Outposts

by Vickie Knestaut

  “And I find it curious that you would be dispatched by the historians guild to Aerona, the first village in the history of this kingdom to have a woman as dragoneer. Not to mention, the first village in our history to be marched on by a Western army. I would think that the story of the village that turned back an entire army would get your attention. The gods know that the bards have been busy immortalizing it in song and verse. But you? You ask almost exclusively about Elevera and the dragons of the Windill line. Why?”

  Cornyn’s gaze shifted to the stairs at the end of the hall, as if watching for someone or looking for an escape. He looked back to Trysten, then settled in and leaned against the door behind himself. “What of it? As a historian, I have a lot of ground to cover. The story very well begins with you rising to the rank of dragoneer, doesn’t it?”

  “That’s what I thought, at first. But you haven’t asked many questions about Aeronwind. And what few questions you have asked about her have been about how she is related to Elevera, how she fits into the Windill line.”

  “That’s how trained historians do it,” he said, almost sneering. “We start at the beginning, establish the framework. The history of the Windill line tells us how this began with Elevera, a remarkable dragon by all accounts. How could I not be asking questions about her? She is one of the central characters in this whole story.”

  “Indeed. But it is all you have asked about. And the attention being given to my dragon is making me a little uncomfortable lately.” Trysten’s hand drifted across her belly. The tip of her right index finger tapped the hilt of her sword.

  Cornyn’s eyes watched the movement. He stood upright, and his face grew serious. “I’m afraid I don’t care for what you are implying, Trysten,” he said, his agitation showing.

  “And I don’t care for whatever game it is you are playing, Cornyn. If you had bothered to ask anyone about the battle that took place here, about how that massive cairn ended up in a field of ash on the west side of the village, then you’d know that I will do whatever it takes to defend this village, and that includes the alpha of the weyr.”

  Cornyn drew in a deep breath through clenched teeth. Again, it was painfully obvious that he was slap-dashing together an excuse to give to her. “If you have a problem with the way I conduct myself and my interviews, then I welcome you to take it up with the Master of History. I am here on his orders, and I am researching the topics that he told me to focus on. If I go back to the keep with anything less than what he wants to know, then I lose my position. If you want to know why he wants to know more about your dragons and their lines, then you will have to take it up with him.”

  Cornyn lifted his chin slightly and stared down his nose at Trysten. She could tell that this was the only explanation he would offer.

  If only Aymon were here. If he didn’t recognize Cornyn, then surely he’d be able to ascertain the veracity of his story quickly. He’d know things about the mother city, the keep, and the kingdom. As much as Aymon studied history, how could he not know the historians by name, by sight?

  But Aymon wasn’t here. And the Original’s suggestion that he might still be alive, somewhere on the other side of the pass was clearly a ruse to get her and Elevera to go look for him. She was on her own. Hopefully, the courier she had dispatched to deliver news to the King would return soon, and he would be able to confirm whether or not Cornyn was indeed who he claimed to be.

  In the meantime, there was little else she could do. It wasn’t a crime in Aerona to ask questions.

  Trysten leaned in slightly. “Be sure to record this for your history, Cornyn. I, Trysten of Aerona, Dragoneer of Aerona weyr, will not stand for any threats or plots against anyone in this village, human or dragon. You are lying to me, and as soon as I find out what you are lying about, you will be held accountable. I advise you to wrap up your... investigation quickly, then leave. Understand?”

  Trysten’s eyes flicked to the door behind Cornyn, then back to him. He pulled his shoulders back slightly as if trying to make himself larger. There was definitely something inside the room that he wished to hide.

  “I assure you that I am here strictly on the business of the historians guild. I am here by order of the Master of History, and I intend to collect his information and then deliver it. That is all.”

  Trysten stared Cornyn in the eye until the man looked away, glanced to the stairs again.

  “I’ve kept you long enough,” Trysten said, her voice low and hard. “Thank you for your time.”

  She turned and left, listening to the thud of her boots down the hall. For all the sky, she had had about all she could take of secrets and hidden agendas.

