Chap. 218 Unexpected Advisor

Chap. 217 Unexpected Advisor

F’mart stood up and brushed the sand from the seat of his pants.

“Looks like Kenth is ready to come out,” he said.

K’ndar heard himself say, “Wait. I need to pick your brain about something.”

The bronze rider stopped, looking down at him with an odd expression.

F’mart? I’m asking HIS advice? He’s younger than me. He’s always been abrasive at best and an arsehole at worst.

F’mart looked expectantly, then, as the moments passed, said, “What? I’ve got things to do.”

“Give me a few minutes. I need your advice.”

“Mine?” F’mart snorted derisively, “That’d be a first, from anyone.”

“Sit. Listen to me.”

F’mart paused, then sat. “Go.”

K’ndar told him about M’rvin’s chewing him out. How he’d been invited to Lord Dorn’s to talk about ‘something’. How he’d accepted a job at Landing. How to break it to the Weyrleader? Will he forbid it?

“I’d like to see him try, K’ndar. You’re far more tolerant than me. I’d have punched M’rvin for that,” F’mart said.

“And suffered the consequences?”

“Bet your arse, mate. It’d be worth a week in a cell. No one treats me like that if I don’t have it coming. If I’ve earned it, fine. I’ll take the punishment like a man. But when the man is pissed at his weyrmate and takes it out on someone who’s only obeying orders? Uh uh, boyo, not me. Not in a million years.”

K’ndar sighed.

“If it were you, then, how would you go about it?”

F’mart looked out to sea. Kenth was moving in, slowly, spreading his massive wings.

You need a shower. Want me to help? Kenth said, snickering.

Don’t you dare, or I’ll thrash you.

Kenth snorted.

Right, you and the whole wing?

F’mart laughed.

The bronze came ashore a distance from the people and shook, the water flying in all directions.

“M’rvin’s been doing that to more people than just you. Not to me…I don’t think he dares. But I’ve heard talk. What I would do with him is walk into his office, say, Sir, I’ve accepted a position at Landing, I’ll be signing out this afternoon or whenever, and thank him for his leadership and walk out. The rest is easy. Hariko, D’mitran, D’nis…they’ll understand. Tell D’mitran first. He’s Wingleader and in your chain of command.”

Yes. Why had he worried? F’mart made it sound so easy. Go in, be professional, be polite, but state your decision and leave.But…

“F’mart, his leadership hasn’t been all that great. It’d be like my admitting that I had done something wrong,”K’ndar protested.

“But you’re not, K’ndar. You’re spot on regarding his leadership, but by thanking him for what you both know is substandard leadership makes you taking the high road, and letting him know you know you’re being politely sarcastic. Never burn your bridges, K’ndar. I can say that, having burned more bridges than I can remember, that it usually ends up with the man with the firebrand on the losing end,” he said.

Odd, K’ndar thought, how that phrase has lain dormant forever and now it’s been used twice in two days.

“Why ask me? I’m no counselor,” F’mart said.

“I still have to process why I just confided in you. You never seemed to be someone who cared a lick for anyone else. I think I asked you because you didn’t have anything to lose or gain by leveling with me. I didn’t think you’d try to talk me out of it. I knew that, even if I hated you, like everyone else, you’d still steer straight with me,” he said.

F’mart stopped, and took a deep breath. “Huh. That’s a punch from you that I never expected.

Hated me, eh?” he said.

“You made it easy.”

He nodded. “You’re right. I WAS an arsehole, and I knew people didn’t like me. I didn’t care. I wanted people to fear me, to respect me. But, I started to realize that the the girls, especially, absolutely loathed me. One gold rider said she’d sooner suicide than let me anywhere near her if our dragons mated. The greens, they talk to our dragons. About us. Then they talk to their riders and their riders talk to each other. Kenth said nothing they said about me was good. Just the idea of the girls talking about me? That made me mad. How dare they! But it was Kenth who got through to me. I had embarrassed him. He was angry with me. He hit me harder than any human ever could. None of the greens or golds wanted to mate with him. NONE. Not willingly, at least. They were angry at the way I treated their riders. They held Kenth responsible for it and he was pissed about THAT. You can’t lie to your dragon. Bronzes are leaders, he said. How can I lead when the greens and the golds don’t trust me?”

“It shocked me, K’ndar, that he was even capable of such…introspection.”

K’ndar was gobsmacked. Not once had Raventh ever mentioned such a thing.

I don’t need to. You’re not like F’mart. You are kind to everyone. Humans and dragons like you. Animals trust you. The greens and golds say their riders say nice things about you. You’re not a…bully? Is that the word?

