The Wrong Dragon: Part 4
Back up in his cozy weyr, Dean had no problems persuading Carith to relinquish her kill
...so that Bobby and the newcomer, Dr. Fergus, could examine it. It seemed that the dead man was just that-a man, one that none of them had ever seen before. What was interesting was that the man was wearing a harness that had controls of some kind built into it. Removing it for later study, the two of them gave the victim a little further study but concluded that there was nothing supernatural about him.
"That means that anything unusual about him has to be contained in that harness," announced the doctor. "We need to study that very carefully since there's a possibility that it could prove dangerous."
Dean's first thoughts had been for his dragon, who, despite reassurances, was still worried for her eggs. He spent time with her, helping her relax a little and reassuring her that Erenth wouldn't be much longer returning to her side, and when he finally went back to his bedroom he found that the other two had gone somewhere, leaving a message that merely told him not to be worried, that they would be back.
By then, the sky was beginning to show the first signs that the day was coming, and Dean was in any case feeling far too wired to go back to sleep. He began to study the harness that had been removed from Carith's victim, and after a few moments of fiddling, he began to think it was the reason the intruders had been able to appear and disappear so readily. Armed with that, he began to experiment in earnest, and by the time Bobby and Fergus had returned, he believed he had the answer to the riddle.
~*~
As the day began, the three men headed down to the meeting room to join what A'zel had promised to be a very lively meeting. Dean wasn't sure about A'zel. True, he rode a bronze-a big, beautiful dragon named Satanth-but before now he'd always effaced himself rather than throwing his weight about. Today, he was sure he'd find out. Dean was hopeful that he'd simmered down from their confrontation in the middle of the night, but he very well knew that things rarely went the way he hoped. Grimly, he wished for Sam to come riding to the rescue, knowing he was going to be at least a couple more days on the Search. He also hoped that what he and his two co-conspirators had planned was going to work.
The meeting seemed to have everyone in the Weyr rather than just the Bronze Council. People were crammed in, crowded like sardines in a can, and it seemed that A'zel hadn't bothered to wait for Dean to show his face. He was already on the warpath, holding forth to the assembled riders about how Dean wasn't fit to be weyrleader, and his brother even less so.
"Whoever heard of a man Impressing a queen? Whoever thinks that it doesn't defy the rules of nature? His dragon is feral. Why last night she almost tore my face off with her teeth, and then he had the nerve to withhold the evidence of what she had done. Has anyone ever heard of a dragon killing a man? Dragons are our allies. They don't kill people. To me, that should be punishable by death!" There was a simultaneous gasp from what seemed like everyone in the room, and then loud arguments broke out as everyone in the entire room did their best to express their opinion at once.
"We don't need Carith anymore. There are two queen eggs lying there on the hatching ground. We can execute the rogue queen tomorrow and put an end to this dreadful freak of nature! The weakling who didn't even bother to come here today because he's oh, so sick, won't last long once his queen is gone."
Nobody had yet seen Dean, as planned, but Bobby, fierce and commanding as befitted his title, had heard enough. He stepped up onto the dais beside A'zel and at the same time, Fergus moved behind the man and pulled him to the side. Bobby, his voice well used to controlling a crowd, began to speak.
"You all know me. Everyone on Pern knows me. In my role as Master Harper, I and my harpers have taught all of you, from your cradles on, and I'm here to give you a message more important than any I've ever taught before. Last night there was a raid on our Weyr, and intruders attempted to steal one of Carith's eggs." There were cries of horror from the people who hadn't known what happened in the night, and Bobby paused before continuing. "The thieves didn't succeed, and the eggs were saved. Several of our riders sustained injury, but two of the invaders died. One was killed by our queen dragon, and the other by R'fael, who was helping to guard the hatching grounds since we were expecting such an attack.
Loud cheers erupted as R'fael was congratulated, and again Bobby paused, allowing the crowd to begin to understand the message he was attempting to convey.
"What a lot of you don't know is that this was expected because there is a prophecy that is now coming true. This man here," he indicated A'zel, who was red-faced and spluttering but being held back by Fergus. "Is a part of it, as is Dean and his brother. As are y'all. There is a prophecy, and it's beginning to come true. Listen.
The Red Star is passing, but a vileness will overshadow the land.
Know the darkness by the black that looks out from its soul.
Then will come two who are closer even than brothers.
Threads cannot sear them, and isolation will not harm them, but will temper them as one tempers a blade.
When the Darkness falls across the land, they will be there, the warrior and the scholar,
And their light will blind that which lurks in the shadows.
Furthermore, my colleague here is Dr. Fergus, Master Physician of the Healer Hall, and he has something to say to you now."
The room had grown very quiet, and when A'zel attempted to take charge of the meeting again he was quickly silenced by the crowd, all straining to hear Fergus's words.
"Friends, you may not know me, but you certainly know my healers, and I see one of them here with you now. Last night, two men were killed. I am sorry for that because the loss of a life is a dreadful thing, but their crime may have caused their death since they were attempting to begin the destruction of dragonkind. The man, A'zel, brought one of the dead to the sickbay, and I wondered just why he did that, so I followed him and concealed myself from discovery to watch. Sure enough, once everyone had returned to get what sleep they could, he returned and began to divest the dead man of a harness he wore. I wondered why, but I didn't intervene. We had the second victim up in the Weyrleader's chambers, so I went back to examine him more closely. We found that he wore a similar harness, and Dean had discovered exactly what its purpose was. Let Dean tell you the rest of the story."
A'zel, fighting hard to get back onto the dais, shouted, "Yeah. Let him come tell us all the lies he can, if you can get him out of bed!"
At that, Dean, furious and doing his best to restrain himself from punching his attacker, stepped forward and thumbed the control on his harness that allowed him to be visible once more. Everyone gasped at the sight, and then a hubbub began as once more the room broke out into everyone voicing astonishment, shock, or even anger as Dean appeared. It took several minutes for the room to come back to order once more, but once again the crowd was deadly silent as Dean began to speak.
