The Storm Breaks (4/4)

Writers: Estelle
Date Posted: 25th July 2020

Characters: R'fal, Lirena, Terren, Evinder
Description: Lirena discovers why R'fal went to the mine
Location: Emerald Falls Hold
Date: month 5, day 14 of Turn 10

"Get - you - out?" Lirena's words fell into the quiet like drops of icy
rain.

Terren flinched. "I mean, he..."

"Who put that idea into his head?" Her eyes narrowed. "To go to the
mine. That time when you were together, while I was at the Harper Hall.
What did you say?"

"Nothing!"

"You're lying." Her gaze locked on his, and Terren took an involuntary
step back. "R'fal. What did he tell you to do?"

R'fal couldn't speak, but a deep, angry growl from Marlath across the
courtyard answered her. Over by the trees, the celebratory dinner had
gone quiet, too, the holders looking nervously towards the dragon as his
tail lashed restlessly on the bare ground.

"How could you." She followed him as he backed up another pace, her
voice low but building steadily on a wave of controlled rage. "How could
you do it?"

"Lirena - I..." He reached out a hand.

"Don't touch me!" Lirena pushed his arm away. "How could you? What did
you think would happen if he helped you escape? What would they have
done to him at the Weyr? Stars above, Terren, what if he'd failed? If
the guards had caught him, if they'd hurt him, and Marlath..."

"I didn't - "

"Ma, I wouldn't have. I'd never have risked Marlath." R'fal tried to
intervene, but it felt like he was flying in a storm, the winds tossing
him where they would despite his dragon's strength. "You don't
understand, he did it all for us. He didn't have a choice."

"What do you mean?"

"Those men, the bandits, they were threatening him. Our family."

"I don't believe it." Lirena turned on Terren again. "You lied to your
own son so he'd risk his own life and his dragon's to save you from the
results of your greed - and stupidity, and - don't _touch_ me!" She
slapped his hand away with a stinging blow, then another. Tears
glistened on her cheeks. "Get away from me!"

"That's enough." R'fal turned to see his uncle, backed up by the chief
herdsman and his older cousin, glowering at them. "Go and pack your
things. Get out of my hold and don't come back."

"You can't make us holdless!" Terren's eyes went wide in panic. "We're
kin. Your own wife's sister, the mother of a dragonrider."

"She can stay here as long as she likes. She's more than earned her
place, and she's suffered enough." As he spoke, Falanna came to draw
Lirena into her arms, and R'fal saw his mother shaking as she pressed
her face into her sister's shoulder. "It's you I'm getting rid of.
You're lazy, you're dishonest and you've been trouble since the day you
married into this family. Well, we've had enough. You're not welcome
here any longer."

"But - but where will I go?"

"Go to the Red Star for all I care. I've finished with you." Evinder
turned his back, then spoke to the two men. "Give him his wages. See he
doesn't take anything that isn't his."

Terren stared at him, open-mouthed. "You can't - you..." He took a step
after Evinder, but the herdsman blocked his way, the older man rolling
up his sleeves with a grim look while his other hand clenched into a
fist. "Bastard son of a filthy poxed watchwher! You've never liked me,
you and that family of half-witted bovines. You've had everything handed
to you and you treated me like dirt. How many of you could have started
from nothing and risen to run a hold?"

"Who knows, but we surely wouldn't have lost it by consorting with
holdless thieves," Falanna said, acidly. "You heard my husband. Go."

"Lirena?" He turned to them, desperately. "You won't let them do this."

She turned, and the sight of her face was like a blow to R'fal, her eyes
swollen with tears. He'd never seen his mother look that way, as if she
was down to the last of her strength. "I can't do this any more, Terren.
I looked the other way for too long. Now see where we are."

"But we're married. You promised to spend the rest of your life with me."

"You promised to care for our children. I'd have forgiven you anything
else. I stood by you through the trial. But not this. Not after what you
did to R'fal."

"Then you're going to do it? You're going to cast me out to live,
holdless? In a Pass?"

She didn't answer. The herdsman shrugged and held out a handful of
wooden discs. "One month's pay for your work. Such as it was."

"Well, then. A plague take you all." Scowling, Terren snatched the
marks, turned and started off towards the road.

They watched the two men go, Evinder returning to the table to speak to
the holders, Terren following the path to the road.

At last, R'fal found his voice. "Mama?"

"R'fal, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry you had to see that. Today of all
days." She came to embrace him, her tears dampening his Gather tunic.
"This has been coming a long time. It's not your fault."

"I can go after him." R'fal spoke hesitantly. "We can go to the Weyr,
for a time, until we decide what to do. We can't leave him to be
holdless, Ma."

"No. You're right." Lirena looked back at the table, where her two
younger children were twisted in their seats, watching. "If the Weyr
would take him, it may be for the best. But R'fal, no more secrets.
Listen to your Wingleader. To the Master Dragonhealer. Follow their
advice, all right?" If anyone could counteract her husband's influence,
she hoped it would be the bronzeriders.

The young man managed a half-smile. "I always do, Mama. I'll take him to
the Weyr, and then I'll be back. We still have some time to spend with
Telany and Kerril, before they have to return." Then he turned and began
to jog down the track, after his father.

Lirena watched him go, and though the storm had passed and all the
secrets had been revealed, she still felt misgivings. It was a solution,
but she was uneasy at the thought of Terren in the Weyr, with all he
knew. What he'd already done to his son.

Last updated on the September 29th 2020

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The Storm Breaks (4/4)