Loraine, her children, Aren, and a dozen of their armsmen had made it halfway from Fort Sea Hold to Ruatha Sea Hold before stopping for the night.  They rose early the next morning and proceeded to harness their horses to the wagons to resume their trip.  Loraine and Aren were especially alert, although Erhom and Lorler continued to sleep in the back of the wagon.

Midmorning saw them approaching the waterfall gully that Learyam had proposed for the ambush site: the roadway was narrow and rocky, preventing the wagons from moving very quickly, and the trees pressed in close to either side.  The gully widened not far from where the road crossed above the waterfall, but that widening was not visible beyond the trees and the omnipresent mist from the cascading waters.  Men on foot could travel faster and more safely than even those on horseback.  Loraine and Aren tensed further as they rocked slowly out onto the dike that spanned the headwaters.  As they approached the midpoint, her armsmen loosened their weapons in their sheaths, and a whistle from behind the wagon informed those ahead that the way back was blocked.

Shouts echoed across the water as her armsmen drew their weapons.  Thuds heralded the approach of riders, and Loraine reined in the wagon.  Loraine drew her bow, more for show than anything, expecting the riders to swarm the wagon, attempt to grab the children, and then flee.

Instead, she heard a shriek as one of her armsmen and his horse were shoved over the waterfall, and the clash of steel on steel.  The riders had said they would be going unarmed!  Why--?  Three men surged up out of the water next to the wagon, surprising her and Aren, and causing her horse to buck in his harness.  The boys screamed and Loraine flinched as she dove from the seat to calm the gelding.

The move likely saved her life.  A knife thudded into the wagon frame behind where she had been sitting, and Aren yelped, scrambling off the box seat.  Two of the attackers jumped into the back of the wagon, triggering additional screams from Erhom and Lorler.  The third sprang onto the driver's seat that Loraine had just vacated and jabbed the horse's hindquarters with the point of his sword.  Rearing and squealing, the horse leaped forward, and Loraine dove into the lake to avoid being crushed by the wagon wheels.  Aren shouted for help from her armsmen, but they had little choice in the matter, engaged as they were with the attackers.  Those ahead of the wagon suddenly found themselves disengaged with a runaway wagon bearing down on them, with their only option to run or to jump into the lake.  One was felled by an arrow, which made the decision for the rest, who drove their horses into the headwaters of the waterfall.  The four armsmen who had been behind the wagon attempted to pursue, but two had had their horses cut out from under them, and the other two were driven back by the bowmen.

Loraine screamed after the vanishing wagon and started to chase after it on foot, until one of her guards pulled her to the ground, shielding her from the barrage of arrows loosed in their direction from both sides of the gully, at the cost of his own life.  Then, it was silent, except for the excited breathing of the remaining horses and the panting and moans of the armsmen.  A final clatter heralded the disappearance of the wagon.

Aren crept forward, nursing an arrow in one shoulder, and rolled the dead bodyguard off of Loraine.  The woman clutched at his arms.  "What happened?!" she wailed, and Aren could only shake his head.  She sobbed her sons' names as her friend wrapped his uninjured arm around her and held her.

It wasn't long after that when her remaining armsmen shouted angrily, drawing their weapons again and taking defensive positions around the pair.  Half a dozen figures materialized out of the mist, then hesitated.  "Lady Loraine?" a familiar voice rang out.

The woman's head came up and she looked for the lanky bronzerider.  One of the skulking figures in the mist straightened up, gaining several inches of height, and strode forward.  Her guard growled a warning.  "Hold!" she shouted hoarsely, stopping her men.  "I thought we had an arrangement!" she cried angrily.

"We do!  What's going on?"

"You took them!  That wasn't the agreement!"

There was a moment of shocked silence.  "We...we didn't take them.  What do you mean, they were taken?!" the bronzerider's voice took on an alarmed edge.

Loraine started to charge forward, intending to beat the man with whatever came to her hand.  Aren caught her arm.  "He's speaking the truth.  It...it wasn't them," he whispered.  She stopped.  Her armsmen looked back and forth, between her and the strangers.

"My Lady, I don't understand.  What happened?"

Loraine waved her men to stand down, and the one who had been tending Aren's arm cautiously resumed that task.  T'lon approached the group warily, keeping his hands out to his sides where they could see them.  He took in the dead men wrapped in their cloaks on one side, the dead horses, and the various cuts and arrow wounds.  "Shards and shells, what happened?!" he demanded.

One of the guardsmen spoke up after a moment.  "We were ambushed.  I thought I saw Mordyn's colors on one, but I couldn't be sure.  They got the wagon with the boys."  The man had the grace to look ashamed at failing in his duty.