"How many of you know how Sam and I came to the Weyr?" The sudden buzz of muted conversation rose and fell, and around half the people in the room raised their hands to indicate that they did. "Well, I ain't getting into it right this minute, except to say that last night's attempted theft of our queen's eggs was the first time that an attack of this kind has happened since the day my parents were killed and our birthright was stolen from us. If they hadn't appeared last night, Sam and I would be in doubt about that night for the rest of our lives." He paused, looking around at the listening crowd. "However, it seems that the death of our parents, and the loss of our birthright can now be attributed to a real person rather than ghosts who came from nowhere and vanished back into the mist forever." He turned to glare at A'zel. "Now we know who. I expect we can learn why and how."
The applause began slowly but grew rapidly until the barrage of sound threatened to deafen the onlooker and the restless trumpeting of dragons threatened to begin a landslide. Bobby was the one who held up a hand for silence and managed to quiet the thunder of approval and settle the audience once more.
"There's just one thing more, my friends. You need to be aware that an attempt to poison your queenrider has been discovered and without intervention would have seen him dying slowly. You know he's been stricken with a mysterious weakness in the past few days, but no more. It has been discovered, and Dean is safe for now. Be wary of those within who may be plotting further harm against not only us here in this Weyr, but against the whole of Pern."
As the meeting finally came to a close, the dragons all began a renewed trumpeting, and Dean took off running to find Carith. Her eggs were beginning to hatch.
~*~
T'moh was hastily gathering the recruits for Impression together as Dean ran onto the hatching grounds. A group of four young women were being hustled to where the two golden eggs were lying, nestled in the warm sand. Above, Carith was wheeling back and forth, watching for any intruder to try and infiltrate the hatching.
Eggs had begun to rock back and forth, and one little blue fought his way out of his shell to stumble forward and crash into T'moh, shoving him to one side as he fought his way to a youngster who dropped to his knees and embraced him. As one of the golden shells began to rock back and forth, Dean finally reached his objective, Ruby, with a flying tackle that brought her down a mere couple of feet from the little queen who was fighting her way free from her prison.
"No you don't!" he snarled, seizing her by the hair to drag her away from the hatching dragons while she screeched and hurled obscenities at him. She was surprisingly strong, and by the time he'd subdued her, he had been kicked, punched, scratched, and bitten by her. Handing her over to M'lik, Dean gave him a brief explanation of why she was to be incarcerated and allowed him to take her away from any danger to the newly hatching dragonets.
One of the girls-Jo-had impressed one dragonet queen, and the other had begun to fight her way out of her confining shell as Dean turned back to watch the hatching. It seemed that the second queen had made her decision and ran past the other two candidates and off the sands to find Missouri, who stood in astonishment and then apparent rapture as the little queen snuggled up against her.
By now all the dragonets had chosen their new partners in crime, and most of them had drifted away to the feeding grounds to enjoy their first encounter with the herdbeasts. Only Missouri stood, confused, while her new little charge chirped at her.
"She needs to eat, 'Souri. You're used to feeding everyone. Get her down to the feeding ground and let her get her breakfast." Dean patted her on the shoulder and led her down the pathway that led to the field where the wherries were roosting.
The little dragon knew exactly what to do, and in just a moment, she had caught herself a fine, fat wherry and was gobbling it up with a most unladylike fervor. Missouri finally appeared to notice Dean's presence and shook her head. "By all the dragons," she said. "Nobody told me it would be like this. Look at her!"
"Yeah. Nobody understands if they haven't impressed a little one for themselves. It changes your life."
~*~
The following day heralded the return of Sam and Erenth. Dean knew they were coming. Carith had been announcing their arrival every five minutes, so he had plenty of time to arrange for Sam’s reception. Now, sitting beside Carith in the weyr, his feet dangling over the edge of the cave into the void, he was waiting.
The morning was warm, with the kind of sleepy, soporific air that promised the day would become even hotter as the day progressed. Small insects buzzed, and both rider and dragon were idly watching the fledglings with their new partners as they played in the lake far below.
Finally, just as he was beginning to feel drowsy, a speck in the distance slowly became that of a dragon, and as it drew ever nearer, it became evident that the dragon was bronze. "Carith, why didn't he jump between to come straight home?"
"He was only at Winchester Hold, and Erenth decided that he could use a little exercise," said Carith, amusement in her thought. "You know he needs to be at top strength to mate me."
"Yeah, you're special, baby. Better keep that girlish figure or he'll be looking for someone younger before you know it." Dean snickered. "You'll have company pretty soon." He pointed down to where one of the two new queens was stalking a herdbeast, as yet undeveloped wings flapping with the effort. "Check out Eliath down there. She's pretty cute."
"Wash your mouth out with sweetsand, you mean man, or I won't let you ride me ever again! She glared at him, and he petted her affectionately. That was how Sam found them as he finally made his way into the Weyr.
Dean scrambled to his feet as fast as he could and threw himself forward, almost bowling his brother over as he flung his arms around Sam and pressed kisses all over his face. "Dude! You won't believe all the shit that's gone down while you were off on your junket."
Putting his hands on Dean's shoulders, Sam straightened him up and then kissed him hard. "I can see that the hatching happened already. Hopefully, that went well."
Snorting, Dean shook his head. "That's the least of the stuff that happened." He opened his mouth to start regaling Sam with the events that had occurred while he was away, but Sam held up his hand.
"Whoa, Dean, give me a minute to process. I'm starving. Haven't eaten good food in what seems like days. Let's go down to the dining room and see what they've got in the way of food before you start telling me everything. You know I listen better when I'm not dying of hunger!" A deep rumble from Sam's stomach punctuated Sam's words, ensuring that Dean understood the serious implications of starving him.
"Come on then." Dean rolled his eyes, but took his hand to make their way down to the dining facility. As they turned to go, he spotted Erenth circling down to join the babies on the feeding ground and heard Carith's amusement as she watched, then launched herself to join him.
"Like rider, like dragon," she snickered as she went to greet her mate.
~*~
Since Missouri had suddenly become a new queenrider, it seemed that the dining room and kitchen were having a whole bunch of problems adjusting. Nobody had informed either of the co-weyrleaders of this fact, and Dean was righteously angry. Storming into the kitchen to find out what was happening as far as food production was concerned, he was instantly beset by a whole group of very angry housekeepers, cooks, and other staff from different parts of the Weyr services. It was a nightmare scenario, and once in place, he had to begin sorting out who would undertake the tasks that Missouri had so precipitously had to leave behind.
