At her back, the warrior tenses, and she feels him move even as she hears the howl of the charging warrior. A brief glance, over her shoulder, shows a massive, hairy man with a club. He fights bravely and wildly, and, eventually, in vain. But he ties up her guard and others rush her, a small mob of the less brave, perhaps, but more tactically minded of these forest men. The two defenders fight as best they can, an impressive battle, moreso because of the rain and lighting.
Clubs, hunh? The Ranger decides to stick with her wrought iron buddy until such time as something better presents itself. Robin's snarl twists her face further and she sets herself to the serious business of killing as many of these bastards as she can. In as brief a time as possible. Her anger, her wildness pouring into the very land and storm around her.
Squinting against the lashing rain, Jovian takes in the situation at a glance. //Canareth,// he urges, //call the others. I want this place surrounded as right-now as they can manage safely!//
Time and defenders pass, and more of the enemy arrive, pressing the attack. The ground is slick with rain and blood and the man falls. Robin stands over him, protecting him with the bent poker. She senses that soon she will be overcome, overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Her pursuers mass and charge.
Realizing the wings will be just the tiniest bit too late to carry through his original plan, the wingleader urges Canareth into a tight circle and downward, plummeting toward the mass of fighting men.
It is at this moment that Robin notices the huge, bat-shaped silhouette rapidly growing above her.
Robin whirls, her green eyes flashing eerily in the storm. As she takes in the... size of the thing coming at her, blank astonishment washes over her face. Then her snarl returns and she sets herself to receive this new charge. Perhaps in futility, but that thing is going to at least get some respect for herself and her iron buddy before the crunching bits begin.
The war-cry of the dragon sweeping in is deafening. His companion knows it is, on some level, simply the great beast bellowing out 'I found her,' but it is a sound that shakes the trees. The lashing forked tail comes dangerously close to Robin as the behemoth comes in low from behind her, silvery gleaming talons almost raking the ground in a straight and true course into the center of the massed attackers.
From away above the surrounding hills - from all around - come the answering bugles of more dragons. Perhaps as many as two dozen, perhaps more, their triumphant call drowns out the storm.
Hoshith the golden takes the ridge above the cave. Canarath and J'rim are some way in front of it, knocking down soldiers and wild men alike. Maranth comes down in a streambed and starts directing two smaller dragons from his wing to begin removing trees, making a landing zone for the wings.
It takes no more than three dragons to set the foes in flight. L'tarn asks J'rim (via dragon relay) if he wishes them pursued.
// No, let them go. I have a feeling Robin knows where to find them if we need them later.//
There were 40 of them, perhaps. Jovian thinks it must be his sister to keep 40 fighters at bay in an open space.
"What the hell?!?" Robin is obviously mystified, but decides that she can be mystified and moving at the same time. Ducking low, she checks to see how badly her companion is injured. "Come on, nice man. Don't die on me here."
He looks like he won't, but he should be brought in out of the rain. Also, there are dragons. Loud dragons. Apparently friendly.
Robin looks around at the dragons. Confusion still dancing on her face, but a smile beginning to form where a snarl was before.
As she picks up her companion into a gentle cradle carry, a chuckle goes through her. "You said there was nothing bigger than boar." She says fondly.
Stepping back, Robin looks around at the... loud frolicking lizards that are tearing up the clearing and her former pursuers. You know -- except for the wings. And the colors. The fact that they're Saurian or something. And, of course, the size! of them ... except for all that, they sure remind her of a pack of storm hounds. Whhhiicch means...
Robin looks around for the 'Alpha'. The regal golden being on the ridge behind her? Calmly watching all the fun? Robin lifts her emerald eyes upwards.
Canareth pulls up, wheels, and backwings to a landing - now behind Robin, since she's turned. The gust of air from wings big enough to bear 150 feet of lizard aloft is probably refreshing after the heat of battle, despite the rain. "Somebody order up cavalry?" Jovian calls as he clambers to the ground behind his sister.
