Chap. 209 Tempers Rising

 

Chap. 209 Tempers Rising

He'd dug his binoculars out of his saddle bag and was now tucked into an uncomfortably small hollow at the foot of a tree. Behind him, Raventh was perched atop a volcanic outcrop on the other side of the hill. He'd made sure the dragon was below the skyline. Nothing shouted SPY better than a dragon outlined against the sky.

Large boulders littered the steep hillside. Far out on the grassland, he could see a large herd of livestock, horses and cattle combined. At first glance, he'd thought it was a wild herd.

But no, there was even a few sheep in with them. Now he could see that several animals had brands. He'd have to get closer, the binos didn't show the detail from this distance, but it appeared to his herdsman's eye that most of them didn't match. None of them were recognizable, but that in itself suggested that the animals had all been stolen.

Wait. Horsemen. Several were cantering out to the herds. Now he could see others, cantering towards them. Shift change? Where had they come from?

This was no wild herd, or even one of escapees.

At the base of the hill, he saw a few men moving about purposefully, but as there were no visible living quarters, they could only be living in caves at the base. Were it not for the livestock, he'd have flown right over it without a clue that there were people living there. In fact, he reflected, he probably had. But it had been a while since he'd been on this particular sweep.

He studied the site. The ground nearest the hillside was bare of vegetation, the many foot and hoof prints indicating that any vegetation had been pounded into dust. He could see partial wagon tracks. They weaved and disappeared, reappeared many meters away, showing only here and there. Based on their illogical meandering path, it appeared that the drivers intentionally drove their wagons on rocky spots to keep from making visible tracks or ruts. There was no other signs of human activity visible outside the caves.

He smelled bread baking and roasting meat. It made him hungry. He had neglected to bring anything to eat, not expecting to have his sweep cut short by discovering the raiders camp.

Baking ovens took time to build. This was at least a semi-permanent camp.

Lessons learned, K'ndar, he thought, one, you should have brought a lunch. Two...well, was he wrong in cutting the sweep short completely? It meant that the rest of the sweep was being neglected. Maybe some had a signal pennant out and was waiting fruitlessly for him. Not much a planner, am I?

But...I've found the camp of people, a camp that my gut says is an illicit one. They took great pains to make it unremarkable from a sweep rider's point of view.

They've not been here for too long, he guessed. That many animals needed a lot of grazing.

On his left, movement caught his eye.

Someone was making his laborious way up the hillside several hundred meters away from him. For a moment he panicked, wondering if he'd been seen.

Then he saw something even more worrisome-a flash of reflected light. A signal mirror? Binoculars? He was in shadow and the sun was at zenith. The man walking up hill was in sunshine, too low down the hill for the flash to have come from him.

He focused his nocs on the man and then worked it uphill from him...and felt his blood go cold.

There was another person in a site very similar to his, high up on the hillside almost at the same elevation. He was almost invisible. He had a binocular to his eyes, and as K'ndar watched, turned it in his direction and again, the binocular flashed reflected sunlight.

A sentry. If there was one there, were there more? Perhaps, one behind HIM? Had he been seen?

Maybe not. From the sentry's position, if he glassed in K'ndar's direction, he'd be looking fully into the sun.

Siskin. He waited until the sentry's focus was elsewhere and called the blue fire lizard to him.

Be wary, little lad, don't let the humans see you, he thought.

The blue fire lizard flitted to him, flying in between the gaps in the brush.

"See those humans?"

Siskin chipped. Of course.

"See if there are any others up here. Find. Find any others up here. Be wary. Don't let them see you," he said.

Siskin chipped again, and flitted away. Then he vanished.

He is going to go up high, where he can get an overall look. I don't see or hear any, but I'm behind the hill Raventh said.

K'ndar shifted so that he was behind a shrub just to ensure he was hidden, and watched through the branches. The man climbing uphill stopped.

He heard a high pitched whistle, a series of notes in a specific tune. He tried to memorize it. He played it silently in his head, and the climber helped by repeating it. Then the sentry answered with the same tune. Ah. Password. Or in this case, pass whistle?

