Part 5
Cor' Eln stood in front of the gathered men, Cor' Siyg on his right and Ordon on his left. In his hand he held a sleek crossbow.
"This," he said, holding up the crossbow, "is a crossbow. It has more power and more range than any bow on Pern. With these bolts you could kill a dragon." He smiled at the murmur of discomfort that even these men felt at the thought of hurting a dragon. "Watch!" he said as he aimed the crossbow at a heavy dining table that had been set upright against the far wall. Balancing the crossbow on his other arm, he pulled the trigger.
The bolt flew from the crossbow to fly through the wood of the table and embed itself in the stone wall. Cries of amazement rang through the hall and the men crowded around the table to examine the bolt. Cor' Eln signaled to Cor' Siyg and waited as his Lictor threw several jars of Thread at the milling group of men.
The first human was implanted before he could scream, the Thread burrowing into his skull and wrapping itself around his brain. Some of the others did manage to scream and a few even tried to run. None of them made it more than a few steps.
Cor' Eln walked over to the implanted humans who were just now starting to respond to the commands he was giving. "Good," he said with a smile. "When they are fully under control, arm them with the crossbows, flamethrowers, and agenothree sprayers. The next Threadfall, we'll march on Benden Weyr and have it under control before the dragonriders return." He turned to Ordon. "Then, when they're expecting a warm welcome from their weyrfolk, we'll give them a different sort of welcome. Of course, F'lar and Lessa will be left alive to be delivered into your care, my dear Ordon."
Ordon smiled and rubbed his dagger's hilt, his face flushed and sweat beginning to bead on his forehead.
First a Weyr, Cor' Eln thought, then the dragons and then Pern will fall to me. The Cor' Nos will rise from this world and retake the stars. He allowed himself a chuckle and then a laugh that rang through the hall.
"-so A'gon will wait on the fireheights above the Hold, just out of sight of the Hold itself," Aula said, pointing to a sketch of the Hold drawn in the dirt around the fire. "Elena will be the only one to leave, the rest of us will stay in the Hold for as long as Lord Trasden wants our company."
"How will I signal him?" Elena asked.
"Whistle," A'gon said, "Tranth will be able to hear you as long as you're outside." He smiled at her. "We'll be there."
"I don't think you should be long, Elena," Aula continued. "As soon as we go to the Hold, we'll start scouring the place for whatever it was that Ardeck saw. Don't get overzealous, all you have to do is bring back something to explain why the Lord Holder is acting so strangely. Get out as soon as possible."
Elena nodded and asked, "What will I wear? I didn't bring any dresses."
"Don't worry, I've got some clothes that should fit you. You can change tomorrow at the inn before we head up to the Hold."
The group drifted apart as they made ready for bed around the campfire. Tranth raised a cloud of dust as he scratched a bed for himself at the edge of the clearing while Elena and A'gon laid their bedrolls near the fire and near each other.
"Ready? I mean, for the mission," A'gon said as they slid into the bedrolls.
Elena rolled over to face him. "Yes, as ready as I'll ever be." She and rolled onto her back to look up at the stars. She turned her head towards A'gon when he took her hand between his.
"I'll be right there, don't worry," he stopped when Tranth rumbled from his bed. "And Tranth will be there too!" he said loudly. He leaned closer to her and whispered, "He says your name, that means he likes you."
Elena smiled at him and closed her eyes. "I'm glad," she said softly. She was asleep in minutes.
A'gon watched her sleep for a while after before finally settling into his bedroll and falling asleep to the sound of the logs crackling in the fire.
They had reached Weoth Hold without incident, A'gon posing as their wagon driver and driving them to the inn. Now the Courtesans were lounging around the common room waiting for Lord Trasden's summons to the Hold. Upstairs, Elena was looking at the bundle of cloth A'gon had given to her from Aula.
"Are you sure this is all of it?" she asked him.
"That's what she gave me. The fabric's very light, it just looks like it isn't much."
"I suppose so," she said as she entered the next room to change. A'gon waited on the room's only chair, his feet propped on the table as he studied the ceiling. After a few minutes he heard Elena call to him.
"Yes?" he answered.
"Are you sure this is everything she gave you?"
"Yes, I am. What's the matter?"
"There's not enough dress."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, there's not enough dress," she was starting to sound angry.
A'gon stood and walked over to the door. "Let me see," he said, starting to open the door. He stopped at the sight of Elena, a blanket draped over her upper body and her hair carefully pinned back from her face.
"There's not enough, it's like an undergarment," she said, turning back to the small polished metal mirror propped on a shelf.
The dress was dyed a deep blue, almost black. It clung to Elena's waist like a second skin with a slit up one side of the skirt showing a breathtaking display of slender leg every time she moved. "I think there should be a blouse or tunic to go with this," Elena said, letting her arms fall to her sides with the blanket. "Um, what do you think?"
