"Let us not be an obstacle in the path of true love," he murmured to her and gestured that they circle around the lovers. He was breathing only a little hard from the run, though no more than she was.
They made the detour and then, the race forgotten, loped easily side by side toward the roasting pits. Diners were just beginning to assemble.
There was always an evening breeze at Landing, and that dried the sweat on her brow as they stood in line. They arrived just before the crowd streaming from the square. By the time they were served roast beast and quarters of grilled avians, and took their choice from steaming bowls of tubers and vegetables, the line at the serving tables had tripled its length.
"Where shall we sit?" F'lessan asked her, looking around.
"Surely you're joining your friends?"
"Ha! No one in particular. I wanted free time at the Archives. Look, over to our right, there at the edge. A quiet table." He raised his voice. "Hey, Geger!" A wineman glanced their way. "Serve us, will you?" F'lessan pointed and, putting his free hand on her elbow, steered her in that direction.
The wineman converged on the table just as they arrived.
"White? Red?" F'lessan asked her before turning to the wineman. "D'you have any Benden there, Geger?"
"Well, seeing as it's you, F'lessan, yes, I can get one." The wineman put his fingers to his lips and his shrill whistle pierced the happy noise of the crowd. Across the square, where skins of wine were hung in display, another wineman looked toward them. Geger flagged his arms in a private code and the man waved in reply. "That'll be three marks, bronze rider."
"What?" F'lessan demanded.
"I'll pay my share," Tai said quickly, reaching for her belt pouch.
"That's robbery, Geger. I could have bought from the source for one and a half."
Tai was amused by the outrage in his voice.
"Then you shoulda done before you got here, F'lessan. And you know three marks isn't high for cold white Benden." The last three words were delivered in a slow cajoling drawl.
"But three?"
"I'll give-" Tai began, but F'lessan flapped his hand sharply at her.
"Geger and I are old friends," he said, his eyes sparkling. There was a firm edge to his voice. "Aren't we, old friend?"
"Even for old friends, three marks for a '30 vintage cold white Benden is a good price at Turnover." Geger was not to be moved by any consideration of friendship.
"Benden marks," F'lessan said, sticking his jaw out.
"Benden marks are, to be sure, the best. Almost as good as Harper Hall."
F'lessan passed over the three marks just as the other wineman arrived with the skin, a large one.
"Good Turnover," Geger said, tipping a salute to F'lessan and a wink at Tai.
"Well," F'lessan commented, feeling the skin, "it's properly cold." He unplugged the small end, gesturing for Tai to supply glasses from those on the table. He filled both deftly, restored the plug, and laid the skin under the table. "Safe skies!" he said in the traditional toast. Quickly she touched her glass to his.
"I think it isa '30," he added after a judicious sip. He grinned broadly. "You know, three marks isn't that bad for a vintage Benden white."
His remark caught her taking her first sip and she nearly choked on it. Three marks would have been out of her reach even at a Turnover celebration when everyone tended to spend freely. She hadn't brought much with her; once she'd completed the declinations that Erragon wanted, she hadn't expected to do more than get a quick meal here-and maybe listen to the harpers awhile-before returning with Zaranth to her weyr down by Monaco Bay. She didn't have a great many marks in any event, though like many other green riders she could be hired to deliver small packages and letters almost anywhere in Southern, when she wasn't involved in Weyr duties or researching for Master Wansor at Cove Hold.
"Thank you, bronze rider," she said.
"I'm F'lessan, Tai," he replied with gentle chiding and a smile lurking in his eyes.
She wasn't sure how to respond to that.
"Let's eat," he suggested, taking his belt knife from its sheath. "I think from the smell of it the Landing cooks have used their special sauce. What more can one ask for on a Turnover night?"
Tai wouldn't have asked for this much, she mused as she picked up a clean fork and started on the roast tubers, her favorite.
The wine was the best she'd ever tasted and so was the food.
"How's the hand?" F'lessan asked after they'd eaten in hungry silence for a few minutes.
"My hand?" Tai looked down at it. "Oh, truly nothing now. My thanks again. And I usually do keep numbweed handy. I just didn't… today." In truth she had a big jar among the supplies in her weyr, but she did not have one small enough to fit in her belt pouch.
"How'd you do it?"
"Oh, probably when I was scrubbing Zaranth this afternoon. She hunted today and needed a good wash." Hunting and bathing Zaranth had taken longer than Tai had planned. Knowing that the Archives were more likely to be unoccupied on Turnover days, she'd been anxious to get there-and not careful enough to avoid barnacle-covered rocks when rinsing the stiff brush she used on Zaranth's hide.
"That can happen," he said with rueful agreement. "Are you weyred along the coast or inland?"
Tai tried not to freeze at the question: bronze riders with an eye to mating with Zaranth the next time she was "ripe" always wanted to know where she could be found. Zaranth wasn't even close to her cycle. "Coast," she replied quickly. Almost too quickly. "Do you spend a lot of time at Honshu?"
"Coast, huh? See much of the Monaco dolphins?"
She made herself relax. She was being overly suspicious. "Yes, I do." She smiled. Thinking of her dolphin friends always made her smile. It seemed to have a similar effect on F'lessan, who grinned back at her. He had such a merry smile. Just as Mirrim said he had.
"Natua has a new calf. She showed him off to Zaranth and me," she said, quite willing to talk about dolphins.
"She did?" F'lessan was really interested. It showed in the way his eyes sparkled and his whole face lit up. "Golanth and I must take the time to admire him."
"She'll show him off to anyone, she's so proud."
"I'm better acquainted with the Cove Hold and Readis's pods, you see," he confided in her.
"I know," she replied.
"Quite likely," he said, shooting her a teasing glance. "Dolphins like nothing better than to gossip. They can spread news faster than Runners. We have too many animals on this planet who can talk back to us humans."
She gave him a startled look and then let herself chuckle. "I suppose we should be grateful that fire-lizards can't talk."
"A large mercy," he agreed. "It's bad enough they sing!"
"But they add such beautiful descants."
"I suppose so," he replied amiably.
She knew that Lessa, his mother, had a prejudice against fire-lizards. Mirrim had said it was because no one had known how to control the creatures when they were first brought to Benden. Did F'lessan share her bias? She didn't know what to say to change the subject. He spared her by speaking first.
"What has you so interested in Rukbat system charts?"
"Ah!" She was grateful for the change in topic. "Well, I'm close enough, being at Monaco Bay, and I was an apprentice… " She floundered a moment.
"So you said…"
"So I'm often asked to check out figures on the original charts, which are much too valuable to be anywhere else."
"Good Master Esselin." F'lessan's tone was facetious.
She flushed. "He doesn't really approve of me, even if Master Stinar entrusts me to take Yokoupdates to Cove Hold, because I'm only a green rider."
"There's no such thing as 'onlya green rider,' Tai. A wing never has enough green riders," he replied so staunchly that she was startled enough to catch his eyes. "That's the Wing-leader in me talking. Besides which, Master Esselin is a pompous old hairsplitter! Ignore him."