It is. Thank you.

F’mart watched as his dragon rolled in the sand. He wasn’t technically supposed to do that on what they called the ‘human’s beach’…but it was too late. At least he was a ways from everyone else. As big as he was, he could easily, if inadvertently, hurt someone.

You shouldn’t do that on this beach.

I know. Sorry. I’ll go to the weyr now.

Shake that sand off before you go into the weyr. And not here. Do it in the dragon’s sand pit.

It’s not big enough. This beach is.

Kenth….

Okay. But someday I’d like a sandpit big enough for me.

I’m an engineer. I can build one for you.

I’ll use it. I’m leaving now.

The bronze stood up, trotted further down the beach where he could launch without sandblasting anyone.

He launched, flew over the sea til he gained height, then turned for the dragon’s sandpit behind the main Weyr.

“Sheesh, he’s big,” K’ndar said.

“Aye. But anyway. One night I couldn’t sleep for the idea, didn’t want to accept that everyone didn’t see me as anything but F’mart the Biggest Baddest Bronze Rider on Pern. Kenth was wrong, I was sure of it, I had to talk to someone who would tell me I was right. I went and talked to Oscoral.

That man is probably the only man I don’t think I’d ever want to fight. He’s just too shaffing big. And quiet. The noisy ones, the blokes who talk a big fight? They’re bluffing. They’re easy to beat. While they’re blowing their own horn, trying to intimidate you with words, you hit ’em hard and fast. Get ’em in the nose first thing and they can’t think..or fight.

But the ones like Oscoral? And those of his kin at Singing Waters? They’re like mountains, silent. They size you up, you can see them picking out which bone to break first. They look at you as though you owe them money, like they’re saying, ‘feel lucky? Take your best shot, kid.”

K’ndar was silent. He’d never thought of Oscoral that way.

“He’s-well, anyway. He told me straight up, the only reason he’d not kicked my head in was because he hadn’t caught me harassing his drudges. But he knew very well that I had been. He said, “I’m laying for you, lout, and when I do catch you, you will wish you’d never been born.”

K’ndar, I’ve never been afraid before, but when that man says that to you in a voice so soft only you can hear it…it made my blood freeze. If I was the kind of boy who needed an arsekicking to set me straight, “he was more the willing to be the man to do it.”

“Huh,” was all K’ndar could muster. He could not believe ‘his’ Oscoral was the same as the one who could frighten F’mart. I am very glad I’ve always been his friend.

“But even then, I thought, yeah, big man, if you can catch me.”

That’s when Kenth…whew, Kenth. He said, “You’ll have it coming.”

“Wow.”

“So…I put it in my mind to change my ways. Does it show?”

“It does. I’m glad, too. I like this F’mart far more than the one who was my classmate, deriding me and my dragon. Keep this one, what? But don’t lose your ability to fight. Just not with me.”

F’mart laughed. He stood up and turned to leave.

“F’mart…what do I say to Lord Dorn?”

“That, K’ndar, I don’t know. I’ve never had a job offer before. IF that’s what he’s proposing. I guess, what I’d do, is hear him out and play it from there. Maybe tell him right up front, before his dinner. You don’t want to look like a mooch, getting a fine meal only to reject the man afterwards.”

_________________________________________________________________________

“I understand, K’ndar. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed,” Lord Dorn said.

“Thank you, my lord, for asking me. Had I not been offered the position at Landing before we had a chance to meet, I would happily have taken your offer,” K’ndar said. He felt relief wash over him. Lord Dorn had ridden to the Weyr. No dinner, but that was okay. He’d rather forego a meal than piss off the Lord Holder.

“K’ndar, I’ll probably be looking for someone else, then. That green rider who was tasked here a while ago was very capable. It’s just that a green is too small to carry cargo,” he said. He nodded his head.

“I don’t blame you for taking the Landing position. K’ndar, if it doesn’t work out at Landing, come back and we’ll discuss it again,” Dorn said.

“Thank you, my lord, and I’ll keep that in mind. “

The Holder had, with a few herdsman, driven several cows to the Weyr.

Nyala, the weyrs’ master herdsman, looked them over. “Thank you, my Lord, for bringing these beasts back. We never dreamed they’d been stolen. We assumed they’d run off…we had a fence down a few months earlier. Now I believe it was the raiders doing! I figured they’d been killed by wherries. They’ve been gone for a few months. They’re in good shape. In fact….by the egg, I think they’re all pregnant!”

Dorn laughed. “No surprise there, Master Nyala. The raiders had a fine bull in their stolen herd. I’m sure he kept himself busy!”