As the wind from the powerful bronze blows Robin's short hair forward around her ears, she whirls eyes squinting against the rain. And the wind. And the darkness. A fortuitous lightning bolt strikes nearby illuminating the form of her brother sliding down the glittering bronze skin.
The Ranger's emerald eyes widen and delight lights up
her face similar to the way the lightning illuminated the night.
"J'RIM!" She calls happily. "J'rim! By the Green!"
Momentarily forgetting her burden, Robin makes to
run to and hug her brother. But the amount of bleeding companion
in her arms limits her to a strong shoulder nudge.
One strong arm goes around Robin's shoulders as the bronze rider beams at his sister. "Might as well get used to Jovian, Robin; I've given in to Dad's wishes that much!"
"Too bad. Oh, well. I'm sure you'll find something else to argue about." She smiles fondly and bumps Jovian with her hip.
"Oh, don't you worry about that..." He very consciously decides to move on from there.
"Long time, Robin. Your choice of company has gone downhill," he adds with a grin, gesturing over his shoulder at the routed fighters. "Whose game, and what's the score?" His tone is glib and his expression amused, but his posture screams battle-ready.
"Ah, dung. I'm being played, Jovian. Again. Shouldn't be a surprise." She grins up at her brother, completely unconcerned with the water pouring through her hair.
"The bitch with the death-wish is named Vianis. Formerly chancellor of this Island, now coup-meister. Nice man, here... oh, let's get him into that - hah! - cave, shall we?"
Robin moves toward a vvverry shallow cave in the ridge under Hoshith and keeps up the talk. "Anyway nice man here is named Siege. He's a heavy with the thoroughly trounced counter-revolutionaries. We met in Vianis' dungeons."
Robin's face gets still and white for a moment. When she looks up at Jovian, there is pure hate in her eyes. "She put me in a hole, Jovian. Underground. I'm going to serve her her own intestines."
"Oh!" As quickly as the ferocity came, it's gone. "You might want to tell your friends that we've got some powerful sorcery types running around here. 'Witches' and 'Priestesses'. They pack a punch with the restraining spells, can whip up constructs and are able to... I dunno, 'witch' things is what he said." She nods to Siege as she lays him down out of the rain.
"And Jovian. I think family's involved. But I'm not sure on which side yet."
Jovian has been patient through the recitation, even impassive before his sister's implacable fury, but the faint puzzlement etched in his brow deepens steadily. "Shit and crackdust. Family? Is that how you got involved in this whole mess?"
"Naw. I was just passing through. But this Chancellor person is a bit of a precognitive. Said she didn't like my omens. So she set a trap for me." A grin. "Nice bait too."
"Has she still got what she drew you here for? Thirty dragons on her doorstep might be a useful surprise, but we won't be a surprise for long."
Her brow furrows from where she's looking over Siege, trying to ascertain which blood is his, etc. And she shakes her blond head. "I... don't think she 'drew' me here, Jovian. I think she just knew I was going to hit her shores and prepped for the bad thing that was coming."
"But yeah. She's still got something of mine. And something of his." She nods to her vict... patient.
"So what's the hundred-word-or-less version?"
Robin's eyes flare with ferocity. "She's got my Trump of Dad, Jovian." She spits with venom - and perhaps of touch of desperation lurking there under the anger.
Jovian scowls deeply. "We can't have that floating around, you're right."
"And Siege's 'commander,' one Avis." Jovian can hear that Robin suspects there is much more to that relationship. "This Avis person may be related and scheduled for sacrifice. Soooo my priorities are getting all screwed with here."
The young Ranger continues to wipe, clean and examine Siege's wounds with practical field experience.
"Shadows may be shadows, but I'm still provincial enough to have something to say about human sacrifice as well. Don't worry, we'll figure something out." By now Jovian is positively grim.
He eyes the landscape outside their meager shelter, which he might have said was dissolving in the torrential rain a week ago - before he knew what that really meant. More dragons are gathering in the newly widened clearing. "And do you suppose we can agree to let up on the weather now?"
