The White Dragon

CHAPTER XIV

IN THE DARK of the early morning Robinton was awakened by Silvina.

«Master Robinton, word has come from Ista Weyr. The bronzes are blooding their kill. Caylith will fly soon. You're wanted there.»

«Oh, yes, thank you, Silvina.» He blinked against the light from the glow baskets she was unshielding. «You didn't by any chance bring me…» He saw the steaming mug by his bed. «Oh, good woman! My undying thanks!»

«That's what you always say,» Silvina replied, chuckling as she left him to proceed with his wake up routine.

He dressed quickly to avoid the predawn chill. Zair took his accustomed shoulder perch, squeaking softly as Robinton paced down the corridor.

With a glow torch to cast some light in the dark lower hall, Silvina awaited him at the massive iron doors. She whirled the release wheel and the great bar lifted from ceiling and floor. He gave the yank required to open the huge door and wondered at the sudden stitch in his side. Then Silvina passed him his gitar, stoutly encased against the bitter cold of between.

«I do hope Barnath flies Caylith,» she said. «Look, here's Drenth now.»

The Harper saw the brown dragon backwinging to land and he ran down the hall steps. Drenth was excited, his eyes gleaming orange and red in the night. Robinton greeted the dragon's rider, paused to sling his gitar across his back and then, reaching for D'fio's hand, climbed to the brown's back.

«How does the wagering stand?» he asked the rider.

«Ah, now Harper; Barnath is a fine beast. He'll fly Caylith. Although,» a certain element of doubt tinged the man's voice, «the four bronzes N'ton is permitting to try are good strong young beasts, and mighty eager for the chance. It could be an upset. Put your mark where you will, it'll give you good value.»

«I wish I could bet, but it's not the sort of thing I ought to do…»

«Now, if you were to pass me the marks. Master Robinton, I'd swear on the Shell of Drenth here that they were mine!»

«After the flight as well as before?» Robinton asked, amusement warring with his unprofessional desire to gamble.

«I'm a dragonrider, Master Robinton,» D'fio said gruffly, «not one of those faithless Southerners.»

«And I'm Master Harper of Pern,» said Robinton. But he leaned into the man's back, pressing a two mark piece into his hand. «Barnath, of course, and please let none be the wiser.»

«As you wish. Master Robinton,» D'fio sounded pleased.

They rose above the black shadow of the Fort Hold cliffs, the lighter darkness of night sky, moonless at this hour and season, just barely discernible. He felt the tension in D'fio's back, drew his own breath in sharply as they transferred between, and abruptly emerged with Drenth calling out his name to the Ista Weyr watchdragon.

Robinton shielded his eyes from the brilliance of the sun slanting off the water. As he glanced below, he saw the dramatic half peak of Ista Weyr, the black stone like giant jagged fingers pointing to the bright blue skies. Ista was the smallest of the Weyrs, some of its complement of dragons making weyrs in the forest that surrounded the base. But the broad plateau beyond the cone was crowded with bronze beasts, their riders forming a cluster close to the golden queen who was crouched over her kill, sucking the blood from its body. At a farther and safe distance from this spectacle a large group of people looked on.

Toward this area, Drenth glided.

Zair took wing from Robinton's shoulder, to join other fire lizards in an aerial display of excitement. Robinton noticed that the little creatures kept a distance from the dragons. At least the fire lizards were appearing at Weyrs again.

D'fio dismounted, too, and sent his brown for a swim in the warm waters of the bay below the Weyr plateau. Other dragons, uninvolved in this flight, were already taking advantage of the bathing at Ista Island.

Caylith vaulted from the ground toward the herd of beasts in the Weyr's corral. Cosira half followed, keeping a firm control on her young queen so that she wouldn't gorge the meat and be too heavy for this all important mating flight. Robinton counted twenty six bronzes ringing the killing ground, gleaming in the harsh sunlight, their eyes wheeling red in rut agitation, their wings halt furled, their bodies at a crouch that would send them skyward the instant the queen ascended. They were all young, as F'lar had recommended, almost equal in size as they waited, never taking their glistening eyes from the object of their interest.

