Dragonsinger

by Anne McCaffrey

  Silvina returned, offering Menolly the mug she’d brought, and stood over her while she downed the dose, gagging a little at the bitterness.

  ‘Yes, I know. I made it strong on purpose. You need to sleep. And Master Robinton, there’s a messenger from the Hold for you below. Urgent, he said, and he’s out of breath!’

  ‘Sleep yourself out, Menolly,’ the Harper said as he rapidly left the room.

  ‘Trouble?’ Menolly asked Silvina, hoping to be told something.

  ‘Not for you, or because of you, m’girl.’ Silvina chuckled, pushing the sleeping fur under Menolly’s chin. ‘I understand that Groghe, Lord of Fort Hold, experienced the same unnerving nightmare, as he calls it, that you did and has sent for Master Robinton to explain it to him. Now rest and don’t fuss yourself.’

  ‘How could I? You must have doubled that dose of fellis juice,’ said Menolly, relaxed and tactless in the grip of the drug. She couldn’t keep her eyes open and effortlessly drifted to sleep to the sound of another chuckle from Silvina. One last thought let her slip easily into unconsciousness: Lord Groghe’s fire lizard had reacted, so she wasn’t hysterical.

  She awoke slightly at one point, not quite conscious of her surroundings but aware of a rumbling voice, a treble response, and hungry creelings. When she woke completely later, there was an empty bowl on the floor, and her friends were curled up about her in slumbering balls, wing-limp. The gnawing in her stomach suggested that she had slept well into the day, and the hunger was all her own. If the fire lizards had been that starved, they’d’ve been awake. Doubtless Camo and Piemur had done her the favour of feeding her friends. She grinned; Piemur and Camo must have been delighted at the chance.

  The shutters were open and, with no sounds of music or voices, she guessed it must be afternoon and the Hall’s population dispersed to their various chores. The watch dragon was back on the fire heights.

  She sat upright in bed as the memory of the previous night’s terror shattered her pleasant somnolence. At the same moment there was a tap on her door, and before she could answer, Silvina entered, carrying a small tray.

  ‘My timing’s very good,’ she said, pleased and smiling. ‘Do you feel rested?’

  Menolly nodded in reply and thanked Silvina for the hot klah she was handed. ‘But, if I can be bold, you don’t look as if you slept at all.’ Silvina’s eyes were dark-circled and red-shot.

  ‘Well, you’re right and you’re not bold, but I’m on my way to my bed, I can assure you, as soon as I’ve straightened up for Robinton. Now …’ and Silvina nudged Menolly’s hip so the girl made room for her to sit on the bed, ‘you ought to hear what disturbed your friends last night. No-one else will think to tell you with the Harper away. Also, I’ve just checked the eggs, and I think you should take a look at them … Not, however, until you’ve finished your klah,’ and Silvina put a restraining hand on Menolly’s shoulder. ‘I want your wits in place and not fellis-fuddled.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘The bare bones of the matter are that F’nor, brown Canth’s rider, took it into his head to go to the Red Star last night …’

  Menolly’s gasp woke the fire lizards.

  ‘Mind your thoughts, girl. I don’t want them turning hysterical again, thank you.’ Silvina waited until the creatures had settled back into their naps.

  ‘That’s what seems to have set the fire lizards off, at any rate. And not just yours. Robinton said that anyone who has a fire lizard had the same trouble you did, only with your having nine, it was intensified. What happened was that Canth and F’nor went between to the Red Star … Yes, small wonder you were terrified. What you told us about greyness and all that hideous heat and churning, that’s what’s on the Red Star. No-one could land there!’ She paused, gave a smug grunt. ‘That’ll shut up the Lord Holders for wanting to go there!’

  ‘Canth and F’nor?’ Menolly felt fear stab coldly up her throat, and she remembered the scream.

  ‘They’re alive, but only just. And when you said, “Don’t leave me alone”? What you heard … and it had to be through your fire lizards … was Brekke calling out to F’nor and Canth.’ Silvina broke her narrative for effect. ‘Somehow they got back. Well, partway back from the Red Star. It must have been the most incredible sight …’ Silvina’s tired eyes narrowed, reconstructing that vision. ‘The reason the Hold dragon took off was to help land Canth. It was like a path, Robinton tells us, of dragons in the air, catching Canth and F’nor, and braking their fall. They were both senseless, of course. Robinton says there isn’t a scrap of hide left on Canth; as if some mighty hand had sanded his skin away. F’nor is not much better, for all he wore wherhide.’

