[Cal'an]

He stood and stared at himself in the mirror, looking for the marks that
should have been on his body from...  His mind veered away from thinking
about it.

A couple of bite marks remained on his back, but the Nomad boy, Akil, had
healed almost everything else.  A few yellow spots marked almost-faded
bruises.

The dain Hehran even now lay in the Medical Center in some kind of coma,
his body practically aflame with the heat.  Herin said they'd learned
that's how the dain Hehran healed themselves.

But though his body appeared almost whole, his mind was anything but.  He
kept remembering fragments of sensation, but the voice and the face
wouldn't come into focus.

They had asked, gently, and he had told them he didn't remember.  They had
nodded understandingly and gone on.

He did remember, but he didn't.  He remembered choking.  He remembered the
taste of his attacker.  He remembered being tied... whipped... violated.
He remembered being instructed to do certain things and feeling an
overpowering need to do so.  He remembered doing those things.

But he couldn't remember the words and he couldn't remember the voice.

He turned and peered over his shoulder at the reflection of the bite wound
on his back.  That was the last thing he remembered before coming to in
the Medical Center.

He turned back to face himself, amber eyes studying his reflection.

He hadn't ventured out much, but he had heard them talking, when they
thought he was asleep or out of earshot.

Tears sprang to his eyes.  Could he had done it?  Is that why he had left?

He leaned forward, his forehead touching the cool glass.

"Dad..."

******

[Tair'n]

<My rider...>

<I'm not hungry, Amadith.>

<I can feel your hunger, my rider.  I brought you a nice rabbit.  I've
gathered some sticks and lit a fire...>

<I don't know how to skin or cook a rabbit, and I don't have a knife
besides.>

<You could go into one of the villages-- a different one that where you
got those clothes.>

As if reminded, Tair'n sat up and adjusted his clothes again.  They were
rough woven, unlike his usual silk shirts and soft leather pants, and
several sizes too big, but when you were stealing them off someone's
clothesline, you couldn't be choosy.  The sleeve cuffs were constantly
unrolling.  <And steal food or utensils?  It's bad enough that I had to
steal clothes.>

And, in truth, Amadith was somewhat glad that his rider hadn't had a knife
with him, for Tair'n's despair and horror had deepened throughout the time
they had been gone.

<We could go back,> Amadith suggested quietly.

Tair'n pulled his legs up against his chest and laid his head on his
knees.  <So we can be banished?  So Cal'an has to face me again and relive
the horror?  I can't go back.>

<You don't know that you did it...  Maybe...>

<Maybe what?  You were asleep and I was stinking drunk and you know what
happened the last time I got that drunk.  Even if it can't be proven
beyond a shadow of a doubt, do you think I want to go back and ask them
for yet another chance to try and kill him?  No, my friend, it's better
that I never go back.>

The dragon's thoughts fell silent and the two sat for a time in silence,
then Amadith perked up suddenly.

<Do you hear that?>

<Hear what?>

<Talking.>

Tair'n stood on bare feet and strained to hear.

"...sure that nobody ever comes here?"

"It's completely safe.  Now, let me look him over here..."

Tair'n sneaked through the winding passages of the cave complex till he
could peer into the cave where three figures stood-- two men and a young
boy.  Both men had their backs turned to Tair'n and one was apparently
studying the boy, who sullenly stared at the ground.

"Yes... I think he'll do nicely," the man with the boy said.

"How much can I get for him?"

"Enough that your wife's final days will be peaceful indeed, my friend."

The other man scuffed the ground with his boot.  "You won't hurt him, will
you?"

"Good gods, man, of course not.  He'll be a slave, it's true, but only an
idiot harms a slave he's invested money in."  He turned then so that
Tair'n could see him for the first time and smiled at the other man.

The dragonrider gasped, then covered his mouth, but the three didn't
appear to have heard him.

Oh, gods, he remembered that one.

He watched as the man who had supplied his mother with powdered bliss
shook the other man's hand.

<Amadith, go to the warren and bring...  Bring anyone who'll come.  I'll
be here, I promise.> He could feel Amadith take off even before he
finished.  He watched the man tearfully hug the boy, take the pouch
proffered by the drug dealer, and leave swiftly.  He watched the drug
dealer take the boy's arm and begin to lead him off.

"Come on, Garrin.  You and I have some getting acquainted to do..."

He didn't even have a knife.  Not that he would have known how to use it
had he had it...

He had lived that horror.  He had put his own son through it.  It had to
stop somewhere and he would stop it, even if it meant facing trial and
certain banishment.

"Please, Amadith, hurry up," he whispered.

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  Tair'n and Amadith
  and Cal'an

NRPG: I intentionally left the time (and day!) vague.  Drop this wherever
it would be most dramatic.  Maybe right in the middle of the trial... ;>

---

 Lynette R. F. Cowper <lcowper@indy.net>, INWO Line Editor