Finally, having appointed a new head housekeeper-a capable lady named Ellen, and promoted Jody and Donna to be the two supervisors, Donna to the night shift and Jody to the day shift. Looking around for cooks to actually start preparing meals was harder. Half the cookstaff had taken advantage of the momentary chaos to absent themselves from duty. Having finally identified two, Chuck and Loki, who were actually present, he set them to making dinner and promised a reward for their diligence. As they accepted their fate, the two of them shrugged their shoulders and began preparations for dinner, both for Sam and for the rest of the Weyr.
Finally, having at last resolved most of their problems, he congratulated the new head housekeeper and made it clear that she should notify him of any further difficulties that might arise. He had almost left the room to let Sam know that he would soon be fed when Ellen called him back.
"I don't know if this is something you should know, or if that should be M'lik's job, but the two prisoners we put in the lockup yesterday...um... aren't there anymore."
"Damn it!" Dean turned and ran in the direction of the lockup where A'zel had been incarcerated, along with Ruby. "He had the dragon-cursed invisibility harness didn't he?"
It was true. The cell door was open, and neither A'zel nor Ruby were inside anymore. He turned and ran for the dragon's roosts and Satanth, A'zel's ride, to try and intercept him making his escape, but it was too late. A'zel and his dragon were both gone.
Meanwhile, Sam, who had been offered a sandwich while he awaited more sustaining rations, was busy finishing that up, when Ruby entered the dining room. Sam, of course, knew nothing about the events of the previous few days and greeted her like an old friend.
"Hey, Ruby, How's it going?"
"Sam! Welcome back!" Ruby rushed over to see him. "I'm so happy to see you. I've got a map to where the rest of the instructions for communication are buried, but we have to go find it as soon as possible. It might be gone by the next threadfall. A'zel was looking for it. He went rogue."
"No! You're kidding! I saw him and Satanth taking off just as we got back. Do you think we can stop him?" Sam was already calling for Erenth as Ruby was finishing speaking. "Come on!" Grabbing hold of Ruby's hand, he towed her out with him and out of the Weyr. As they left, he saw Jo, who was just coming back from feeding her newly Impressed queen, but ran past her, calling to her to tell Dean he'd be back very soon. Then Erenth swooped down, and they were quickly mounted and away on their quest.
"Where are we going?" As they winged away from Half Moon Bay, Sam turned his head to ask Ruby, and she pulled a paper out of the front of her dress, apparently to consult it.
"We need to go to Landing. The place where the Ancients first came to Pern. There's a cache there at the edge of the plateau, and I'm told it has a whole load of artifacts from ancient times."
"Not a problem." Guiding Erenth between they emerged hovering over the plateau where their ancestors had first arrived on Pern. Ruby scanned the horizon and then pointed. "There!"
As they drifted down to the ground on the spot Ruby had indicated, she slid her arms around Sam's neck and tightened her grip until he lost consciousness. Sam, taken by surprise, didn't even have the opportunity to fight back, as he slumped down to Erenth's back, and then to the ground when Ruby kicked him off. Erenth, caught by surprise at the sudden attack, turned to see what had happened to Sam, but he crumpled down beside him as a man appeared, apparently from within the ground itself, to train a strange sparkling ray on him.
~*~
Dean returned, out of breath from his useless attempt to find either A'zel or Ruby, only to find Sam was no longer where he had left him. Muttering imprecations, he went out to the cavern that led to the front entrance of the cave complex. He didn't see any sign of Sam there either, but Jo, who was evidently searching for him, practically ran him down as he turned to go back up to his weyr to see if Sam was there.
Grabbing her arms to stabilize her, he gave her a grin. "I see you got yourself a little queen. Make sure she doesn't run you ragged the way that Carith does to me."
Giggling, Jo flushed a little. "She never stops eating. Is that all right, or is she sick? I was worried that she might explode. Do fledglings ever explode?"
"Not that I ever heard of." Dean laughed. "They just shed their skin and start all over again."
Jo breathed a sigh of relief. "That's really good to know. Oh, by the way, Sam asked me to tell you he'd be back very shortly. He went for a ride on Erenth with Ruby, but he didn't say where he was going."
Frowning, Dean shot her a look. "With Ruby? What was he doing with Ruby? She was being held in custody because she tried to kill me." She was being held in custody because she tried to kill me." He paused, trying to think things through, and paled at a sudden thought. "Oh, no! No, no, no. Do you think he released her? Do you suppose he's on her side and was planning to kill me?"
Wide-eyed, Jo studied him. "That can't be right. He was sitting eating his sandwich when I came through the dining room. He didn't have time to go anywhere. Besides, he only just came back from his Search, so he probably didn't know about Ruby. Not only that, he loves you. Everyone knows that."
It seemed that her words had the desired effect. Dean relaxed a little and started pacing. "Where could he have gone? He only just came home. That's right, so why would he have gone rushing off again so quickly? What was he doing with Ruby?" Cudgeling his brain could only bring up vague memories of Sam saying he was working on some spell from the scroll he'd found in Bobby's box of old stuff.
"Where's Bobby? Do you know?" Turning to rush back into the kitchen to look for Ellen, he called out to see if anyone had seen him. One of the kitchen maids, who had just taken a tray of sweetrolls from the oven and was setting them out on the rack to cool, told him that she'd just seen Bobby making his way up the passageway that led to his room, along with the doctor who was his friend. Waving his thanks as he ran to follow him, Dean headed after him, hoping that the reported sighting was accurate.
Fortunately, it was. He hurled himself through the doorway into the room where the two visitors were staying, much to Bobby's surprise.
"By the first egg, what on earth has gotten into you, idjit?"
Dean, pretty much winded, managed to breathe out Jo's story of Sam taking off with Ruby between gasps for breath. "She's kidnapped him. I think they were working on that scroll you found for him, and I need to know where she's taken him," he said at last as his breathing settled.
"As far as he discussed it with me, it would be somewhere near Landing." Bobby scratched his head for a minute. "Have you tried asking Carith? She might be able to contact Erenth."
Smiting his forehead, Dean confessed that he hadn't, and ran along the corridor to his weyr. There, he found Carith in a state of panic. "Dean! We need to go. They hurt Erenth. He was talking to me, and then he fell silent in the middle of telling me about his visit to all the holds."