T'lon stared at him.  "What are the odds...?" he muttered, turning his gaze to Aren and Loraine.  The Lady Holder was a mess, sopping wet from her jump in the lake and grief reddening her face and eyes.  Aren was in marginally better shape, if you discounted the arrow in his shoulder.

Loraine reached for his arm, clutching at it.  "You have to save them!  You can find them before they can get away, it hasn't been more than a quarter hour!"  The Weyrleader stared at her, trying to make a decision.  Shard it all, but those boys were in danger!  But it was a huge risk for them to be seen.  "Please!"

T'lon sighed, and cursed.  Taking the woman's shoulders, he met her gaze.  "You have my word!"  Then he turned and ran.  Two of the others fell in beside him and they vanished into the mist.  The remaining three came forward to join the armsmen and began helping the beleaguered group make their way across the dike to solid ground.

#Site-Mini-Plot

As they jogged back to where their dragons waited, concealed by the trees a half mile upstream of the falls, T'lon explained the situation to Alexa and R'yur.  "Crackdust! How did they know we were going to--"

T'lon shook his head.  "I don't think they did, I think it was just coincidence.  But sharditall, what a mess!"  He kicked a rock in the path angrily.  "Alexa, do you think you can find them?"

The greenrider didn't answer immediately as she scrambled around a briar patch.  "Maybe.  If there aren't a lot of other people...I haven't met any of them, so I can't look for them specifically, I'll have to just scan the area."

"That should work then, we had selected this area because it's not heavily populated.  When can you start looking?"

Alexa barked a laugh.  "I'm not Silvara!  Have to wait 'til we get back to the dragons, I can't scan and walk at the same time!"

T'lon hid his scowl and increased their pace.  It didn't take long to reach the dragons, who had picked up on their riders' agitation and were ready to launch as soon as the humans sprang to their backs.  T'lon scolded them briefly for not waiting for their riders to clip their riding straps on securely before they took to the air, but he didn't waste much time on it.  He looked over at Rainith and her rider and could see that, having secured herself for safety, the greenrider's eyes were closed.  Abruptly, Rainith's head swiveled to the north and east, and Alexa waved her arm in that direction.  "Tell Rainith to lead the way, and make sure she tells you and Ominth where we're going."  Roth rumbled his assent, and the three dragons surged forward, their wingbeats thrumming in the cool, damp air and making the riders flinch.  Nervously, T'lon ordered them to go higher, as high as they dared go.

They didn't follow the road for long, they veered toward the shoreline that was nearly 10 miles east of the road at this point.  From their elevated vantage point, they were able to spot a large dinghy drawn up on the shore of a small cove.  They could see a couple of people standing on the shore, but they appeared to be waiting for something, and the wagon was nowhere to be seen.  "Where are they...?" the bronzerider muttered to himself, scanning the forest below them.  It was too dense to see much from a-dragonback, though, and he cursed.  He considered going lower, but at this elevation, the sailors hadn't identified them yet -- they were small blobs floating in the sky, easily mistaken for distant wherries.  But that meant that the horses and wagon below them would be the size of a small trundlebug from the riders' points of view.

It was a bit over 12 miles from the ambush site to the cove.  If the ambushers had been able to keep the horses going at a steady pace, they should have been nearing the boat by now, but there was no sign of them.  Cursing again, T'lon signaled for them to stop.  "Roth, we need to go lower.  I want Ominth to stay at the highest elevation she can, keep an eye on that boat.  Rainith and we will drop to half that and try to spot the wagon."  The other riders signaled their acknowledgement, and then the bronze and green drifted lower.  T'lon directed Roth to glide back toward the waterfall to try to spot the trail the attackers may have left, while instructing Rainith to head forward, toward the cove.

It only took a few minutes at the lower altitude to locate the wagon, wrecked on the side of the road with a broken wheel.  The horses were still harnessed to the wagon, lathered and sagging, and T'lon curled his lips in anger.  There were signs of a struggle around the wagon: gouges in the soft earth from heels being dragged, broken brush, a bloody rock.  He looked to Alexa, who shook her head: no one was in the wagon.  So they had struck out on horseback.  T'lon had left Meesha at the Weyr, not wanting the gold to give away their faked ambush party, but now he summoned her.  Roth couldn't track blood from above the canopy, but Meesha could fly among the trees and chase after them!  The firelizard popped in a moment later, chittering angrily at her bonded for leaving her behind.  It took him a precious minute to calm her and explain what he wanted her to do, and then she was off.  She was able to give Roth a heading as she chased after the riders and the scent of blood.

"Ominth says riders approach the boat!" the bronze relayed, his mind-voice quivering with excitement.