  Chapter 37

  Trysten returned to the weyr and found Kaylar in Maejel’s stall talking to Rodden. Trysten motioned for her friend to join her.

  “Any luck?” she asked as they strolled out into the weyr yard together.

  Kaylar shook her head. “He seems to be confused about everything. I don’t think he understood what I was asking. I might try and talk to the prisoners later, but I don’t think I’ll get anywhere with them, either.”

  “What were you asking him?” Trysten asked.

  Kaylar sighed in frustration. “Nothing, I guess, because I sure didn’t get any answers. I tried to talk to him about the Originals, the dragon shifters. But he looked confused. He was getting frustrated like I was springing some new rules on him about our language.”

  “New rules?” Trysten asked.

  “Their language is very different from ours. Did you know that they don’t have words for yes or no?”

  “Really?” Trysten asked.

  Kaylar nodded. “If I ask you if you want fish for dinner, then in their language, your answer would be I am having fish for dinner, or I’ m not having fish for dinner. Except it’s more complicated than that. But it’s simpler too. It doesn’t take as many words to say that you’re having fish for dinner. You can say it in three. Rem pel atter. There are inflections in the way they say things that indicate who is doing what, or when. It’s very frustrating.”

  “And so he feels the same way, right?”

  Kaylar nodded again, then shook her head. “This is so ridiculous. When you sit back and think about it, all of this,” Kaylar said as she waved her hand, “all of this could be avoided if we could just sit down and speak to each other.”

  Trysten placed her hand upon Kaylar’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “You’re doing just that, and you’re doing an amazing job of it. I’m impressed by how much you know already.”

  A half-hearted grin passed over Kaylar’s face. “Thanks. But it doesn’t feel like it. It’s... a lot of pressure.” She looked out to the plains to the south. “A lot is riding on Rodden and me being able to understand each other. I feel like I make a lot of progress, but then I run into situations like today, where I try and make him understand what I’m asking, and he just looks at me like I’m crazy. It starts to feel like I’m talking in gibberish and everything Rodden taught me is wrong.”

  They walked in silence a few steps and approached the edge of the weyr yard.

  “You don’t think Rodden is misleading you, do you?” Trysten asked. It seemed a fair question because he certainly hadn’t mentioned the Originals being in his kingdom, guarding the pass.

  Kaylar shook her head, and her braids shifted across the shoulders of her tunic as she looked back to Trysten. “No, he’s trying. I know he is. I’m just missing something. Something big. And it’s making me doubt myself.”

  “Just keep at it. You’re making great progress. So is Rodden. The two of you will be giving us all language lessons before long.”

  “Oh, no!” Kaylar said. “I draw the line there. I’m happy to help out, and I know from working at my father’s tavern how to decipher gibberish from men, but I have to draw a line somewhere. I don’t care to be a teacher. I’m a hordesman.”

  “I was just kidding,” Trysten said with a grin. “You really are doing a fine job. T
o be honest, I don’t even know how to talk about the Originals to people who speak the same language as I do. They look at me like I’m crazy. How do you make someone understand the unbelievable?”

  “Maybe that’s what is going on,” Kaylar said. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. Maybe Rodden understands me but thinks I’ve lost my mind! I’ll try again later.”

  Trysten looked over her shoulder, back to the weyr for a second. Everything there was quiet, as peaceful as it should be. She turned back to Kaylar and did so without letting her eyes rest for a second on the dark scar of ash beyond the weyr.

  “I need to ask a favor of you,” Trysten said.

  “Name it,” the hordesman said.

  At the sound of a screech, Trysten looked up. Overhead, Yallit circled in lazy, long loops, looking down at her, and then flying out to the east before coming back, swooping down, and circling back to the east. He was acting like a watchdog, but Trysten didn’t mind. Her annoyance with him had mostly disappeared after he warned them of the courier dragons at the pass.

  “I had a chat with Cornyn today,” Trysten said.

  “Oh?”

