Chap. 217 The Sorting

Chap. 217 The Sorting

How in the world do I let several people know I'm leaving the weyr?

Still bedazzled by the sudden turn of events, he was sitting on a rock on the beach. Even though the rain had stopped several hours earlier, he didn't want to risk getting his butt wet on the sand. The surface was dry, but the children playing on the beach were finding enough wet subsurface sand to make sand castles. They didn't care about wet pants.

He reflected on yesterday...and the day before. How could so much have been squeezed into less than 48 hours? Yesterday had been far longer than he'd expected. Most of it had been spent interviewing with Raylan and some of his staff. He'd been briefed extensively by the outgoing biologist. He'd returned home just before Risal's forecasted rain hit. Dinner, then writing up his journal had taken the rest of the evening.

He sighed. I am definitely going to take that job. It's just...the preliminaries of leaving here.

Raventh and Siskin were 'fishing" in the Eastern Sea. Several other dragons and fire lizards were there as well.

I'm not hungry, I just want to play in the water Raventh had said.

A few riders were out in the water with their dragons. That water wasn't very warm, he thought, how do they tolerate it? He had no desire to join them. Seawater was habitat for fish and dolphins.

What do I do? Pack? Leave today? Raylan had said it would take a few days to meet with Landing's management to approve his hiring, but, 'I'm Science Division Chief," Raylan had reassured him, 'this is just protocol. You can come any time you like, but you'll have to stay in the visitors dorm until we get you situated in permanent housing."

What do I do about Lord Dorn? Why do I feel this obligation to him, despite not having anything more than a "I'd like to discuss something with you"? True, I was one of his cotholders for most of my life, but not now. How will he take it when I say I've already accepted a position at Landing? Will he be angry and why should I care? I care. That's true. He's a decent man. He wields an awful lot of power over people like his family. He's never abused them, but...

And what about the Weyrleaders? I'm still raw from M'rvin dressing me down in public. I didn't have that coming. I don't want to argue with him. Confrontation makes my stomach knot up. He can't keep me here, he can't forbid me from leaving, after all, many others have done so, he thought.

But what if he tries to change my mind? How could he do that? Offer me a leadership position?

He snorted.

That's too easy, and I'm not interested. But what if he tries to guilt me into it?

He shook his head.

How do I tell Glyena? Not that she needs me, does she?

Arrgh, I just want to move out quietly without fanfare. Two crates, one for books and another for my clothing. That's all I'll need to vacate. Oh. Hariko. I'll have to let her know. THAT will be hard. She's like a mum. She'll want to throw a going away party. I do NOT want that.

But....

Something struck the back of his head, just hard enough to wake him from his reverie.

"What the..." he turned to see F'mart, grinning at him. The bronze rider tossed a second pebble at him.

"Hey, boyo, you're deaf, what? I've said good day to you twice. Stuck up!"

K'ndar picked up a rock and threw it back at the bronze rider. F'mart deftly snatched it out of the air and dropped it.

Kenth, his massive bronze, flew low over head, bugling his anxious desire to join the other dragons. The downdraft from his wings blew up sand, covering them both. He hit the water with an immense splash.

"When are you going to teach that monster of yours to fly a little higher?" K'ndar snapped, blowing the sand from his lips.

"Ah, you're just jealous, you and that pony of yours," F'mart grinned back, brushing the sand out of his hair. He sat down on the sand next to K'ndar, uncaring of whether his pants would get wet.

K'ndar punched him.

"Pony my arse, but it doesn't take me all day to oil him."

"Aye, you've got that right. Woof, I'm so glad we're not feeding 'em fire stone anymore. I swear, Kenth would be itching for days after fire stone. I'd go through two buckets at a go. Why aren't you out there swimming with the others?"

"I'm a landsman. I don't go into water. It drowns people."

"Sissy. Can't swim?"

"Not a lick."

F'mart idly dug troughs in the sand. The grains, still wet just beneath the surface, stuck to his fingers. He absently brushed them together to shed the sand.

"No matter, as it is, I feel the same way. Technically, I know how to swim, but the way I learned? My father taught me by tossing me off the dock. I almost drowned. I've never forgiven him," F'mart said.

"By the way, congratulations on your promotion to Wingsecond," K'ndar said.

"You noticed! Thanks. To be honest, I don't think I'm ready for it. I've got all these kids looking at me, expecting me to know exactly what to do. Half the time I'm pretending my arse off and repeating what B'rant taught me. And sheesh, K'ndar, I'm only a few years older than these kids. They're mostly out of last year's Weyrling class. I feel sometimes as if they're testing me, knowing the answers before I even have figured out the question." He threw a rock at the surf, a little harder than necessary.