  ‘Silvina, how could my fire lizards know what was happening at Benden Weyr?’

  ‘Ramoth called the dragons … the Benden queen can do that, you know. Your fire lizards have been at Benden Weyr. Perhaps they heard her, too,’ Silvina dismissed that part of the mystery impatiently.

  ‘But, Silvina, my fire lizards were afraid long before Ramoth called the Fort dragon, even before I heard Brekke call.’

  ‘Why, that’s right. Ah well, we’ll find the answer to that mystery in due time. We always do at the Harper Hall. If dragons can talk to dragons across distance, why can’t fire lizards?’

  ‘Dragons think sense,’ Menolly said, gently scratching her waking queen’s little head, ‘and these beauties don’t. At least not often.’

  ‘Babies don’t make sense, and your fire lizards aren’t all that long out of the shell. But think on it, Menolly. Camo doesn’t make much sense, but he does have feelings.’

  ‘Was it he who fed my fire lizards this morning so I could sleep?’

  ‘He and Piemur. Camo fussed and fussed before breakfast until I had to send him up here, with Piemur, to shut his moans.’ Silvina’s chuckle was half amusement, half remembered irritation. ‘Nag, nag, nag about “pretties hungry,” “feed pretties.” Piemur said you didn’t wake. Did you?’

  ‘No.’ But the matter of fire lizard intelligence was more urgent in Menolly’s estimation. ‘I suppose being at Benden Weyr might explain their reaction.’

  ‘Not entirely,’ Silvina replied briskly. ‘Lord Groghe’s little friend responded, too. It wasn’t hatched at Benden and has never been there. There may well be more to these creatures than being silly pets after all. And making idiots of men who fancy themselves as good as dragonriders.’

  ‘I’ve finished my klah. Shall we see the eggs now?’

  ‘Yes, by all means. If his egg should hatch without the Harper, we’d never hear the end of it.’

  ‘Is Sebell about?’

  ‘Hovering!’ Silvina’s grimace was so maliciously expressive that Menolly laughed. ‘How’re your feet today?’

  ‘Only stiff.’

  ‘Just remember that that salve doesn’t do you any good in the jar.’

  ‘Yes, Silvina.’

  ‘Don’t you “yes, Silvina” me meekly, m’girl,’ and there was unexpected warmth and affection in the woman’s tone. Menolly smiled shyly back as the headwoman left the room.

  She dressed quickly in one of the new tunics and the blue wherhide trousers, plumped up the rushes in their bag and smoothed the sleeping fur over all.

  Silvina had just finished tidying up the Harper’s room when Menolly entered, Beauty winging in gracefully behind her. She landed on Menolly’s shoulder and, as Menolly checked both eggs, peered with equally curious interest. She chirped a question at Menolly.

  ‘Well?’ drawled Silvina, ‘now that you experts have conferred …’

  Menolly giggled. ‘I don’t think Beauty knows any more than I do. She’s never seen eggs hatch, but they are a good deal harder. They’ve been kept so nicely warm. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect they’ll hatch any time now.’

  Silvina drew in her breath sharply, startling Beauty. ‘That Harper! The problem will be keeping track of him.’ She gave the rush bag a final poke and twitched the sleeping fur straight. ‘If
Lord Groghe,’ and Silvina jerked her head towards the Fort Hold palisade, ‘isn’t sending for him, F’lar is. Or Lord Lytol for that white dragonet.’

  ‘If he wants to Impress his fire lizard, he’ll have to make a choice, won’t he?’

  Silvina gaped at Menolly for a long moment and then burst out laughing.

  ‘Might be the best thing that’s happened since the queens were killed,’ Silvina said, mopping laugh tears from her eyes. ‘The man’s had no more than a few hours sleep a day …’ Silvina gestured towards the study room, flicking her fingers at the scattered piles of records, the scrawls on the sandtable’s surface, the half-empty wine sack with its pouring neck collapsed ludicrously to one side. ‘He won’t miss the Impression of his fire lizard! But isn’t there some sign to tell if the hatching is imminent? The dragonmen can tell. And what the Harper’s doing is really urgent.’

