The Wingleader is Missing

Writers: Devin, Estelle
Date Posted: 8th December 2024
Series: The Missing Wingleader

Characters: Iskara, Cosani, N'vanik
Description: M'gan doesn't show up for a wing meeting...
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr, Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 2, day 20 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: M'gan, Irrkali

Cosani

N'vanik

Iskara leaned back in her chair, pointedly examining her nails as they all waited for Cyclone's Wingleader to arrive so the wing meeting could begin. **This is ridiculous.** It had been almost a quarter hour now since they were supposed to have started and the muttering had already begun. M'gan was usually scrupulous about punctuality and not shy about making his ire known whenever a lowly wingrider slipped in a few minutes late.

She turned to her neighbour. "He's going to look really silly when he does show up. What's he going to do, shout at himself?"

Cosani snorted. "Spank himself?" She muttered quietly with a smirk.

"I'll do it!" another greenrider volunteered eagerly, then drew himself up in mock affront at the groans and eye-rolling. "What? A man can't appreciate his Wingleader's bottom?"

"Quieten down, please." The brownrider whose turn it was to act as wingsecond gave them all a disapproving look. "I'm sure the Wingleader has good reason for the delay."

"Shouldn't we at least remind him, N'mon...sorry, acting Wingsecond?" Iskara asked, her smile too sweet. **Hylith, where are Isarth and his rider?**

}:Isarth is not here.:{

She frowned. **You mean, not in the Weyr?**

}:I cannot sense him.:{

Iskara focused back on the meeting room. "That's odd. Hylith says Isarth isn't here."

Cosani automatically reached out to Shalith. }:I cannot reach him.:{

"Is anyone else's dragon saying they don't know where he is?" a bluerider asked, frowning.

"It doesn't make sense. Even if he was at another Weyr, they should be able to sense him faintly," N'mon said, his worry evident, as more of the wingriders nodded.

"But he can't be - you know. Gone. We'd know about it." Dragon mourning was impossible to miss.

"We should ask the Weyrleader," Iskara said, losing patience with N'mon's dithering. "If anyone knows what's going on, he will."

N'vanik got a confused message from Loseth. }:The dragons in Cyclone Wing are asking about Isarth. I can't feel him but he isn't _gone_.:{ Which meant he wasn't dead.

Loseth checked with the other dragons and _no one_ knew where M'gan and his bronze were. So N'vanik picked up his hidework and left the shaded spot on the beach to head for the Cyclone meeting room. He was still carrying his work and tracking in sand when he walked in. "What under the Red Star is going on?"

The worried chatter between the wingriders died down immediately, and they looked at N'mon, who spoke up nervously. "Weyrleader. We were supposed to be meeting with Wingleader M'gan, but no one knows where he is. Even our dragons can't reach Isarth."

"Loseth doesn't know where he is either." This didn't make any sense. Had someone managed to kidnap a bronze dragon? Was he drugged to keep the others from reaching him? "Who saw him last? Where and when?"

"He drilled our nine yesterday morning over the Weyr," a bluerider volunteered, looking around at the others. "But we all came back safe."

"And he was in the dining cavern for the evening meal," N'mon added. "But I can't remember seeing him at breakfast. Anyone?"

"Maybe Wingthird Irrkali would know, sir," Iskara suggested when his question produced nothing but confused looks and shaking heads. There was no secret about that relationship, it was too well known even to be a subject of gossip. "Or the kitchen staff, if he got breakfast early."

Dread pooled in N'vanik's stomach. "Split up and go ask everyone you can think of. We need to find him _now_."

There was a chorus of "yes, Weyrleader" and the meeting broke up, the wingriders instinctively gathering in their trios and nines to start the search.

"This is bizarre," Iskara murmured to Cosani. "How can a bronze dragon disappear?"

"I don't like this at all." Cosani rose. "Let's go find out who was on watch last night."

