Ruth paused in his progress to the weyr entrance, cocking his head, patently considering. Then he arched his neck and moved forward confidently. Yes, Mnementh has gone and Ramoth with him. They will not know that I will have a real bath with fire-lizards to scrub my ridges property.
Jaxom couldn't help but laugh at the smug satisfaction in Ruth's tone as he left the weyr.
"Sorry about inflicting Mirrim on you, Jaxom, but I couldn't get up to this level without Path. And her."
Jaxom took a long sip of klah. "I suppose, if Path's proddy, she has to be excused."
"Mirrim usually is, one way or another." Menolly's tone was acid.
"Huh?"
"Mirrim generally gets away with outrageous behavior."
A sudden thought caused Jaxom to interrupt the harper girl abruptly. "You don't think Mirrim did sneak onto the Ground before that Hatching? I know she swears she didn't but I do know she wasn't supposed to Impress.…"
"Not any more than you were! Oh, for goodness sake, Jaxom, can't I tease you? No, I don't think she tried to influence Path in the shell. She had her firelizards and was always content with them. Who wouldn't be with three? Also, you surely know how furious Lessa was after she Impressed Path? Well, no one came forward then to say they'd ever seen Mirrim sneaking onto the Ground and they would have! Mirrim can be managing, tactless, difficult and exasperating, but she's not devious. Weren't you at the Hatching? Oh, well, I was. Path came staggering over to the spot where Mirrim was sitting, crying her heart out and refusing every single candidate on the Ground until F'lar was forced to decide that Path wanted someone sitting among the spectators."
Menolly shrugged. "Someone who turned out to be Mirrim. Oddly enough, her fire-lizards never uttered a chirp of objection. No, I think the partnering was as much… well, destined to be as you and Ruth. Not at all like my acquisition of Poll. As if I needed another fire-lizard." She grimaced ruefully. "But his shell cracked just as I was passing him to that addle-handed child of Lord Groghe's. He's never faulted me, and the child got a green. A bronze would have been wasted on that brat!"
Jaxom pointed a forefinger at Menolly. "You are blathering! What is it you're hiding? What is it that you know about Ruth that I don't?"
Menolly looked Jaxom straight in the eye. "I don't know anything, Jaxom. But, by your own account to me a few minutes gone by, Ruth greeted the news of Path's imminent mating with all the enthusiasm of a weyrling asked to change glow baskets."
"That doesn't mean-"
"Doesn't mean anything. So don't get defensive. Ruth is maturing late. That's all you need to think about it… especially with Corana on hand."
"Menolly!"
"Don't explode! You'll undo all the good rest you had last night. You were faded!" She put her hand on his arm, giving it a squeeze. "I'm not prying about Corana. I'm commenting, although you might not appreciate the distinction."
"It does occur to me that Ruatha Hold is not Harper business," he said, gritting his teeth against the words he'd like to use.
"You, Jaxom, rider of white Ruth, are the Harper's business-not young Jaxom, Lord of Ruatha."
"You're making distinctions again."
"Yes, I am, Jaxom," and although her voice was serious, her eyes twinkled. "When Jaxom influences what happens to Pern, then he becomes Harper business."
Jaxom stared at her, still baffled by her silence on the matter of the egg's return. Then he caught the odd warning expression in her eyes; for some reason beyond his comprehension, she did not want him to confirm that adventure.
"You're several people at once, Jaxom," she went on, earnestly. "The Lord of a Hold which cannot be in contention, the rider of an unusual dragon and a young man who's not quite sure who or what he should be. You can, you know, be all and more, without being disloyal to anyone, or yourself."
Jaxom snorted. "Who's speaking? The Harper, or Menolly the Meddler?"
Menolly shrugged, gave a rueful twist of her mouth, neither smile nor denial. "Partly Harper, because I can't look at most things without thinking Harper, but Menolly mostly, right now, I think, because I don't want you to be upset. Particularly not after that feat you pulled off yesterday!" There was no doubt of the warmth of her smile.
Her fair of fire-lizards came swooping into the weyr. Jaxom suppressed his annoyance at the interruption because he'd have preferred to keep Menolly talking in this unusually expansive mood. But the fire-lizards were clearly excited and, before Menolly could calm them enough to find out, Ruth came into the weyr, his eyes whirling with myriad colors.
D'ram and Tiroth are here, and. everyone is very excited, Ruth said, pushing his nose at Jaxom to be caressed. Jaxom obliged, and went on to rub eye ridges damp from Ruth's swimming. Mnementh is very pleased with himself. There was a note of grievance in that addition.
"Well, Mnementh couldn't have brought D'ram and Tiroth back without your help, Ruth," Jaxom replied staunchly. "Right, Menolly?"
I could not have found D'ram and Tiroth without the fire-lizards' help, Ruth remarked graciously. And you thought of going back twenty-five Turns.
Menolly sighed, unable to hear Ruth's last comment.
"Actually, we owe more to those Southern fire-lizards."
"That's just what Ruth said…"
"Dragons are honest people!" Menolly exhaled heavily and rose. "Come on, my friend. You and I had better return to our own halls. We've done what we were sent to do. Done it well. That's all the satisfaction we're likely to have." She shot him an amused look. "Isn't that so?" She gathered up her pack.
"Which is the way some matters have to remain. Right?"
She slipped her arm through his, hauling him to his feet, grinning in a semi-conspiratorial fashion that oddly enough did dispel the resentment he was beginning to feel.
As they came out on the ledge, they could see the activity about the queen's weyr, as riders and women from the Lower Caverns came streaming across to greet D'ram and his bronze.
"I must admit, it's rather nice to leave Benden with everyone in a good frame of mind for a change," Menolly said as Ruth bore her and Jaxom upward.
Jaxom expected to deposit Menolly safely in the Harperhall and return home. No sooner had Ruth announced himself to the watchdragon on the fire-heights than Zair and a harper-banded little queen attached themselves with precarious talon holds to Ruth's neck.
"That's Sebell's Kimi. He's back!" There was an exultant ring to Menolly's voice that Jaxom had never heard before.
The watchdragon says that the Harper wants to see us. So does Zair, Ruth told Jaxom. He means me, too, Ruth added with a note of pleasant surprise.
"Why shouldn't the Harper want to see you, Ruth? He's sure to give you the credit you're due," Jaxom said, still nursing a bit of resentment as he slapped the arched neck affectionately. Ruth had turned his head to choose a landing space in the courtyard.
Master Robinton and a man with a master's knot on his shoulder came striding down the Hail's steps. Master Robinton's arms were outstretched so he could encircle both Menolly and Jaxom with an enthusiasm that almost embarrassed Jaxom. Then, to his complete surprise, the other Harper grabbed Menolly from Robinton's grasp and began to swing her around and around, all the time kissing her soundly. Instead of protesting this treatment of their friend, the fire-lizards went into spectacular aerial maneuvers of twined necks and overlapped wings. Jaxom knew that fire-lizard queens rarely indulged in tactile contact with queens, but Beauty and the strange gold were as joyously indulging as Menolly and the man. Glancing to see what the Harper's reaction was to such excess, Jaxom was astonished to see Master Robinton grinning with smug pleasure, an expression quickly altered when he noticed Jaxom's regard.