The man started moving up hill again, and the sentry stood up and stretched. It took the climber several minutes to reach him.

Siskin says no other humans on this hill.

Whew.

When the two men met, he could hear them talking, but they were too far for him to understand.

Tell Siskin to perch in the trees above those humans, and listen. I want to hear what the men are saying.

He didn't see the lizard but Siskin began to send images and sounds.

"See anything?" asked the climber.

"Shaff, no. Like every day, nothing but animals eating and shitting. You're late, arsehole."

"Cain't help it, slept in, I did," one said, laughing.

"You bastard, I froze my bollocks all night and you're in the rack?"

"Ah, that was just to twit you, mate. I been up since dawn. Karloch's on a tear, I was more'n glad to come up here, just to be clear of him."

"What's his issue this time?"

"You know how he is. Another bloody 'briefing'. Watch for dragons, watch for sweeps. Don't be seen. Next one who leaves litter outside the caves loses his eyes. Use the camo if you're caught out. He's not happy with the scouts reports, he wants to move again, no one is telling him of a place any better than this 'un. Says he can't get anything outa the datalink. Can't go back, can't go forrard. It's all open steppe from here on, and he don't want to be seen out in the open. Shaff it, I wonders sometimes what I've gotten myself into, but a man's gotta eat. Here, give me the bino, and go get some sleep."

"Sign me out, then, and I'm done."

He heard one of them laugh. Through his binos, and with Siskin's images in his head, he saw the sentry hand the binos to the relief. And something else. What was it? The new sentry took it, and began writing in it.

A notebook!

The implications were unsettling. These people have datalinks. They have binoculars, enough to trust to a sentry. These men can read and write. They keep moving, they keep an eye out for dragons. These raiders aren't your everyday thieves, this is a sophisticated operation.

Siskin flew to him.

"Good lad, well done. Clever lad. Go to Raventh. Watch for other fire lizards." He scritched the fire lizard's head. How in the world did I ever manage without you, little lad, he thought.

The blue whickered in happiness and flitted away.

He saw several people begin to emerge from the hillside. Definitely living in caves, then.

Something is odd.

What?

No little humans. At the weyr, they are outside playing in the sun. None here?

He was right. All he saw was grown men.

Dragons coming. Three. I've told them to fly nap. Raventh said.

'Nap' was an old earth term, 'nap of the earth', meaning to fly as low to the ground as safely possible to avoid being seen.

Only three? Mirth?

No. Corvuth. Careth. Arcturuth. Lord Dorn is riding behind M'rvin. Siena and Mirth gave them the coordinates where we found the old humans and I told them to land there. Not enough room here for four of us. Be careful coming back, don't be seen.

He gulped. The three leaders of his weyr, along with Lord Dorn? This was some serious stuff, he thought.

____________________________________________________________________

"K'ndar," M'rvin, his Weyrleader, wasted no time. Furious, he snapped, "You took Siena on a SWEEP?"

K'ndar was stunned. His stomach knotted in fear. What the? I am in some very deep shit, he thought. I've never seen him so angry.

Behind the Weyrleader, D'mitran suddenly frowned.

"Sir, I'm sure..." he began. M'rvin whirled and put out his hand to shut him up. Resentment flooded D'mitran's face, but he obeyed.

"WHAT was your reasoning?"

K'ndar gathered his courage. He'd been ordered.

"Sir, I was assigned sweep duty. Ops told me Siena was flying with me. I obeyed my Weyrwoman's direct order. She made me Sweep Leader," he said, his voice wavering.

D'nis spoke up.

"Sir, you can't keep a gold dragon cooped up all the time. Now that there's no thread, she has to have something to do. Mirth's young. She needs the work, and Siena probably was going nuts, too."

M'rvin glared D'nis into silence, then resumed his tirade on K'ndar.

"And instead of continuing the sweep, you sent her as transport," he snapped through gritted teeth.

K'ndar felt resentment growing. What could he say but "Yes, sir." What the shaff? He'd done nothing wrong.

