Sleep, Master. We will listen.
The Harper drew a deep breath into his lungs and relaxed gratefully into sleep.
CHAPTER XV
SHARRA WAS SHOWING Brekke and Jaxom how to play a children's game in the sand with pebbles and sticks when Ruth, sleeping just beyond them with the fire lizards, woke up. He reared to a sitting position, stretching his neck and keening the long piercing note that marked a dragon's passing.
«Oh no!» Brekke reacted just a shade faster than Jaxom. «Salth is gone!»
«Salth?» Jaxom wondered who that was.
«Salth!» Sharra's face drained of color. «Ask Ruth where!»
«Canth says he was trying to fly Caylith and burst his heart!» Brekke answered the question, her shoulders sagging in new grief and a poignantly remembered tragedy. «The fool! He must have known that the younger dragons would be faster, stronger than poor old Salth!»
«Serves T'kul right! And don't soar over me, Brekke.» Sharra's eyes flashed as Brekke turned to reprimand her. «Remember, I've had to deal with T'kul and the rest of those Oldtimers. They are not like your Northern dragonfolk at all. They're… they're impossible! I could bum your ears with tales! If T'kul was fool enough to set his bronze to fly a young queen, with the competition there'd be for the Istan Weyrleadership, then he deserves to lose his beast! I'm sorry. Harsh words for you, Brekke, and Jaxom, but I know what those Southerners are like. You don't!»
«I knew there'd be real trouble sometime, exiling them like that,» Brekke said slowly, «but…»
«From what I've heard, Brekke,» Jaxom said from a compulsion to erase the desolate look from her face, «that was the only way to handle them. They weren't honoring their responsibilities to the people beholden to them. They were greedy, over and above proper timing. Further,» and he brought out his strongest point, «I heard Lytol criticizing those dragonriders!»
«I know, Jaxom. I know all that but they did come forward from their own time to save Pern…» Jaxom wondered if she realized she was wringing her hands till the knuckles showed white.
«To save Pern, yes, and then they demanded that we remember that every time we drew breath in their presence,» Jaxom went on, recalling all too clearly the arrogant and contemptuous manner with which T'ron had treated Lytol.
«We ignore the Oldtimers,» Sharra said, with a shrug. «We go about our business, keep our Hold green clear, pen up our animals during Fall. We just run a quick search with the flamethrowers to be sure the grubs have done their work.»
«Don't they ride a Fall?» Brekke asked in surprise.
«Oh, now and again. If they feel like it, or if their dragons get too upset…» Sharra's contempt was trenchant. Then she noticed the dismay on the other two faces and added, «Oh, what's happened is not the dragons' fault, mind you. And I don't suppose that it's really the riders' either. I do think they should at least try to act what they are. To be sure, most of the Oldtimers stayed north. So just a few are giving dragonmen a poor reputation in Southern. Still… if they'd met us halfway… we would have helped.»
«I should go, I think,» Brekke said, rising and facing west. «T'kul is half a man now. I know how that feels…» Her voice petered out and her face drained of all color as she stared to the west, her eyes getting larger until a cry of horror burst from her Ups. «Oh no!» Her hand went to her throat and she turned it palm outward as if warding off an attack.
«Brekke, what is it?» Sharra leaped to her feet, her arms about the woman.
Ruth whimpered and nudged against Jaxom for reassurance.
She is very afraid. She is speaking to Canth. He is unhappy. It is terrible. Another dragon is very weak. Canth is with him. It is Mnementh who talks now. T'kul fights F'lar!
«T'kul fights F'lar?» Jaxom reached out to Ruth's shoulder for balance.
The fire lizards picked up the agitation, dipping and swooping, cluttering in harsh cacophony that made Jaxom wave his arms at them to be silent.
«This is ghastly, Jaxom,» Brekke cried. «I must go. They must see that T'kul is not responsible for what he's doing. Why don't they just overpower him? There must be someone with wits at Ista! What is D'ram doing? I'll get my flying things.» She ran back to the shelter.
«Jaxom.» Sharra turned to him, one hand raised, appealing for his reassurance. «T'kul hates F'lar. I've heard him blame F'lar for everything that happens in Southern. If T'kul's dragonless, he'd be insane. He'd kill F'lar!»
Jaxom drew the girl close to him, wondering which of them needed comfort more. T'kul trying to kill F'lar? He asked Ruth to listen hard.
I hear nothing. Canth is between. I only hear trouble. Ramoth is coming…
«Here?»
No, where they are! Ruth's eyes deepened to the dark purple of worry. I do not like this.
«What, Ruth?»
«Oh, please Jaxom, what's he saying? I'm scared.»
«He is, too. And so am I.»
Brekke came back through the woods, her flying gear in one hand, in the other her small pack of medicines, half closed, and in danger of spilling its contents. She halted just before stepping onto the sands, blinked, frowning with impatience and dismay.
«I can't get there! Canth must stay with B'zon's Ranilth. We can't lose two bronzes today!» She looked this way and that as if the beach could sprout an answer to her dilemma. She bit her underlip and then exclaimed in frustration. «I've got to go!»
The second shock struck both Brekke and Jaxom at the same time as Ruth bugled in fear.
«Robinton!» Brekke reeled and would have fallen if Sharra and Jaxom had not jumped to her support. «Oh, no, not Robinton? How?»
The Master Harper.
«Not dead?» Sharra cried.
The Master Harper is very ill. They will not let him go. He will have to stay. As you did.
«I'll take you, Brekke. On Ruth. Just let me get my flying gear.»
Both women reached out to restrain him.
«You can't fly yet, Jaxom. You can't go between!» The fear in Brekke's eyes was for him now.
«You really can't, Jaxom,» Sharra said, shaking her head and pleading with her eyes. «The cold of between… you're just not well enough yet. Please!»
They are afraid for you now, Ruth said, sounding confused. Very afraid. I do not know why it is wrong for you to ride me but it is!
«He's right, Jaxom, it would be disastrous,» Brekke said, her body slumping with defeat. Wearily she raised her hand to her head, and pulled off the now unnecessary helmet. «You mustn't attempt going between for at least another month or six sevendays. If you did, you'd risk headaches for the rest of your life and the possibility of blindness….»
«How do you know that?» Jaxom demanded, struggling with fury at having been kept ignorant of such a restriction, with frustration at not being able to help either Brekke or the Harper.
«I know that,» Sharra said, turning Jaxom to face her. «One of the dragonriders at Southern took fire head. We didn't know the dangers of going between. He went blind first. Then mad with the pain in his head and… died. So did his dragon.» Her voice caught, remembering that tragedy, and her eyes were misted with tears.
Jaxom could only stare at her, stunned.
«Why wasn't I told that before?»
«No reason to,» Sharra said, her eyes never leaving his, pleading with him for understanding. «You're getting stronger daily. By the time you realized the restriction existed, it might not have been necessary to warn you anymore.»
«Another four or six sevendays?» He ground the words out, conscious that he was working his fists and that his jaw muscles ached with the effort to control his temper.
Sharra nodded slowly, her face expressionless.