"Are you ready?" Dean was fumbling to pull on the special harness and find his weapons, loading up Carith's back with the flame thrower he used when fighting thread, along with a slingshot and his sword. Finally tucking a set of knives into his riding leathers, he climbed up and onto her back and gave her the signal to fly.
"Carith, do you know where he is?" he asked as they ascended above the Weyr.
"The last moment I heard from him he was above Landing." she told him, shooting a picture of the place as she readied them to go between.
"I need you to stay up really high when we come out from between, baby. We don't want them to notice us if we can avoid it. Let's spy out the land first and see what we can find out." Carith nodded grimly, and they were off.
~*~
They emerged from Between a short distance from the settlement that had sprung up around the Landing site, and Carith rapidly gained height, urged on by Dean, who was frantically scrying the horizon for signs of Sam or Erenth. Of Sam, there was no immediate sight, but Carith spotted a suspiciously dragon-like shape that seemed to be pinned down, spreadeagled on the ground on the south side of the plateau, and agreed that she would drop down just below the edge of it to allow Dean the opportunity to get close enough to see what was going on.
Firmly linked together mentally, Dean climbed up the 15 feet or so to the flat plain where they had seen the dragon. Despite the invisibility bestowed on him by the harness he wore, he went cautiously, afraid that the slightest noise would betray him.
The sudden sound of A'zel's voice sounded in the still of the afternoon. "There! You're good and secured now. I think I'll let you watch when you wake up, just see what I'm going to do to your precious bronze." The splash of water as A'zel doused Sam with it in an attempt to wake him sounded forceful, and Dean could see Sam now, pinned to the ground in the same way that Erenth appeared to be. "That's it, boy. You don't want to miss a second of what I'm going to do to your pet, do you?"
A'zel gave a brief laugh and then called out to tell someone to bring him the saw. Wide-eyed, he saw Ruby come out from a hole in the ground, bearing a large metal thing that seemed almost too heavy for her to lift.
"See this? Sammy boy, this is a saw that operates from a battery. I'm going to use it to operate on your dragon's head. I need the little part inside his skull that allows a dragon to move between. Of course, he won't be much good for anything once I dig it out, so if I were you, I'd say your goodbyes now."
Sam, whose mouth was bound and gagged, groaned and wriggled, attempting to break free, which seemed to be a cue for Ruby to kick him, while A'zel started up the saw, turning away to climb up onto Erenth's back.
Taking the chance, Dean grabbed one of his knives and threw it to bury itself in Ruby's throat. She reeled backward into the hole from which she'd emerged, and he dropped to his knees to start cutting Sam loose.
"Carith! Better come now, baby, I need you, and so does Erenth."
A'zel had clambered up and was applying the saw to the back of Erenth's skull. The noise was indescribable - the sound of the saw, and a shriek from Erenth as it bit home, battered the eardrums, but well and truly masked the sound of the vengeful fury that was Carith. Rising to a height of around fifty feet, she came rocketing in with a speed that made Dean gasp.
Closing her jaws around A'zel's neck, she bore him away, shaking him so that first the saw fell harmlessly to the ground, and then so did the headless body of the man. There was a further scream as a large bronze dragon took flight, coming from the direction of Landing, and disappeared between. It seemed that Satanth had chosen to join his rider in death.
Erenth was struggling hard, trying desperately to overcome the ray that held him immobile, and as Carith descended to drop A'zel's head in front of him as some kind of ghoulish offering, she found herself entangled in it, flopping to the ground as well. Sam seemed still to be shaking off the effects of whatever his captor had done to him, and sat, shaking his head in his attempt to overcome the evident fuzziness he was experiencing. It fell to Dean to run and try to identify the source of the beam that had imprisoned the two dragons.
When at last he found the generator that was causing the paralysis ray and turned it off, Carith was finally able to waddle over to her mate and begin to lick the back of his head, trying to close up the wound and stop him from bleeding.
Dean, horrified by what had happened, and by the summary justice he had seen his dragon mete out, climbed onto the stricken dragon's hip in an attempt to see what damage had been caused. Carith at first refused to allow him near, but after a good deal of soothing from her rider, finally let him check the state of his injuries, and was very relieved to see that while the tough hide and scales there had been broken, the solid bone hadn't yet been compromised.
"We need to get him back to Half-Moon to the healers. They will be able to slather on the numbweed and keep him comfortable while he heals. Can he fly?"
"He probably can, if we give him some time to get over the shock."Carith announced, after some thought. "I don't think he'll be able to go Between though. Not for a while, anyway."
Indeed, the poor dragon's beautiful bronze color had faded to a sickly yellow as he lay passively on the ground. It was going to take a while for Erenth to get over the horror of the events of the day. Dean was trying by this time to work out how to get his partner back to the Weyr for an examination and medical treatment and had just decided that he must walk to Landing and find help to get at least Sam some assistance when there was the rushing sound of yet another dragon emerging from Between.
As they descended, it seemed that in fact it was not just one dragon that had come to their aid, but four. Satanth had brought help for them rather than loyally committing suicide when A'zel died, in the manner of all dragons in the past. It seemed he hadn't approved of the way A'zel had behaved towards his kind at all.
G'bril, R'fael, and G'dreel were all eager to assist their stricken colleague, and so was Satanth even though he was now riderless. Carith instantly laid out what was needed and Sam and Dean began to fashion a netting from the reeds and grasses that surrounded them. It was late at night by the time the netting was completed to Carith's satisfaction, and by that time, Erenth was able to crawl onto it. Carith, Penarth, Tarinth, and Hodanth each took a corner of the net, and as their riders clambered aboard, Belior shone down on them to afford them some light. Satanth spoke to Sam at that point, inviting him to ride with him, and Sam was dumbfounded.
"You can speak to other people besides your rider?" he asked in amazement.
"Of course," was the response from both Satanth and Carith, as they prepared to transport Erenth back home.
"But you never have!" Sam said, more to himself than to the other dragons.
"We've never needed to before!" responded Carith in lofty tones.
"Well, damn!" Sam shook his head and took his seat on Satanth's back in preparation for heading home to the safety of Half-Moon Weyr.