  “He’s been asking a lot about Elevera. And he’s been asking about her from a lot of different people. After our experience with the Originals, I think it’s a little disconcerting, to say the least. I wanted to know why he was so interested in Elevera.”

  “And?” Kaylar asked.

  “He was nervous and uncomfortable. He wouldn’t answer my questions and basically referred me to his supervisor, claiming that he was investigating what he was ordered to investigate. Nothing more and nothing less.”

  “He’s lying,” Kaylar said.

  “No doubt. But what troubles me is the sudden attention to Elevera. The Originals tried to trap her in the west. They didn’t seem to have any interest in me until I tried to stop them. And the ultimatum that the one Original gave me before the battle was designed to bring me to the west, but he clearly assumed I’d be riding Elevera.”

  “And now this creepy history clown is asking a lot of questions about her,” Kaylar said. She gasped, stopped, and spun to Trysten. “You don’t think he’s one of...” Her eyes shifted left to right before she leaned in and whispered, “them?”

  Trysten shook her head. “He’s not. I can tell to look at him. To me, the Originals appear very distinct. They don’t look like humans to me. Not all the way, at least.”

  Kaylar’s face grew serious. “What?”

  Trysten shook her head. “It’s hard to explain. But there’s just something about the Originals that makes them stand out to me. He’s not one of them.”

  Kaylar nodded as if satisfied with that explanation. They resumed walking down the lane toward the river.

  “What is it that you want me to do, then?” Kaylar asked. “You had a favor?”

  “Cornyn is staying at your father’s inn,” Trysten said.

  “Oh, shut up!” Kaylar said. “You are not going to ask what I think you are going to ask.”

  Trysten turned to Kaylar. “I need your help. I want to take a look around his room for anything suspicious. He’s hiding something.”

  A grin spread over Kaylar’s face. “What do you think we’re going to find?”

  “So I take it you’re willing to help, then,” Trysten said.

  “How can I tell my dragoneer no?” Kaylar asked.

  “Kaylar...”

  “I’m just kidding. I know, I know. But seriously. If this guy is up to something, and Elevera is in danger, then we have to check it out. The whole horde could be in danger.”

  “Good,” Trysten said. She clasped Kaylar’s shoulder again. “I appreciate it.”

  “So,” Kaylar said as she turned back to the river. “What’s the plan?”

  “Well, I thought that I’d get Galelin to distract Cornyn—”

  “Caravan!” a man cried out from the other side of the village.

  Trysten and Kaylar looked to the east. Yallit swooped down over them, banked, and then fluttered his wings as he flew back out toward the east. Fish and birds, he’d been trying to tell them it was coming and they didn’t understand him.

  “Caravan!” the voice repeated. “The caravan is here!”

  Kaylar and Trysten looked at each other. Joy spread over Kaylar’s face, mixed with equal parts of relief. It was a fair reflection of what Trysten felt.

  “Finally!” Kaylar said, her voice rising up nearly to a squeal.

  “Come on,” Trysten said and hurried off to the eastern edge of the village.

  Cries of the caravan’s approach echoed through the lanes, and soon villagers emerged from cottages and barns and shops and began to head to the eastern edge of the village, where a cloud of dust rose up just below the horizon and drifted with lazy patience off to the northeast. There wasn’t much to see aside from the dust, but the size of the cloud indicated that it was huge. A hundred people at least. Animals.

  Trysten leaned forward and strained to hear the musical bleating of goats and sheep, the whinny of horses or the wheezing of mules, hooves clopping along the stones and dirt of the road that stretched between Aerona and the mother city.

  Relief flooded through Trysten. She was sure the caravan brought wagons full of lumber, boxes of nails, bundles of leather, brass and iron and other things. All of the materials needed to not only build the second weyr but also outfit the dragons with the proper tack and repay all of the villagers who had sacrificed so much to keep the weyr equipped and fed during the most horrific fighting season ever known to Aerona.

  Her jaw tightened. Her throat grew heavy and tight as she blinked away a sudden gush of wetness in her eyes.

