"Go on," Jaxom urged when Piemur stopped to assess the effect of his cryptic statement. "You wouldn't have told us this much if you didn't intend to say more. You did mention that you'd been looking for us?"
Piemur grinned. "Among other things." He stretched out on the sand, grunting and making a show of settling himself. He took the cup of fruit juice Sharra handed him, quaffed the contents and held it out to be refilled.
Jaxom regarded the young man patiently. He was used to Piemur's mannerisms from the days they had spent together in Master Fandarel's and the Harper Hall.
"Did you never wonder why I left the classes, Jaxom?"
"Menolly told me you'd been posted elsewhere."
"And everywhere," Piemur replied with a broad sweep of his arm, his fingers flicking southward in emphasis. "I'll wager that I've seen more of this planet than any living thing… including dragons!" He gave a decisive nod of his head to show the others they should be impressed. "I haven't quite…" he paused to stress the qualifier, "gone all around this Southern Continent, nor have I gone across it, but I intimately know everywhere I have been!" He pointed to the worn boots on his feet. "New they were, a scant four sevendays ago when I started east. Oh, the tales these boots could tell!" He squinted at Jaxom thoughtfully. "It's one thing, my Lord Jaxom, to soar serenely over land, seeing all from an exalted height. Quite another, I assure you, to stomp on it, through it, under it, around it. You know where you've been then!"
"Does F'lar know?"
"More or less," Piemur replied with a grin. "A little less than more, I'd wager. You see, about three Turns back, Toric started trading North with some fine samples of iron ore, copper and tin-all of which, as you might have heard Fandarel complain, Jaxom, are getting in short supply north. Robinton thought it prudent to investigate Toric's sources of supply. He was smart enough to send me over… You're sure he's going to be all right? You're not holding anything from me?" Piemur's anxiety cut through his brash manner.
"You know as much as we know, as much as Ruth knows." Jaxom paused to inquire of his dragon. "And Ruth says he sleeps. He also says the dragons won't let him go."
"The dragons won't let him go, huh? Don't that beat all!" Piemur shook his head from side to side. "Not that I'm surprised, mind you," he added with customary briskness. "The dragons know who're their friends. Now, as I was saying, Master Robinton decided it would be very smart of us to know more about the South, since he had a notion F'lar had an eye for this continent during the next Interval."
"How is it that you know so much about what F'lar and Robinton think?" Sharra asked.
Piemur chortled, wagging a finger at her. "That's for me to know and you to guess. But I'm right, aren't I, Jaxom?"
"I don't know what F'lar's plans might be but he's not the only one interested in the South, I'd wager."
"Truly spoken! But he's the only one that matters, don't you see?"
"No, frankly I don't see," Sharra said. "My brother's Lord Holder… Well he is," she added with some heat when Piemur started to contradict her. "Or would be, if his Hold had been acknowledged by the Northern Lord Holders. He risked settling south with F'nor when he timed it back. No one else was willing to try. He's put up with the Oldtimers, and made a fine, big, Threadfree Hold. No one can gainsay his right to hold what he has…"
"Nor do I!" Piemur assented quickly. "But… for all Toric's attracted a lot of new people from the North, he can only Hold so much! He can only protect and work so much. And there is so much more of the Southern Continent than anyone realizes. Except me! I'll bet I've already walked the breadth of Pern from Tillek Head to Nerat Tip on this continent and not gone its length." Piemur's tone changed abruptly from derision to awe. "There was this bay, you see, the opposite shore all but hid in the heat haze. Stupid and I had been struggling through really bad sand for two days. I'd only enough water to go back the way we'd come because I'd thought that the sand would have to give way to decent land soon.… I sent Farli out, first to the far shore, then down to the mouth of the bay, but all she brought back to me was more sand. So I knew I'd have to turn back. Bat," he turned to his listeners, "you see, there's probably as much land beyond that bay as I'd already transversed from Toric's Hold and I'd still not come full circle! Toric could not begin to hold the half of what I've seen. And that's only the western side. East now, it's taken me a full three sevendays to reach you from Toric's and we'd had to swim part of the way. Good swimmer, that Stupid of mine! As willing as a new day and never complains. When I think of how careful my father was to feed his runner stock on only the best fodder, and what Stupid makes do on with twice the work out of him…" Piemur broke off to shake his head at the inequity.
"So," he returned briskly to his narrative, "I've been exploring as I was told to, and heading in your general direction, as I was told to, only I expected to be here long before this! My word, but I'm tired, and no one knows how much further I've got to travel before I get where I'm going."
"I thought you were coming here."
"Yes, but I've to go on… eventually." He raised his left leg, the one which he'd been favoring, and squinched his face up in a grimace of pain. "Shards, but I can't go another step for a while! This leg's been walked half off, now, hasn't it, Sharra?"
Still elevating the leg, he swiveled in the sand toward the healer who was looking quite concerned. Deftly she unwound the shreds of what had probably been Piemur's cloak, and uncovered a long but recently healed scar.
"I can't walk any farther on that, now can I, Sharra?"
"No, I don't think you should, Piemur," Jaxom said, critically examining the healed wound. "Do you, Sharra?"
She looked from one to the other and then began to shake her head, her eyes dancing.
"No, positively not. It needs soaking in warm salt water, and plenty of sun, and you're a terrible rascal, Piemur. Just as well you're not a posted harper! You'd scandalize any sensible Holder!"
"Have you kept any Records of your traveling?" Jaxom asked, keenly interested and just a shade jealous of Piemur's freedom.
"Have I kept Records?" Piemur snorted derisively. "Most of what Stupid packs is Records! Why do you think I'm wearing rags? I haven't room to carry spare clothes." His voice lowered and he leaned urgently toward Jaxom. "You don't just possibly happen to have any of Bendarek's leaves down here, do you?
There are a couple of-"
"Plenty of leaves. Drawing tools as well. C'mon!" Jaxom was on his feet, Piemur not a second behind him with only a trace of a limp, following him to the shelter. Jaxom had not intended Piemur to see his bumbling attempts to map their immediate vicinity. But he'd forgot the young harper's keen eyes missed little, and Piemur had spotted the roll of neatly connected leaves and, without so much as a by-your-leave, laid it open. He soon was nodding his head and muttering under his breath.
"You haven't been wasting your time here, have you?" Piemur grinned, an oblique compliment to Jaxom's work. "You used Ruth as measure? Fair enough. I've taught my queen, Farli, to pace her flight. I count by the second, watch for her dip at the end of the run and record the distance by seconds. I figure it up later when I'm charting. N'ton double-checked the measure when he worked with me, so I know it's reasonably accurate, as long as I allow enough for a wind factor." He whistled as his gaze fell on the tall stack of fresh sheets. "I might need 'em, I might, to map what I've traveled over. If you'd give me a hand…"