"Does that mean I can't excavate more thoroughly?" Nicat asked, sounding irritable.
"By all means, if you've the men to spare."
"I do," Nicat replied a bit grimly. "With three mines worked out."
"I thought you'd started to reopen the shafts Toric found in the Western Range?"
"We've been examining them, to be sure, but my Hall hasn't reached a miner's agreement with Toric yet."
"With Toric? Does he hold those lands? They're far to the southwest, well beyond Southern Hold," F'lar said, abruptly intent.
"It was an exploring party of Toric's which located the shafts," Nicat said, his eyes shifting from the Benden Weyrleader's to the Harper's and then to the Smith's.
"I told you my brother was ambitious," Sharra said softly to Jaxom.
"An exploring party?" F'lar seemed to relax again. "That doesn't make it a Holding then. At all events, mines come under your jurisdiction, Master Nicat. Benden supports your decision. I'll just have a word with Toric tomorrow."
"I think we should," Lessa said, holding her hand out to F'lar to assist her from the sands.
"I was hopeful you'd support my Hall," the Miner said with a bow of gratitude, his shrewd eyes glinting in the. firelight.
"I'd say a talk was long overdue," the Harper re- marked.
The dragonriders took their leave quickly, N'ton to •deliver Master Nicat to Crom Hold from where they'd collect him the next morning. Robinton took Master Fandarel with him to Cove Hall. Piemur dragged Menolly off to check on Stupid, leaving Jaxom and Sharra to douse the fire and clear the beach.
"Your brother doesn't plan to hold the entire South- west, does he?" Jaxom asked when the others had dis- persed.
"Well, if not all, as much as he can," Sharra replied with a laugh. "I'm not being disloyal to him telling you this, Jaxom. You have your own Hold. You don't want Southern lands. Or do you?"
Jaxom considered that.
"You don't, do you?" Sharra sounded anxious and put her hand on his arm.
"No, I don't," he said. "No, much as I love this Cove, I don't want it. Today on the Plateau, I'd have given anything for a cool breeze from Ruatha's moun- tain, or a plunge in my lake. Ruth and I will take you there—it's such a beautiful place. Only a dragon can get to it easily." He picked up a flat pebble and skated it across the quiet swells that lapped the white sands of the beach. "No, I don't want a Southern Hold, Sharra. I was bom in Ruatha, bred to Ruatha. Lessa obliquely reminded me of that this afternoon. She reminded me, too, of the price of my Holding and of all she's done to insure that I remain Lord of Ruatha. You do realize, don't you, that her son, F'lessan, is a Ruathan half- blood. That's more than I am."
"But he's a dragonrider!"
"Yes, and weyrbred, by Lessa's choice so that I would remain the uncontested Lord of Ruatha. I'd better start acting like one!" He rose and drew Sharra up.
"Jaxom?" and her tone was suspicious, "what are you going to do?"
He put both hands on her arms, looking her squarely in the eyes. "I've a Hold to manage, too, as your brother reminded me..."
"But you're needed here, with Ruth. He's the only one who can make sense out of fire-lizard images..."
"And with Ruth, I can handle both responsibilities. Manage my Hold and please myself. You'll see!" He drew her closer to kiss her, but suddenly she broke away from him, pointing over his shoulder, her face mirroring hurt and anger. "What's the matter? What have I done, Sharra?"
She pointed to the tree where two fire-lizards were intently watching.
"Those are Tone's. He's watching me. Us!"
"Great! Let him have no mistake about my inten- tions toward you!" He kissed her until he felt her taut body responding to his, till the angry set of her lips dissolved into willingness. "I'd give him more to see but I want to get back to Ruatha Hold this evening!" He rapidly drew on his riding gear and called to Ruth. "I'll be back in the morning, Sharra. Tell the others, will you?"
Do we have to leave? Ruth asked even as he bent his foreleg for Jaxom to mount.
