Shifting The Blame

[The day of the Wraith Attack]

Lady Raine Calaris Knew the riders were right... In her heart at lease...
The people of her town weren't to blame for what her father and brother had
done to her. They were hard working people who had been mostly fooled just
as she had been.

Until her eyes had been opened. 

Could she in all honestly let those of them who had been honest die from the
wraiths? Could she let her own hates be the downfall of those mothers and
fathers, sons and daughters who had only been doing the work they had been
trained to do since birth.

No...

She turned to the riders.....

"Protect them, " she said dryly with none of the hate in her tone she was
feeling. "Protect those who are innocent...  But I want to know of any who
you even suspect as going along with ... them!"

Then she turned and walked away. She had someone to see. Someone who she was
going to offer a chance of a lifetime... Someone who would take the problem
of the town off her hands, for she wanted nothing to do with it. She wanted
nothing to remind her of what she had been through.....Someone she knew she
could trust to see those honest villagers were treated right.

........... 

"Let me get this right Lady Raine," the older man spoke softly, though not
as softly as he would to a child with a slow mind... which was what he was
feeling about this poor sweet girl who had been abused by her own family.

If her bastard of a brother wasn't already dead..... the older man would
have had great joy in ordering someone in his trusted circle to do the job
for her. 

"You want to sign over the lands to my daughter and her her new husband on
the day they say their vowels. You just want to give them the lands that
have been in your family for over 200's of years and walk away from them."

"That's about it Lord Kanen," the girl nodded her head. "I want nothing to
do with them any longer. The lands and what they stand for have no meaning
for me any longer because of what my--family-- did to both me and they
people who have been serving them for all that time. I don't want to be
reminded of it day after day... and I can't just let it go without someone
looking over it and the people who live there..."

"But to sign it away young woman," the Lord shook his head, not believing
what the girl had purposed to do. It just wasn't done!  "Couldn't you find
someone to act as a Stewart to take over the running of the lands until such
a time as you might feel up to running them yourself?" he suggested
kindly... Not that he wasn't thrilled she had come to offer them to Lenasha
and Ryant as her first choice. Why his daughter and her future husband would
be overjoyed...

But Raine shook her head viciously. "No... I don't want them now and never
will... Saul of Whiteriver once told me I had what it took to be a
dragonrider... and there are eggs on the sands right now... and Saul has
never been wrong... My...(and she said the next name with a sneer in her
tone) father... and brother took from me what they had no right to take. It
was because they knew I would join when the time came... and they were very
against it... so that more then anything is reason enough for me to want to
try for the eggs... but mostly it's because it's what **I** want to do."

The older Lord was quiet for a moment as he thought over the girls words. He
thought if given time the young Lady would see things differently, so he
came up with a proposal of his own.

"Okay... what if... I offer Lady Lenasha and Lord Ryant the stewardship of
the lands for say two years... and in after that time you still feel the
same way... then you can sign the lands over to them."

"I won't change my mind about it Lord Kanen... but if that is the only way
you will agree... Drawl up the papers and we'll get it all legal now."


.......................  

[Day of Kanen taking to Merissa]

"My dear Merissa if you've a moment after dinner tonight," Lord Kanen spoke
softly to the young Warrenlady as the rest of his family were leaving the
meeting room. "I have something I wish to talk over with you."

"Certainly Lord Kanen," Merissa agreed. "Shall I sent someone to let you
know when I am free?"

"If you please... For it's something I think important and need your advise
on before moving on with it."

He bowed then and went outside to join the rest of his family.

Later he followed the messenger back to the Warrenlady office and as the two
of them took chairs he explained about Lady Raine coming to take with him
and what she had wanted to do. "while I know this would be a boon for my
daughter and new son-in-law... I really don't think the girl is thinking
clearly."