"Hunh? Oh yeah. Okay. Was that you fighting me on the storm?" Robin gently lets go of her anger in the air and ground. Not releasing suddenly, but slowly cranking it back down until the winds and clouds of the night can be returned to their 'natural' state.
At the same time, she redirects the flare of pattern fired potentialities. "Hey, J'r... Jovian? There's a dropped first aid kit under that bush over there. With the white berries? Would you bring it here?" From when the Brotherhood met their defeat here. Running. Fighting for their lives. In the confusion it slipped from a belt and tumbled to its hiding place.
Jovian lets down the effort he had put into the storm as well, letting its force drain away. "I was fighting it at first. Then I realized who it was and pushed along with you a bit."
They both stop fueling the storm. The gale is no longer growing in intensity, but is still a big storm. Flash flood warnings are in effect, they shouldn't drive through water if they don't know how deep it is.
"First aid kit, no problem. And I've just decided that behind that bush there should be another one with berries that can be crushed into a reasonable antiseptic; I'll get those too."
"Jovian?" Robin looks up. There's something swimming behind those emerald eyes. Something that the anger and the need of the situation is shoving aside. Something... afraid? "Thank you. Thank you very much. I... we'll talk in a bit, okay?"
His smile is genuinely warm as well as confident, and needs no words.
She smiles back gratefully and returns to her work.
He looks outside at the storm and back at Robin. "I noticed from the air, the island looks volcanic. Have you explored enough to know whether there are caves for my dragonriders to take shelter?"
A shudder runs through the young Ranger. "Oh, yeah. There's caves. Lessee." Assuming Siege is not in imminent danger of dying, Robin looks off into the distance, obviously measuring a track. "A league or so towards the edge of the woods." She nods. "There's a series of them. We didn't find a large entrance, but there will be one facing the sea."
Robin turns her face back to Jovian. "Will that do?" A plucky (but somewhat faltering) grin lines her lips. She's obviously not toooo happy with the thought of caves, but game.
Jovian nods, smiling again, possibly - just possibly - enjoying his sister's reaction as much as the thought of adequate shelter. "I've lived in caves all my life, Robin. That should do fine."
The Ranger shakes her head, a fond rueful smile on her face. "You, my brother, are a twisted and perverse man." She says with a chuckle in her voice, her eyes sparkling with loving laughter.
He turns and steps into the slightly calmer night to do these things. Along the way he gestures to Kourin and L'tarn to walk with him. "My dear sister Robin hasn't disappointed. She's gotten drawn into some kind of power struggle here that could widen; it would be irresponsible to put that kind of threat at our backs. I'm going to have to find out a little more before we make our next move; we're just going to have to lay low for a little - as low as thirty dragons can lay, anyway."
As Jovian turns to leave, and the lightning begins to die down, Robin finds herself in yet another darkening cave. Repressing a shudder, the girl briefly leaves her companion. In the back, she finds what she's looking for. The torn remains of a backpack, scuffed over by dirt and hidden. And in one of the pockets, a candle stub and fire-starter.
A few flicks of shaking hands, and a feeble golden light flickers in the cave. Enough to see expressions, perform medical examinations, and make introductions by.
Meanwhile, Jovian finds what he expects to find.
L'tarn says, "It's too dark and too wet to go hunting tonight. Do we huddle here or do we pick her up and go huddle elsewhere?"
Jovian peers into the stormy landscape around them. "From the look of this island overall, I wouldn't be surprised if we find a system of suitable caves."
Kourin picks up the first aid materials, and sighs. "It this is what they've got, he better not be badly wounded. T'dor has better materials, even after we sent some back with the critically wounded. I'll call him." Her eyes unfocus.
"Excellent. Thank you, love." He must be stressed, Kourin will realize, for him to have said that aloud. Jovian picks half a hatful of the berries as well, just in case, then turns to return to Robin's shelter. If Kourin and L'tarn hesitate to follow, he'll beckon them along.