"We'll be back in no time, Ruth!" Jaxom waved to Sharra, thinking how forlorn she looked standing there in the starlight.
Meer and Talla circled once with Ruth, whistling so cheerfully that he knew Sharra had accepted his pre- cipitous departure.
His abrupt compulsion to return to Ruatha and set in train the formalities of his confirmation as Lord Holder was by no means entirely due to Toric's barbed comments. His own suppressed sense of responsibility had been heightened by Lessa's odd nostalgia at the mound. But it had also occurred to him, at the fireside, that a man of Lytol's vitality and experience might find the Plateau's mysteries a challenge sufficient to replace Ruatha. His return to his birthplace had the same inexorable quality of his decision to rescue the egg.
He asked Ruth to take them to Ruatha. The sharp bitter cold of between was instantly replaced by a damp moist cold as they entered Ruatha's skies, leaden and showering a fine light snow that must have been in progress for some time to have piled drifts in the southeast corners of the courts.
/ used to like snow, Ruth said as if encouraging him- self to accept the return.
Wilth trumpeted from the fire-heights in surprised welcome. Half the fire-lizards of the Hold exploded into the air about them, giving raucous greetings and spurts of cluttering complaint about the snow.
"We won't stay long, my friend," Jaxom reassured Ruth, and shuddered with the damp cold even in his warm flying gear. How had he forgot the season here?
Ruth landed in the courtyard just as the Great Hall door opened. Lytol, Brand and Finder surged to the steps.
"Is anything wrong, Jaxom?" Lytol cried.
"Nothing, Lytol, nothing. Can fires be laid in my quarters? I forgot it was winter here. Ruth is going to feel the difference even through dragonhide!"
"Yes, yes," Brand said, jogging across the court toward the kitchen, yelling for drudges to bring coal fires, while Lytol and Finder hurriedly ushered Jaxom up the steps. Ruth obediently followed the steward.
"You'll take a chill changing climates like this," Lytol was saying. "Why didn't you check? What brings you back?"
"Isn't it about time I did return?" Jaxom asked, striding to the fireplace as he stripped off his flying gloves and let his hands take warmth from the blaze. Then he burst out laughing as the other men joined him there. "Yes, at this fireplace!"
"What? At this fireplace?" Lytol asked, pouring wine for his ward.
"This morning, in the hot sun of the Plateau, while we were digging up one of the mounds the ancients left to puzzle us, Lessa told me that she had been taking ashes out of this fireplace the day my unlamented sire, Fax, escorted my lady mother Gemma to this Hold!" He raised his cup in a toast to the memory of the mother he had never known.
"Which obliquely reminded you that you are Lord of Ruatha now?" Lytol inquired, a slight lift to the comer of his mouth. His eyes, which before had seemed so expressionless to Jaxom, twinkled in the firelight.
"Yes, and showed me where a man of your talents could be better used now, Lord Lytol."
"Oh, tell me more," Lytol said, gesturing to the heavy carved chair which had been placed to get the most benefit of the fire.
"Don't let me take your chair," Jaxom said courte- ously, noticing that the cushions bore the recent im- print of buttocks and thighs.
"I suspect you're about to take more than that, Lord Jaxom."
"Not without due courtesy," Jaxom said, dragginga small footstool beside the chair for his own use. "And a challenge in its place." He was relieved at Lytol's placid reaction. "Am I, sir, ready to be Lord of Ruatha Hold now?"
"Are you trained, do you mean?"
"That, too, but I had in mind the circumstances which have made it wiser to leave Ruatha in your charge."
"Ay, yes."
Jaxom keenly watched Lytol to see if there was any constraint in his manner as he answered.
"The circumstances have indeed altered over the past two seasons," Lyto
l almost laughed, "thanks to you, in great part."
"To me? Oh, that wretched illness. So, there is now no real bar to my confirmation as Lord Holder?"
"I see none."
Jaxom heard the harper's soft intake of breath but he was watching Lytol closely.