"I do Lord Kanen," Merissa wore a frown as she spoke the words. "I've known
Lady Raine for a good many of years... We were friends of sorts because my
mother and I often sang at her home when we were both younger... If Raine
says she wants to give the lands away, then she has made up her mind and
nothing will ever change it for her. She's been hurt bad by the betrayal of
those suppose to protect her... and even though they are gone now... it's
going to take her a while to find out who she is and find a life she can be
happy living without the guilt over what she could have done differently to
stop what did happen to her....."

"But to give away her family lands as if it were a..."

"She has no family now," Merissa told him. "In her mind her past is dead and
the girl she was is dead... she's about to start a new life as a new
person... But don't worry about her Lord Kanen. Saul, who used to be our
searcher here in Whiteriver before he moved to Jasra with his family, on
several occasions told Trinale and I that Raine would make a good
dragonrider... So if that's what she wants to do... then we'll allow her the
chance. And watch over her to make sure she's doing all right. Here she can
have a family who loves and cares about her, who *WILL* Protect her from as
much harm as we can."

From the heat in her words as she spoke, Lord Kanen's fears abated. He had
no further doubt's that Lady Raine would be taken care of... 

"Very well... you've set my fears to bay... Now I guess I had better inform
my daughter and her future husband of their great luck..."

Merissa got up and followed him to the door, and as they met up with Lord
Kanen's body guards, they talked a bit longer on other things. Then they
came to the door leading to the outer green and Lord Kanen stepped out just
before Merissa... and seconds later she felt something slam into her and
found herself falling heavily to the hard ground below.

"Oh my god!! He's bleeding," Merissa cried when she tried to get up and
found her hand covered in blood.....The she saw the hilt of the knife
sticking out of the Lords chest and feared the worst... "Get a healer!! Lord
Kanen has bee stabbed!!! Get a healer NOW!!! And alert Kanler!"

Two of the Lords guards disappeared outside while the others moved to give
what help they could to their Lord and the Warrenlady.

But it was far to late to do anything for Lord Kanen. The knife wielders aim
had been true and Kanen laid there breathing his last as the healers arrived.

"I'm sorry M'lady..." the new Warren healer Abby looked up from where she
knelt beside Lord Kanen... "But it's to late to do anything from him. The
knife it a major artery when it went in and we could do nothing to stop the
flow of blood..."

"Th'rin... where's Th'rin, Merissa cried, not wanting to take this new young
healers words as final. 

"I'm not sure M'lady..." Abby told her... "But someone should be sent to get
the Lords family..."

"Don't bother. I'm here," she heard a controlled but angry voice enter the
hall behind her and all eyes turned to see Kanler standing there, his two
brothers, Manlar and Leecho standing just behind him. Katla Vaddon was
standing right by his side.

"I'm so sorry Kanler... Has your mother..." Merissa started but stopped by
the look in the dragonrider's eyes. 

"Tell me what happened." He demanded, standing there as his brothers knelt
beside the lifeless body of their father. 

Merissa explained about his father asking to see her, though didn't tell him
the reason. Now was not the time, later she would tell him, but not now. And
the went on to tell him of the attack happening just as Kanen was walking
out of the office complex...

"The knife came out of nowhere and one of the guards caught only a glimpse
of the knife in flight before it hit... There was nothing he could have done
to deflect it by that time... But two of them went after the man they saw
running away... Only he was able to evade them and escape. I've put out a
Warren Wide alert and we'll do everything we can to find the man responsible
for this..."

"Kanler look at this..." Katla spoke up from where she was kneeling next to
his father. She was pointing at the knife hilt sticking out of the Lord's
chest and anger marred her beautiful face. "Recognize it brother? For if you
don't I do. The knife has the family crest of Gingle."

"Aye!!" One of the guards spoke up excitedly. "I knew I recognized the
colors of the coat the man was wearing who I was chasing..... I've seen it
before when Lord Gingle himself was in....."

The guard stopped as the others turn to face him. He realized to late that
he had just accused the Lord of Windtide of murder... but it was too late
now. "I know what I saw and the size of the man we were chasing fits..." he
went on a bit defensively. 