"Go!"  The bronze dragon's wings throbbed as he shot skyward, trailing behind Rainith by a distance that grew shorter with every wingbeat.  They didn't have any firestone with them, so the dragons' usefulness was curtailed.  "Tell Ominth to dive, try to scare the horses!  But try not to hurt the children!"

He watched as the brown figure vanished from above them.  Moments later, Roth and Rainith received an image to use, and the flitted between, reappearing a few hundred feet above the cove.  Horses and men were scattering in every direction as Ominth barreled straight for the dinghy.  "No! Don't destroy the--", but he was too late, and the brown dragon ripped the mast away from the hull.

Cursing, he whipped his hand around his head, indicating that Rainith should spiral out to try to keep the riders from disappearing into the trees, where the dragonriders would be severely handicapped.  A flash of gold heralded Meesha's arrival, and suddenly on of the horses squealed, whirled, and leapt toward the waves.  The rider had a bundle slung across the saddle in front of him -- it had to be one of the boys!  But where was the other one?  R'yur and Ominth had spun and were returning, having dropped the mast out in the cove.  T'lon gestured vigorously toward the rider the Meesha and identified, and the brown lurched toward them, causing the horse to slew on its hocks in the surf and topple sideways.  Its passengers fell into the water and the dragon landed heavily.  R'yur flung himself from his dragon's back, drawing the light sword he had left on Ominth's riding straps when they'd started their part of the ambush.  He floundered through the surf, trying to reach the muffled and bound form thrashing in the breakers.

Meesha, meanwhile, had apparently located the other boy and was trying to drive the horse and rider carrying him back toward the water.  The horse was lunging toward the perceived safety of the trees, having absolutely no interest in going back toward the dragon behind them.  T'lon wheeled Roth around to reinforce his little gold's attacks, and the horse screamed, turning and plunging toward the coast, but still away from both dragons.  Good enough, T'lon thought, glad that the horse was, at least, headed toward open ground.  Unfortunately most of the remaining riders had made it to the relative safety of the trees, which was not good.  "Tell Warrelith we need help!"  He probably should have done that sooner, but he had hoped they could take care of this with just the three of them, minimize the chances that they would be seen.  But with the ambushers scattering into the trees, they couldn't risk even one of them getting away.

He signaled Rainith to stay aloft and sent Meesha to ferret out the other riders while he and Roth skimmed along behind the second rider, trying to keep the beast from veering back into the forest.  He hated terrifying the horse this way, but it was the only thing he could do.  Then he saw the bluff rising ahead of them.  He couldn't tell what the far side looked like, but if it was a cliff...no time to think!  Roth surged forward, reaching out with his front claws to grab the beast.  He missed the horse as it rocketed out into open air, but he managed to grab both passengers and the saddle.  The momentum snapped the saddle straps and the horse plummeted into the sea below the bluff.  Roth spun, flaring his wings and landing awkwardly on the bluff, trying to control the humans in his grip without dropping them.  While the bronze balanced on his hind legs, T'lon unclipped his riding straps and scrambled onto his dragon's shoulder.

He could hear the boy sobbing, undoubtedly terrified and having no idea what was going on.  The man, on the other hand, was cursing and struggling, although he was probably as scared as the boy.  The man made a grab for the kid's head and T'lon saw a glint of metal.  Cursing, the rider jumped for the ground, telling Roth to drop his captives.  Two short screams and soft thumps later, the bronze was able to pin the man down, safely away from the boy, whose wails had taken on a higher pitch.

Drawing his own knife, T'lon approached the trapped man and squatted beside him.  "How many men did you have with you?!" he snapped, brandishing the knife.  He had the ability to use electricity to get what he wanted, but it wasn't exactly a visible threat.

Despite the fact that his eyes were so wide that the whites were visible all the way around, the man spat at him.  Frowning, he reached down and raised the man's hand, then cut the fabric back so his bare skin touched the ground.  "Want to try again?" he asked, casually.  When the man didn't answer, T'lon let a jolt of electricity shoot into his hand.  It grounded out at his elbow, keeping Roth from being at risk and avoiding shocking the man's heart, but it drove a groan from him as his hand spasmed.  T'lon repeats his question, still doesn't get an answer, and repeats the process.  After half a dozen rounds, T'lon gave up.  He'd almost forgotten about the boy, and he went to him, taking the hood off his head and untying him: it was Erhom.  The teenager had stopped weeping, but was looking a bit catatonic.  T'lon used the ropes to tie up the man they'd caught.

Meesha had been helping Alexa find the ones who were running away and freeze them in place until one of the other riders who answered T'lon's call for help could get them.  R'yur had managed to rescue Lorler, although the boy had swallowed enough seawater to make him ill, and was chilled to the bone, but the rider who'd been carrying him had been killed when his horse fell on him.

