leader cuffed the crossbowman. "Idiot, it's point blank range!" the leader yelled. 

"Shaff this," another said, "I'm going up there," and putting a dagger between his teeth,  began  to climb the rock column.

"Oh,  EXCELLENT!" K'ndar cried, "I was getting lonely up here!" He waited until the man was close enough to guarantee a hit, then calmly picked up a loose boulder next to his feet and dropped it on the man's head.

He fell a long ways to the ground, landing on his back. His companions laughed.

"That was fun, send up another!" K'ndar called.  The man picked himself up and moaning, put a hand to his head. "Oh, shaff it, me head is busted. Come on, let's go, sure as eggshells, the other one will be back," one of them said.

"Nay, nay, I got the dragon, I did. Mr. Cuorl up there, he can rot up there."

"Aye, he's right. Let's go. He can't follow us 'tween the trees," the leader said.

No, K'ndar thought, no, keep them here. Keep them-interested. Ah.

He pulled his binoculars out of his backpack and began to scan their faces.

"Whatchoo got there, boy?" the leader called, suddenly realizing this dragonrider had something interesting.

"I'm memorizing your faces, idiot. Never seen a binocular before? With this, I can see clear through your ears, and right now I can see none of you have anything between them," K'ndar mocked.

The rest began to buzz between themselves. 

"Let's...let's talk about this," the leader said, realizing that K'ndar's binocular was undoubtedly valuable.

"Talk? Talk? Pffft, talk is cheap. You shoot at me? But now, NOW you want to what, discuss just how slowly you're going to cut off my bollocks? Up yours, idiot," he snapped. "This binocular is worth a lot of money," he said, "more money than you'll ever see."

"Nay, you, well, my boys got their dander up. Let's you come down, we can talk, we'll …negotiate," the leader said, greed thickening his voice. 

They're here Raventh said.

Without a sound, the sky bloomed dragons. K'ndar looked up to see a formation, perfectly formed into thread fighting formation.  

Wow, he thought, what an incredible sight. I've done that a hundred times, but never realized how amazing it looks from the ground.

"K'ndar!" he heard a familiar voice call from above, "Are you alright?"

By the egg, it was B'rant, the Weyrlingmaster. 

"I'm fine!" he yelled, standing up and waving. 

A grownup's voice shouted, "Squads!!  Mark your targets!!

Raventh. Push the men's faces to everyone.

They already asked for it, it's done!

Someone cried, "There they are!"

The raiders looked skyward, pausing for a stunned moment at the awesome spectacle of a wing of dragons overhead.

Then, as one, they split and bolted for the trees.

A small voice shouted "Hurry! They're getting away!!"

The formation above him broke into six elements. 

By the egg, the wing was the Weyrlings! 

Siskin began to warble a greeting. 

"Arms! Land first and deploy! Class! Land in order and deploy!" B'rant called.

Ten dragons landed, with grown dragonriders on their backs. The heavily armed men who'd ridden behind them got off, broke off into two man teams, and headed for the tree line. The dragons immediately moved to allow the rest to land.

"Alpha, deploy!" someone yelled, and five dragons landed neatly. K'ndar saw an even more amazing sight-each Weyrling had, behind them, a child with an eager, barely controlled fire lizard on his or her shoulder. The children and dragon riders bailed off, and formed a squad. Their dragons moved off immediately, clearing the landing site.

"Bravo, deploy!", the second of five squads landed to offload riders and children. Within moments, the entire wing of had landed. 

B'rant called, "Squads! GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Like living arrows, the fire lizards launched into the surrounding forest. The squads-each child with an armed Weyrling, were right after them, the children whooping encouragement to their fire lizards. 

K'ndar boarded Raventh and was soon on the ground.

F'mart dismounted from B'rants bronze dragon, Banarth. He came up to K'ndar and pounded him on the back.

"Thanks, mate, for keeping them here," he said. 

"You're welcome, it was fun," K'ndar said.

"Good choice for a landing spot," B'rant said. 

F'mart said, "Far better than that tiny one where we picked up the women."

B'rant stood with his hands on his hips, part of him wanting to join the hunt, but knowing he should stay here. Ah, those weyrlings, and the kids with their lizards. This operation was working like a well oiled machine, just as he'd drilled them.  

"How's Kenth? Where is he?" K'ndar asked.

"In sickbay. He's not as bad as it looked, although I had to turn my head when the dragonhealer was pulling the bolt. I couldn't stomach seeing it, although Kenth was so hyped he told me he never felt a thing. She says it came out clean. I'm keeping it as a trophy. He'll be sore in that leg for a while, but it was all muscle, no tendons."

He stopped, listening to the chase. The peals of laughter of the kids rang from all quarters of the compass. 

"Kenth was furious that he couldn't come, in fact, Arcturuth had to order him confined to quarters. But it's okay, there's a green in with him, to keep him company. The dragonhealer is pretty confident there won't be infection, and she's patching his wing right now. So he's grounded. But I'm not and where the shards are those raiders, I am just itching for a knock down dragout," F'mart said. 

B'rant came up. "Shhhhhh," he said, "Listen to the chase." 

They could hear children's shrieks of savage joy at the hunt. Their fire lizards responded with screeches. Or was that the shriek of a raider being attacked?

The weyrlings were calling, keeping both men and children aware of each other's location. Just as I drilled them, B'rant thought. Ahhhh, what a satisfying validation of his battle plan.  

Siskin fluttered, wheedled and whined. He wanted to go chase, too.  

"Sir, this is incredible, the entire Weyrling class AND the fire lizard corps?" he said to B'rant.