"But Lord Gingle isn't even here in the Warren," someone started to say but
Merissa cut him off.

"No he is here... and I want him sent for and brought here before me."

[[Okay.. Kanen is dead... and his killer still at large... Arle we talked
about what was going to happen to him .. ie: Calaris...the evil man.... go
for it girl!!] 

................. 

Calarais fought to control his glee as his plan began to come together. He
had worked hard to set things up so that Gingle would be blamed for Kanen's
death and now he stood there with the rest of the crowd that had formed
around the Warrenlady's office and awaited news of the Lords death.

Both men had slighted him. Kanen for helping the Warren against the good of
the Landbound People he should have been helping and Windtide's Lord had it
coming to him. After the way he, himself had been treated in Windtide by
Lord Gingle and his staff since showing up to hide there from the
dragonrider's, 
Calaris grinned as word of the knife that had been used to kill Lord Kanen
started making the rounds through the crowd.

If that wasn't enough, then the little gift he had hidden among Gingle's
things in the Warren Apartment would surely seal the man's faith. It's
placing had almost sealed his own when he'd nearly been caught leaving the
rooms allotted to Gingle and his family after evading the two guards who had
come after him.

Now there was only one thing left to do before he left the Warren. Calarais
had learned from a spy that his bitch of a daughter was still here in the
Warren and he wasn't going to leave until he had things settled with the
slut. The trip he would have to make soon to escape from the troubles here
would be a long one. The new place was already set up and as soon as he
reached it, Lord Calaris would die a final death and Lord Biehen would be
born... and none of these dragonriding scum would ever know about it.

For years Calaris had been stealing gold from his own lands and using it to
set himself up in new lands with a new name that no one but him knew about.
He had known way back then that they had no real hopes of defeating the
Warren and it's rider's but had tried to create as much trouble as he could. 

Now it was time to get out while he still could.

It was a long journey and a lonely one when it didn't have to be. The one
taste he'd had of his bitch of a daughter had left him wanting more, so he
had planed on taking her along to amuse himself with. He had everything
prepared right down to the taking of the bitch and an escape route out of
the Warren. They would be long gone before anyone discovered she was missing.

...............  

Raine as she called herself now, was just settling in for the evening. She
felt like a load had been lifted off her shoulders now that Kanen had agreed
to take her family land off her back... and was about to settle into the
warn sudsy water of her bath when she felt a hand slip over her mouth
preventing her screams, and another one steal like arm slip around her waist
trapping her arms at her side. 

She felt herself being picked up and carried into the next room and then
thrown face down on the bed. Before she could
Try to fight her attacker off, she was turned over and a heavy body moved to
cover her, trapping her to the bed.

"Thought you'd seen the last of me daughter dear," Calaris chuckled in great
delight when he saw recognition enter the sluts eyes. "Thought you'd be safe
here in the Warren you so loved slut! But I told you we'd meet again and
that I would sample your body once more..."

As he spoke one hand reached inside his pocket for a piece of rope he had
ready and even though she struggled to stop him, he soon had her hands tied
behind her back and a gag covering her mouth to keep her quiet. In one hand
he held a white cloth and in the other he held a brown bottle with a foul
smelling liquid in it which he dribbled onto the cloth before placing it
over her nose.

Raine instantly felt drowsy. Like she was only half there, the rest of her
felt like it was floating on air.
  
His eyes met and held her as he knelt over her and slowly began to unbutton
his pants..... then a knock sounded at her door and someone was calling out
her name.

The next second Rain was alone and her *father was no where to be found...
The ties that he had used to bind her were also missing, so Raine had
thought it had all been a bad dream..... It wouldn't be until much later
that she began to doubt it had been a dream... But by then it would be too
late to do anything about it.


****Submitted by: ****

Kanler & Siriss
Lady Raine

Whiteriver Warren

Aka
Barbara