T'zal, F'xal, G'rav, S'nom, Laeri, and Laysa had come to their aid.  Laeri and Laysa had caught the two sailors, who hadn't been on horseback; R'yur had started questioning them.  Unlike the one T'lon and Roth had caught, they were more than happy to answer the questions: there had been a dozen riders who had gone out, a couple carrying double with archers, plus the two at the boat, for a total of 16.  Loraine's armsmen had killed three, plus the one that had died when R'yur and Ominth landed; T'lon had caught one, and the two greenriders had caught the sailors.  That left nine unaccounted for.  Meesha had recruited a couple other firelizards to help, and working with Alexa, they quickly tracked down the remainder.

By the time they finished capturing the last of them, Loraine and her entourage had arrived, guided by the non-riders who had accompanied the riders for their faked kidnapping attempt.  Aren's ability confirmed that they hadn't lied about their number, and, when asked, that they weren't lying when they said they were in Mordyn's employ.

T'zal and T'lon started to relax after they caught the last one, but Loraine became more anxious.  "Did Mordyn have any Psis helping him with this?" she demanded.  All of them denied any knowledge of Psis, and Aren confirmed they weren't lying.  "But that doesn't mean he didn't.  If he had a Farseer watching this attempt, you may have been revealed."

The dragonriders muttered and cursed.  "Well, there's nothing for it now.  We'll just have to hope he didn't."

"This is my fault.  I should never have sent you after them," the Lady Holder lamented.

T'lon sighed and shrugged. "What's done is done."

"Well, High Reaches was one of those that has a history of hunting down and killing them, rather than trying to use them. Perhaps Mordyn has changed that policy, but he'll be hard-pressed to find any after his predecessors made such a point of eliminating them," Aren interjected wearily.

"That's good, I guess. We need to clean up this mess, just in case, though." They dragged the rest of the ship up onto the shore and set fire to it, trying to get everyone warmed up.

Lorler was still shivering, and had started coughing. F'xal took a look at him. "I don't like the looks of this. Taking him between might not be wise, but staying out here isn't, either." T'lon frowned.

Loraine spoke up. "If I don't return with the boys, there will be talk!" But it was late afternoon. Unless the dragonriders assisted the group with their travel, they would be delayed at least a day.

The solution came from one of the armsmen. "Send a couple of us with them. Claim that we made all speed back to Fort Sea Hold, on horses rather than the wagon -- we could have easily made the Sea Hold by late evening if we had left immediately after the abduction. Then we could take any number of ships from the Hold to go into hiding, in any number of locations."

T'lon, Aren, and Loraine shared a long look. The bronzerider was exhausted, but he couldn't see anything wrong with the scenario. Neither could Aren, nor Loraine. That decision made, Laysa went back to the Weyr and shortly returned with heavy clothes for two of the armsmen, Aren, and the boys. Unexpectedly, however, Erhom started arguing with his mother; he didn't want to leave her. Lorler was in too much shock to have realized what was going on, but he muttered something about how warm the clothing was, which made the greenrider smile as she helped him bundle up while his brother and mother argued.

In the end, Loraine had to order Erhom to go. F'xal took Lorler as soon as the boy was ready. The two guards that were selected were able to pull on the heavier riding jackets easily, but Aren had difficulty with his injured shoulder. Loraine helped secure the coat over his bandaged and slung arm, trying to hide the tears from Erhom. "Take good care of them," she whispered.

Aren gave her a quick, one-armed hug. "I will. And as soon as we're able, we'll come see you. Or you can come see us. I'll make sure of it."

The rest of the riders and their passengers mounted up, except for Erhom and T'lon, who paused a moment to say farewell to Loraine. T'lon laid his hands on Erhom's shoulders as he stood behind the young lad. "Erhom was exceptionally brave today, Loraine. You should be proud of him. I'll personally make sure you know how things are going at the Weyr, I'll send Meesha with dispatches. And as soon as it's safe, I'll make sure you can come see the Weyr."

"Thank you, Weyrleader," the Lady Holder said gravely, using the solemnity of the moment to hide her fear and strain. "I look forward to reading them." She looked down at her son. "Erhom, take good care of your brother, you hear? He's going to need you."

Erhom looked angry and didn't respond. T'lon squeezed his shoulders, trying to elicit some sort of an answer. Truculently, the boy nodded and mumbled, "I will, Mother." The bronzerider nodded at the woman, then boosted the teenager up onto Roth's foreleg, and subsequently up onto his back, before joining him and returning to the Weyr with the latest Candidate.