Caylith growled deep in her throat as she sucked the blood from the buck carcass. She raised her head to snarl contemptuously back at the bronze ring.

Suddenly the watch dragon roared a challenge and even Caylith turned to look. Arrowing in from the south, over the sea, came two bronzes.

Just as Robinton realized that the beasts must have flown in at sea level to get this close to the Weyr undetected, he also realized that these were older beasts, muzzles graying, necks thickened. Southerners. Two of the Oldtmers' bronzes. That had to be T'kul with Salth, and probably B'zon with Ranilth. Robinton began to run toward the killing ground, toward the queen's prospective mates, for that was the obvious goal of the two bronzes sweeping in from the south.

Their timing had been perfect, Robinton thought then saw two others making for the landing bronzes the stocky figure of D'ram and F'lar's lean body. T'kul and B'zon jumped off their beasts. The dragons took one final leap to range themselves with the other bronzes who hissed and growled at the newcomers. Robinton prayed under his breath that none of the bronze riders would act first, think later. Most of them were so young they'd not recognize T'kul or B'zon. But D'ram and F'lar certainly had.

Robinton felt his heart pounding in his chest and a totally unfamiliar ache that caused him to grimace and slow his trot momentarily. B'zon was facing him, a set smile on his face. The Oldtimer touched T'kul's arm and the former High Reaches Weyrleader spared the Harper a quick glance. T'kul considered him no threat and turned back toward the two Weyrleaders.

D'ram reached T'kul first. «You fool, this is for young beasts. You'll kill Salth.»

«What option have you left us?» B'zon demanded just as F'lar and Robinton skidded to either side of the two Southerners. There was a hysterical note in the man's voice. «Our queens are too old to rise: there are no greens to give the males relief. We must…»

Caylith bugled as she left the blood sucked corpse of the buck and half flew, half ran to scatter the herd, one sweeping forepaw impaling another victim on its flank and dragging it back to her.

«D'ram, you declared this flight open, didn't you?»

T'kul asked in a harsh voice, his features fine drawn despite the tan of Southern suns. He looked from D'ram to F'lar.

«I did, but your bronzes are too old, T'kul.» He gestured toward the eager young dragons. The difference between them and the two older ones was pathetically obvious.

«Salth's dying anyway. Let him go out flying. I made that choice, D'ram, when I brought him here.» T'kul stared hard at F'lar, the bitterness and hatred so vivid that Robinton sucked in his breath. «Why did you take back the egg? How did you find it?» Desperation broke briefly through T'kul's cold pride and arrogance.

«Had you come to us, we would have helped you,» F'lar said quietly.

«Or I,» D'ram said, miserable before the plight of his one time acquaintance.

Ignoring F'lar altogether, Tkul gave the Istan Weyrleader a long scornful glance then, straightening his shoulders, jerked his head at B'zon to move forward. F'lar was in his direct path to the other bronze riders. The Benden Weyrleader opened his mouth to speak, shook his head in regret and stepped to one side. The Southern riders moved the few paces forward just in time. Caylith, raising her bloody muzzle, seemed to pulse more golden than ever. Her eyes were whirling opalescence. With a fierce scream, she launched herself upward. Barnath was the first dragon off the ground after her, and, to Robinton's surprise, T'kul's Salth was not far behind the Istan bronze.

T'kul swung back to F'lar, the triumph on his face an insult. Then he strode to Cosira's side. The Weyrwoman was swaying with the effort of staying in mental contact with her queen. She didn't notice that it was G'dened and T'kul who were leading her back to her quarters to await the outcome of the flight.

«He'll kill Salth,» D'ram was muttering, his face stricken.

That odd pressure against his chest kept Robinton from reassuring the worried man.

«And B'zon, too!» D'ram grabbed F'lar's arm. «Is there nothing we can do to stop it? Two dragons?»

«If they had come to us…» F'lar began, placing his hand consolingly on D'ram's. «But those Oldtimer riders always took! That was they error at the outset!» His face hardened.

«They're still taking,» Robinton said, wanting to ease D'ram's distress. «They've taken what they wanted from the north all along. Here, there. What pleased them. Young girls, material, stone, iron, jewels. They looted with quiet system ever since they were exiled. I've had the reports. I've given them to F'lar.»

