Jaxom groaned. "I saw him sleeping, and I ought to have known he never sleeps at a Gather..."
"Many's the night he's outlasted everyone else at a Gather," Lessa said. "How much of a head start do these miserable fiends have? Which way would they go?"
Jaxom snapped his fingers. "There are marshals on every road. They would have seen who left and in which direction."
"We'll each take a different road," F'lar said, gesturing for all the riders to mount their beasts and check with the marshals. "You stay here as if there was nothing amiss," he told Lytol, Piemur, and Sharra.
But each dragonrider returned shortly. No one, the marshals had assured them, had been seen leaving the Gather, no riders or wagons on any road.
Tell the fire-lizards to search, Ruth said to Jaxom.
"Ruth says to tell all the fire-lizards to hunt for Robinton," Jaxom said aloud.
"That's exactly what Ramoth just said," Lessa said. The noise of sudden winged exodus could be heard above the rollicking dance tune that was encouraging the dancers to outdo themselves.
"If we announce this to the Gather," Lytol suggested, "we'd have sufficient people to search the entire Hold from border to border."
"No," Jaxom said. "There'd be a panic! You know how well loved Robinton is. It can't be more than an hour, at the most. That's not enough time to get to the coast..."
"Up into the hills?" Lytol suggested. "There are so many caves up there wed never be able to search them all."
"The fire-lizards can-and will," Piemur said.
"There are only so many tracks to the hills," Jaxom said. "Ruth and I will start the search. Lytol..." And then Jaxom hesitated.
Lytol clutched his arm. "D'ram and Tiroth will take me. I know Ruatha as well as you do, lad."
"So do I," Lessa said roughly.
"I'll go northeast to the Nabol Pass," F'lar said.
"We'll need some Fort Riders," Lessa said.
"And some to follow the river to the sea," Lytol added.
"We'll stay here for the fire-lizards," Piemur said, nodding to Sharra. There were tears running down his cheeks. "Just find him!" Then abruptly he sat down, where the shadow of his body fell across the dead man dressed in harper blue.
Dawn was breaking by the time the dragonriders, augmented by Fort Weyr riders, admitted defeat and returned to Ruatha. A few folk were awake, preparing to return home, but most of the Gather area was populated by those sleeping off the night's excesses.
"Not a single wagon is leaving here without being searched," Sharra told Jaxom when he got back. "That was Piemur's notion."
"And a good one," Jaxom said, gratefully taking the cup of klah she handed him. "For there was nothing moving on the tracks, and I went as far as the Ice Lake, and Ruth was particularly vigilant over the wooded areas."
He saw then that someone had thrown a blanket across the dead man's shoulders. Piemur and Jancis sat nearby as if guarding their master's sleep.
"We thought it wiser to pretend it's Master Robinton," Sharra murmured. "Sebell and Menolly know, of course, and her ten fire-lizards have been out searching all night. Sebell's gone back to the Harper Hall to alert everyone. You heard the drums?"
"You can't miss them." She grimaced. "Asgenar and Larad know harper codes, and they were talking of mounting an attack on Bitra."
"They'd never have been fool enough to imprison the Harper there. Sigomal's not stupid. He'd know it would be the first place we'd look."
"That's what Lytol told them, but they feel badly because they heard of the abduction first. Larad says that he ought to have confronted Sigomal immediately and demanded that he forget such a heinous scheme."
"That would have done no good," Jaxom said wearily.
"And it was such a lovely Gather..." Sharra said, turning into his shoulder and weeping softly.
Jaxom put his arms about her, smoothing her rumpled hair back from her forehead and wanting very much to give way to the tears that burned his eyes.
"Zair?" he asked, suddenly remembering the little creature.
"Oh! Yes." Sharra pulled herself from his arms, mopping her eyes and sniffing. "He'll recover, Campila says. She purged him and," she added managing a little smile, "he looked so embarrassed. I've never seen that particular shade in fire-lizard eyes before."
"When will he be able to help us find Master Robinton?"
Sharra bit her lower lip. "He's terribly weak and awfully confused. I didn't ask her that, because if they've drugged Master Robinton and he's comatose, not even Zair could find him."
Suddenly the air was full of agitated fire-lizards, shrieking and bugling.
They've found him! Ruth cried. In three mighty hops, he landed at Jaxom's side.
Jaxom was astride the white dragon before he realized his own intention and then Ruth was aloft with such speed that his rider was nearly unseated. Other dragons were airborne as quickly. Like an arrow composed of many bodies-all flying so closely together that many must have been winglocked-the fire-lizards pointed the southeastern direction.
Can you understand who or where from them? Jaxom asked Ruth.
It is not far, and they picture a wagon. You can see the tracks plainly.
And then Jaxom saw the marks, visible over the headlands of fields recently plowed under. The abductors had been clever, taking to the fields instead of the roads, and the cart had to be a small one, or they could not have maneuvered over muddy fields and the rocky terrain beyond the cultivated lands. The dragons had not been airborne long when they saw the first of the foundered runners, splay-legged and gasping, its feet bound in thick rags to muffle its passage. Ten minutes onward, another exhausted beast lay on the ground, breathing its last, its sides covered with bloody welts that indicated how it had been driven.
Tell the others, Ruth, that they must be heading to the sea. Have some riders go on ahead.
They go, Ruth replied, and Jaxom saw spaces opening up all around him as dragons went between.
But dragon wings were quicker than the fleetest of runners, even with a head start of some six hours, and at last Jaxom saw the cart bouncing its way down the final slope to the sea and the small ship waiting for this clandestine cargo. Dragons had encircled the ship, and from his vantage point, Jaxom could see men diving from it, vainly attempting to evade capture.
Then Ruth and the Benden contingent swooped down to halt the cart.
There was a brief attempt at innocence by the three men: two on the driving seat, and one inside, lying on a thick mattress and pretending to be ill.
The fire-lizards, however, were far more interested in the unusual dropped load bed, swarming over it, crooning encouragement, bugling triumph. The "sick" man was unceremoniously dumped out of the cart, the mattress rolled out of the way, and the boards of the false bottom pulled free. And there they discovered the Masterharper, looking ashen and almost wizened.
Carefully they lifted him out, rearranging the mattress for his comfort.
"He may just need air," F'lar said, "stuffed in that pit and jostled like a package..."
He glared at the three who were struggling in the rough grip of angry riders. Overhead, fire-lizards made as if to bombard them, claws and beaks held in attack readiness.
"We need Sharra," Lessa told Jaxom urgently. "Unless Oldive is still at the Gather..."
Jaxom vaulted to Ruth's back.
"Don't meet yourself coming, Jaxom!" Lessa shrieked at him.
Despite his anxiety and fury, Jaxom recognized the sense of that warning; still, he didn't waste any time returning with Sharra and her medical case.
"I think they gave him too much," she said, her face paler than the Harper's. "We must get him back to Ruatha where I can treat him properly."
The limp figure was handed up to Jaxom astride Ruth, with Sharra to help hold the Harper between them. When they arrived back at Ruatha, N'ton was already in the courtyard with Oldive, so Jaxom knew that the Fort Weyrleader had risked timing his errand.