Visit her Sisters
Candidate at Falas Weyr
However, her 'dumb blond' exterior is completely a fabrication. She keeps up on Dawnlight Hold's activities exactly the way that her superior Deon wishes she wouldn't. She knows things about everyone around her, mostly that they also wish she wouldn't (or don't know she does).
Caitlin is an apprentice recordskeeper, and is a very organized young woman of 17. Though some do not trust her because she is an assistant to Lord Holder Deon and his underling Spencer, others know better than to think she is entirely loyal to them.
Her own sister Carnage for instance, knows that Caitlin would have eagerly joined her romping about in the scrub with the Eden's Gate folks, if only they had decent running water.
H'lis knows, for instance, that Caitlin can be trusted by Weyr folk to give them the information they need, when they need it, without allowing interferance by the Lord Holders of the hold. Tithes come in so much more easily while she's there. Since she isn't allowing anyone to hold back their percentages.
She doesn't take any crap from anyone. She will put up with a certain amount of joking and dumb blond comments, but only up to the point where she thinks she can in fact out-do that person later. And she often does, at parties or gathers where they are too drunk to remember their embarrassment...
Caitlin is unsure what she will do if presented with a dragon. It will not be the first time that a being has entered her mind, but H'lis and his brood don't count in her opinion, and E'tan has trained her from afar to judge her 'opponents' mental states before entering a battle of wits with them.
She'd been chosen, of course. Naturally. Her mother and father were already quite happy that their eldest daughters had bonded at Dark Moon, though they didn't know that Carnage (they still called her Carnea) had also bonded. It would follow that their other child would go to a weyr and make them proud.
Deon on the other hand... "Where will I get as talented a recordskeeper as she? She's been trained specifically for my office!"
"Then you'll obviously find someone else to do that same thing, Lord Holder," Serzona said, as they approached Caitlin's area. "Because you cannot refuse to let her come to Falas' sands. She's been searched. If she does not impress, then she can come back."
Deon looked slightly relieved. But Serzona wasn't finished and Caitlin knew what she was going to say.
"But if she desires she may stand again and again, until she impresses or is too old to do so. Then, only then, she can leave and be your ... secretary?" She glanced at Caitlin and the blond girl nodded. Deon strode up, huffy, and leaned down to Caitlin.
"You ... should remain with us. Your work is very valuable to me." He gulped, "to the Hold."
"I cannot refuse to go, sir," Caitlin said, simply. Deon was well and truly one of the most offensive men she'd ever met. While he did in fact have a wife, she had had to keep quiet the many liasons he would have with young -- mostly stolen -- boys from various holds near by. That fact churned in her gut, and she looked away from his puffy-eyed face.
How could she keep something like that silent for so long? She was paid, of course. Well paid. She was one of the few people who actually knew about details. Knew who the boys had been, knew when one or two of them had to go 'missing' and when ... Riringo had been one of them she was still a junior apprentice, not even among the ranks within the Holder's group. But she knew.
It was almost as if she could read his mind. She shuddered a bit as he turned and stormed away to his office. Doubtless, to clean things up from his little tantrum earlier when the search rider demanded Caitlin's presence in the courtyard.
She would not have to deal with that any more. Caitlin looked at Serzona and smiled broadly. "When can I pack?" She asked, brightly.
***
The weyr was busy this time of year, and it looked different to Caitlin -- the whole world did. She remembered that it was because they were traveling through time to get to the Hold, Falas was in the far future of her own world. Caitlin grinned widely at the thought of looking through records of their time and seeing what she could find!
When she attempted to do so, however, she found... "Nothing?" She whispered to the dank air of the records room. "How can there be 'nothing'? We're standing on the same island as the Protectorate met... Sure, it was twelve hundred years ago but we kept decent records! *I* kept decent records!" She almost shouted, and slapped the parchment pad back on the wide table. The lights were bright, but the night was dim outside, there was air but it was still and sluggish. Her mood wasn't improved by either of those things. She decided to go looking harder for the records she just knew existed.
She'd gotten as far as one of the coves, near the edge of the weyr's land, when she realized that she had no idea what she was doing. There was a memory... Something faint. Something dusty and desert-like. Hot.
"E'tan, get out of my mind." She spoke aloud to the mind who hovered near her. "On second thought, tell me where I find our records."
That would be cheating, lovely girl, E'tan's mental voice came to her from across distance and time.
"I cheat as a rule," Caitlin said. "How do you think I survived Deon's office for so long?"
She heard the distinct pop of arrival, a dragon bearing someone, up in the sky behind her. Turning, she saw a small, long bodied brown dragon, and a blond-haired rider, descending to the sands. Utainth, and E'tan.
"It's quite an honor, E'tan. I've never met you face to face." Caitlin extended her hands in greeting, and he politely took them into his own. With a dangerous smile on his face, the blue-eyed man tossed his head at the weyr side.
"You're looking in the wrong direction. This weyr was built upon the ruins of our Mesa. But the Mesa is still intact inside. Come." E'tan's voice was warm, but his manner was chillier than she expected.
"Why don't you want me finding things?" She asked. "What has happened in those years? I don't expect to have details, but surely something!"
When they got through the exterior walls of the mesa which bordered Falas, Caitlin realized the whole inside of the mountain was hollow. Just like the Weyr, of course. But here and there were small path markers glowing in phosphorescent plant-life. E'tan led her to a cavern, which had a swinging stone as a door.
"Here. You're not going to like what you find, I am afraid. But when you're done, I could take you back, if you wish." With that mysterious statement, E'tan exited and while he did so flipped a small device on the edge of the wall, which lit up the interior of the room quite well. It was a records room, but with metal walls and finely made furnishings -- which had kept their finish over the centuries by the climate inside the mountain.
Caitlin began to look.