It was the first time K'ndar had ever seen his classmate show any sign of self doubt.

"You're kidding. You've always been the man who knew exactly what he was doing, always had the thing figured out. I'd say you were a braggart, but I won't because I don't want you to pound me. I've seen you fight. You'd kill me."

F'mart laughed.

"Aye, well, K'ndar, it was like my mum used to say, act is if you know exactly what you're doing, even if you don't. Lot of times I was liked a seabird...calm on top of the water and paddling for my life underneath."

K'ndar nodded.

"So...how'd it go? Down there at the lair? I left to take Shawn back to Landing. I ended up spending two days there."

"It was interesting. They had a whole raft of weapons. Two whole wagon loads Where did they GET it all? The other flights, they took some of Dorn's men back to his Hold. D'nis took charge of a small crate of 'artifacts', said they were valuable and he's going to task someone to take it to Landing tomorrow," F'mart said.

"What about all those people?"

"Lord Dorn picked one man out, a tall one, he was fairly beat up. Everyone treated him with respect. "E's a good man, Lord Dorn," they kept saying. Shawn, or Karloch, as he went by, had sworn to kill him slowly, in fact, he'd only allowed him to live because his two fire lizards proved to be able spies.

Most of those people were there under duress. I wasn't in on Lord Dorn's interviewing them, but from the sounds of it, Shawn and his little band of brigands would snatch up a kid or a woman-all holdless, by the way, and tell the men, do as I say or your family suffers. He chained them, I'm certain you saw that. There was one woman, named Vika, who kept the women in line. She was the only woman who wasn't in chains. I noticed it, but I was too busy to do more than just log it in my mind. She came out with the other women, and then vanished. More about HER later.

For the most part, those people are all happy that Shawn is dead. Not a man of them was interested in fighting with us. They were relieved. I remember when Shawn came down from Landing to 'monitor' my task of moving that enormous skeleton your team found on the southern coast. He was an insufferable sod, for sure. Walking around giving orders to US? Nor was he interested in getting his hands dirty. One time he, well, he didn't quite come out and say it, but he implied that if we were to find 'anything of value' during our digging, that it'd be worth my while to funnel it his way rather than turn it in to Landing. He was, after all, the Acquisition Officer, something he never tired of repeating. He was doing me a favor, aye? making it so that I didn't have to go all the way to Landing."

He laughed derisively. "I told him, I only look stupid, arsehole, I'm not really that way. Now bend your pompous ares to your work before I teach you manners," I said. He hated that! I was itching for a fight, just begging, throw me a punch, give it your best shot! But no...."

He looked suitably forlorn for a moment.

K'ndar laughed. "I'd have liked to have seen that. How long do you think he'd of lasted?"

F'mart laughed. "I'm like a cat, sometimes, K'ndar. I'd have knocked him out in a heartbeat but I wanted to toy with him. Drag it out, let him think he had a chance, maybe let him tag me? I wanted to string it out, just for the fun. Make it last, you know? But no. Ah, well."

K'ndar shook his head. "I know how you fight. I don't see what you get out of it, but I have to admit, it would have been fun to see Shawn get his comeuppance."

"But he did, finally, aye? Who shot him? That man, Alph? We should give him a reward."

"Alph. Yes, I'll tell you the story about him later. He was sent to Singing Waters, correct?"

"Yes. D'mitran took him. As for the rest of the people, Lord Dorn made the man with the fire lizards "Cotholder". As I said, most of those people were holdless to begin with, for whatever reason, and weren't too happy with the idea of being turned out again. Lord Dorn gave each of them the choice, you can stay here, swear fealty to me on your knees, or you can leave. He thought making the lair a legitimate cothold would work well. It's at the far edge of his Holdlands and he'd been thinking of establishing one there, but no one had evinced any interest in it."

F'mart paused. "Look at the fool Kenth," he said, pride in his voice, "acting like he's a hatchling." His bronze was diving and spouting, scrumming with other dragons.

K'ndar saw Raventh in the same scrum. The difference in size was astounding. Kenth had to be the biggest bronze in the Weyr. Raventh was probably the smallest brown. Yeah, I guess he is a pony. Fine with me, I love ponies.

"I love to see them play like that," he said.

"Me, too."

They both were quiet for a long moment, enjoying seeing their dragons being dragons.

"There were people who didn't want to stay? Wait. Don't tell me he just let them ride away? There were some bad 'un's in that mix," K'ndar said, dismayed.