  ‘When Beauty and the others hatched, the old queen and her flight hummed, sort of deep in the throat …’ Menolly said cautiously, after a moment’s thought.

  Silvina nodded encouragingly.

  ‘This isn’t Beauty’s clutch, so I don’t know if she’ll react, though the dragons at Benden Weyr hummed for Ramoth’s clutch. So it seems logical that the fire lizards would react the same way.’

  Silvina agreed. ‘There’d be a slight interval in which we could track the Harper down? Supposing we can’t get him to stay put here for the next day or two?’

  Menolly hesitated, reluctant to agree to a conclusion achieved by guesswork.

  ‘And they eat anything when they hatch?’ asked Silvina who appeared content with the supposition.

  ‘Just about.’ Menolly remembered the sack of spiderclaws, not the easiest of edibles, that had gone down the throats of her newly hatched friends. ‘Red meat is best.’

  ‘That will please Camo,’ Silvina said cryptically. ‘Now I think you’d best stay here. Well, what’s wrong with that? Robinton would give up more than the privacy of his quarters to have a fire lizard. He’s even threatened to forego his wine …’ Silvina had a snort for that unlikely sacrifice. ‘Well, what is wrong with you?’

  ‘Silvina … it’s afternoon, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, indeed.’

  ‘I’m pledged to go … I must go … to Master Shonagar. He was very insistent …’

  ‘Oh, he was, was he? And will he explain to Master Robinton that your voice is more important than the Harper’s fire lizard? Oh, don’t get yourself in a pucker. Sebell can sit in for you. And you tell your fire lizards to stand by …’ Silvina walked to the open window and peered down into the courtyard. ‘Piemur! Piemur, ask Sebell to step up to the Harper’s room, will you? Menolly? Yes, she’s awake and here. No, she can’t attend Master Shonagar until Sebell arrives. Yes? Well, go through the choir hall to the journeyman’s quarters and give Master Shonagar my message. Menolly answers to Master Robinton first, me second and then any of the other masters who require her attention.’

  Menolly fretted about Master Shonagar’s certain wrath while Silvina made her wait until Piemur had found and returned, at a run, with Sebell.

  ‘They’re hatching?’ Sebell slithered to a stop in the doorway, breathing hard, his face flushed and anxious.

  ‘Not quite yet,’ Menolly said, ready to speed to Master Shonagar but unwilling to brush impolitely past the journeyman blocking the entrance.

  ‘How will I know?’

  ‘Menolly says the fire lizards hum,’ replied Silvina. ‘Shonagar insists on her presence now.’

  ‘He would! Where’s the Harper?’

  ‘At Ruatha Hold by now, I think,’ Silvina said. ‘He went off to Benden Weyr when the dragonrider came for him. He said he’d stop off to see Mastersmith Fandarel at Telgar …’

  Sebell’s eyes went from Silvina to Menolly in surprise, as if Silvina were being indiscreet.

  ‘More than any other, saving yourself, Menolly will need to know how many tunes a harper, much less the Harper, plays,’ she said. ‘I’ll send more klah and …’ now she chuckled, ‘have Camo lay about with that hatchet of his on the meat.’

  Menolly told the fire lizards to stay by Sebell, and then she scurried down the steps and across the courtyard to the chorus hall.

  Despite Silvina’s reassurance, Menolly was apprehensive as she made her tardy arrival before Master Shonagar. But he said nothing. That made her dereliction harder. He kept looking at her until she nervously began to shift her weight from foot to foot.

  ‘I do not know what it is about you, young Menolly, that you can disrupt an entire Craft Hall, for you are not presumptuous. In fact, you are immodestly modest. You do not brag nor flaunt your rank nor put yourself forward. You listen, which I assure you is a pleasure and relief, and you learn from what you are told, which is veritably unheard of. I begin to entertain hope that I have finally discovered, in a mere slip of a girl, the dedication required of a true musician, an artist! Yes, I might even coax a real voice out of your throat.’ His fist came down with an almighty wallop on the sandtable, the opposite end flapping on to its supports. She jumped. ‘But even I cannot do much if you are not here!’

  ‘Silvina said …’

  ‘Silvina is a wonderful woman. Without her the Hall would be in chaos and our comfort ignored,’ Master Shonagar said, still in a loud tone. ‘She is also a good musician … ah, you didn’t know that? You should make the occasion to listen to her singing, my dear girl … But,’ again the voice boomed, Master Shonagar’s belly bouncing, although the rest of him seemed stationary, ‘I thought I had made it plain that you are to be here without fail every single day!’

