Todd McCaffrey

by Dragonriders of Pern 03 - Dragongirl (v5)

  Lorana had insisted on going to Benden on Zirenth to ferry Salina to Ista. Kindan had gone with her.

  When they returned, they had several carefully wrapped parcels and Kindan wore the expression of someone keeping an important secret.

  Knowing Kindan, Fiona had asked Lorana about the contents of the parcels.

  “They’re ancient artefacts,” Lorana had told her simply. “We used them to make the cure for the sickness.”

  “And you want to use them here?” Fiona asked, her eyes going wide. “Is there more work to do?”

  Lorana shook her head. “Not with these, at least,” she’d replied. “Emorra’s last request was that we honor her mother’s promise and return them to the sea at Tillek.” She hefted a smaller parcel, adding, “The instructions are here.”

  “Shouldn’t we keep them? Just in case we need them again?”

  Lorana shook her head. “I don’t think we’d know what to do with them. Our training was very specific, directed toward this one problem.”

  “Can I come with you? Do you need any help?”

  Lorana shook her head again, smiling sadly. “I don’t think we’ll need any help, but you’re welcome to come with us.”

  She glanced quickly at Kindan, who was hunched inward on himself. “We could use the company.”

  And so it was arranged.

  They left midday the next day, after Fiona had assured herself that T’mar had settled in for the day and that Shaneese and Terin, between them, had all the Weyr matters well in hand.

  Because High Reaches was to the west, the sun rose four hours later than it did at Telgar, allowing them to make a leisurely noon departure and arrive at first light. With Talenth leading and Fiona carrying all the precious artefacts, and with Lorana and Kindan on Zirenth, they rose to the watch heights, circled once, and went between.

  When they emerged from between, Fiona could easily see the outline of Tillek Hold in the growing light of the sun. They had no trouble finding their landing—Zirenth landed so lightly that it was only when Lorana started to move that Kindan realized they were once again earthbound.

  A hoarse bugle greeted them, to be echoed more loudly by the dragons.

  Tillesk, Talenth said to both Fiona and Lorana.

  “They’ve got a watch-wher!” Kindan exclaimed, a look of delight blossoming on his face.

  “Disaller at your service,” a richly clad man said as they passed through the large gates of Tillek Hold.

  “Lord Disaller,” Fiona said, nodding slightly.

  Disaller nodded politely back, but his attention was fixed on Lorana. He strode up to her quickly, grasped her free hand, and bowed. He was a great bear of a man, one fully built for the needs of the premier sea hold.

  “News of your deeds, and your sacrifice, were heard throughout Pern,” he told her, his eyes full of sympathy. “It is an honor to have you here.”

  He glanced at Kindan and pumped his hand firmly. “You, too, harper,” he said. His wagged his great bushy eyebrows at Kindan and his bearded mouth twitched up in a smile. “Perhaps we’ll get a proper song of the events from you, soon?”

  “There is no better song than Wind Blossom’s,” Kindan told the holder honestly.

  “But he is composing another,” Fiona said, her lips curved and her eyes twinkling. “Aren’t you?”

  “I’ve only just started,” Kindan said, giving her an exasperated look.

  “Pern is grateful to the both of you,” Disaller said, turning and waving toward his Hold. “And we’d be happy to let you take your ease with us for as long as you desire.”

  “Not too long, my Lord,” Kindan said with a shake of his head.

  “We’ve a promise to keep and then we must return,” Lorana added, gesturing at her carisak.

  Disaller directed them away from the gates. “My watch-wher relayed your message,” he said. “Although I’m not sure I completely understand it.”

  “A rope, a bell, a raft, and a beach with low surf is all we need,” Kindan said.

  “Ah.” Disaller sounded relieved. “That is what we have. Although I took the liberty of laying in wet-weather clothing as well.”

  “Thank you,” Lorana said.

  “And some soup for the fog and chill of between,” Disaller added as he guided them through a narrow cut in the hills surrounding the hold.

  They walked less than a kilometer before they heard the roar of the surf and caught the smell of the sea.

  “In good weather, the children come here to swim,” Disaller told them as he indicated a stone outbuilding set well back from the shore.