B'rant laughed, savoring the chance to wallow in the satisfaction of his operation going just as planned. 

 "AND Lord Dorn's men, who've been itching for months to find these louts. This is just perfect! What a great training opportunity!" He slapped his thigh, as happy as he had ever been with a class.

"F'mart had Kenth tell Baranth and any other dragon who wanted to listen about the whole situation. We've trained for months for just this sort of thing! What a wonderful opportunity! The weyrlings are close to graduation, still they need to learn to apprehend raiders anyway, what a golden moment! It's an absolute gift! Real world training!  And the fire lizard kids? Who better to hunt down a bunch of men in a thick jungle than a fire lizard? They've been training, too. What an excellent Reserve they are proving to be!"

"I wish I'd had that opportunity!" K'ndar said, envious. Siskin sniveled his disappointment. 

He stroked the blue's head. "It's alright, little one. You will get to do that next time, okay?"

"Hope there isn't a next time, but…anyway, if I remember correctly, K'ndar, it was your idea to train the kids and their lizards in the first place. What a great payoff!"

He stood, hands on hips, listening to the chase. It sounded like it was winding down.

The men. Tell them about the men. He was there at the auction Raventh said.

"Sir. Raventh said that one of the raiders is the same one who grabbed F'mart at the horse auction ring at Toric's Gather. Remember that? When all our dragons suddenly were overhead, roaring at them?"

"Whoa………." B'rant said, "Toric's man? Here? On Lord Dorn's lands?"

"Yessir.  I think I remember him. Maybe even the one who's nose F'mart broke."

F'mart roared in glee. "What a great time that was! I LOVED that fight, maybe I can get another one in! And this time I'm not even drunk, let me AT HIM!"

"Having seen you fight, F'mart," B'rant said, "makes me glad you're on our side."

F'mart grinned. 

Toric's men on Dorn's hold, B'rant thought. Not a crime in and of itself, but when they committed crimes-well, that was a different matter altogether. He didn't expect the raiders to talk, but this did give him a weapon to pry their mouths loose.

A squad emerged from the trees.

"Ahhhh, look what we have here! A raider! He doesn't look too happy, either!" B'rant smirked.

Two of the armed men had a raider between them. Behind them, children were swaggering in victory, chattering, relating the exploits of their fire lizards with the Weyrlings at the top of their lungs. Overhead, their circus of lizards circled, just begging for another go at the raider.

The raider looked much the worse for wear, his face clawed, his clothes ripped to shreds. 

Very soon, the rest were in custody. They all looked as if they'd gone through a meat grinder.

"Well done, all of you. WELL done," B'rant said to his troops, pride and satisfaction all over his face.

He contemplated the raiders as they sagged in their captor's grip.

F'mart and K'ndar stayed back and behind them, not wanting the men to see them up close.

 K'ndar immediately recognized one of them and nudged F'mart.

"Yes," F'mart whispered, "Definitely. That's one of 'em. Not the one whose nose I broke, but definitely one of the four who's arses I whipped."

He caught B'rant's eye and nodded.

B'rant surveyed the raiders. If one was Toric's man, most likely the rest were, too. Their being here, as raiders, meant they were probably here on Toric's orders-certainly NOT what a Lord should be condoning. 

He approached the leader. 

"Your names and Holds," he said to them.

Despite their arms being held tightly behind their backs, the men were mute.

"Your names and Holds," B'rant  repeated. 

They gave him sullen looks, save for one who's eye was swelling shut.

"If you tell me who you are and where you're from, it will go easier on you," B'rant said.

"Piss off," the leader said.

"Hmm. Never heard of that name before, bet it caused you a lot of trouble," B'rant said.

The crowd of kids and Weyrlings laughed. The men holding him tightened the pressure on his pinned arms.

"That's not polite, arsehole," one hissed.

The man spat. 

That earned him an even harder twist on his arms. "Owwwwwwwww," he whined.

One of the other raiders laughed at the leader's pain.

"Last chance! Your names and Hold," B'rant said.

One of the raiders rolled his eyes and smirked.

B'rant shrugged. "Suit yourself, lout. Three chances, it's all I give. Weyrlings, take these men and drop them off somewhere flat, with hard rock, preferably. From way WAY up high," B'rant said. 

The  weyrlings surged forward. 

"NO, WAIT!" the leader cried, "You can't do that, we've got rights!" 

"RIGHTS?" B'rant shouted, "Rights? When you rob and beat innocent people up? Invade their home? Torture a man and his son? You've terrorized women and children?   You've negated your rights. In fact, Lord Toric told Lord Dorn to be watching for you."

The raiders, to a man, flinched when he said Toric's name. I was right, B'rant thought, I've flushed you out. 

"Nay, this be our Hold, we're Lord Dorn's…"

The largest of the armed men said, "They're not from Lord Dorn's hold. I can promise you that."

B'rant shook his head ruefully. "I knew that the minute I laid eyes on you. You've been well described. You're wanted men, you know that, yes? Lord Toric told Lord Dorn he ran you off HIS hold when you were caught on his lands, doing the same crimes you've done here.

He's already put a bounty on your heads, by the way. It's quite a lot of money, you've really pissed him off.

 It's a bounty he'll pay, "dead or alive", and honestly, I don't have the time to deal with live raiders. Dead ones don't bother anyone anymore. Just drop you from, oh, a couple thousand meters? Then all we need do is scrape up what's left of your heads and hand them over to Toric," he said, wishing he could drop Toric from on high. Everyone on Pern would benefit. 

"NO!" shrieked one, "No, Toric won't do that, he promised us he'd pay us for…."

"SHUT UP you fool!" shouted the leader.

Ah.