«If only they had asked!» F'lar looked upward at the fast dwindling specks of dragons in flight.

«What was that all about?» Lord Warbret of Ista Hold hurried up to them. «Those last two were old or I don't know dragons as well as I thought I did.»

«The mating flight was open,» F'lar replied, but Warbret was looking at D'ram's anxious face.

«To old dragons? I thought you stipulated young ones that hadn't had a chance at a queen before! I don't see the point myself, in having another older Weyrleader. No offense intended, D'ram. Change upsets holders.» He gazed at the sky. «How'll they keep up with the younger ones? That's a gruelling pace.»

«They have the right to try,» F'lar said. «While we await the outcome, some wine, D'ram?»

«Yes, yes, wine. Lord Warbret…» D'ram recovered his composure sufficiently to gesture the Lord Holder to accompany him toward the living cavern. He beckoned to the other guests to follow, but his step was heavy and slow.

«Don't worry, D'ram. That other dragon might have been quick off the mark,» Lord Warbret said as he thumped D'ram's shoulder encouragingly, «but I've all the faith in the world in G'dened and Barnath. Fine young man! Splendid dragon. Besides he's mated Caylith before, hasn't he? That always tells, doesn't it?»

While Robinton breathed with relief that the Lord Holder was misinterpreting D'ram's concern, F'lar replied to the questions.

«Yes, Caylith had thirty four eggs of her first clutch with Barnath. You don't want a young queen to overlay herself, but her hatchlings were healthy and strong. No queen egg, but that's often the case when a Weyr has enough queens. The bond of a previous mating can be a strong factor despite a queen's captiousness, but you never know.»

Robinton noticed that the weyrfolk appeared to be somewhat tense as they served the visitors. He wondered how many had indeed identified the Southerners. He hoped no one blurted out their suspicions in front of the Lord Holder.

T'kul's Salth must have flown his queen dozens of times and won her. He'd be a canny old fellow, all right, but all his cleverness would be no good if he couldn't catch the queen in the first few minutes of flight. He simply wouldn't have the staying power of the younger dragons, and possibly not even the speed for the surge to catch her up. He flew against some fine beasts. Robinton knew how carefully N'ton had chosen the four bronze riders to present themselves from Fort. Each had been wing seconds for Turns, men already proven in Falls as leaders with strong dragons. F'lar had also limited Benden's three contenders to men well able to lead a Weyr. Robinton could only assume that Telgar, Igen and High Reaches had honored D'ram's Weyr with good men. Ista was the smallest of the six Weyrs and needed a united folk.

He sipped at his wine, hoping his side would stop aching, wondering what had caused that unnerving pressure. Well, wine cured many ills. He waited until D'ram turned his head and then he refilled the man's cup, catching F'lar's approving gaze as he did.

Weyrfolk began to stop at the table now, greeting D'ram and Lord Warbret. Their obvious pleasure in seeing their former Weyrleader was a tonic for D'ram, and he responded with smiles and chatting. He looked tense but anyone would attribute that to understandable concern for the outcome of this flight.

Robinton had a puzzle to chew over: T'kul's bitter words about the egg. «Why did you take back the egg? How did you find it?» Didn't T'kul realize that someone from Southern had returned the egg? Then the Harper stiffened. No Southerner had returned that egg, for surely T'kul would have discovered the culprit by now.

Robinton began to hope fervently that neither of the two old dragons would die in their attempt to fly the young queen. Just like the Oldtimers to add a sour note to what ought to be a joyous occasion! Surely life in the Southern Weyr was not so unbearable that T'kul would cold bloodedly allow his dragon to court death rather than continue there? Robinton knew the Weyr well; the setting in its own small valley was beautiful a considerable improvement on T'kul's dour, barren High Reaches Weyr. There was a huge well constructed hall in the center of a flagstone court where no Thread could find grass to burrow. Food for the picking, wild beasts in plenty to feed dragons, ideal weather, and their only obligation as dragonriders to the small Hold on the coast.

Then Robinton recalled the pulsing hatred for F'lar in T'kul's eyes. It was malice and spite that motivated the former High Reaches Weyrleader and haired for an exile not of his choosing.

