Dissension in the Ranks

Writers: AL, Eimi, Yvonne
Date Posted: 30th April 2008

Characters: Kelton, Mirahad, Stashek
Description: There is dissension in the ranks
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 9, day 1 of Turn 4

Kelton nodded his thanks to the woman who brought him his klah. One of the original Amber Hills Hold residents, thankfully, and not one of the Amythest Cliff refugees. They didn't know how to make proper klah - the women who'd ended up taking positions as kitchen workers and drudges within the Hold itself just weren't as good at their jobs as the original staff were. Still, that was neither here nor now. A tithe train had been robbed and Lord Benaroy wanted it found, and that was where his job came in.

Someone knocked on the door; Kelton looked up distractedly. "Yes?"

The man who walked through the door was wearing an Amber Hills uniform that looked like it seen better days. He nodded to the woman to leave them alone and waited for her to scurry out the door before he spoke.
"He called you in, did he?"

"Oh, yes. But I expected to be. He'd be a _complete_ dimglow if he didn't." Kelton stretched his hands behind his head. "There's nothing to worry about."

Mirahad rubbed at his face tiredly. He was finding Kelton's indifference rather irritating. "Well, what do they know?"

"Not much, just that the tithe is gone and that there are men down.
We've sent word into the next territory and dragonriders are coming in to do an aerial search, and I've dispatched a few of the better riders to go up the road. And the tithe..." Kelton looked at the candle that burned in the corner of the room. "The tithe should be safely stowed by now and our men back in the Hold by the evening, and the Lord and his new Steward will be left gazing at their navels."

"What about the bargeman? Will he talk?" The cotholder, Mirahad knew, would never betray them. He was known to be sympathetic to their cause. But the bargeman was another matter.

Kelton shook his head, although that question had occurred to him as well. "No. He's some relation of Stashek's and he vouches for him. You know all this, Mirahad. Stop worrying. It's a sound plan, and the Hold is looking in the wrong place for the tithe." Any complaints of the bargeman's could be easily silenced by a bribe, anyway.
Merchants were all alike, in the end - they cared about nothing save their own pockets. Family, Hold, and pride meant nothing to them.

"Don't worry? I have a whole family of my own to worry about. What's going to happen to them if this whole grand plan goes wrong?" For Faranth's sake, they had been trained to be guards, not criminals.
What had they been thinking? "And what are these rumors of casualties I keep hearing?"

"I have a wife as well, you know!" Kelton snapped. "And you can sharding well keep your voice down! You knew the risks when you signed on. Besides, _nothing_ is going to go wrong. Our plan is sound, and right now all we can do is trust our companions to do what's right.
There's only two more to go and we'll have enough for things to be fair again."

Mirahad may never speak his mind freely in front of the others, but he had known him too long not to demand answers in private. "How many?
How many men?"

The Guard Captain sighed. There was no use concealing the truth -
Mirahad would find out about it soon enough. "Three men went down -
Jarsont, Teledon, and Phyred. I don't know what went wrong, but we planned for this, just in case, remember? They're all from Amethyst Cliff Hold, anyway."

"For Faranth's sake," Mirahad muttered, leaning his hands against the edge of the table and hanging his head in shame. "They're still _men_, Kelton."

"Sometimes sacrifices have to be made." Stashek had remained silent for the entire conversation, whittling away in his chair which he had propped in the corner. He had listened to every word though as he sculpted the wood, turning it over in his palm, the vague shape of a runner beginning to take form. He studied it, feeling the grain with his thumb, then blowing on it to remove wood shavings before continuing to carefully and nimbly shape its abdomen.

Mirahad stood up straighter and gave Kelton an apologetic look. He had not noticed Stashek there or else he wouldn't have spoken so openly about his concerns. "Sacrificing marks, perhaps, but now there are widows and children that will be left for the Hold to support out of it's own coffers. Sacrifices that are counter-productive are just foolishness."

"Not," Stashek took another slice off of the abdomen, rounding it, "if it is a means to an end." Another sliver was taken off and he began to work on shaping the back. "You worry too much."

Kelton sighed. "We didn't plan on getting anyone killed. Something went wrong and we'll figure it out, but until then, what's done is done. We all knew the risks involved, but if Lord Benaroy isn't going to care for his Holders properly, then someone has to. And if I have to support the families of the men that were killed, if not by my hands then by my mistakes, then I'll do it, and do it gladly, as long as the rest of 'em stop leeching off our Hold. I feel badly as well, Mirahad, but we can't change it." The Captain glanced at Stashek in the corner, then back at Mirahad. "There's nothing else we can do right now but wait, and keep our ears open. I need you to keep your head. Can you do that?"

"I have never let you down before," he muttered softly, embarrassed that Kelton would question his abilities in front of Stashek.

"I know." The Captain realized his mistake too late, and the accusation, no matter how gentle, hung in the air between them like a foul cloud. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "I know I can. I guess I'm as jumpy as you are. But what we've set in motion cannot be undone, and it's better to be a man and act than to sit and watch as our world crumbles around us. In the mean time, we'll just have to wait."

Stashek started to make a reply, but then stopped himself before he uttered a word. Instead, he let his knife glide through the wood, shaping, controlling it. Risks had to be taken, sacrifices had to be made, but they didn't seem to realise that. Well, perhaps they would come to realise it soon enough.

**You say we must act, and yet we wait...** Mirahad thought sourly, shooting a glance in Stashek's direction. This whole plan had been a bad idea from the start, but there was no going back now. "What are your orders?"

"We'll do nothing until a week has passed, and then we'll move the tithe and set it up for redistribution to the Holders. I'll let you know when the time comes." He sounded calm and assured - and why wouldn't he be? No plan was foolproof, but a sort of fatalistic calm had settled over him. The pieces had been moved into place, and now all that could be done was to wait for the other players to make their moves.

Last updated on the May 1st 2008

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Dissension in the Ranks