"Robin, this is L'tarn, rider of bronze Maranth, and Kourin, gold Hoshith's rider. My second and my boss respectively." His grin carries maybe a sliver more bravado than necessary. " L'tarn, Kourin, my sister Robin. Our man T'dor, green Shalith's rider, is on his way with better medical supplies than this, left over from the battle."
A brilliant smile lines the face of the bedraggled blood-stained soaking Ranger. "L'tarn, Kourin. Thank you so very much. I'm sorry to pull you out on such a miserable night, but your efforts are soooo appreciated." Robin speaks more formally to the riders than she does to her brother, but there's no less sincerity in her voice.
L'tarn bows deeply. "Your father J'lin was a leader and a protector amongst our people, as your brother is now. He is my friend and can call upon my aid. However, any fighter who can keep two score of armed thugs at bay with a bent fireplace poker deserves the aid and respect of dragonriders whosoever she may be."
A big grin dances across the girl's face. "Flatterer." She says fondly. "I'm very pleased to meet you too."
Kourin looks at L'tarn with a lopsided grin. "He is, generally. This however, is serious. Also, J'rim never told me he had a sister."
"But--"
"Hey, he never told me that J'lin was Lord Holder of a forest so vast that Maranth could get lost in it. You think you know a guy and he turns out to be from another planet..." L'tarn shakes his head, ruefully, but cannot disguise his playful grin.
"But I--"
"Lots of people don't know the J'rim has a sister. It's nothing personal." She smiles to Kourin, trying to tone it down a little despite her rushing blood and the wildness of the night. "It's... used to be kind of an important state secret."
However, her nature gets the better of her again - what a surprise! - and she finds herself rising to L'tarn's grin. "Besides, the best guys come from other planets."
"You know," J'rim remarks, finally pushing a word in, "if I'd tried to explain it to you guys before you had a chance to SEE it, you'd have taken me off active duty and sent me to the healers!" His indignation is entirely self-mocking, of course.
Robin nods remembering Jovian's earlier comment concerning the other rider, a healer. And then pauses, her brows slightly furrowed. "Battle?" She looks concerned, and Jovian can see another of those deep flickers in his sister's green eyes.
"You didn't hear?" Jovian's tone is incredulous but his face is almost amused. "Bit of a dustup down in Chaos, Dad and all our uncles but Gerard down there with troops? It was in all the papers."
"Oh." Robin's voice is small and the perky ranger totally locks down. No signals of any kind come from her body language, vocal tones, or expressions. "Uh... are you and Dad okay?"
"Oh, jays, Robin," Jovian responds, apologetically, sobering at once. "I forgot, it's been longer for you. The battle wasn't ten days ago for me - Chaos screwed with time." He shakes his head slowly, as if still feeling a lingering headache from it - Robin might recall that Jovian has always had a quirky thing about time.
"Dad's fine," he reassures her. "Daeon came out of the battle all right, but took a hit somehow on the way home. He's back in Amber getting patched up. I...." He glances from L'tarn to Kourin, his eyes as much a whirl of emotions as a dragon's. "I'm uninjured." His eyes, as intensely green as his sister's, shine in the candlelight perhaps a little more when he looks back at her.
A flat understanding smile lines the girl's lips as she reaches up to take the hatful of berries from him. She pauses a moment to clasp his hand in her roughly bandaged one. "Jov... " concern for her brother starts to shine through her own shut-down, but she can't quite manage the words yet.
Eventually she just nods. "In a little bit. We talk. Please?"
"Sure," Jovian answers in a half-whisper, laden with emotion but meant to be reassuring. He squeezes his sister's hand back - carefully, not putting pressure on her injuries. "I've missed you, Robin."
T'dor arrives, weathered, lean, and lanky as so many of the riders. Wet and cheerful, somehow, despite the storm. "Shalith says the rain is just the thing to wash the salt water off," he tells the other riders.
Robin shakes herself briefly and seems very relieved to have a wet, cheerful distraction right now. She favors the new arrival with a smile and keeps out of his way. Though makes sure she's available to hand and hold things should T'dor need it.