"So," Lytol almost smiled, "may I know what has prompted you? Surely not just the realization that pressure is eased in the North? Or is it that pretty girl? Sharra, is that her name?"
Jaxom laughed. "She's a large part of my haste," lightly emphasizing the last word and then catching Finder's grin from the corner of his eye.
"A sister to Toric of the Southern Hold, isn't she?"
Lytol pursued the subject, testing the suitability of the match.
"Yes, and tell me, Lytol, has there been any move to confirm Toric as a major Lord Holder?"
"No, nor any rumor that he's asked to be." Lytol scowled as he reflected on that circumstance. "What's your opinion of Toric, Lord Lytol?"
"Why do you ask? Certainly the match is suitable, even if he hasn't rank to match yours."
"He doesn't need the rank. He has the ambition," Jaxom said with sufficient rancor to attract the un- divided attention of both guardian and harper.
"Ever since D'ram became Southern Weyrleader," Finder remarked in the silence that ensued, "I've heard it said that no holdless man is turned away."
"Does he promise them the right to hold what they can?" Jaxom asked, turning so quickly on Finder that the harper blinked in surprise.
"I'm not sure..."
"Two of Lord Groghe's sons have gone," Lytol said, pulling at his lower lip thoughtfully, "and my under- standing from him is that they will hold. Of course, they retain their "birthrank of Lords. Brand, what was Dorse promised?" he asked as the steward returned.
"Dorse? Has he gone south looking for a hold?" Jaxom gave a chuckle of relief and wonder.
"I saw no reason to refuse him the opportunity," Lytol replied calmly. "I didn't imagine you would ob- ject. Brand? What was promised him?"
"I think he was told he could have as much land as he wanted. I don't believe that the term hold came into the discussion. But then, the offer was made through one of the Southern traders, not directly from Toric."
"Still, if a man offered you land, you'd be grateful to him, and support him against those who had denied you land, wouldn't you?" Jaxom asked.
"Yes, gratitude would be reasonably expressed in loyalty," Lytol moved restlessly, considering another aspect of the situation. "However, it was clearly stated that the best land was too far from the protection of the Weyr. I gave Dorse one of our older flamethrowers, in good repair of course, with spare nozzles and hose," Lytol added.
"I'd give anything to watch Dorse in the open in Threadfall without a dragonrider in sight," Jaxom said.
"If Toric is as shrewd as he appears to be," Lytol said, "that may be the final consideration as to who may hold."
"Sir," Jaxom rose, finishing the rest of his wine, "I'll return tonight. Our blood's not yet thick enough for a snowstorm in Ruatha Hold. And there's a task set for Ruth and myself tomorrow. Would you be free to come South again? If Brand can hold matters in our ab- sence?"
"At this time of year, I would welcome the sun," said Lytol.
Brand murmured that he could cope.
When Jaxom and Ruth returned to Cove Hold, grateful for the balmy warmth of the starlight night, Jaxom was more certain than ever that Lytol would not find the change hard to make. Even as Ruth circled to land, Jaxom felt himself relaxing in the warm air. He'd been very tense at Ruatha—tense not to rush Lytol and still achieve his own ends, and worried by the report of Toric's clever machinations.
He slid down Ruth's shoulder to the soft sand, at just the spot where he had so recently kissed Sharra. Thoughts of her were comforting. He waited until Ruth had curled into the still warm sand and then he made for the Hall, tiptoeing in, surprised to see even the Harper's room dark. It must be later than be thought in this part of the world.
He crept into his bed, heard Piemur mutter in his sleep. Farii, curled beside her friend, opened one lid to peer at him, before going back to sound sleep. Jaxom pulled the light blanket over him, thinking of the snows in Ruatha, and went gratefully to sleep.
