The Storm Breaks (3/4)

Writers: Estelle
Date Posted: 25th July 2020

Characters: R'fal, Lirena, Terren
Description: R'fal confesses to his parents about his visit to the mine
Location: Emerald Falls Hold
Date: month 5, day 14 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: Y'gel, N'vanik (not by name), Corowal

For a long moment, R'fal's parents both stared at him, their mutual
anger forgotten for the moment. Lirena was the first to speak.

"You've _seen_ it?"

"We went to the mine. Marlath and I. Though he didn't come all the way,
that was just me." R'fal lowered his voice, though there was no-one but
them close enough to hear. "I didn't see you, Da, it was the middle of
the night, but I saw the guards. They were beating someone."

He'd never seen his mother look as she did now, not in all the times
he'd got into scrapes, growing up at the cothold. Suddenly, he realised
that she wasn't angry; she was afraid.

"No-one saw me," he went on. "I tried to do something. I told the Master
Dragonhealer, and he said I should tell the Weyrleader, but he said that
the Weyr couldn't intervene. He said the guards aren't Lord Corowal's,
they work for the holder who runs the mine. I wasn't even allowed to
tell anyone else. And then I was confined to the Weyr, Ma, that's why I
couldn't come and see you for so long."

Lirena put a hand to her chest. "Oh, R'fal. I know you meant well, but
you shouldn't have done that."

"I know. It didn't help." He stared down. "I'm sorry, Da. I tried, but
there wasn't a way."

"But you saw. Enough to know I'm telling the truth," Terren said,
eagerly, with a sidelong glance at his wife. "Enough to know there's no
justice there."

"Terren!" Lirena turned on him, her eyes dark and angry. "It makes no
difference what he saw. None of us are ever going to speak about this
again. Ever!"

"But..."

"Think! Telany is fostered at the Hold, and Kerril's only kept his claim
to our family's lands by Lord Corowal's grace. What's going to happen to
them, if you start stirring up trouble, and then it gets around that a
dragonrider was at the mine, let alone trying to help a convict escape?"

"Oh, I see. It's all about the land," Terren retorted. "Never mind how I
nearly died in those stinking pits, just for letting some men use my old
barn, as long as your family keeps the land..."

"It's about our children, Terren! Their future!" She stopped, closed her
eyes and calmed herself with an effort. "Look, I kept my ears open while
I was at the Hold, waiting for your trial. There've been other
incidents. Mutterings against the Weyr, men from the Hold fighting
dragonriders. Some of the big Holders who look to Emerald Falls, getting
too rich and too ambitious. A word spoken at the wrong time, about the
Weyr interfering with the Lord Holder's justice, and there'd be chaos.
And our children would be in the middle of it!"

Terren puffed out a contemptuous breath. "That's just kitchen gossip."

"I mean it, Terren. We don't say anything. Not even to Evinder and
Falanna. We can't bring them, or R'fal, more trouble."

"I'm sorry, Ma," R'fal put in, before his father could reply. "I
wouldn't have said anything, only I wanted you to know that Da was
telling the truth."

"I know." She reached out and touched his arm. "But you have to
remember, now, that this is Hold business."

"And I'm not a holder." He felt Marlath's concern through their bond,
and saw his mother glance over his shoulder to where the dragon waited,
watching them with glowing yellow eyes. "Not any more."

"That's not what I meant," Lirena said softly. "You're part of our
family, R'fal. You always will be. This matter is too big for any of us.
Best to forget it ever happened."

"Easy for you to say." R'fal's father scowled at both of them. "You
don't have to smile and listen to that sanctimonious ass praising the
man who threw you into a hole to rot. You don't get all the worst jobs,
the lumping grain sacks and shovelling shit, and have men calling you a
thief behind your back. Stars, he did it to my face, calling me a
criminal in front of my own children."

"Terren." There was that note in her voice again. "Enough."

"And I could have done with some support. Instead I get told I'm ruining
R'fal's birthday," he went on, ignoring her. "I saw a boy and a girl,
not much older than him, die crushed by a rockfall, and they didn't go
quick. I heard them screaming. The place was run by grunting bullies who
couldn't get a job kicking drunks in a flea-bitten roadside tavern and
worked by starving holdless folk who could barely spell their names, let
alone follow the miner's craft. The tunnels are shored up with rotten
beams, water seeps through the walls, there's no light. Real craftsmen
wouldn't set foot in that death-pit."

Lirena pressed her fingers to her temples, her voice tight with strain.
"Yes, and now we all know. But if you hadn't decided to turn over my
father's old barn to bandits - "

"You still don't believe me, do you? Even after he told you what he
saw." Terren jerked a thumb at R'fal.

"I didn't see the mine," R'fal said, helplessly. "Just the guards."

"I do believe it was hard, Terren, I really do. I don't know that you
deserved it. But every time you speak of what it was like there, it gets
more...macabre. How can I know what's real and what's the product of
spite and resentment?"

"You think I'm a liar. No - it's worse than that," he said, in sudden
bitterness. "Evinder and Falanna and the rest of them think I'm a liar
because they've lived on this farm so long their brains have turned to
pigswill. They think the Lord Holder can do no wrong. But you - you tell
yourself I'm a liar because if you had to face the truth, that you did
nothing to stop it... Maybe you were glad to get rid of me."

"How can you say that?" Lirena's voice broke with a sobbing note. "You
_know_ I came after you to the Hold! I did everything I could!"

"The way I see it, R'fal's the only one with his eyes open. The only one
who thought about me while I was there. Who did anything halfway useful.
Even if he couldn't get me out..."

There was a sudden, deadly silence. R'fal saw his mother seem to
stiffen, the breath catching in her throat, and his father's eyes shift
as he realised, too late, that he'd made a mistake.

Last updated on the September 29th 2020

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The Storm Breaks (3/4)