  As the excited buzz of the crowd grew around her, Trysten looked up to the sky. “Wherever you are,” Trysten whispered, “Thank you, Aymon.”

  Chapter 38

  Elevera grumbled as her bulk came to rest in the mountainside pool of water once again.

  “Get them up in the air!” Trysten shouted at the villagers who were gathered at the edge of the water. She waved at Sone and Keeruk.

  “But I want to talk to you.” She pointed at Paege.

  Paege nodded and barked out a few orders, then turned back to Trysten. “I’ve got no one else to ride Sone,” he called.

  He untied the reins from both dragons where they were secured to a hitching post planted in the clearing beside the pool.

  As soon as Deslan had Keeruk in the air, Trysten sent Sone to join them. The deep red dragon leaped and spiraled upward ready to reunite with the crowd of dragons circling overhead.

  “What’s all of this?” Paege asked as Trysten waded ashore. He nodded at Elevera. “I’m beginning to suspect that she secretly likes taking a dip.”

  Trysten rolled her eyes. Elevera did not care for the water at all, and the alpha also didn’t care if Trysten knew it.

  “The caravan is here,” Trysten said. Her face broke into a grin as she said it. She couldn’t hide her excitement.

  Paege’s eyes widened in surprise. He looked up again to the swirling horde of dragons above.

  “The caravan brought supplies. All kinds of things. You wouldn’t believe how big it was. It took forever for the end of it to get to the village. There are over a hundred people. And they brought goats and sheep, several cows, horses, mules, leather... enough lumber to build three weyrs, I swear.”

  Paege grinned like a boy on the first morning of Peace. He stared up at the circling dragons again. “You’re not bringing all of it here, are you?”

  “No. But we’re bringing out people to help finish the outpost. And tools. Supplies. A crate of nails. Hammers. Saws. Oh, Paege, it’s something. Crates of bows. Arrows with these breathtaking fletchings from some fowl in the mother city. They raise them just for their feathers. There are swords and shields and saddles. Barrels of salt. Shoes. They sent shoes, Paege!”

  Paege looked back to Trysten. “Shoes?”

  She nodded. “And food. Lots of dried food. Barrels of w
ine and mead, even. Crates of tea leaves. Food that even Sessus has only heard of. It’s amazing. It’s just so much,” Trysten shook her head, her throat tight. She swallowed hard and looked up to the pass above them.

  “No sign of Aymon,” she said. It was a statement, not a question.

  “None,” Paege said, answering it anyway.

  Trysten turned her attention to the horde above. She signaled for Karno to start sending dragons down to offload.

  “Have you seen anything in the pass? Any trouble at all?” Trysten asked.

  “Well,” Paege said as he watched Leewind descend to the clearing with the first load of goods and a volunteer from the caravan. “It didn’t amount to much, but we got a surprise from the wildmen. We caught sight of them gathering just to the south of here.” He nodded to the woods behind him.

  “I ordered everyone to arm themselves and take cover behind the fence,” he continued. “As soon as the wildmen saw that their cover had been blown, they let loose with a few arrows, but then gave up and slunk away.”

  Trysten glared into the woods.

  “But,” Paege said as he turned his attention from Leewind to the fortifications taking shape in front of the cliff face. “The attack has given us more confidence and made everyone less nervous. I have to admit, it has felt like we were racing to get this built while wearing targets on our backs the entire time. But now it’s different. It feels like we can handle it. No one got so much as a scratch.”

  Trysten nodded as she inspected the fence of pointed logs.

  “Where do you want this stuff?” one of the workers called out from Leewind’s side. He held a small wooden crate in his arms.

  “Inside the fort,” Paege called and motioned to the fence.

  Trysten took a deep breath. “It’s hard not to get caught up in how difficult things have been,” she said as she watched the workers pull equipment from Leewind’s saddlebags and carry it off to the fort. Belara landed next to Leewind, her saddlebags bulging with goods, and a wide-eyed and grinning volunteer from the caravan sitting behind Brand.