He looks over Siege, loosening his clothes, moving him gently. "I'm better with burns," he explains, "but the head wound doesn't seem too serious. He should be fine, but not immediately. It looks like he was not in great shape to start with. Those guys with the clubs seem to have beat him pretty hard. I expect he's got some cracked ribs and he may have broken his arm. Other than being beat senseless by the locals, what happened to him?"
Siege groans, and moves his good arm up to his forehead.
"Don't move too around much, Siege." Robin speaks gently for all the commanding tone of voice. "We won. Cavalry's arrived. And you're smashed up a little. Be okay in a moment."
Her green eyes dart to T'dor. "He's been in a dungeon for I don't know how long before tonight. Don't think he was tortured, but he may have been roughed up some. They might have hit him with some magical type whammies. Other than that, I'm not certain."
"I have been in a dungeon for perhaps six weeks.
Despite treachery, I did make it difficult for my foes to capture me.
They
did not have a light touch with their prisoner, even though I am the
Chancellor's grandson. But I am not...fragile."
He blinks and props himself up by his elbow, to the
surprise
of T'dor. "Robin, who are these people?"
The relieved smile that dances across Robin's face in the flickering candlelight is beautiful to behold. "Well, now. The nice medical type you're scaring by moving around is T'dor. The stately lady who's trying to figure out how quickly she can get us all out of here is Kourin. The dashing young man who thinks this is a fine rumble is L'tarn. And the green-eyed cave goblin," said with much fondness, "who's trying to keep us all on the same page is J'rim. My brother." She finishes with a smile. "I gather they've brought some equally competent and impressive friends with them. Oh! And you should see the rides." Big grin. "Definitely the cavalry."
"If your problems lately can be solved by a direct charge, no sweat. If not, well, we're a pretty cagey lot when cornered." Jovian punctuates this with a wink and the devil's own grin.
"Do you think you can hold it together if I carry you out of here?" Robin says.
"Lately we've gotten pretty good at slinging wounded warriors for safe transport," J'rim adds with a friendly, sincere smile. "You're not afraid of heights, are you?"
"I'm less worried about someone dropping me from a height than I am about what the Chancellor's minions will do to me if I stay here," says Siege. "I'd need a big horse."
Robin's devil grin is a match for her brother's earlier one. "They're not horses. And they are definitely big enough." Her eyebrows waggle and her eyes sparkle.
"Big enough to make your Chancellor wet herself, I'm hoping." And something distinctly malicious gleams in Jovian's eyes, something L'tarn and Kourin hadn't ever seen from him.
Robin's all gentleness and checking with T'dor as she eases the big man into her arms and stands carefully.
Siege makes it to his feet, but leans heavily on Robin. T'dor looks on with disapproval; Jovian thinks he'd be complaining if it were anyone but his sister.
Robin smiles ruefully at T'dor. When a man gets it into his head... she shrugs to the dragonrider, and eases Siege out into the night.
Once Siege is vertical, Jovian (just because he's a meddling nuisance) holds up three fingers about two feet from the warrior's face. "How many fingers, Siege?" If he's satisfied with the answer to that, he'll move the hand back and forth to see how his eyes are tracking. Just as a precaution. That did look like a nasty shot to the head.
Robin chuckles fondly to her brother. "Nuisance."
"Three, as in 'three times too many doctors.'"
Jovian grins wryly. "You're going airborne, mister. Last thing I need is a patient with sudden bouts of vertigo."
Robin is chuckling from where she is just walking, yes sir, just walking with Siege beside her. "Didn't think you had a sense of humor there, Siege. It's nice to hear." She winks to him.
"Hmf. It is of the 'If you cause me to fall 600 feet to my death, I shall surely climb back up and throttle you' sort. Many do not appreciate it."
"First priority is going to ground somewhere it will take time for them to look for us," Jovian agrees with Siege. "Then we've got -- how long did you say, Robin? A day and a half to plan?"