~*~
Back to the Master Post | On to The Epilogue
...so that Bobby and the newcomer, Dr. Fergus, could examine it. It seemed that the dead man was just that-a man, one that none of them had ever seen before. What was interesting was that the man was wearing a harness that had controls of some kind built into it. Removing it for later study, the two of them gave the victim a little further study but concluded that there was nothing supernatural about him.
"That means that anything unusual about him has to be contained in that harness," announced the doctor. "We need to study that very carefully since there's a possibility that it could prove dangerous."
Dean's first thoughts had been for his dragon, who, despite reassurances, was still worried for her eggs. He spent time with her, helping her relax a little and reassuring her that Erenth wouldn't be much longer returning to her side, and when he finally went back to his bedroom he found that the other two had gone somewhere, leaving a message that merely told him not to be worried, that they would be back.
By then, the sky was beginning to show the first signs that the day was coming, and Dean was in any case feeling far too wired to go back to sleep. He began to study the harness that had been removed from Carith's victim, and after a few moments of fiddling, he began to think it was the reason the intruders had been able to appear and disappear so readily. Armed with that, he began to experiment in earnest, and by the time Bobby and Fergus had returned, he believed he had the answer to the riddle.
~*~
As the day began, the three men headed down to the meeting room to join what A'zel had promised to be a very lively meeting. Dean wasn't sure about A'zel. True, he rode a bronze-a big, beautiful dragon named Satanth-but before now he'd always effaced himself rather than throwing his weight about. Today, he was sure he'd find out. Dean was hopeful that he'd simmered down from their confrontation in the middle of the night, but he very well knew that things rarely went the way he hoped. Grimly, he wished for Sam to come riding to the rescue, knowing he was going to be at least a couple more days on the Search. He also hoped that what he and his two co-conspirators had planned was going to work.
The meeting seemed to have everyone in the Weyr rather than just the Bronze Council. People were crammed in, crowded like sardines in a can, and it seemed that A'zel hadn't bothered to wait for Dean to show his face. He was already on the warpath, holding forth to the assembled riders about how Dean wasn't fit to be weyrleader, and his brother even less so.
"Whoever heard of a man Impressing a queen? Whoever thinks that it doesn't defy the rules of nature? His dragon is feral. Why last night she almost tore my face off with her teeth, and then he had the nerve to withhold the evidence of what she had done. Has anyone ever heard of a dragon killing a man? Dragons are our allies. They don't kill people. To me, that should be punishable by death!" There was a simultaneous gasp from what seemed like everyone in the room, and then loud arguments broke out as everyone in the entire room did their best to express their opinion at once.
"We don't need Carith anymore. There are two queen eggs lying there on the hatching ground. We can execute the rogue queen tomorrow and put an end to this dreadful freak of nature! The weakling who didn't even bother to come here today because he's oh, so sick, won't last long once his queen is gone."
Nobody had yet seen Dean, as planned, but Bobby, fierce and commanding as befitted his title, had heard enough. He stepped up onto the dais beside A'zel and at the same time, Fergus moved behind the man and pulled him to the side. Bobby, his voice well used to controlling a crowd, began to speak.
"You all know me. Everyone on Pern knows me. In my role as Master Harper, I and my harpers have taught all of you, from your cradles on, and I'm here to give you a message more important than any I've ever taught before. Last night there was a raid on our Weyr, and intruders attempted to steal one of Carith's eggs." There were cries of horror from the people who hadn't known what happened in the night, and Bobby paused before continuing. "The thieves didn't succeed, and the eggs were saved. Several of our riders sustained injury, but two of the invaders died. One was killed by our queen dragon, and the other by R'fael, who was helping to guard the hatching grounds since we were expecting such an attack.
Loud cheers erupted as R'fael was congratulated, and again Bobby paused, allowing the crowd to begin to understand the message he was attempting to convey.
"What a lot of you don't know is that this was expected because there is a prophecy that is now coming true. This man here," he indicated A'zel, who was red-faced and spluttering but being held back by Fergus. "Is a part of it, as is Dean and his brother. As are y'all. There is a prophecy, and it's beginning to come true. Listen.
The Red Star is passing, but a vileness will overshadow the land.
Know the darkness by the black that looks out from its soul.
Then will come two who are closer even than brothers.
Threads cannot sear them, and isolation will not harm them, but will temper them as one tempers a blade.
When the Darkness falls across the land, they will be there, the warrior and the scholar,
And their light will blind that which lurks in the shadows.
Furthermore, my colleague here is Dr. Fergus, Master Physician of the Healer Hall, and he has something to say to you now."
The room had grown very quiet, and when A'zel attempted to take charge of the meeting again he was quickly silenced by the crowd, all straining to hear Fergus's words.
"Friends, you may not know me, but you certainly know my healers, and I see one of them here with you now. Last night, two men were killed. I am sorry for that because the loss of a life is a dreadful thing, but their crime may have caused their death since they were attempting to begin the destruction of dragonkind. The man, A'zel, brought one of the dead to the sickbay, and I wondered just why he did that, so I followed him and concealed myself from discovery to watch. Sure enough, once everyone had returned to get what sleep they could, he returned and began to divest the dead man of a harness he wore. I wondered why, but I didn't intervene. We had the second victim up in the Weyrleader's chambers, so I went back to examine him more closely. We found that he wore a similar harness, and Dean had discovered exactly what its purpose was. Let Dean tell you the rest of the story."
A'zel, fighting hard to get back onto the dais, shouted, "Yeah. Let him come tell us all the lies he can, if you can get him out of bed!"
At that, Dean, furious and doing his best to restrain himself from punching his attacker, stepped forward and thumbed the control on his harness that allowed him to be visible once more. Everyone gasped at the sight, and then a hubbub began as once more the room broke out into everyone voicing astonishment, shock, or even anger as Dean appeared. It took several minutes for the room to come back to order once more, but once again the crowd was deadly silent as Dean began to speak.