The queens might be too old to rise, but that was only a recent occurrence, Robinton thought, and the bronzes could not be in that hard a case. They were aging as well and the blood did not so easily quicken, so the old urgencies surely could be contained.

There was also the point that T'kul need not have gone South with Mardra, T'ron and the other obstinate and inflexible Oldtime weyrfolk. He could have accepted the leadership of Benden, acknowledged that Craft and Hold had earned rights for themselves in the four hundred Turns since the last Pass and conducted himself and his Weyr affairs accordingly.

Had any of the Southerners come forward, acting in honor, asking the assistance of the other Weyrs, he was certain such would have been forthcoming. He didn't doubt D'ram's sincerity, and he would have pressed for their requests himself, by the Shell he would have!

Looking at the worst possible conclusion to the day's events, what would happen to T'kul if Salth did overfly himself? The Harper sighed deeply, not liking to consider that possibility at all, but he'd better. The possibility meant that… Robinton glanced toward the Weyrwoman's quarters. T'kul had been wearing a belt knife. Everyone wore belt knives. Robinton felt his heart pounding. He knew it wasn't proper, but shouldn't he suggest to D'ram that someone be in the queen's weyr in case of trouble? Someone uninvolved in the mating flight. When a man's dragon died he could become insane, not know what he was doing. A vision of T'kul's hatred flashed vividly before the Harper's eyes. Robinton had many prerogatives but entering the chambers of a Weyrwoman whose dragon was mating was not one of them. Still…

Robinton blinked. F'lar was no longer seated at the table. The Harper glanced about the cavern, but caught no glimpse of the tall figure of the Benden Weyrleader. He rose, struggling to keep his progress casual, managed to nod pleasantly to D'ram and Warbret as he sauntered toward the entrance. The Istan Harper intersected his path.

«F'lar took two of our strongest riders with him, Master Robinton.» The man nodded toward the Weyrwoman's quarters. «He's afraid of trouble.»

Robinton nodded, blowing out with relief, then halted.

«How did he manage it? I saw no one using the steps.»

Baldor grinned. «This Weyr is full of odd tunnels and entrances. It wouldn't do to compound the problem,» he added, gesturing toward the guests in the cavern, «now would it?»

«Indeed not. Indeed not.»

«We'll know what happens soon enough,» Baldor said with a worried sigh. «Our fire lizards'll tell us.»

«True,» and Zair on his shoulder cheeped at Baldor's brown. Robinton was somewhat relieved by the precautions and made his way back to the table. He filled his cup again, and D'ram's. Not Benden wine, but it wasn't altogether unpalatable, if a trifle sweeter than he liked. Why was it that happy occasions seemed to fly past and one like today dragged interminably?

The watchdragon bugled, a fearful, unhappy sound. But not a keen! Not a death knell! Robinton felt the muscles in his chest relax. His relief was premature for there was a rustle of worried whispers sweeping through the living cavern. Several weyrfolk hurried out, looking up at the blue watchdragon, his wings extended. Zair crooned softly but Robinton sensed nothing definite from the creature. The little bronze merely repeated the dragon's muddled thoughts.

«One of the bronzes must have faltered,» D'ram said, swallowing nervously, his face tinged gray under his tan. He looked hard at Robinton.

«One of those older ones, I'll wager,» Warbret said, pleased at this justification of his opinion.

«You're likely right,» Robinton said easily, «but the flight was declared open, so they had to be admitted.»

«Aren't they taking a long time of it?» Warbret asked, frowning out at the sky just visible from their table.

«Oh, I don't think so,» Robinton replied with what he hoped was a casual air, «though it sometimes seems that way. I expect that's because the outcome of this particular flight will have such consequences for the Weyr. Caylith is at least giving the bronzes a good run for her!»

«D'you think there'll be a queen egg this time?» Warbret asked eagerly.

«I would never make the error of counting eggs this soon, my Lord Warbret,» the Harper said, trying to keep his countenance bland.

«Oh, yes, of course. I mean it would be quite an accomplishment for Barnath, wouldn't it? Having his queen lay a golden egg this flight?»

«It would indeed. That is, if… Barnath succeeds in flying her.»

