New Friends (Amnixiel+Shield Members+Weyrleaders)

[Ise]

(continue from Knock On Wood)

It had taken Akroma a while to get back to the Weyr, the Holdless woman wasn’t the lightest thing she had ever carried. And she was a large hunk of dead weight. But the Shield woman had taken a bit of savage pleasure in dragging the woman across some of those rougher patches of ground. None of those cuts, scrapes or bruises she got though were anything that bad. They would heal on their own just fine. Akroma was just happy that the woman stayed out the whole trip. Once she was close to the Weyr, Akroma had summoned a few of the guards to come help her carry Amnixiel into the Weyr and down into the Lower Caverns.

Deep in the Lower Caverns was an area sectioned off as the brig. It wasn’t a part of the Weyr that was used very often, rarely had the Shield or guard been forced to keep a prisoner. But it was one of those parts of the Weyr that was always kept in perfect shape. It was there that Akroma brought Amnixiel to, locking her into one of the caged off sections. She dropped the Holdless’ items in front of the cell door, just out of reach. Of course her wooden staff had been left in the woods and Akroma kept the knives on her.

While she had altered the other Shield members and the Weyrleaders to the arrival of the Holdless prisoner, she wasn’t sure if any of them would have time to pay the prisoner a visit. And that was fine with Akroma. The Shield woman had brought a chair to sit on in front of the cell and was currently picking dirt out of her short nails with one of Amn’s knives. Shade laid at her feet, the cat dozing until the Holdless started to wake up.
“Why hello sleeping beauty, and here I was starting to think that maybe I had accidently killed you on the way back. Your head might be a little sore. But at least it’s whole.”

[Loner]

Amnixiel tested her limbs for function, then tasted her lips. Oh, she knew she'd been dragged. There was leaf litter and sticks and twigs shoveled in spades up the backside of her shirt and up both pantslegs, and her back and arms and especially the back of her head felt quite beaten for it.

The wherry egg on the side of her head - which she had honestly hoped would not have been Akroma's pommel but her blade instead, and curse the woman for that detail! - pounded like a second heart, the agony coursing through her skull rather dampening her sense of hearing considerably. As a result, past the swimming, frothy-water sound in her ears as a throwback from the ringing of being struck in the skull, and having such a massive headache as a result also, the Holdless woman didn't hear Akroma's snide remarks.

Instead, she tried not to grimace as she groaned, lifting her drag-burnt arms to her face, and feeling tenderly of the knock. She worked the majority of the dirt off of her face, feeling the amount of crud worked into her hair as she did so and figuring it'd be a few days before she got that stuff back out again. Once she'd wiped her face off sufficiently, she dared to open her eyes, and seeing a stone ceiling above her - and feeling the sheer oppressive weight of the Weyr at large pressing down upon it - Amnixiel's expression worked into one of pitiful sorrow.

Rolling to one shoulder to try to elevate the bruise on her head, but unwilling to sit up as of yet, Amnixiel finally spotted the smug-looking Shield-woman sitting there on the other side of the bars separating her from the world. Her expression tightened, but didn't otherwise change.

Sniffing, then snorting most of that sniffle back out again when she found it was just as dirty as the rest of her face had been, Amnixiel exhaled long and slow at the woman. "You are just as putrid as they claim, Shield-woman," she whispered, loudly enough to be heard but not loud enough to actually be speaking outright. It made her sound hoarse. "You haven't even the decency to kill me and be done with me. No, you prolong my undue suffering, forcing yourself upon my presence like a man too long without a woman. All your talk of being better than me... and you prove otherwise."

[HG]

Eve was in a hurry. She had received a message from Akroma’s Nalaar which had visibly upset her. They found a Holdless spy near Refuge. The prisoner was being held in a section in the Lower Caverns they used as a prison/brig type room. Kyrah never wanted to miss the action so, she immediately took off to the Lower Caverns. Sure she might have left all of her food on the tray, but this was much more exciting than food.