"How many of you know how Sam and I came to the Weyr?" The sudden buzz of muted conversation rose and fell, and around half the people in the room raised their hands to indicate that they did. "Well, I ain't getting into it right this minute, except to say that last night's attempted theft of our queen's eggs was the first time that an attack of this kind has happened since the day my parents were killed and our birthright was stolen from us. If they hadn't appeared last night, Sam and I would be in doubt about that night for the rest of our lives." He paused, looking around at the listening crowd. "However, it seems that the death of our parents, and the loss of our birthright can now be attributed to a real person rather than ghosts who came from nowhere and vanished back into the mist forever." He turned to glare at A'zel. "Now we know who. I expect we can learn why and how."
The applause began slowly but grew rapidly until the barrage of sound threatened to deafen the onlooker and the restless trumpeting of dragons threatened to begin a landslide. Bobby was the one who held up a hand for silence and managed to quiet the thunder of approval and settle the audience once more.
"There's just one thing more, my friends. You need to be aware that an attempt to poison your queenrider has been discovered and without intervention would have seen him dying slowly. You know he's been stricken with a mysterious weakness in the past few days, but no more. It has been discovered, and Dean is safe for now. Be wary of those within who may be plotting further harm against not only us here in this Weyr, but against the whole of Pern."
As the meeting finally came to a close, the dragons all began a renewed trumpeting, and Dean took off running to find Carith. Her eggs were beginning to hatch.
~*~
T'moh was hastily gathering the recruits for Impression together as Dean ran onto the hatching grounds. A group of four young women were being hustled to where the two golden eggs were lying, nestled in the warm sand. Above, Carith was wheeling back and forth, watching for any intruder to try and infiltrate the hatching.
Eggs had begun to rock back and forth, and one little blue fought his way out of his shell to stumble forward and crash into T'moh, shoving him to one side as he fought his way to a youngster who dropped to his knees and embraced him. As one of the golden shells began to rock back and forth, Dean finally reached his objective, Ruby, with a flying tackle that brought her down a mere couple of feet from the little queen who was fighting her way free from her prison.
"No you don't!" he snarled, seizing her by the hair to drag her away from the hatching dragons while she screeched and hurled obscenities at him. She was surprisingly strong, and by the time he'd subdued her, he had been kicked, punched, scratched, and bitten by her. Handing her over to M'lik, Dean gave him a brief explanation of why she was to be incarcerated and allowed him to take her away from any danger to the newly hatching dragonets.
One of the girls-Jo-had impressed one dragonet queen, and the other had begun to fight her way out of her confining shell as Dean turned back to watch the hatching. It seemed that the second queen had made her decision and ran past the other two candidates and off the sands to find Missouri, who stood in astonishment and then apparent rapture as the little queen snuggled up against her.
By now all the dragonets had chosen their new partners in crime, and most of them had drifted away to the feeding grounds to enjoy their first encounter with the herdbeasts. Only Missouri stood, confused, while her new little charge chirped at her.
"She needs to eat, 'Souri. You're used to feeding everyone. Get her down to the feeding ground and let her get her breakfast." Dean patted her on the shoulder and led her down the pathway that led to the field where the wherries were roosting.
The little dragon knew exactly what to do, and in just a moment, she had caught herself a fine, fat wherry and was gobbling it up with a most unladylike fervor. Missouri finally appeared to notice Dean's presence and shook her head. "By all the dragons," she said. "Nobody told me it would be like this. Look at her!"
"Yeah. Nobody understands if they haven't impressed a little one for themselves. It changes your life."
~*~
The following day heralded the return of Sam and Erenth. Dean knew they were coming. Carith had been announcing their arrival every five minutes, so he had plenty of time to arrange for Sam’s reception. Now, sitting beside Carith in the weyr, his feet dangling over the edge of the cave into the void, he was waiting.
The morning was warm, with the kind of sleepy, soporific air that promised the day would become even hotter as the day progressed. Small insects buzzed, and both rider and dragon were idly watching the fledglings with their new partners as they played in the lake far below.
Finally, just as he was beginning to feel drowsy, a speck in the distance slowly became that of a dragon, and as it drew ever nearer, it became evident that the dragon was bronze. "Carith, why didn't he jump between to come straight home?"
"He was only at Winchester Hold, and Erenth decided that he could use a little exercise," said Carith, amusement in her thought. "You know he needs to be at top strength to mate me."
"Yeah, you're special, baby. Better keep that girlish figure or he'll be looking for someone younger before you know it." Dean snickered. "You'll have company pretty soon." He pointed down to where one of the two new queens was stalking a herdbeast, as yet undeveloped wings flapping with the effort. "Check out Eliath down there. She's pretty cute."
"Wash your mouth out with sweetsand, you mean man, or I won't let you ride me ever again! She glared at him, and he petted her affectionately. That was how Sam found them as he finally made his way into the Weyr.
Dean scrambled to his feet as fast as he could and threw himself forward, almost bowling his brother over as he flung his arms around Sam and pressed kisses all over his face. "Dude! You won't believe all the shit that's gone down while you were off on your junket."
Putting his hands on Dean's shoulders, Sam straightened him up and then kissed him hard. "I can see that the hatching happened already. Hopefully, that went well."
Snorting, Dean shook his head. "That's the least of the stuff that happened." He opened his mouth to start regaling Sam with the events that had occurred while he was away, but Sam held up his hand.
"Whoa, Dean, give me a minute to process. I'm starving. Haven't eaten good food in what seems like days. Let's go down to the dining room and see what they've got in the way of food before you start telling me everything. You know I listen better when I'm not dying of hunger!" A deep rumble from Sam's stomach punctuated Sam's words, ensuring that Dean understood the serious implications of starving him.
"Come on then." Dean rolled his eyes, but took his hand to make their way down to the dining facility. As they turned to go, he spotted Erenth circling down to join the babies on the feeding ground and heard Carith's amusement as she watched, then launched herself to join him.
"Like rider, like dragon," she snickered as she went to greet her mate.
~*~
Since Missouri had suddenly become a new queenrider, it seemed that the dining room and kitchen were having a whole bunch of problems adjusting. Nobody had informed either of the co-weyrleaders of this fact, and Dean was righteously angry. Storming into the kitchen to find out what was happening as far as food production was concerned, he was instantly beset by a whole group of very angry housekeepers, cooks, and other staff from different parts of the Weyr services. It was a nightmare scenario, and once in place, he had to begin sorting out who would undertake the tasks that Missouri had so precipitously had to leave behind.