A'gon made a strangled noise. Two thin straps held up the dress, which barely covered Elena's breasts. The neckline of the dress was so low as to be almost non-existent. As she turned again she revealed that the dress was cut low under the arms to reveal parts of Elena which he had never seen. When she turned back to the mirror, A'gon saw that the back of the dress was cut down almost to her waist with only a few laces crossing across the smooth skin of her back tying it together.
"You look wonderful," the dragonrider finally said in a husky voice. "That's all the dress there is, though."
Elena turned back to him causing her skirt to swirl upward and reveal a flash of shapely thigh. "I feel naked in this, but I suppose I won't be wearing it long." She blushed when she realized how her words could be taken. "I mean, I won't have to wear it long, no, I-" She stopped. "You know what I mean."
A'gon tore his eyes away from her legs to look in her eyes. "I do." She seemed worried but determined to go through with her duty. "I want you to take this," he said, handing his belt dagger and its sheath to her.
"Oh, thank you, A'gon. But where will I keep it? There's no place to hide it in this dress."
A'gon shuddered slightly. "You can tie it to you thigh," he finally said.
"With what?"
"I've got some spare bootlaces," he said, rummaging in his belt pouches. He pulled two of the leather thongs from his pouch and handed them to her.
"Could you turn around?"
A'gon obeyed and tried to think of burning Thread when he heard her lift her dress and begin tying the sheath to her thigh. "There, thank you," he heard her say.
"Just be sure you're able to give it back to me."
"I will," she said, stepping closer to him. Just as she was about to kiss him, she heard Aula calling up that they were summoned to the Hold. She gave him a quick kiss on the lips, both of them trying hard to keep from lengthening it, and hurried down the stairs.
A'gon had left immediately after Aula, Elena, and the other Courtesans had left for the Hold. He rode the riding beast that had pulled the wagon away from the Hold and up towards the hills behind it, ostensibly to fetch herbs for the Courtesans. He was glad to find Tranth waiting for him, carefully out of view behind the hill and in the shelter of a rocky outcropping.
"Now we wait," he said, scratching Tranth's eye ridges.
Elena shifted nervously, causing the strap of her gitar to chafe against her bare shoulder. Aula had told her to bring it, saying that men usually didn't bother the woman who played the songs that the other ones danced to. Really danced, not 'danced', Aula had told her. "Just be careful not to play too well, we don't want them to think you're a Harper," Aula had said just before they had entered the Hold.
Now they were waiting in the Great Hall of Weoth Hold. Elena had spent her time furtively examining the metal chair and furniture that had been set up at the end of the hall. Could Lord Trasden have found a fabulously wealthy seam of iron? Was greed all that was driving him? The drudge who had died saving her and his cryptic words seemed to indicate that something other than greed was motivating Lord Trasden. Her train of thought was cut off by the entrance of the Lord himself.
He was tall and handsome, perhaps having about ten more turns than her. Every mannerism was arrogance personified. He looked at the gathered Courtesans as if they were a group of prized herdbeasts ready to be sold. Which in a way they were, Elena thought, but that doesn't justify his contempt.
"Welcome, ladies, to Weoth Hold," he said as he sat in the metal chair. "You'll be servicing me, my secondman here, and our men. Standard rates, of course." He motioned to them. "Stand up please, let us take a look at you."
His secondman strode along the line of assembled Courtesans, closely examining each of them in turn. He stopped when he reached Elena.
"Why do you carry a, gitar?" he asked. "Are you a Harper?"
"Oh no, m'lord. I'm no Harper, I can just play some tunes, that's all," Elena said, trying to look humble. The secondman nodded and continued on to Aula.
"Are you their leader?" he asked.
"Yes, my lord. I'm in charge of them," she answered smoothly, bowing to let him look down the low neck of her dress.
"You will go with Lord Trasden," he told her. "You," he pointed to Elena, "will be mine-" He was interrupted by Aula.
"Please, pardon my interruption, my lord, but she's only just begun her training."
"Then she can complete it with me."
"Begging your pardon, but she's to learn what to do from example, from me. She won't be very good to you the way she is now. She couldn't take your cock in her mouth very well without knowing what to do with it."
The secondman examined Aula's face minutely. "Very well," he said, "she may accompany you." He resumed counting off, one girl to Lord Trasden, one for him, and one for the men. When had finished dividing the Courtesans up he returned to the side of Lord Trasden.
Lord Trasden watched the Courtesans, steepling his fingers in anticipation of appetites too long unsatisfied. "You," he said, pointing to the women assigned to the men, "go to the guards quarters on the lower level. The rest of you, come with us."