Despite her rush it took her a good bit to get to the area of the Lower Caverns that Nalaar had indicated to Eve. The red head was slightly flushed when she finally arrived but as alert and fiery as ever. She listened as the Holdless woman insulted Akroma and a smile grew on her face. The smile was not one born of happiness but rather of incredulity. The other Shield woman had in fact brought in a Holdless and there she was insulting them for not killing her. Death, in Kyrah’s limited young life, was the easy way out for an enemy of Dragonkind.

With a cool almost liquid voice she answered the hoarse sounding woman, “Our Captain made it clear that you were to be kept alive.” As always Ky had the look of a faerie with her red hair in a strange wreath like formation about her head and the pixie like features of her pale face. She didn’t look anywhere near as strong as she actually was. Kyrah too wondered why Captain Eriol wanted to keep this Holdess woman alive.

It must be for a reason, she thought to herself. When Eriol or the Weyrleader arrived it would only be a matter of time for her. Once they had what they needed to know, she would probably be killed. The Holdless woman’s death would be the only way to ensure there was no weyr life lost because of her. She could have been caught on purpose to scope out the inner workings of the place she was being held hostage.

Might have been a good idea to blindfold and gag the woman. Eve landed calmly on the young woman’s shoulder letting her tail coil around the red heads arm. Kyrah was happy that Eve felt better at ease seeing the prisoner up close had certainly helped. She did not look like she was capable of putting up a good fight against someone like Akroma. What did Ky know about this Holdless though? Not enough to be sure of anything that had to do with the new prisoner. She could pass no judgment. “I suspect that Weyrleader A’lez will be arriving shortly. Then we will know whether you are to die or not.”

[Ise]

Akroma glanced up as Amnixiel started her rambling. She rolled her eyes a bit and leaned forward in her chair, just shaking her head. What a fool. Clearly the woman just wanted to die but didn’t have the guts to end her own miserable life. No wonder she had ‘accidently’ wandered onto the Weyr’s lands.

Kyrah’s arrival was announced by her cool voice. Akroma nodded and put Amnixiel’s knife on her belt as she gave the other Shield woman a nod of greeting.
“Trust me Holdless. If I had my way I would have slit your throat out there and hung your body up as a warning to the rest of your kind. Instead I brought you back here. And I didn’t break any bones or dislocated any joints. I actually treated you rather kindly. Far better then you and your murderous kin deserve.”

Akroma was starting to wish that she had gagged Amn, especially if the woman continued to be so preachy. She just kept sprouting the same insults; the Weyrs and everyone associated with them were scum, the Holdless were better because they were free to pillage and rape everyone else. Akroma wondered if the woman would shape a bit if the Weyrleader himself did come down here.
“If you value your life at all Holdless, you may want to show some manners to the Weyrleader. Of course if you really are so desperate for death, keep mouthing off. I’ll be more then happy to drag your lifeless body back into the forest. Or better yet, tell us where the Holdless camp is and I can personally drop your corpse off there.”

[Loner]

Amnixiel had another side to her, though. Pressing up to her elbows, and propping there for a moment, she took a moment to settle her nerves and take stock of all her woes and aches. Then she looked back through those wrought iron bars at the... two, now, of them... Hold-bound. Or Weyr-bound, in their case, as this place was doubtless the inner workings of the Weyr she'd been circling at a distance.

Not enough of a distance, she recalled bitterly.

"You want to know where the Holdless camp is?" She jiggered, then giggled, then laughed. "You think there's only one? And you honestly think a satellite bastard like me would have up-to-date knowledge of the current location of any of them? Those morons know enough to move their campsites around some, you know."

Pulling forward, the Holdless managed to get herself sat up, at which point she circled her knees with her arms, and clasped one wrist with the other hand. "I do, I suppose, know a few likely locations your mongrels could stake to see if anyone was stupid enough to use them twice... but really. If you thought the Holdless camps were such a problem, you could just burn the damn forest down and be done with it. You've dragons and stone enough for that, haven't you? Trees grow back, little slave girl... people don't."

This was pointless. Amnixiel wasn't born to live in a cage... and certainly didn't appreciate being beaten. But death she did not wish for, not out of hand. If she could escape this with her skin, then living on to another turn or so was entirely within reason.