A dark snicker comes from Robin as she strides out into the gentling rain. "Don't I wish, Jovian. Let me run a few of those words by you again. Precognitive. Omens. Witches. Priestesses. Magical Constructs."
"I was only one little girl wandering randomly through. And I made so much of a bow-wave that the big baddies had time to set and bait a particularly effective Robin-trap for me. In advance. Two of us? Tearing up the night sky? Plus your lovely loud buddies?" She shakes her head.
"We can go to ground. Get some rest. Sure. But don't think that they wouldn't know where we were or wouldn't be lining up the armies and the siege-sorcery, Jovian." A tccch of her tongue lets her brother know what she thinks of this place. "They're pretty damn on the ball here."
"But if they knew *we* were coming," he counters, gesturing to include all the dragons, "wouldn't they have been ready to mess with us, especially if their constructs are all that potent? Anyway, I doubt her vision extends across Shadow, so we can slip a veil or two and make it that much harder for her to snoop on us."
"Jovian, NO!" Robin almost shrieks. And then notices that - heh! - she may have overreacted there a tad. Her green eyes dart around the night like she'd really like to take that back, but eventually she brings herself to look Jovian in the eye. "Jovian..." she murmurs. "I - I know it's stupid. And I know it endangers you all, but... I can't leave that Trump here. I just can't." She drops her gaze to the earth.
"It's all I have left..." she whispers to the ground.
"What are you talking about, *all* you have left?" Jovian takes Robin by the arms - gently! - and searches her face for meaning.
Robin's green eyes appear moist in the night. Surely just the rain. And the paleness must just be due to the lack of sunlight. But line of her shoulders - she wants nothing more than to curl up in her big brother's arms. But they're still in the fray. "Jove..." her voice is husky. "Please. Not yet." She pointedly shifts her grip on her companion.
Jovian holds Robin's gaze for a long, long moment, then releases it. "All right," he relents. "But don't count on me to forget." His tone is reproving, but still gentle for all that. His face is a tumult of conflicting emotion barely tinting a mask of control - his "in command of the situation" face.
Jovian sends Siege with T'dor to be introduced to Markyta (or whoever's still equipped with a casualty sling).
"You take care, nice man." A wink. "And I'll see you on the ground. Okay?" Robin smiles reassuringly to the man and pats him on the shoulder - and not gently as though he were a fragile injured thing - but heartily like a player on his way to the bench for a rest.
Then Jovian leads Robin to his own waiting bronze. "Robin, have you properly met Canareth? Canareth, you remember my sister."
"Nooo. Wow!" Robin's green eyes are wide and bright as she greets the giant bronze. A delighted laugh breaks free from her. "Hey, gorgeous - you ever get tired of hauling J'rim's heavy butt around, look me up." She grins. "Wow!"
"You know, Canareth," Jovian considers aloud, scratching the great bronze's uppermost neck ridges, "if she didn't have Arden to get back to, I'd ask what you thought of Robin as a Candidate." He fairly beams at both bondmate and sibling.
"Candidate? For what?" She looks back and forth between the two. "No, no. Don't tell me. I'm sure it'd just make me crazy. Crazier." She amends quickly, before Jovian can.
"Canareth. I'm thrilled to meet you." Robin manages a rough curtsey despite the wildly inappropriate surroundings and attire. "Thank you for all you've done for J'rim." And the bronze is treated to one of Robin's bonfire warm and searchlight bright smiles.
Jovian looks vague for a moment, there's a ghost of movement at his lips... and then he poorly suppresses a brief laugh. "I think he approves of you, Robin," he not-explains.
He shows Robin where to step, how to hold, then swings up behind her. "So what do you know for *fact* about this Vianis bitch, as distinguished from overblown reputation and rumor?"
The Ranger has a hard time focusing on Jovian's question as she is all eyes and curiosity from Canareth's back. "Hunh? Oh, well Siege can tell you more than I can. I was only in her presence for a little bit."
