Vimini

The next day, Cronici was out of the house, working with other Burgesses on some important project. Vimini prepared a small lunch of nuts and dried fruit. For dessert, she served Vilinitiz a couple of roasted coffee beans, encouraging him to chew on them raw, after the fashion of her country.

Vilinitiz suggested that Vimini invite the two young troops from the patrol that were guarding the house in for a beer. Vimini did not quite understand, thinking that Vilinitiz was going to play a practical joke. Vilinitiz learned that Gliders hated alcohol - the mellow and socialable feeling that it brought to most men appeared not to exist for this race. Alcohol to them was an unpleasant experience, only to be taken as an anesthetic when pain was unbearable. On the other hand, stimulants such as coffee were accepted, although Vimini said that there was concern about their abuse, and in the services such as the patrols and during the hunts, beans were strictly rationed in order to prevent mistakes in judgment. The coffee beans that grew wild were jealously guarded by the patrols. This could be a useful nugget of information," thought Vilinitiz.

Vimini listened with interest when Vilinitiz asked about farming. Gliders had no traditions of farming, and all that was involved with working with things like plows, seed, and mills was interesting to Vimini. However, she did not have the imagination to think that maybe that this was a way of life that the Gliders could adopt.

Vilinitiz complimented the town on how well they sang, declaring, with truth, he had heard nothing quite so moving in his travels from "the Eveninglands." Vimini smiled, and thanked him. She one of the ones that was responsible for training the women of the village. It was a pity that he could not have come a couple of years ago, when the Great Chorus of several cities had convened at the Fourteen Year Celebration at the Celestial Mountain. The songs were better when she was a little girl, Vimini observed. Perhaps it only seemed that way because she was younger then, suggested Vilinitiz. Vimini smiled, and then shook her head. She understood Vilinitiz's point about how things seem brighter and better when they are but memories, but she informed him that he did not know one sad fact. The choruses were fuller then. Many of the people that sung in those choruses had died in the Minestan War, and she was afraid that some of the art had been lost.

Vilinitiz changed the subject, asking what Cronici was doing. Vimini explained about the ceremony of ostracism. It was a painful, but necessary duty of the Burgesses. If a Glider had failed to uphold the standards that were expected of him, and, after a warning, did not make progress, that Glider would be expelled from the League, and left to fend for himself. That Glider's spear would be removed from its place in the homestead, and the Glider would be expelled from the community as an object lesson to his peers.

Vilinitiz commented that it seemed to be cruel. Vimini replied that Glider existence was percarious. The success of the hunt depended on teamwork, as individual Gliders were too weak to kill big game. And there was always the threat of war. A Glider who did not show courage, or who could not follow orders, was a hazard to the entire community. She then recited what was believed by Gliders, that outsiders saw them as little more than animals to be harvested for fine fabric that their wings made. Besides, it was only through their discipline and training that they survived their hired dragon. "That is the second time that I have heard that I was 'hired.' I will have correct this lie," thought Vilinitiz. She asked what the men of the Eveninglands did with the weaklings. Vilinitiz could see her point. In most cases the weaklings would be pike fodder in some war, or end up being hung after a life of crime. Or they were part of the nobility, where their vices would become someone else's problems, Vilinitiz observed slyly. Vimini commented that the tendency of fools to abdicate their responsibilities to other fools was a failing that appeared to be rampant amongst the thinking prey, and that the fact that nobility was taken seriously was characteristic of their moral degeneration. When Vilinitiz suggested that prisons might be a more humane alternative for the weaklings, Vimini was of the opinion that ostracism was more humane, as you were not depriving the person of their liberty, only their life, in all probability. With that statement, Vilinitiz/Minetus had some idea of what he was up against.

The old mage had been escorted out of White River by a Glider Patrol after his two weeks were complete. He withdrew a country that was choked with underbrush, and an excellent place to hide, pending his next action, which was to return to White River in his form of the dragon. He was greatly relieved, as assuming the form of the old wizard was draining, but it had been worth it. He had gotten a good look inside the country that he was tied to, and although he would hate to have to live there, he felt strangely refreshed by his stay. He would be returning soon with an offer that the Gliders could not refuse.

1. Minestus, in dragon form, flies toward White River.

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