[HG]

Kyrah was not sure if anything was going to come of this rambling the Holdless woman was doing. So they were crazy, that explained everything. Shaking her head at the woman's comments she looked over at Akroma sympathetically. How long did she have to listen to this Holdless before being able to drag her here.
Kyrah's laugh penetrated the entire room, reverberating off the cavern walls. She was not laughing because Amnixiel was funny, she was laughing because the woman's words were absurd. In a sardonic tone she went on, "Oh sure, lets just burn down the forest. And all the wildlife within it and as it grows more and more out of control do you think only the Holdless will be affected. The Weyr would not condone an action that would lead to risking the life of its supporters in the cotholds."

She could believe that the Holdless moved from place to place. The whole idea of it was brilliant. You can't find something that is not there. If this woman had an idea of what area they might be in, she could see the Weyr letting her go. Maybe. However that would not be up to her. It seemed Amnixiel had no real loyalty to anyone but herself which would be helpful in questioning her.

Now Kyrah was not a mean spirited person. She did not like torturing anyone. So seeing someone in bad shape as Amnixiel was did bother her a little. However she had to do what she was ordered to do. No harm in giving someone a littel bit of kindness was there? "Are you thirsty?" Kyrah asked, her voice still cool and collected. The Holdless woman might be able to speak better with a wet whistle.

[Ise]

Akroma raised an eyebrow slightly. It was good to hear from a Holdless that they moved the camps around. No wonder they had never had any luck finding them. This was more information then they normally got from the Holdless they found, most of them were willing to run right onto a blade if you caught them, all while babbling about the honor they would get and the songs that would be sung about them. What a bunch of idiots.

She stayed silent as Amnixiel suggested burning the whole forest down jut to get at a handful of trouble makers. Kyrah shot her down in a much nicer way then Akroma would have. The older Shield woman just shook her head, not only would burning the whole forest down put the cotholds at risk, but they didn’t have the firestone to waste on such a thing. The Red Star was coming, even the Holdless had to have noticed it growing brighter and brighter in the night sky. Had they really all forgotten that Thread came with the star? Even the Northerners weren’t that stupid. Sure they had sent children to try and get help but at least they had seen the signs and understood what it meant.

Akroma stood up and started pacing around the room, Shade looking up from where he was laid out on the floor before he returned his attention to the locked up Holdless.
“Do you have any maps that show where some of these past camps have been? They may be empty now but they might give us a hint as to where they like to stay. And since you don’t seem to have any love for a majority of them, the more you help us, the more we’ll be able to help you. You show us where they Holdless stay and we can put in a good word for you. The Weyrleaders aren’t violent people by nature after all.”

[Loner]

Amnixiel barked a laugh at Akroma's sudden change of hats. "Wow, honor from the violent whelp! If only you'd had this change of heart back when it mattered!"

She sighed, and shook her head, sparing a moment to rub tenderly on the wherry egg on her head. It had a heartbeat of its own, and it was making itself known every time she dared to inhale... which was actually quite often. And getting riled was raising her bloodpressure, and making it throb all the harder and all the faster.

Forcing herself to calm down - and doing a moment's meditation, focusing inward, to slow her pulse rate - Amnixiel inhaled gently, fully, and let it out slow and easy. When this proved to help somewhat, she opened her eyes and looked back over at the pacing Shield woman.

"You got all my dren, why don't you shuffle through it and find out for yourself? I'd bandy my cartography isn't the greatest, but hey. I'm new at it." With those words - which were relatively casual, given how she was feeling - Amnixiel refolded her arms around her legs, and leaned against them.

She was gritty, tired, sore in a number of places, and her head sharding hurt, dadgummit. Looking up at the other woman standing there, she exhaled in resignated exasperation. "Sure... I got a bottle of water in my pack, there... the one with the cork, now, not the one with the shaped glass plug. That one's disinfectant-strength alcohol, and it's no good for the drinking."

These people were so sharding strange!

[Ise]

If Amnixiel had said something useful out in the forest Akroma may have treated her a little kinder. Instead the woman had blabbed on and on about how everyone but her and the Holdless were useless slaves and only they were free. Really, it was far more useful to have her stuck down here. Eaiser to keep an eye on her and she more willing to answer questions.