"Hartwell - the previously mentioned nice bait... a-hem. Anyway, he was waiting at this tavern that I didn't know I was going to stop at until that minute. He told me that the Chancellor had sent him there that day to meet me. Of course, he didn't saaaayyy that until I'd already downed the drugged ale that he'd had pre-prepped special for me. Jovian - it knocked me on my ass." A rueful chuckle, "Okay, a tankard-noggin assist was needed but... they had planned for someone me hefty."
"Next thing I know I'm waking up all stiff, headachy and restrained. Severely restrained. And not with rope or chain or anything I could handle. They soooo had my number."
Robin is silent for a moment and the snarl returns to her lips. Her green eyes narrow and begin to glimmer evilly. "*Then* starts the headgames. 'Who is the man pictured here?'" Those eyes dart to Jovian, "She knew enough not to let me see the Face. Only the back. 'How many of you alien spies did he land?' 'You do have the Unicorn Sign on this Magical Device.' Capitals hers. Wouldn't listen to a word I said. Then..."
The girl gets stiff. "Dungeon. Dark. Stone all around..." she finds herself clutching suddenly at Jovian, her face pale.
The rider's arms tighten around Robin, his presence strong, warm and reassuring at her back. "If I tweak Shadow just a little, Robin, we can be right back in a moment and not have to hide in caves."
His tone becomes grim for a moment. "And you *know* I mean to come *right* back."
The young Ranger leans back into her brother's arms. A tremble runs through her body, like a startling hawk. She rests her head against his shoulder. After a moment, the trembling stops and the girl almost slumps as her nervous energy leaves her. When she speaks again, her voice is low on the night, a whisper away into the darkness. "Jovian. If I lose that Trump, I will become completely Lost. If you are willing to risk that in someone of my ability and strength... it is your decision, dragonrider."
She waits.
A thoughtful time that seems longer than it really
is. Had Robin always been this skittish and I just hadn't seen it? He
asks himself, and searches his memories for the answer.
No. She was shaken, badly, by something deeper and
more
profound than whatever was at work here. Something that, in its time,
would
pay for the cracks it had made in her - would pay dearly, and with any
luck,
slowly.
Which causes him to wonder in turn, have I always been this bloody-minded but too busy to notice?
It occurs to him that Robin is waiting for an answer. "We'll stay close," he allows. "Any shelter big enough for a dragon to enter should admit plenty of light, right?" Another reassuring little squeeze, laden with the confidence, cruelly withheld for too long, that big brother was going to be able to make it all right this time....
Robin nods. Jovian can feel the slight, trembling smile on her lips and the rueful chuckle that shakes her. "Light would be good. Thanks."
"And Jovian," the Ranger turns her head so she can look over her shoulder at the man she is leaning against, "I can help too. I may be... not quite right, I guess. But still. We're in this together. And I can pull my weight. And I can... listen." Her green eyes show that despite what's stirring her depths, it hasn't escaped Robin's attention that her brother is also... 'uninjured.' A fond smile lifts her lips.
"I'm counting on it," Jovian replies fervently. "Between you, Siege and me, we're going to have to be exceptionally sneaky, and it'll be kind of hard for Canareth to sneak!" His tone has some of the old bravado back, but something in the way he holds himself, a subtle change in ambient tension perhaps, lets Robin know the rest is understood as well.
Jovian wrinkles his nose a little, but as he's behind Robin, she probably doesn't notice.
"Sneaky? Me?!?" Some of Robin's humor comes back into her voice and she shakes her head ruefully. "I'm starting to think that the reason Spider-woman was prepped for me and not for you is that I stir up more bad omens than a flight of dragons." A chuckle ripples through her.
"But you know... Siege is good. Really good, J'rim. It's not like I rescued him from those dungeons. No matter what he says." She grins, thinking about the 'nice man's' fierce remonstrations. "He probably knows the layout of this 'Temple' where the elusive Avis is probably being kept. And hopefully the Chancellery where my Trump is being kept too." She nods thoughtfully, willing to follow Jovian to the more tactical field of conversation.