Finally, having appointed a new head housekeeper-a capable lady named Ellen, and promoted Jody and Donna to be the two supervisors, Donna to the night shift and Jody to the day shift. Looking around for cooks to actually start preparing meals was harder. Half the cookstaff had taken advantage of the momentary chaos to absent themselves from duty. Having finally identified two, Chuck and Loki, who were actually present, he set them to making dinner and promised a reward for their diligence. As they accepted their fate, the two of them shrugged their shoulders and began preparations for dinner, both for Sam and for the rest of the Weyr.
Finally, having at last resolved most of their problems, he congratulated the new head housekeeper and made it clear that she should notify him of any further difficulties that might arise. He had almost left the room to let Sam know that he would soon be fed when Ellen called him back.
"I don't know if this is something you should know, or if that should be M'lik's job, but the two prisoners we put in the lockup yesterday...um... aren't there anymore."
"Damn it!" Dean turned and ran in the direction of the lockup where A'zel had been incarcerated, along with Ruby. "He had the dragon-cursed invisibility harness didn't he?"
It was true. The cell door was open, and neither A'zel nor Ruby were inside anymore. He turned and ran for the dragon's roosts and Satanth, A'zel's ride, to try and intercept him making his escape, but it was too late. A'zel and his dragon were both gone.
Meanwhile, Sam, who had been offered a sandwich while he awaited more sustaining rations, was busy finishing that up, when Ruby entered the dining room. Sam, of course, knew nothing about the events of the previous few days and greeted her like an old friend.
"Hey, Ruby, How's it going?"
"Sam! Welcome back!" Ruby rushed over to see him. "I'm so happy to see you. I've got a map to where the rest of the instructions for communication are buried, but we have to go find it as soon as possible. It might be gone by the next threadfall. A'zel was looking for it. He went rogue."
"No! You're kidding! I saw him and Satanth taking off just as we got back. Do you think we can stop him?" Sam was already calling for Erenth as Ruby was finishing speaking. "Come on!" Grabbing hold of Ruby's hand, he towed her out with him and out of the Weyr. As they left, he saw Jo, who was just coming back from feeding her newly Impressed queen, but ran past her, calling to her to tell Dean he'd be back very soon. Then Erenth swooped down, and they were quickly mounted and away on their quest.
"Where are we going?" As they winged away from Half Moon Bay, Sam turned his head to ask Ruby, and she pulled a paper out of the front of her dress, apparently to consult it.
"We need to go to Landing. The place where the Ancients first came to Pern. There's a cache there at the edge of the plateau, and I'm told it has a whole load of artifacts from ancient times."
"Not a problem." Guiding Erenth between they emerged hovering over the plateau where their ancestors had first arrived on Pern. Ruby scanned the horizon and then pointed. "There!"
As they drifted down to the ground on the spot Ruby had indicated, she slid her arms around Sam's neck and tightened her grip until he lost consciousness. Sam, taken by surprise, didn't even have the opportunity to fight back, as he slumped down to Erenth's back, and then to the ground when Ruby kicked him off. Erenth, caught by surprise at the sudden attack, turned to see what had happened to Sam, but he crumpled down beside him as a man appeared, apparently from within the ground itself, to train a strange sparkling ray on him.
~*~
Dean returned, out of breath from his useless attempt to find either A'zel or Ruby, only to find Sam was no longer where he had left him. Muttering imprecations, he went out to the cavern that led to the front entrance of the cave complex. He didn't see any sign of Sam there either, but Jo, who was evidently searching for him, practically ran him down as he turned to go back up to his weyr to see if Sam was there.
Grabbing her arms to stabilize her, he gave her a grin. "I see you got yourself a little queen. Make sure she doesn't run you ragged the way that Carith does to me."
Giggling, Jo flushed a little. "She never stops eating. Is that all right, or is she sick? I was worried that she might explode. Do fledglings ever explode?"
"Not that I ever heard of." Dean laughed. "They just shed their skin and start all over again."
Jo breathed a sigh of relief. "That's really good to know. Oh, by the way, Sam asked me to tell you he'd be back very shortly. He went for a ride on Erenth with Ruby, but he didn't say where he was going."
Frowning, Dean shot her a look. "With Ruby? What was he doing with Ruby? She was being held in custody because she tried to kill me." She was being held in custody because she tried to kill me." He paused, trying to think things through, and paled at a sudden thought. "Oh, no! No, no, no. Do you think he released her? Do you suppose he's on her side and was planning to kill me?"
Wide-eyed, Jo studied him. "That can't be right. He was sitting eating his sandwich when I came through the dining room. He didn't have time to go anywhere. Besides, he only just came back from his Search, so he probably didn't know about Ruby. Not only that, he loves you. Everyone knows that."
It seemed that her words had the desired effect. Dean relaxed a little and started pacing. "Where could he have gone? He only just came home. That's right, so why would he have gone rushing off again so quickly? What was he doing with Ruby?" Cudgeling his brain could only bring up vague memories of Sam saying he was working on some spell from the scroll he'd found in Bobby's box of old stuff.
"Where's Bobby? Do you know?" Turning to rush back into the kitchen to look for Ellen, he called out to see if anyone had seen him. One of the kitchen maids, who had just taken a tray of sweetrolls from the oven and was setting them out on the rack to cool, told him that she'd just seen Bobby making his way up the passageway that led to his room, along with the doctor who was his friend. Waving his thanks as he ran to follow him, Dean headed after him, hoping that the reported sighting was accurate.
Fortunately, it was. He hurled himself through the doorway into the room where the two visitors were staying, much to Bobby's surprise.
"By the first egg, what on earth has gotten into you, idjit?"
Dean, pretty much winded, managed to breathe out Jo's story of Sam taking off with Ruby between gasps for breath. "She's kidnapped him. I think they were working on that scroll you found for him, and I need to know where she's taken him," he said at last as his breathing settled.
"As far as he discussed it with me, it would be somewhere near Landing." Bobby scratched his head for a minute. "Have you tried asking Carith? She might be able to contact Erenth."
Smiting his forehead, Dean confessed that he hadn't, and ran along the corridor to his weyr. There, he found Carith in a state of panic. "Dean! We need to go. They hurt Erenth. He was talking to me, and then he fell silent in the middle of telling me about his visit to all the holds."