Elena stayed close by Aula's side as they followed the Lord and his secondman to their quarters above the Great Hall. Elena jumped when she saw the guards lined up outside the hall, waiting for the Courtesans. She quickly turned her face away from them, lest they recognize her, but not before she saw them clutching at the women and already kissing and fondling them lewdly.
"Do they all act like this?" she whispered to Aula.
"No," she said with a frown. "They don't. When we begin, stay out of the way and try to keep him from noticing you."
Elena nodded and jumped again at the sound of tearing fabric and a woman's low moan behind her.
"What are they doing to them?" she asked Aula.
"One man, two men, three men or more," Aula answered, quoting Kylara's song. "They're having 'or more'."
Elena blanched and let out an involuntary sigh of relief when they climbed the stairs to the upper quarters and left the sounds of the guards and women behind. They turned down another hallway and then split from the secondman's group to enter Lord Trasden's quarters. They were large and furnished spartanly, the usual for a Lord Holder of a new Hold. Lord Trasden opened the door to his bedchamber and gestured for them to enter.
"Now, ladies, if you would divest yourselves of your clothing, such as it were," he said as he reclined on the bed.
Elena looked to Aula and saw the older woman nod. Gulping nervously, she set aside her gitar and slipped off her shoes. She breathed a sigh of relief when Aula moved directly in front of Lord Trasden, blocking Elena from his sight. Elena looked up at a touch on her shoulder. It was another one of the Courtesans, a voluptuous blond one. She smiled encouragingly and began to strip in such a way that Elena would be concealed behind her clothes as she tossed them to the floor. Her head light, Elena slipped the straps of her dress down her shoulders and let it fall to the floor, quickly hiding the dagger and its sheath under the dress. She pulled her underwear down with shaking hands and looked up to see Aula and the blond woman already on Lord Trasden.
Elena gave a little gasp when she saw Aula kneel on the bed in front of him, her hands stroking his cock to its full length. Aula half turned her head and gave her a brief nod before she bent and took Trasden's cock into her mouth. Elena watched as Aula began to bob her head over his cock as the other women kissed his body or placed his hands on their breasts. The blond woman was busy kissing him as she straddled his body. Elena realized that they were distracting him so that she could search the room.
She began to carefully open chests and drawers, glancing over her shoulder to the tableau on the bed before searching through the contents. As she was opening a closet she heard Lord Trasden grunt sharply. Fearing that he had seen her she spun around and saw Aula swallowing vigorously. As she watched, Aula let his cock fall from her lips and moved away to allow another Courtesan to take it in her mouth. Aula motioned at Elena to continue searching as she guided Lord Trasden's hand between her thighs.
The only thing of note that Elena found was a bloodstained and ripped tunic. Other than that, there was no obvious evidence of why he was acting so strangely, and certainly no sign of Thread. She hid the tunic under her dress as one of the Courtesans silently approached her and motioned for her to join them on the bed. When she had, Aula pulled her over and kissed her sloppily, rubbing a sticky white fluid onto her face.
"I'm getting hungry," Lord Trasden said, pushing aside the blond woman. "You," he said, pointing to her, "go with-" He surveyed the other women. "Who haven't I had yet?" He looked at Elena's face, smeared with his come. "You go too, then." He chuckled. "You were very good for a beginner. The kitchen is on the bottom floor." He waved them away and turned his attentions towards Aula.
Elena scooped up her dress and ran for the door as Aula moaned loudly and began to say obscene things into Lord Trasden's ear, all the while waving Elena out the door. The halls of the Hold were a blur as Elena, scrubbing the sticky liquid from her face, and the blond woman hurried towards the kitchen.
"I'll take the food back, you look around for what you need," she said as they reached the kitchen.
Elena nodded and slipped down a shadowy corridor towards the storerooms. With any luck, this would be where Lord Trasden kept the Thread, if he actually had any. As she crept down the corridors, her dress uncomfortably drafty, she could hear moans and squeals echoing from the guard quarters. She paused outside a large door, curiously made of metal instead of wood. Just as she was about to open it she felt a calloused hand wrap over her mouth. She was spun about and slammed roughly against the door by a stocky man of medium height. Ordon of Nabol, she thought as he grinned at her.
"You're a pretty thing, what are you doing down here?" he leered at her. "I bet you got scared of those guards, didn't you? They're pretty mean." Elena froze when he squeezed her left breast with his free hand. "Should have stayed with them, I think the Courtesans will be out one member after tonight."
Elena struggled against him as he spun her about again and pressed her face first into the door. A punch to her back stopped her struggling long enough for him to wrap his belt around her wrists. "I'm going to have a lot of fun with you," he rasped into her ear as he reached for something in his belt pouch. Elena could hear the jingle of a key ring as he unlocked the door and pushed her through it.
Continued in Part 6
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