He woke, abruptly, thinking that someone had called his name. Piemur and Farii were motionless in the crepuscular light that briefly heralded the dawn. Jaxom lay taut, expecting a repetition of that call, and heard none. The Harper? He doubted that, for Menolly was attuned to wake at his call. He touched Ruth's sleepy mind and knew that the dragon was only just rousing.
Jaxom was stiff. Maybe that was what had awakened him for his shoulders were cramped, the long muscles in his arms and across his midriff ached from yester- day's digging. His back was uncomfortably warm from the sun on that Plateau. It was too early to be up. He tried to court sleep but the discomforts of his muscles and skin were sufficient to keep him wakeful. He rose quietly so as not to disturb Piemur or be heard by Sharra. A swim would ease his muscles and soothe his bum. He paused by Ruth and found the white dragon waking, eager to join him for Ruth felt certain that all the mud had not been washed from his hide the eve- ning before.
The Dawn Sisters were clearly sparkling in a sun which was not yet visible over the far horizon. Could his ancestors have gone back to them for refuge after the eruption? And how?
Wading out to his waist in the quiet Cove, Jaxom dove and swam under water, mysteriously dark without the sun to lighten its depths. Then he shot himself to the surface. No, there must have been some other sanctuary between the settlement and the sea. The flight had been channeled in one direction.
He called Ruth, reminding the grumbling white dragon that the sun would be much warmer on the Plateau. He collected his flying gear and grabbed some cold meatrolls from the larder, listening for a long mo- ment to see if he had roused anyone else. He'd rather test his theory now and surprise everyone with good news on waking. He hoped.
They were airborne just as the sun became visible on the horizon, touching the clear cloudless sky with yellow and gilding the benign face of the distant cone mountain.
Ruth took them between and then, at Jaxom's sug- gestion, circled wide and lazily above the Plateau. They'd made new mounds of their own, Jaxom noticed with amusement, from the debris which the dragons had clawed from the two ancient buildings. He lined Ruth up in the direction of the sea. That goal would have been a long day's march for terrified people. He decided against calling the fire-lizards at this point; they'd only overexcite themselves repeating memories of the eruption. He had to get them to a spot where their associative memories tapped a less frantic mo- ment. Surely they would have something to recall of their men in whatever refuge the fleeing people had set out to reach.
Had there perhaps been stables for beasts and wherries built at some distance from the settlement? Considering the scale on which the ancients operated, such a stable would have been large enough to shelter hundreds from the burning rain of a volcano!
He asked Ruth to glide toward the sea, in the gen- eral direction of the panic-driven ancients. Once past the grassland, shrubs began to hold root in the ashen soil, giving way to larger trees and thicker vegetation. They'd be lucky if they could spot anything unusual in that thick green mass. He was just about to ask Ruth to turn back and fly another swath when he noticed a break in the jungle. They glided out over a long scar of grassland, several dragonlengths wide and several hundred long. Trees and bushes were sparse on either side, as if struggling to find soil for their roots. Ribbons of water glinted at the far end of the curious scar, like shallow interconnected pools.
Just then the sun rose above the rim of the Plateau, and turning his head to the left to escape that bril- liance, Jaxom saw the three shadows lengthening across the top end of the grassy scar. Excitedly, he urged Ruth to the spot, circling until he was certain that these hills couldn't be hills and certainly were unlike the shape of the ancients' other buildings. For one thing
, their place- ment was as unnatural as their shape. One was seven dragonlengths or more in advance of the other two, and there'd be ten or more dragonlengths between them.
He had Ruth fly past atfd noticed the curious con- formation: a larger mass was discernible at one end, while the other tapered slightly downward, a difference visible despite grass, earth and the small bushes that covered these so-called hills.
As excited as he was, Ruth came to rest between the leading two. The hills were not as obviously unnatural on the ground but they would have appeared odd even to someone arriving on foot.
No sooner had he asked Ruth to land than fire- lizards erupted about them, chittering with wild excite- ment and unbelievable pleasure.
Anne McCaffrey - Pern06 White Dragon Page 43