  It was no more than three walls and a roof, with an opening facing on to the sea. Inside there were the supplies Lorana had requested and, on a trestle table, a large container of soup covered with a warming mitt.

  Disaller handed them all bowls and poured the warm soup into each, handing them large spoons after he finished.

  They ate standing and the soup was quickly gone.

  Disaller eyed the sea critically. “Not the best day for the beach.”

  “Not the worst, either,” Lorana said, shuddering in memory of her last moments on the Wind Rider.

  “True,” Disaller said. “I forgot you were aboard the Wind Rider.” He glanced at her thoughtfully, then added, “Was she a good ship?”

  “Yes, she was,” Lorana said. “And fast.”

  Disaller grinned at that, satisfied. “I’ve got Tanner building me another at that Half-Circle Sea Hold, in their deep docking caverns. He’s almost a better builder than a ship’s captain.”

  “How will you get it up here?” Lorana asked.

  “I might not,” Disaller said with a shrug. “But as long as she’s hauling goods, she’ll turn a profit.”

  “She will,” Lorana said. She glanced at him curiously. “What will you name her?”

  “I was thinking, if I might—” Disaller broke off. Then, somewhat abashedly, he asked, “Would you mind if I called her Lorana?” Quickly he added, “It’s not much of a tribute, I know.”

  “I’d be honored,” Lorana said, smiling.

  Disaller beamed at her. “Thank you,” he told her. “We’ll take good care of her, you can be certain.”

  “You needn’t fear, she’ll take a lot of punishment and she’ll be a good ship, with Tanner building her,” Lorana told him.

  “I wouldn’t mind if you treated her gently,” Fiona told the Lord Holder. “Then we’d have at least one Lorana who wasn’t overworked.”

  Beside him, Kindan muttered a hearty approval.

  “We should get to work,” Lorana said, ignoring them. She moved outside of the hut, eyeing the gear Disaller had brought.

  “I presume you’re hoping to set the bell up on the raft,” Disaller said as he approached. “Who are you hoping to attract?”

  Fiona and Kindan exchanged glances, wondering how Lorana would answer.

  “Dolphins,” she told the Lord Holder directly.

  Disaller nodded to himself. “Good,” he said. “If you were hoping to attract one of the Deep Ones, I’d say you wouldn’t have a chance.”

  “‘Deep Ones’?” Fiona repeated questioningly.

  “Surely you’ve heard the stories of the huge dwellers of the deep?” Disaller said, raising an eyebrow in surprise. “They go to depths well beyond the range of our trawlers.”

  “Have you ever caught one?”

  “Caught one?” Disaller repeated, sounding outraged. He shook his head fiercely. “We’d no more catch one than we’d harm a dolphin.

  “They help us; sometimes I think they herd the fish like the dolphins.” He nodded toward Kindan. “Harpers tell us they came on the Great Crossing.”

  “Really?” Fiona asked in surprise. She turned to Kindan. “I’d never heard anything about them.”

  “Nor had I,” Kindan said. He had a faraway look in his eyes, which Fiona recognized as a desire to dive into Records; a look rare for Kindan.

  “My instructions say the dolphin
s,” Lorana said, gesturing to the raft. “We’re to get their attention and then return their gifts.”

  “Gifts?” Disaller asked, eyeing Lorana’s carisak carefully. “Gifts from the sea?”

  Lorana nodded.

  Disaller’s beard twitched again in a smile. “I checked our Records,” he said with a nod toward Kindan. “I don’t suppose it would surprise anyone to learn that Wind Blossom had visited here.”

  “I’m surprised your Records survived,” Kindan said, eyeing the corrosive sea mist critically.

  “These did,” Disaller said. “They were carefully preserved, written by Lord Holder Malon himself.” His eyes twinkled. “He seemed to think it important.” He cocked his head to the distant hills. “Something to do with the dragons?”

  “Lord Malon was very perceptive,” Kindan said.

  “Wind Blossom said we had to return them,” Lorana said, her tone verging on anxious.

  “The tools used to save the dragons?” Disaller guessed. “What would the dolphins do with them?”

  “I don’t know,” Lorana said. “But Wind Blossom’s daughter made it clear that it was important that they were returned.”