Akroma went over to her bag of things and started shifting through it again, more carefully this time. She had gone through it quickly out in the forest to make sure she took any weapons that had been in it. Now she took the time to inspect everything, finding the map after a little while. She pulled it out, looking it over a bit before she handed it over to Kyrah so she could look it over. The map wasn't perfect but it would give them an idea of where the Holdless had been camped out. The one that interested her the most was the marked camp closest to Haven Weyr. Maybe that was the camp they had retreated to. Maybe they would still be there, smug in their attack on Haven.

Kyrah got the water for Amn while Akroma returned to looking through the Holdless' things.
"When was the last time you went to their main camp. Have you been there in the past turn or is all this information decades old."
Akroma sat back down, crossing one leg over the other as she watched Amnixiel, her hand falling to her side to pet at Shade who sat down beside her.

[Loner]

"The map itself," Amnixiel sighed, tiredly, "is hardly better than a few months. If you want an older map, get the one I glued to the braided slats of bamboo. It's mostly just topography, though, and I didn't bother to mark down camps or weyrs or whatall." She flexed her shoulders, grimacing when their soreness refused to give way, then picked herself up and turned around to sit against one wall.

May as well have something to lean against, right? And anyway, these honorless curs had been kind enough to supply such a something, so why not?

"That one's not done. I had been wanting to make a trip out to the rock juts south of the bending fissures, and get me a good look at the lay of the land, but I hadn't managed it before we met, and had such a nice little chat that you decided I just had to come see your house and meet all your other friends." Her grin was entirely mirthless, little more than a baring of her teeth.

"Far as I know, though, the main establishment doesn't really move. Might shift around a little... few hundred furlengths or so... mostly to abandon their waste pits. All the satellite camps pick up and go several tendays' spans roughly once or twice a month. So good luck finding any of them. I don't bother to mark them anywhere other than in my book of notes, and that's only if I intend to go back that way before the allotted time is out." She tapped a finger on her head. "Helps an old gal to remember, see. Thinker hasn't been the same since Ramuda."

[Ise]

A map of the forests topography was less useful but it might be good to compare what they had to what Amnixiel had. And while the old map may no longer be useful, it would at least give them idea as to where some of the camps had been. It was more then they had ever gotten before, most Holdless were willing to die before they would give the Shield such valuable information.

Akroma glanced over at Amn as she made her sarcastic remarks and gave the Holdless woman a sweet smile.
“It was so nice of you to come too. It’s not often that we get guests like you here. Had I known that you’d be coming back with me, well I would have tided up in here a little bit more. Hopefully there won’t be too many spinners trying to get at you tonight.”
The sickeningly sweet smile dropped off her face and Akroma went back to look serious as she looked the map over again.

“And where is this book of notes of yours anyways. Even if you don’t know where the main camp is right now knowing where the past camps have been would be nice. They can’t hide every track they make if they’re moving a whole camp around…”
No, as careful as they would try to be someone would screw up. You couldn’t move a whole camp of people without leaving some sort of sign. Especially if they weren’t moving the main camp too far. The smaller camps wouldn’t matter if they could hit the main one and capture the leader. The Holdless would fall apart if they could get their hands on him.
“And who or what is Ramuda.”

[Loner]

Amnixiel's expression went flat, and she stared through the bars at the studious look on Akroma's face with what seemed to be sadness in her eyes. She was silent through the biting remarks, through the pause while the Shield woman examined the topographical map.

She looked away, momentarily, and seemed to examine the palms of her own hands for a moment before lifting away a flap to a pocket and pulling free a leatherbound book with a cord wrapped around and around it. This, she unwound, and set gently aside.

Opening it, she lifted free a small, puddle-of-the-palm sized swatch of golden leather barely thicker than the paper the book held bound together. She gazed at the leather for a moment, tears seeming to brim, but anger overtook her and she put it back, closing the book and re-wrapping it tightly before cramming it uncerimoniously back into the pocket in her baggy pants.