"Are you ready?" Dean was fumbling to pull on the special harness and find his weapons, loading up Carith's back with the flame thrower he used when fighting thread, along with a slingshot and his sword. Finally tucking a set of knives into his riding leathers, he climbed up and onto her back and gave her the signal to fly.
"Carith, do you know where he is?" he asked as they ascended above the Weyr.
"The last moment I heard from him he was above Landing." she told him, shooting a picture of the place as she readied them to go between.
"I need you to stay up really high when we come out from between, baby. We don't want them to notice us if we can avoid it. Let's spy out the land first and see what we can find out." Carith nodded grimly, and they were off.
~*~
They emerged from Between a short distance from the settlement that had sprung up around the Landing site, and Carith rapidly gained height, urged on by Dean, who was frantically scrying the horizon for signs of Sam or Erenth. Of Sam, there was no immediate sight, but Carith spotted a suspiciously dragon-like shape that seemed to be pinned down, spreadeagled on the ground on the south side of the plateau, and agreed that she would drop down just below the edge of it to allow Dean the opportunity to get close enough to see what was going on.
Firmly linked together mentally, Dean climbed up the 15 feet or so to the flat plain where they had seen the dragon. Despite the invisibility bestowed on him by the harness he wore, he went cautiously, afraid that the slightest noise would betray him.
The sudden sound of A'zel's voice sounded in the still of the afternoon. "There! You're good and secured now. I think I'll let you watch when you wake up, just see what I'm going to do to your precious bronze." The splash of water as A'zel doused Sam with it in an attempt to wake him sounded forceful, and Dean could see Sam now, pinned to the ground in the same way that Erenth appeared to be. "That's it, boy. You don't want to miss a second of what I'm going to do to your pet, do you?"
A'zel gave a brief laugh and then called out to tell someone to bring him the saw. Wide-eyed, he saw Ruby come out from a hole in the ground, bearing a large metal thing that seemed almost too heavy for her to lift.
"See this? Sammy boy, this is a saw that operates from a battery. I'm going to use it to operate on your dragon's head. I need the little part inside his skull that allows a dragon to move between. Of course, he won't be much good for anything once I dig it out, so if I were you, I'd say your goodbyes now."
Sam, whose mouth was bound and gagged, groaned and wriggled, attempting to break free, which seemed to be a cue for Ruby to kick him, while A'zel started up the saw, turning away to climb up onto Erenth's back.
Taking the chance, Dean grabbed one of his knives and threw it to bury itself in Ruby's throat. She reeled backward into the hole from which she'd emerged, and he dropped to his knees to start cutting Sam loose.
"Carith! Better come now, baby, I need you, and so does Erenth."
A'zel had clambered up and was applying the saw to the back of Erenth's skull. The noise was indescribable - the sound of the saw, and a shriek from Erenth as it bit home, battered the eardrums, but well and truly masked the sound of the vengeful fury that was Carith. Rising to a height of around fifty feet, she came rocketing in with a speed that made Dean gasp.
Closing her jaws around A'zel's neck, she bore him away, shaking him so that first the saw fell harmlessly to the ground, and then so did the headless body of the man. There was a further scream as a large bronze dragon took flight, coming from the direction of Landing, and disappeared between. It seemed that Satanth had chosen to join his rider in death.
Erenth was struggling hard, trying desperately to overcome the ray that held him immobile, and as Carith descended to drop A'zel's head in front of him as some kind of ghoulish offering, she found herself entangled in it, flopping to the ground as well. Sam seemed still to be shaking off the effects of whatever his captor had done to him, and sat, shaking his head in his attempt to overcome the evident fuzziness he was experiencing. It fell to Dean to run and try to identify the source of the beam that had imprisoned the two dragons.
When at last he found the generator that was causing the paralysis ray and turned it off, Carith was finally able to waddle over to her mate and begin to lick the back of his head, trying to close up the wound and stop him from bleeding.
Dean, horrified by what had happened, and by the summary justice he had seen his dragon mete out, climbed onto the stricken dragon's hip in an attempt to see what damage had been caused. Carith at first refused to allow him near, but after a good deal of soothing from her rider, finally let him check the state of his injuries, and was very relieved to see that while the tough hide and scales there had been broken, the solid bone hadn't yet been compromised.
"We need to get him back to Half-Moon to the healers. They will be able to slather on the numbweed and keep him comfortable while he heals. Can he fly?"
"He probably can, if we give him some time to get over the shock."Carith announced, after some thought. "I don't think he'll be able to go Between though. Not for a while, anyway."
Indeed, the poor dragon's beautiful bronze color had faded to a sickly yellow as he lay passively on the ground. It was going to take a while for Erenth to get over the horror of the events of the day. Dean was trying by this time to work out how to get his partner back to the Weyr for an examination and medical treatment and had just decided that he must walk to Landing and find help to get at least Sam some assistance when there was the rushing sound of yet another dragon emerging from Between.
As they descended, it seemed that in fact it was not just one dragon that had come to their aid, but four. Satanth had brought help for them rather than loyally committing suicide when A'zel died, in the manner of all dragons in the past. It seemed he hadn't approved of the way A'zel had behaved towards his kind at all.
G'bril, R'fael, and G'dreel were all eager to assist their stricken colleague, and so was Satanth even though he was now riderless. Carith instantly laid out what was needed and Sam and Dean began to fashion a netting from the reeds and grasses that surrounded them. It was late at night by the time the netting was completed to Carith's satisfaction, and by that time, Erenth was able to crawl onto it. Carith, Penarth, Tarinth, and Hodanth each took a corner of the net, and as their riders clambered aboard, Belior shone down on them to afford them some light. Satanth spoke to Sam at that point, inviting him to ride with him, and Sam was dumbfounded.
"You can speak to other people besides your rider?" he asked in amazement.
"Of course," was the response from both Satanth and Carith, as they prepared to transport Erenth back home.
"But you never have!" Sam said, more to himself than to the other dragons.
"We've never needed to before!" responded Carith in lofty tones.
"Well, damn!" Sam shook his head and took his seat on Satanth's back in preparation for heading home to the safety of Half-Moon Weyr.
~*~
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