"Not riding, no. They were allowed to leave on foot. I think just one person left, a young kid. Leif let him take a dagger and a bow. Boy said he was heading home, but didn't say where. K'ndar, most of those people had nowhere else to go. They seemed to be happy to stay, now that Shawn was gone.

As for the livestock, most of the animals were stolen. Dorn's got a job on his hands, trying to figure out which belongs to who. There's one particularly fine bull, though I'm no herdsman, who has Toric's brand on him. He didn't say so, but Dorn wants him badly. But as for the bad un's?

Dorn had said he'd behead the criminals right then and there. That was just to flush them out. His Master-at-Arms, Lief, had them already pegged. Woof, what a dragonrider he'd of made! He picked out seven, and I'll be switched if he wasn't right about them. He didn't take but one glance to categorize them.

Dorn didn't behead them there, though, we took five of them to his Hold for him to try them all in accordance with the Charter. My squad took them. One of my boys said later that if I thought Dorn's armed men at the lair were big, I should see the four he left behind at the Hold to put criminals in cells. BIG men, former miners, like Oscoral, save for they're far harder muscled. They grow them big in Crom, seems like."

"You said Lief fingered seven, but only five were taken to Singing Waters?"

"Just hold on, K'ndar, I'm getting there. Remember, I wasn't in on Dorn's interviews, so much of what I'm telling is second hand. But the criminals, they all had stories to make them appear innocent as babies. One of them, I saw him very briefly, had a big scar on his face. He was second in command, it sounded like. He's called Scar and there's not a bit of good in him."

"If he's the one I'm thinking of, you're right, he's a bad one," K'ndar said.

"Master Lief pulled my squad aside. He said, 'that one, that one, those three? Keep an eye on them. Mark my words, I promise you they'll try and bolt. They'll wait until it's dark. There's one with a scar across his face. I saw him for just a moment, and I don't see him now, in this crowd. I don't know if he's in with Lord Dorn at the moment. Keep a watch for him. These other yobs, they're just bulls, all horns and balls, not a lick of brains."

"The raiders could have claimed anything, but Dorn isn't stupid. They lied to him, but the rest of the people, all told Dorn pretty much the same story about them. Most of those folks, K'ndar, were just hostages, really, people who stayed because their womenfolk were in chains. In a case like that, you believe the many rather than the one. Especially when the many all tell the same tale.

You missed the fun part, though. Leif warned us, 'tonight, if you hear a lot of screaming, not to worry. It's just going to be the raiders suffering the consequences of trying to escape.' Sure as sunrise, K'ndar, just after dark, well, Dorn's men had all sorts of traps set up. You'd hear a WHOOSH and a shriek, and Leif and his men laughing fit to burst. He let them hang all night in fishing nets, getting all bug bitten. This morning, first thing, they were dragged in, trussed up like a wherry about to be roasted. Believe it or not, that's how we transported them...in nets, dangling from our dragons. Hehehe!"

"But, F'mart, five isn't seven. What about the two?"

F'mart shook his head. "Scar, he was smarter than we'd given him credit for. In amongst all the sorting out, he must have headed for the cave where the women had been kept.

Siena stayed there, she was with Dorn when he talked to the women, and said the women kept saying, where's Vika, she's a raider too, she's not in chains like we were, where is that sow, don't let Vika get away.

One of the children, just a little 'un, said she'd hidden in the cave where the women did the cooking. She said she saw Vika come in, then Scar, they talked for just a few moments and then she saw "Scar put on a dress."

"No...."

"Yes. He disguised himself as a woman. Vika-she was the enforcer of the women, she would beat them. One of Dorn's men saw 'two women' walk from the cooking cave to the cave where pack horses had been tied up. One was carrying carrots, so he thought it was just two women who had already been unchained and interviewed, and were going to feed the horses. There were three horses that had been tied up, I guess the rest bolted."

"Let me guess. Scar and Vika got away on the horses."

"Exactly. No one saw them leave. The people began to clamor, Scar's missing, Vika's missing, they've escaped. A few of us then searched the pack horse cave and found a tunnel, quite a large one, that opened on the other side of the ridge. They'd been completely hidden from our view. We should have posted someone behind the ridge...but, ah, hindsight, what? I think Scar had it all figured out, what to do if the dragons came. Him and Vika, who sounds, if you can imagine, like she's worse than Jenmay. So, they're on the loose."

"Shards."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much. The fire lizard teams, they're begging for a chance to go back down there and hunt them down."

K'ndar laughed. It DID sound like fun.