She had dozens of such pockets, and even if Akroma had checked them all for weapons, most of them didn't hold weaponry or tools of any kind anyway. She kept a hand over the pocket, though, as she shot an unholy look of pure hatred through the bars at the snappish, arrogant remark posed as a question.

Who was Ramuda.

Who was Ramuda.

Who was Ramuda.

"Go suck an egg, Holdbound. I'll give you nothing!" and rightfully, she thought, the swimming vision a cue she'd tugged too hard at the memory, and awakened those old mental scars where her beloved, long-dead flitter had once been.

[Ise]

Akroma let out a mental sigh. Of course things couldn’t continue to go easy. That would be too nice. She had been so close to getting a list of some of the Holdless’ past camps and then Amnixiel had to start throwing a fit over a simple question. If all the Holdless were like this, maybe it was better that they had secluded themselves from the rest of the South.

“I’m Weyrbound, not Holdbound. Get it right.”
The Shield woman rubbed her temples as she watched Amn throw her fit and guard her pocket as if the notebook was the most important thing in the world. Whatever this Ramuda was, it was a touchy subject for her. And such an obvious one too.

“So what about this Ramuda gets you so worked up? Was it was person? Maybe you were jilted by some past lover? Or is it a place? Somewhere special to you?”
Akroma leaned back in the chair, one finger lightly tapping her chin as she thought about it.
“Ramuda, Ramuda, Ramuda. Whatever it is, it has a stupid name.”
Yes, she was just trying to push Amnixiel’s buttons now. It was a mean thing to do but if the Holdless woman got angry enough, maybe she would let something useful slip. Or even get mad enough to throw that book at her. If nothing else, it gave Akroma something to do.

[Loner]

Amnixiel snorted. "I don't care where you're from any more than you care where I am from. Get that right."

She didn't seem to get any worse steamed, though, sufficing with sitting and glaring at Akroma from behind the bars. The idiot kept asking about Ramuda, though, on and on and on, her drivel a poison to Amnixiel's accosted ears.

Finally, unable to bear it anymore, and willing to answer just to shut the mongrel up, Amnixiel snarled. "Enough, already! You're an idiot and your head is as empty as discarded eggshells! You claim many things but you lie... you don't even know anything about those with whom you claim to be living."

She took a wad of spittle and spat it through the bars at Akroma - but it didn't hit anything more dramatic than the floor - and snarled, "Ramuda was a billion times the soul you could ever hope to be. She was more than any of you mongrels could have handled. Her mere presence would set the lot of you to twittering uselessly! Ramuda was a gold. My gold. And if you defile her name one more time I swear I'll come through those bars and tear you in half!"

Heh... she probably would, just to see Amnixiel try. Oh well. Let her.

[Ise]

Akroma rolled her eyes a bit.
“Unlike you I actually am curious as to where you came from. It’s always interesting to hear where the Holdless come from.”
It was good to know where the Holdless were pulling their ranks from. It gave them an idea of where they should go to try and keep people friendly with them and prevent the Holdless from finding more recruits.

Amnixiel’s outburst didn’t bother her or get much of a reaction out of Akroma. Name calling seemed to be the worst that this one could do, and really she had heard worse things from her sisters. Being spat at though was annoying. Thankfull this woman had no aim or was unwilling to actually try and spit on her. Her rambling was boring and more of the same, whatever this Ramuda was was better then everyone in the Weyr, just like the Holdless were and probably everything else in Amnixiel’s mind. Though the screeching of how Ramuda was her gold was interesting. Ramuda was not a dragon name which meant that at some point this woman had had a gold fire lizard.

Shaking her head a little, Akroma summoned her own brown flitter to her. Nalaar popped in from Between and landed on her shoulder, his tail curling around her neck. She rubbed the brown’s head, eyeing the fire lizard before glancing at the Holdless woman. Akroma loved Nalaar and would mourn the little bugger when he finally passed away. But she could never see herself become so hysterical and hostile over it.
“A fire lizard. You’re throwing a fit over a fire lizard. Shards woman, you can buy eggs from people. I hope this Ramuda wasn’t the reason you joined the Holdless.”