| Thella | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Vital statistics | |
| Gender | Female |
| Rank | Lady Lady Holdless |
| Era | Eighth Interval Ninth Pass |
| Affiliation | Telgar Hold Holdless Thella's Hold |
| Parent(s) | Tarathel |
| Siblings | Larad, Kylara, Famira |
| First appearance | The Renegades of Pern |
| Notable appearance | The Girl Who Heard Dragons (Story) |
Thella, self-styled Lady Holdless, was the estranged half-sister of Lord Larad and eventual leader of a renegade band.
Biography
Early Life at Telgar Hold
Thella was born in Telgar Hold c. 2476, eleven months before her half-brother Larad, and was Lord Tarathel's first-born child. She viewed her earlier birth as proof of unrecognized birthright, leading to years of increasing bitterness, and while out hunting with her father she asked discreet questions about Contract Law and conducted research within the Hold records with the goal of later establishing her own hold.
From Holder to Holdless
When making her escape from Telgar Hold, Thella took a selection of her own possessions, as well as several bags of marks and the plans of the Hold from Larad's office.
Based on her research and things she had seen while out hunting with her father, Thella found the abandoned mountain hold, which contained many usable items. Despite these practical artifacts, Thella was unable to live out her first winter in the hold, and was forced to come down from the mountains. Rather than let this time go to waste, she worked on recruiting holdless folk she considered useful to the establishment and management of her hold.
The first of these was Dushik, who she met at the Igen Gather. Dushik was followed most notably by Giron and Readis, as well as a variety of other dispossessed folk looking for a fresh start. With the help of her holdless band, she began to steal first from minor holders, such as winter grain from Kadross Hold. Over the course of the next twelve Turns, Thella gradually acquired plans to many of the major Holds, notably Telgar, Lemos, Bitra, and Keroon, allowing her to conduct surreptitious thefts without risk of being caught.
It was while recruiting holdless from Igen Caverns that Thella learned of a girl, Aramina, who was purported to hear dragons. In order to become close to the girl, Thella posed as a Keroonian holder and approached Aramina's father, Dowell, a Woodcraft journeyman, under the guise of commissioning a pair of carved skybroom chairs. When she returned several days later to collect the chairs and also Aramina, Thella was furious to learn that Dowell and his family had left the Caverns, clearly suspicious of Thella's motives.
Thella and Giron then do their best to track down Dowell and his family. While searching for the wagon, they come across Jayge and the Lilcamp traders, telling them that Dowell and his family are thieves and requesting information. Jayge tells them truthfully that they have not seen a single wagon, suggesting reluctantly that they may have taken one of many mountain trails, but Thella is sure that he is deliberately misleading her.
After days of searching, Giron and Thella eventually find the abandoned wagon on one of the mountain trails in Lemos, and nearby find Aramina picking fruit in one of Lord Asgenar's woods, guarded by dragonriders. Thella and Giron wait until Aramina wanders away from the K'van and Heth to grab her, but not before Aramina is able to alert Heth to her danger. Although Heth is hampered by the woods, Thella and Giron are unable to escape with Aramina and are forced to let her go before running away. Sure now that Jayge both knew which trail the wagon took and alerted the dragonriders to Thella's search, Thella swears revenge against the Lilcamp band.
Thella finds the Lilcamps on their way to Far Cry Hold and sets up an ambush, crushing wagons and people with boulders and rockslides and attacking the band. Although the fight is clearly in favor of the renegades, the cry goes up that dragons are in the sky, and Thella and her band flee, killing any of their number that are wounded for the sake of secrecy. In the wake of this fight Jayge finds a bundle of sketches depicting Thella and the other members of her band, a find that would become crucial evidence in tracking down the band.
With the identity of the renegades confirmed, Asgenar is forced to tell Larad of his sister's involvement, and Larad reveals that, based on a set of runnerbeast shoes they had found at the bottom of a canyon, he had assumed Thella dead for years. With the knowledge of what she has been doing for the past twelve Turns, Larad officially disowns Thella, with Asgenar and K'van as witnesses. Remembering her youthful interest in the abandoned mountain hold, Larad suggests they look for her there, referencing a set of ancient blueprints to plan their ambush. Unbeknownst to them, however, the plans are somewhat out of date, and Thella manages to escape, along with Giron and Readis.
Personality and Traits
Thella is notably ruthless, putting herself first with very little regard at all for her fellow man. It is noted, however, that this ruthlessness does not extend to animals, as she claims that she cannot stand to see an animal mistreated. This claim, however, seems at odds with her treatment of the burden beasts when ambushing the Lilcamp train.
Thella was quite tall, allowing her to pass quite frequently for a man. She also had notably hard-to-fit feet, long, but wide across the ball and narrow in the heel, which caused her some problem in finding shoes.
Have a fake name «Bestra».