"Good idea." If M'gan and Isarth had left the Weyr, the watchrider would have recorded their departure. She spoke silently to her green as they headed out to the Weyrbowl. "Hylith says that Senabrith is on duty now. We can ask her rider who they relieved this morning."

Cosani nodded. At least it felt better that they were _doing_ something. Her mind kept coming up with terrible scenarios.

The greenriders headed out and met their dragons to give them a ride up to the cliff heights where Senabrith and her rider were standing their watch. She was an older green, retired from the Wings, but her gaze was still keen and her posture alert. She greeted the younger dragons with a soft rumble, then returned to scanning the skies and the surrounding land.

Her rider had been seated with his legs stretched out in the shade of one of his dragon's wings, but when he saw the younger greens landing he got to his feet, a little stiffly. His hair was greying, but he still had a wingrider's sturdy build. "Good morning, ladies. Can I help you?"

"Can we check to see who was on watch last night?" Cosani asked. "No one has seen Wingleader M'gan this morning, and he wasn't at the Wing meeting. Maybe the watchrider saw him last night?"

"It was a young blue pair, Miorth and his rider. They must have got in trouble over something," the greenrider replied. Night watch wasn't anyone's favorite duty. "They went off to get some sleep, but I've got their records here if you want to take a look."

Iskara took the hide-bound record book where the departures and arrivals at the Weyr were recorded. "Look, he did leave the Weyr yesterday evening." She pointed to M'gan and Isarth's names. "It just says, 'visiting friend'. But there's no return entry."

"We certainly haven't seen him." The watchrider frowned. "Maybe he stayed over with his friend and forgot about your meeting?"

Cosani shook her head. "He would never miss a Wing meeting, and he would at least _say_ something." She half expected Shalith to start keening any minute.

"Perhaps he fell ill." He sounded doubtful, worry growing in his voice.

"We should wake Miorth's rider and ask him. He might remember if they said where they were going," Iskara said. She had copied the entry from the record onto a scrap of hide, which she tucked into the pocket of her riding jacket. **Hylith, can you tell Miorth we need to talk to his rider urgently?**

The blue was both sleepy and grumpy. }:We are sleeping,:{ he told the green.

}:My rider says that you can talk to her and Shalith's, or you can talk to Loseth's,:{ Hylith replied sharply after a moment. }:Isarth's rider is missing. They left the Weyr while you were on duty.:{

}:Fine. I will wake my rider.:{ Miorth had no desire to get in trouble _again_. Still it was a quarter candlemark before the blue landed on the watch Heights and deposited his rider.

"What's all this about a missing Wingleader?" The bluerider rubbed his eyes.

"M'gan didn't show up at our Wing meeting this morning, and none of our dragons can reach Isarth," Iskara explained. "The watch records show that he left the Weyr last night, but he didn't return. Is that right?"

The bluerider nodded. "Visiting someone, I think? I wrote it down . . ." He glanced over at the record. "He didn't come back, not by the time I was off duty."

"Did he say where?" Cosani wondered if it was Emerald Falls territory, maybe the Hold itself.

The young rider shook his head. "I'm pretty sure he said he was going to a hold, but he didn't say _which_ one. I figured that was his business."

Iskara frowned, but she wasn't sure she would have questioned a Wingleader, either. "Do you remember anything else? Was there anything unusual in Isarth's manner?"

The bluerider just wanted to go back to sleep, but he asked his dragon if he'd noticed anything. "Miorth says Isarth was excited." He shrugged. "I don't know if that means anything."

Iskara glanced at Cosani. "We should report to the Weyrleader. I wouldn't go back to bed just yet if I were you," she added as the young man turned to go. "You might be the last one to have seen the Wingleader. I expect he'll want to speak to you."

The young rider sighed. "Yes, greenrider."

She nodded to the older watchrider and returned to Hylith, wondering what all this meant. Had the holders lured M'gan into a trap? But if they had, how had they silenced Isarth without killing him - and what did they hope to achieve?

**Tell Loseth we've spoken to the watchrider. Maybe he can make some sense of all this.**

Last updated on the December 16th 2024

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