Impressed at Tarizal Weyr
But he insists that is not all he ever will be. He loves his work, certainly, but he is always looking up.
Even when the skies are falling, he's looking up. That's where he got the twin scars on his eyes, from Thread landing on his eyes. He can see perfectly well, but he knows that those scars mark him as 'ugly' in the Hold of his birth. Not like the brave scars gotten by dragon riders.
Those, the same scars, drawn tight over bone sometimes, elicit a thrilled gasp and an "oh how brave you must be" from the ladies.
If he wanted to prove his worth, he could always claim that he got the scars in the mine, during a collapse or some kind of accident. But ... he has never lied, not even to himself, about anything. If he ever did, his own guilt might catch him.
Keting is not a perfect young man. At 20 turns of age, he has made mistakes and admitted them (like the time he spat on a Lord Holder, it was really an accident but of course... no one would ever believe him...) and he has made progress. As a senior apprentice, he is a little older than most of his rank, at least in the mines, but he is comfortable with it. He knows he doesn't have the head for learning all the ores to mix, or all the ways that stone can be chiseled, or building Holds from nothing. That's for the masters, and he's glad they know their work.
Because he sure likes hard work, and it never looks like they're doing anything like it.
The lordling scowled, "oh, you've got more than enough fat to last you through a full Pass, mining boy."
"And enough sense to come in out of it apparently doesn't run in his family," said another. They laughed, and Keting merely watched them.
"That dimwitted boy is too much..." said the first, as he and his friend found a table at the dining hall. Keting knew that both of them had been caught doing things with each other that would make their lord fathers scream.
So he went and found one of them to tell him.
***
"This isn't the first time I've had you here," Lord Holder Spencer groaned, when Keting arrived. His eye was blackened, in addition to that Threadscore it had over it. "Why are you busying yourself with annoying lord's sons when you should be doing work?"
"I finished work," he said, "and I wanted to eat too. They took the last piece and insulted me. So I insulted them back, only my insult was true. That's the problem, isn't it?" He smiled with innocence that was as affected as it was irksome.
"Keting, your craftmaster won't like this. I must punish you for having --"
"Why?" Keting asked, loudly. "They're both guilty, and neither of their big-lord-fathers wanted to hear about it. I was always told that that sort of thing happened among green riding men, not among lord holders sons."
Spencer seethed, but then calmed himself. "Yes. I see. But you will still have to be punished so that their fathers don't both pester ME to death. Do you see my problem?"
"The only problem I see is that I was the one to beat their sons, and not them."
"Keting..." Spencer groaned. But he leaned back and put on an official look to his face. He was getting tired of this mess, his superior (in theory only, he insisted) Lord Deon, would be arriving soon from a trip to the sea hold at Enclave, and would be taking the reins back for another grueling term in Dawnlight.
Spencer would far rather the fat, gibbering Lord's boat would just sink and be done with him. But that was not his luck, according to the flitter which delivered a message that very moment. "Ah, shard it..." He said, reading.
"Something wrong?" Keting asked. "Could I help? If that'd change your mind about this punishment?"
"Nothing you could correct... Without getting yourself killed. That wouldn't do. And I don't hate you enough to send you out to kill a man unless I know you could be trusted to do it right." The way Spencer smiled made Keting very very uncomfortable.
"I will pretend that I didn't hear that, okay?" Keting said, shifting in his seat.
"You had better." Spencer said. "But this also brings inspiration. I'll send you out to greet the Lord Holder and you can ... go from there. He does usually require a bit of guarding. Too many enemies. And you're a strapping lad. Strong. He'll feel nice and safe."
"You won't be sending someone to kill him while I'm there, will you?" Keting asked, this time the innocence in his eyes was almost painful, and completely true.
"No, Keting. I will not. There is a dragon going out to the sea hold, dropping off supplies. If you wish to do this, you should go be on its back by the end of the hour."
Standing, deciding that this would be his one and only chance to do anything with his life, Keting nodded and left Spencer to his thoughts.
The dragon turned out to be not a Blackstone or even a Protectorate dragon, but one from Tarizal weyr. The green expanded her wings and nosed at his rider, when Keting arrived with his satchel of clothing and scant posessions.
The rider, a woman, stared at him, but then turned back to her dragon and apparently was speaking with her. Then she turned. "You're going to come with us, not stay here with that fat disgusting Lord Holder, right?"
"W... With you? With you, to Tarizal? I ..." He glanced at the Hold's walls, thinking about the claustrophobic conditions in the mines, and the boys who taunted him constantly. "Of course I'm going with you to Tarizal. Where else would I be going?!"
They also did not have to wait very long to have the hatching eggs show their contents! In fact... The very first shell to break had a brilliant blue dragon in it. Keting watched the lovely dragon as he dried off in the sun, and then happily bounded over to his side.
I like you! I even think those markings on your face are really neat. Not too many other faces look like yours. I will not forget your face! I am Esirth, and I do not want you to forget me either.
As he stood aside for the dragon to get near, K'ing said, "You like the scars, Esirth? You don't think they're ugly?"
I do not think so at all! In fact, I do not really know what 'ugly' means. Let me eat, and I will think about it.
They left the sands, just as Cetray was impressing!
"That's right, Esirth, and I warned his rider. Now look what happened...." K'ing and Esirth helped dig out the injured weyrling and his rider from their destroyed ledge. There had been enough stress fractures from some prior earth-shaking event, that the ex-miner just knew something was bound to happen. He had suggested that the dragon not land on that particular bit, but he was ignored as usual. Slightly older, the dragon and his rider blew off K'ing and paid the price.
When they were dug out, the first thing the rider did was to stalk up to K'ing and slug him one across the cheek. Then, he started yelling.
"Why didn't you tell the weyrleader? He's supposed to fix this sharding thing, you knew, how could you let it go like that?" He bellowed.
K'ing rubbed his cheek, and decided that just this once, he would keep his temper under control. His dragon on the other hand hissed and almost knocked one of the nearby helpers off his feet with his lashing tail.
Do not strike my rider. I will not warn you again. You were told not to land there. Fool.
The little blue glared at the brown whose wing sails had been ripped badly by the sharp stones. No apology came from the rider, but the dragon obviously believed the blue now.