  “Very well,” Disaller said, gesturing to Kindan to help him as he took one end of the raft. The two men hauled it to the surf and Disaller, wearing oiled waders, pushed it behind the surf with a stiff pole while Lorana and Fiona held firmly on to the mooring rope.

  Satisfied, Disaller returned to them and tugged on another rope that lay nearby. “This’ll raise a sail,” Disaller said, tugging on the rope. “The wind’s in the right quarter.”

  A small sail appeared above the raft several dragonlengths in the distance. They could hear the faint sound of the bell ringing out on the water.

  “There,” Disaller said, satisfied by the raft’s position. He jerked his small rope again and the sail disappeared. “Now what?”

  “We wait for the dolphins,” Lorana said.

  “And when they come?”

  Lorana hefted her carisak. “We give them these.”

  Kindan rolled closer to Lorana to shelter her from the wind and keep her warm. In the next hour, the others also huddled around her, keeping themselves nearly as warm as she was.

  The sun rose higher and the mist cleared. Lorana was dozing, half-awake when a noise startled her.

  The bell. It was ringing loudly. Disaller jumped up, peering into the distance.

  “I see fins,” he called back. “Dolphins.”

  “Pull the raft back,” Lorana said. “We’ll load it up.”

  They pulled the raft back and loaded the contents of the carisak on it. Disaller eyed the strange enclosures carefully.

  “I’ve never seen the like,” he said. “How do you open them? Are they watertight?”

  “Yes,” Kindan said. “We tested them.”

  Disaller pulled off a glove and ran his finger over the surface of the matte material. “It feels slick; do you know what it’s made of?”

  Kindan shook his head. “There are some Records written on something similar, but we don’t know what it is or how to make it.”

  “Pity,” Disaller said, putting his glove back on. He glanced at the handiwork of the others as they placed the enclosures on the raft. “They’ll not stay, you’ll want to tie them on.”

  “No,” Lorana told him. “This is the right way.”

  “Very well,” Disaller grumbled, shaking his head. He pushed the raft back out past the surf and raised the sail once more, sending the raft skidding out farther before lowering the sail yet again.

  The bell rang once more, then started pealing rapidly.

  “Something’s jostling the raft!” Disaller said. Before he could react, the raft had overturned. Fins raced around it for a moment and then were gone. Disaller turned to Lorana, worry and surprise on his face. “We could run back to the Hold and maybe launch a ship!”

  “Why?”

  “To recover your artefacts,” Disaller said, glancing from Lorana, to Kindan, and finally to Fiona in surprise.

  “No, they’re fine,” Lorana said, her eyes closed. She had a slightly quizzical look on her face.

  Kindan stepped closer to her, his arms held out protectively. “Lorana?”

  Lorana shook her head. “I’m fine,” she told him, glancing up and nodding encouragingly. “It’s just that—”

  “Look!” Fiona said, pointing off to the distance. The others followed her finger and saw a spout of water burst into the air, followed by another, and another.

  “The Deep Ones,” Disaller said, his eyes wide with awe. As they watched, something huge and stately broached the surface of the water where the last spout had appeared and then dove below the water once more. Disaller could spot dolphin fins racing toward it.

  Lorana smiled. “They’re beautiful!”

  “They don’t often come this close to land,” Disaller said, glancing at Lorana incredulously. “How did you know …?”

  Lorana shook her head. “I didn’t,” she told him. “They did.”

  “Lorana?” Fiona asked.

  “I can almost hear them,” Lorana said. She turned to Kindan. “They’re like the dragons, only different.”

  “Telepathic?” Kindan asked in surprise.

  “Almost,” Lorana said. “Or just different.” She shrugged. “They thanked us. I got the impression that there was more but I couldn’t understand it.”

  “Sea dragons?” Disaller asked wonderingly.

  “No,” Lorana said. “Not dragons.” She stared back out to sea, hoping for one final glimpse of the Deep Ones. “More like dolphins, only bigger, much bigger. And different.”

  “How different?” Fiona asked.

  “Like I doubt I could ever understand them,” Lorana said. She turned to Disaller. “You’ll want to recover that raft, for the bell.”

  “The bell?” Disaller asked, giving her an inscrutable look.