"Hmmm," Jovian hmmms. "If he's the one with knowledge of the layout, then we need him in on the tactical discussion. Is this ritual sacrifice inside the Temple you mentioned, or out in public under a full moon or whatever?"
It is clear he has ideas of attending this ritual.
"I am not the girl in the know here. I'm just making a lot assumptions." Surprise, surprise, her voice says. "What I'm adding up is this - that lovely romantic spot where we met," Robin flutters her eyes, "was formerly his folks' 'base camp.'"
"When we got there the storm was busy washing away the signs of a losing battle fought three days ago. Siege could kind of tell who had died - Brotherhood of the Stag code or something. Commander Avis wasn't among the departed. And she wasn't in the ssppeeeccciall cells with me and Siege. So he's figuring she's being held as a hostage or a sacrifice at 'The Temple.' Capital's his."
"I don't know anything about rituals or stuff. But I do have a sneaking hunch - which by the way I have not mentioned to Siege yet - that we may be related to the Commander. And I really don't know if that's a good thing or not."
"Well, as our brother would say, this may be the end of the world or not, but I think we should get out of the rain." Jovian leaves it at that, as the dragons are approaching cliffs overlooking the sea. They wheel out over the water in a broad turn, surveying the seaward cliff face - one dragon-sized opening gapes in the rock, and a few more here and there that a man (or perhaps a smaller beast) could pass through.
//Canareth, have one of the blues check out the size of that cave – if the smaller openings are connected, the interior may be big enough for us all.//
"Get... out of the rain? Daeon said that?" Robin is thoughtful. "I always liked the rain." She murmurs quietly to herself.
"The rain we were facing at the time had an annoying habit of dissolving the landscape completely. And anything else as well." A shudder courses through him at the thought.
But as the dragons wheel, Robin loses her train of thought -- the thrill of flight slowly overwhelming her own issues. Straightening, the girl lifts her face into the flowing breeze, her cheeks and chin upturned, her eyes closed. A deep breath flows into her, beginning with a shudder but ending in a large gulp. Out again, her breath streams and on it, the beginning of a delighted chuckle.
When Robin opens her eyes again, the green is sparkling and light. Squirming in J'rim's grip, Robin raises her arms out to her sides, like wings of her own. A laugh bursts out of her, and J'rim can feel her body lift next to him as Robin begins to stand from her purchase, easily compensating for the movement of the enormous bronze beneath her.
Jovian laughs, peers down to see where Robin is finding footholds (as they're riding without saddle, much less stirrup). He tries to resist the urge to hold her too tightly, and mostly succeeds.
A thrilled grin, visible like a lighthouse in the dark storming night, shines from the Ranger's face, as she lets the wind and water flow over her. Laughing, Robin looks back down to the brother who holds her, pure joy sparkling in the green eyes. The girl turns her face back to the wind, purses her lips and issues forth a clarion hawk's hunting call as her hands raise in the storm.
Beneath her, feet made agile and strong from decades of riding and tree-climbing are turned slightly inward. The textured soles of the ranger's soft leather boots are perfectly designed for finding purchase on the smoothest surfaces and Robin knows how to use them. The girl's ankles and knees flex almost unconsciously in time to Canareth's mighty wing beats, while at the same time holding her feet clamped against the bronze dragon's skin, letting her straighten from a secure position.
//Finath and Parth report that the caves are large enough, but they would have to dig to make them weyrs. It is too wet for digging. Finath thinks we can use this cave, but R'liat is concerned that there is only one dragon-sized entrance. He says he wants to get in out of the rain.//
//That bothers me too, but I think we'll have to make do with it for a short while. Tell Tamaranth I need to know from her wounded passenger whether he thinks Vianis can bring down the ceiling of that entrance from a distance.//
//She says that he says that they cannot without seeing it, and few of those that could see it. She says he does not believe his grand-dam could in any case.//
//Settled, then. We'll just have to post sentries to make sure we see them before they see us. Give the order, we're landing.//
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