«Really, Master Harper, of course he will. Where's your sense of justice?»

«Where it generally is, but I doubt that Caylith is attuned to justice right now.»

The words were no sooner out of his mouth than Zair, his eyes the bright yellow of distress, gave a frightened, gibbering squeak at the Harper. Mnementh erupted into the air just above the ground of the Bowl, bugling in alarm.

Robinton was on his feet and running glancing about him for Baldor. The Istan Harper was equally alert to the danger. He and four large riders began pelting toward the Weyr.

«What's the matter?» Warbret demanded.

«Stay there,» Robinton shouted.

The air was suddenly full of dragons, bugling and keening, barely avoiding midair collisions as they swept about, riderless, disturbed. Robinton pumped his long legs as fast as he could, regardless of the fierce pain in his side that he eased somewhat by digging the heel of his hand into his flesh. The weight on his chest seemed worse; it kept breath which he needed for running.

Zair began squealing over Robinton's head, projecting an image of a falling dragon and fighting men. Unfortunately the little bronze could not project the information Robinton most wanted which dragon, which men! F'lar must be involved or Mnementh would not be here.

The huge bronze was landing on the queen's weyr ledge, preventing Baldor's men from entering the weyr. They flattened themselves against the wall, trying to avoid the frantic sweeps of his wide wings.

«Mnementh! Listen to me! Let us pass! We're going to aid F'lar. Listen to me!»

Robinton charged right up the steps, past Baldor and his men, and grabbed one wing tip. He was all but hauled off his feet as Mnementh pulled it back, bending his head to hiss at the Harper. The great eyes whirled violently yellow.

«Listen to me, Mnementh!» the Harper roared. «Let us pass!»

Zair flew at the bronze dragon, screaming at the top of his lungs.

I listen. Salth is no more. Help F'lar!

The great bronze dragon folded his wings, lifted his head, and Robinton thankfully waved Baldor and his men to go ahead. He needed a moment to catch his breath.

As Robinton turned to enter the passage, hand pressed against his side, Zair zipped in front of him, his cries full of encouragement now. The Harper wondered fleetingly if the tiny creature thought that he, and he alone, had turned aside the great bronze. Robinton could only be grateful that the bronze dragon would listen to him.

As Robinton entered the weyr, he could hear the sounds of fighting in the Weyrwoman's sleeping chamber. The curtain across the entrance was suddenly ripped from its pole as two struggling bodies staggered out into the larger room. F'lar and T'kul! Baldor and two of his helpers were close behind, trying to separate the men. In the room beyond them, locked in the mating flight contact with their beasts, were the rest of the bronze riders and the Weyrwoman, oblivious to the combat. Someone had collapsed on the floor. B'zon, probably, he thought as the scene registered in his mind in one split second.

What caught Robinton's horrified attention was the fact that F'lar had no knife in either hand. His left was closed about T'kul's right wrist, straining to keep the man's long knife no short bladed belt but a skinning tool away from his collarbone. His fingers began digging into the tendons of T'kul's wrist, trying to force the fingers open, or to deaden the nerves. His right hand held T'kul's left arm down and out from their sides. T'kul writhed savagely; the maniacal gleam in his reddened eyes told Robinton that the man was beyond himself. As he must have intended, thought Robinton.

One of Baldor's men was trying to shove a knife in F'lar's hand but F'lar had to keep T'kul's left hand engaged.

«I'll kill you, F'lar,» T'kul said through gritted teeth as he struggled to force his right hand down, closer and closer, the blade slanting toward the bronze rider's neck. «I'll kill you. As you killed my Salth. As you killed us! I'll kill you!» It sounded like a chant, the beats emphasized by the spurts of strength T'kul called up from the depths of his madness.

F'lar saved his breath, the strain of holding on that knife showing in the cords that stood out in his neck, in the drag on his face muscles, the tension in his legs and thighs.

«I'll kill you. I'll kill you as T'ron ought! I'll kill you, F'lar!»

T'kul's voice now came in ragged gasps as the point of the knife inched toward its goal.

