No Right...
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Eimi
Date Posted: 2nd January 2006
Characters: U'kaiah
Description: U'kaiah learns of Jaela's death
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 9, day 6 of Turn 3
U'kaiah watched as the ropes fell through the air. He concentrated on the riders of his wing as they chased down the falling 'threads' in imitation of a real Fall. Every now and then his mind would drift back to Jaela. Shards how he wished that he could be with her now instead of these drills. But D'wrayt needed to know he could be counted on, even in these trying times. And no one had failed to notice that the Weyrleader was out there in the drills same as his riders when he could be at the side of the woman he also loved. It was that very kind of leadership U'kaiah had always admired - that _Jaela_ had admired in both the Weyrleader and in her brother, the former Lord Holder Jaryd. The wingerleader had always held the hope that someday Jaela would admire him too.
He pushed those thoughts from his mind as he brought his attention back to the drills at hand. **Kalamath, ask Gorgeth's rider to move to the right a little. He's leaving a rather large hole in the line.**
U'kaiah nodded his satisfaction as the bluerider moved back into position. He scanned the riders below, looking for other holes. His mind could not stay on the riders though. It kept drifting back to whispers - to flashes of memory. Cool fingers on his brow, hot lips against his skin. Why had she not woken up yet! How could the healers know nothing?
The bronzerider slapped his hand to his head, trying to clear it.
}:U'kaiah?;{ Kalamath whispered in his mind gently, caressingly. He could feel the conflict within his rider. The bronze also was concerned for the queen, and the woman who had made his lifemate feel so strongly.
**We have to do this, Kalamath. I can see her when we are finished. I just have to get through these drills first.** And then he would take that record to read to her - the one he had found so long ago about Topaz Sea Hold, her old home. He would sit next to her, read out to her, and hold her tiny little hand in his... such tiny hands, and yet so strong. So much like their owner... And he would keep his hope alive, like she had kept for her brother. Like she had kept for _him_ when he had fallen out of exhaustion. He could not lose hope. Jaela would not lose hers...
}:U'kaiah, Sanbianth's rider says she is running out of ropes to throw.:(
**Yes, all right,** the Wingleader said coming back into the moment, flying higher with his extra sack of ropes. **Tell Treadorth's rider where we are...**
A scream filled the Weyrbowl below. A scream that chilled his heart colder than /between/. "Calyth!"
}:No! No! The queen is going /between/!:{ Kalamath screamed his distress in U'kaiah's mind.
The bronzerider knew what that meant. "_Jaela_!" No. No. His mind couldn't accept it. It _refused_ to accept it. Even as he watched the gold, the _queen_, rise from the stone cold Weyr and take herself to the skies for her final agonized flight, he couldn't believe it. He closed he eyes so he could not see it, so he would not watch Calyth go /between/, because maybe if he couldn't see it maybe it wasn't happening. But his ears could not close out the dragon's keening. "No no no..." he whispered, his head lashnig back and forth like a wounded animal trying to shake off a snare as he wrestled with the truth. "Jaela... take me to her, Kalamath. Take me there!"
The bronze dove through the wings, even as he bugled his own distress and grief. He landed gently on their ledge, shaking the stones with his keening. U'kaiah slipped off and ran through his weyr, not even stopping to strip off his cap or gloves. He had to see her! He had to be _with_ her! This was not happening! He would wrap his arms around her and whisper all the things he wanted to say to her, and her eyes would open once again, and she would smile up at him, and he would kiss her gently and tell her... tell her so many things.
He's hand stopped him from slamming into the rock wall as he rounded the corner at full speed, stepping around dazed weyrfolk, riders who felt the keening in their minds as much as he, and the others who could feel very stones of the Weyr reverberating its grief. When had the infirmary been so sharding far?!
U'kaiah flung open the door, dodging stuned and hurried healers, heading straight for the room. Nothing could stop him from seeing her. Except the sight that awaited him as he reached the door. D'wrayt. D'wrayt in his own wrapped in his own grief had reached his Weyrwoman first. _His_
Weyrwoman, not U'kaiah's. Despite the moments he had spent with Jaela, as he took in the look of loss on his mentor's face, looking down on the tiny body of the woman they _both_ adored, U'kaiah suddenly felt the intruder. He had no right to be there. Moments. They had only fleeting, sometimes painful, sometimes blissful moments. D'wrayt and Jaela had so much more. She had never given up her Weyrleader for the Wingleader, and he would never have asked her too. But now he knew he couldn't have any claim to her. He had no right assume he had meant half as much... no right.
U'kaiah took shaky steps back down the wall, out of the door frame, out of sight of that tiny, lovely little body of the Weyrwoman and the Weyrleader who had loved her. Hidden behind a shelf of records, his back came to rest against the cold stones as his knees crumpled out from under him. He put the gloved knuckled of his hand into his mouth and bit down to keep from crying out in his frustration, his sadness, his loss...
Last updated on the January 2nd 2006