"What were you thinking? Were you daft?"

"Sir? I'm not daft. I thought it wise to get the old couple out of there, and get Siena and Mirth out of harm's way, as well. There were raiders, sir, the old man told me how they'd had everything of value stolen. The raiders knew a dragon had taken the people away but they didn't know it was a gold. Raventh hadn't been seen, and I thought it a good chance that I could find their camp. I did. I've been watching the raider camp, not for very long. They have a lot of livestock with a dozen different brands, sir. They're from all over," he said, his stomach churning...but his blood running hot.

K'ndar continued, seeing that M'rvin was working up another storm of accusations.

"They're well hidden, sir, and are doing a good job of staying out of view. I bet earlier sweeps have passed right over them without being seen.

They're using fire lizards as spies and watchers, sir. They have sentries out, with binoculars. Like mine," he said, brandishing his. "They were talking as they changed out. One said someone named "Karloch" has a datalink. He said Karloch is angry because he wants to move "again" and they can't find another spot to move to without exposing themselves to sweep riders. They're well hidden, sir, and they have equipment like no raider I've ever heard of. The sentries keep records, written in notebooks. This is no ordinary bunch of brigands, sir. They're well equipped, knowledgeable, and well trained. What was I to do? Let this chance slip away? Let the old people get killed?"

"You DON'T take a queen on some scatterbrained trip!" M'rvin snapped.

K'ndar's eyes narrowed. Sweeping is suddenly scatter brained? As if I woke up and thought, what a great day to get my arse reamed? Do something as monumentally stupid as disobey a Weyrwoman? I don't have to put up with this shit. This is unfair and you're shaming me, in front of men I admire, like I'm a two year old. I'm done. I don't know where I'll go but I'm done. Lizard wants a partner? Fine. He's got one.

"I understand, sir. It is your right to bani...."

STOP. Shut up Raventh roared in his head.

D'mitran, behind M'rvin, caught his eye. He very subtly shook his head.

Don't say it. Dragons obey their queen. Riders obey their weyrleaders. Be quiet.

Shocked, he obeyed.

Lord Dorn said, "Weyrleader M'rvin, I didn't come out here to watch you disembowel this young man. K'ndar is telling the truth, I was surprised to see Weyrwoman Siena, but she told me she had to get out of the weyr, just for a day. She saw no harm in it. She said K'ndar has a good head on his shoulders and would never allow her to be harmed. I know K'ndar. He was one of my cotholders, and I've found him to be steady, honest, and incapable of being stupid. He did as he was ordered."

K'ndar, still dazed from Raventh's interruption, felt gratitude towards the Lord Holder.

M'rvin opened his mouth, but Dorn held up his hand to silence him.

"Weyrleader, hear me out. The people they rescued told me a tale that has become all too familiar to me of late. I've suffered losses-of livestock, of tithes, of equipment, of people being harmed or terrorized. I think K'ndar has found those responsible. Isn't that one of the tasks of a sweep is? For you dragonriders to find miscreants as well as carry messages? In my mind, he made an excellent decision. As did Weyrwoman Siena. No harm came to her, she said it was the right decision, to split the team.

I'm a busy man, M'rvin. I didn't come out here for a joyride. I want to see that camp with my own eyes. And then I want to have your help-with dragon riders, as well as my own armed men, to snatch these raiders up and put them in cells."

M'rvin began to relent. He'd allowed himself to lose his temper. Again. What in the shaff is wrong with me? Good weyrleaders don't humiliate a man in front of an audience. K'ndar is a good man, always has been. Why am I blaming him? When it's Siena, why won't she listen to me, she can't just go off like this! Women! It's not as if..

Maybe your temper is why we are losing dragons Arcturuth, his bronze interrupted. It felt like a gut punch.

Dorn said, "By the way, Weyrleader...be glad that Siena didn't come back. She strikes me as the type to do that."

"I'd have forbidden it. It's too dangerous," M'rvin said, grasping a way out of the confrontation.

Mirth has arrived all their dragons said.

"Too late," D'nis muttered.