  ‘Yes, sir!’

  ‘Come fog, fire or Fall! Have I made myself plain enough?’

  ‘Yes, sir!’

  ‘Then …’ and his voice dropped to normal proportions, ‘let us begin with breathing …’

  Menolly fought the desire to giggle. She mastered it by breathing deeply and then settled quickly to the discipline of the lesson.

  When Master Shonagar had dismissed her with a further injunction to be on time not the next day, which was a rest day and he needed his rest, but the day following, the work parties were back from their chores. To her surprise, she was greeted by many of the boys as she raced past them to get back to the fire lizard eggs. She answered, smiling, unsure of names and faces but inwardly warmed by their recognition. As she took the steps to the higher level two at a time, she wondered if the boys all knew about the previous night’s disturbance. Probably. News spread faster in this Craft Hall than Thread could burrow.

  The sounds of soft gitar strumming reached her ears as she got to the upper hall. She slowed down, out of breath anyhow, and arrived at the Harper’s quarters still breathing heavily, much as Sebell had done. He glanced up, grinned understandingly, and held up a hand to reassure her. Then his hand gestured to the sandtable. All her fire lizards were there, crouched, watching him.

  ‘I’ve had an audience. What I can’t tell is if my music has pleased them.’

  ‘It has,’ Menolly told him, smiling. She extended her arm for Beauty, who immediately glided to her. ‘See, their eyes tell you … the green is dominant, which is sleeping pleasure. Red means hunger, blue and green are sort of general shades, white means danger, and yellow is fright. The speed of the eye whirling tells you how intensely they feel about something.’

  ‘What about him then?’ And Sebell pointed to Lazy whose eyes were first-lidded.

  ‘He’s called Lazybones for good reason.’

  ‘I wasn’t playing a lullaby.’

  ‘Except when he’s hungry, he’s that way. Here,’ and Menolly scooped Lazy up from the sandtable and deposited him on Sebell’s arm. Startled, the man froze. ‘Stroke his eye ridges and the back joints of the wings. There! See? He’s crooning with delight.’

  Sebell had obeyed her instructions, and now Lazy collapsed about the journeyman’s forearm, locked his claws loosely about the wrist and stretched his head across the back of Sebell’s hand
. Sebell caressed him, a shy and delighted smile on his face.

  ‘I hadn’t thought they’d be so soft to the touch.’

  ‘You have to watch for patchy skin and oil it well. I did a thorough job on these the other evening, but you can see where I’ll have to do them again. Just stay there …’ And Menolly quickly went down the hall to her room for the salve, Beauty complaining at the jouncing on her shoulder.

  As they spread salve on the fire lizards, Sebell grew more confident of his handling of the creatures. He wore a half-smile, as if surprised to find himself at such a task.

  ‘Do all fire lizards sing?’ he asked, oiling Brownie.

  ‘I don’t really know. I suppose mine learned simply because I used to sing to them in the cave.’ Menolly smiled to herself, remembering the fire lizards perched attentively on the ledges about the cave, their little heads turning from side to side to catch the sounds of music.

  ‘Any audience being better than none?’ asked Sebell. ‘Did anyone think to tell you that Lord Groghe’s little queen has recently started to sing along with the Hold Harper?’

  ‘Oh no!’

  ‘If Groghe could carry a tune,’ Sebell went on, enjoying her dismay, ‘it’d be understandable. Don’t worry about it, Menolly. I heard also that Groghe’s delighted.’ Then Sebell’s expression altered subtly.

  ‘I’ll bet Lord Groghe wasn’t so happy about last night, was he?’ she hesitated, then blurted out, ‘Do you think Canth and F’nor will live?’

  ‘They have much to live for, Menolly. Brekke needs them to stay alive. She’s lost her queen already. She’ll make them live. We’ll know more when the Harper returns.’

  Camo entered the room, carrying a heavily laden tray. His thick-featured face changed from ludicrous anxiety to beams of joy as he saw first the fire lizards and then Menolly.

  ‘Pretty ones hungry? Camo has food?’ And Menolly saw two huge pans of meat in pieces among the other dishes on the tray.