Thella, self-styled Lady Holdless, was the estranged half-sister of Lord Holder Larad of Telgar Hold and eventual leader of a renegade band late in the Eighth Interval and early in the Ninth Pass.
Biography[]
Early Life at Telgar Hold[]
Thella was born at Telgar Hold c. AL2476, eleven months before her half-brother Larad, and was Lord Holder Tarathel's first-born child. Through him, she was a direct descendant of Tarvi Andiyar and Sallah Telgar. Besides Larad, she had at least two other siblings, Larad's full sister Kylara and one full or half-sister Famira.
After Larad was confirmed as Lord Holder at 15 Turns old, Thella viewed her earlier birth as proof of unrecognized birthright, leading to years of increasing bitterness. 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[]
While 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 an abandoned mountain 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, whom she met at the Igen Hold Gather. Dushik was followed most notably by dragonless Giron and trader 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.
While recruiting holdless from Igen Caverns, Thella learned about Aramina, a girl who was purported to be able to speak to and hear all 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 both the chairs and Aramina, Thella was furious to learn that Dowell and his family had left the Caverns, clearly suspicious of Thella's motives.
While Thella and Giron were searching for the Dowell wagon, they came across Jayge and the Lilcamp traders, telling them that Dowell and his family were thieves and requesting information. Jayge told them, truthfully, that they had not seen a single wagon, suggesting reluctantly that they may have taken one of many mountain trails. Thella was sure that he was deliberately misleading her. During this encounter, Thella used the name "Bestra of Keroon Beastmasterhold.”
After days of searching, Giron and Thella eventually found the abandoned wagon on one of the mountain trails in Lemos. Then, nearby, they found Aramina picking fruit in one of Lord Asgenar's woods, while being guarded by dragonriders. Thella and Giron waited until Aramina wandered away from K'van and bronze dragon Heth, then grabbed her, but not before Aramina was able to alert Heth to her danger. Although Heth was hampered by the woods, Thella and Giron were unable to escape with Aramina, and were forced to let her go and run away. Sure now that Jayge had both known which trail the wagon took and alerted the dragonriders to Thella's search, Thella swore revenge against the Lilcamp band.
Thella found the Lilcamps on their way to Far Cry Hold and set up an ambush, crushing wagons and people with boulders and rockslides and attacking the band. Although the fight was clearly in favor of Thella and her renegades, a cry went up that dragons were in the sky, causing Thella and her band to flee, but not before killing any of their number that were wounded, for the sake of secrecy. In the wake of this fight, Jayge found 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 was forced to tell Larad of his sister's involvement. Larad revealed that, based on a set of runnerbeast shoes they had found at the bottom of a canyon, he had assumed for years that Thella was dead. With the knowledge of what she had been doing for the past twelve Turns, Larad officially disowned Thella, with Asgenar and K'van as witnesses. Remembering her youthful interest in the abandoned mountain hold, Larad suggested they look for her there, referencing a set of ancient blueprints to plan their ambush. Unbeknownst to them, however, since the plans were somewhat out of date, Thella managed to escape, along with Giron and Readis.
After Aramina was taken to Benden Weyr, then sent to Benden Hold by Lessa, everyone assumed that she was safe from Thella. However, after Jayge met Aramina and learned her story, then discovered that Thella had been seen in the vicinity, he went to Lessa and asked her to bring Aramina back to Benden Weyr. Lessa told him that Armina had been sent to Benden Hold because being so close to so many dragons at Benden Weyr was driving her crazy. When Jayge went to Benden Hold, he discovered that, since Aramina was good with animals, she had gone with two guards to help with a staked burden beast. When Jayge went back to talk to Lessa, he discovered that the dragons could not hear Aramina and, "Heth is nearly hysterical." After Jayge organized a search team and starting searching for Aramina, they received word that she was still alive. She had spoken to Heth and told him that she could not see anything in the pitch black. After several more days of searching, a rockfall tumbled down on top of them. Jayge became suspicious and set off on his own. He was later captured by Readis, who turned out to be his uncle. Since Readis had never liked the idea of Aramina being captured, he took Jayge to the pit where Aramina was trapped. As Readis and Jayge were removing Aramina from the pit, a black shape launched itself at Readis and the two bodies went hurtling into the pit, screams reverberating in horrifying echoes. Fearing that Thella might be nearby and hear the screams, Jayge took Aramina away as fast as he could.
Much later, after Thella learned that Jayge and Aramina had married and were running Paradise River Hold on the Southern Continent, she went to Paradise River with several of her renegades, captured Jayge, then tried to find Aramina, who had managed to escape with the children. While Thella was looking for Armina, leaving Jayge bound but alone, Jayge was rescued by K'van, who told him that he had also rescued Aramina and the children from a tree. After Thella returned, Jayge managed to kill her with a dagger.
Personality and Traits[]
Thella was notably ruthless, putting herself first, with very little regard for her fellow man. It had been noted, however, that this ruthlessness did not extend to animals, as she claimed that she could not stand to see an animal mistreated. This claim, however, seemed to be 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.