  “Yes,” Lorana said. “They like the bell.”

  Disaller’s brows narrowed in surprise. “How did you know—”

  Lorana turned back to the sea and that was answer enough for the Lord Holder.

  “They told you,” he breathed in awe, pulling gently on the mooring line. To the others he said, “That bell was the same one used by Wind Blossom.”

  They stopped at High Reaches Weyr on the way back. Weyrwoman Sonia was happy to see them, as evidenced by Lyrinth’s proud bugling when she spotted Fiona’s queen.

  “Congratulations on your flight!” Fiona said to Sonia and D’vin when they met.

  “And you on yours,” D’vin returned.

  “On your two flights,” Sonia added. “I take it that I’ve lost my queen to Telgar.” She raised an eyebrow questioningly as she added, “Unless you’re here to request a transfer?”

  Fiona smiled and shook her head. “No, Kindan and Lorana were at Tillek returning borrowed gear and insisted on stopping here.”

  “They did, did they?” Sonia said, eyeing the pair speculatively.

  “If we could, we’d like to check in your Records Room,” Lorana said, hefting a carisak onto her shoulder.

  “Let me send for some klah and we’ll join you,” D’vin said.

  “Actually, my lord, we’d prefer to do this ourselves,” Kindan responded smoothly, gesturing to Lorana and himself. Fiona hid her surprise and hurt at the exclusion, giving Sonia a look of resignation as if to indicate that one had to make allowances for harpers.

  “Well, then, we’ll meet you in the kitchen,” Sonia said, waving them away and motioning for Fiona to precede her.

  When Kindan and Lorana rejoined them half an hour later, Fiona saw the way that Sonia’s eyes darted to Lorana’s now empty carisak and the Weyrwoman’s thoughtful expression.

  D’vin waved them toward chairs and continued saying, “I understand that we’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Sonia gave Kindan a triumphant look as if to say “Take that!” but the harper merely nodded, saying, “So you’ll be at Telgar to
morrow noon?”

  “A bit later than noon,” Sonia said in response. “I’ll need some sleep.”

  Recalling the conversation now, with the arrival of all the Weyrleaders and Weyrwomen of Pern imminent, Fiona wondered if perhaps Sonia wasn’t also obliquely giving Telgar more time to prepare.

  Certainly Shaneese had worked wonders, although, to judge from the fatigue-smudged eyes of the Cavern staff, she’d kept most of the weyrfolk up through the night.

  “I’ll not have it said that Telgar doesn’t know how to entertain!” Shaneese had said as soon as she’d recovered from the shock of Fiona’s news.

  And, indeed, the Weyr looked cleaner than Fiona had ever seen a Weyr look before. Even the dirt on the Weyr Bowl floor looked freshly washed and raked.

  H’nez, for his part as senior wingleader, had ensured that all riders and their dragons were turned out smartly in their finest. The watch dragon was a bronze—Fiona had offered Talenth’s services, but had quickly demurred under the weight of H’nez’s affronted look and Shaneese’s gasp of indignity.

  “If you’ve no further need for me, Weyrwoman,” Birentir said as they neared the entrance to the Dining Cavern, “I should make my rounds.”

  Fiona waved him away with a smile, entering the Cavern alone. She was not surprised to see Xhinna and Taria hustling their young charges through their breakfast.

  “Will we be able to see the Weyrleaders?” Aryar asked hopefully as she pranced alongside her older carers.

  “I think they’re going to be busy,” Taria said.

  “But will they hear our singing? With harper Norik?” little Rhemy asked, eyes wide with hope.

  “I’m sure, if there’s time, we will be delighted,” Fiona told her.

  The group halted and whirled around, breaking away from their minders to rush over and crush Fiona in a hug and a chorus of giggles.

  “The Weyrwoman’s busy! You need to let her go!” Shaneese called crossly from across the kitchen.

  Fiona gently shooed the youngsters from her side, telling them, “And you’ll need to practice very hard if you’re going to sing for us!”

  “We will!” Aryar said, shoving the others back to Taria and grabbing the older girl’s hand in hers, tugging her toward the exit into the back corridors. “Come on, Taria! We’ve got to practice!”