Abruptly, F'lar kicked out with his left leg and, twining it about T'kul's left, yanked the foot out from under the crazed, overbalanced Oldtimer. With a yell, T'kul fell forward into F'lar, who neatly twisted him over and down, breaking T'kul's left hand hold but keeping his own left hand firmly locked on T'kul's right wrist. The Oldtimer kicked out, caught F'lar viciously in the stomach. Although the bronze rider did not release the knife hand, he was doubled up, windless. A second kick from T'kul knocked his feet out from under him. F'lar fell heaving as T'kul wrenched his knife hand free and scrambled to fall on the younger Weyrleader. But F'lar continued the roll with an agility that astonished the watchers, coming to his feet again even as T'kul stood up and launched an immediate attack. But that interval had been time enough for F'lar to grab the belt knife from Baldor.

The two antagonists faced each other. Robinton knew by the grim determination on F'lar's face that this time, with the man's beast already dead, the Benden Weyrleader would finish off his opponent. If he could.

Robinton disliked having doubts about F'lar's skill as a fighter, but T'kul was no ordinary antagonist, driven as he was by the grief madness of Salth's death. The man, older by some twenty Turns, had the reach of F'lar, and a longer, more deadly blade in his hand. F'lar would have to elude that slashing blade long enough to wear T'kul past the point of the mad energy that possessed the Oldtimer.

An exultant shout burst from the Weyrwoman's room and her piercing shriek followed. That was just enough to divert T'kul. F'lar was ready for that tiny break in concentration. He dove at T'kul, knife arm down and, before the man could parry and guard himself at the lower angle, F'lar's thrust went up and through the ribs to the heart. T'kul, eyes protruding, fell dead at his feet.

F'lar sagged, dropping to one knee, gasping with his exertions. Wearily he scrubbed at his forehead with the back of his left hand, every line of his body emphasizing the dejection he was experiencing.

«You could have done nothing else, F'lar,» Robinton said softly, wishing he had the strength to move to F'lar's side.

From the Weyrwoman's chamber came the rejected suitors, dazed by their participation in the mating flight. They came out in a mass, and Robinton couldn't figure out who had remained with the Weyrwoman as her mate and was now the new Weyrleader of Ista.

His sudden inexplicable weakness confused the Harper. He couldn't catch his breath; he hadn't the energy to quiet Zair, who was chittering the wildest distress. The pain in his side had moved again to his chest, like a heavy rock sitting on him.

«Baldor!»

«Master Robinton!» The Istan Harper rushed to his side, his face expressing horror and consternation as he assisted Robinton to the nearest bench. «You're gray. Your lips. They're blue. What's wrong with you?»

«Gray is how I feel. My chest. Wine. I need wine!»

The room began pressing in on the Harper. He couldn't breathe. He was aware of shouts, sensed panic in the air and tried to bestir himself to take control of the situation. Hands pushed him down, then flat, making it totally impossible to breathe. He struggled to sit up.

«Let him. It will help his breathing.»

Dimly Robinton identified the voice as Lessa's. How did she come to be here? Then he was propped against someone and could breathe more easily. If only he could rest, could sleep.

«Clear everyone from the weyr.» Lessa was giving orders.

Harper, Harper, listen to us. Now listen to us. Harper, don't sleep. Stay with us. Harper, we need you. We love you. Listen to us.

The voices in his head were unfamiliar. He wished they would be silent so that he could think about the pain in his chest and the sleep he so desperately craved.

Harper, you cannot leave. You must stay. Harper, we love you.

The voices puzzled him. He didn't know them. It wasn't Lessa or F'lar speaking. The voices were deep, insistent, and he wasn't hearing them with his ears. The voices were in his mind where he couldn't ignore them. He wished they would leave him alone so that he could sleep. He was so very tired. T'kul had been too old to fly his dragon or win a fight. Yet he was older than T'kul, who now slept in death. If only the voices would let him sleep, too. He was so tired.

You cannot sleep yet. Harper. We are with you. Do not leave us. Harper, you must live! We love you.

Live? Of course, he would live. Silly voices. He was just tired. He wanted to sleep.

Harper, Harper, do not leave us. Harper, we love you. Do not go.

The voices were not loud, but they held on to him, in his mind. That was it. They were not letting his mind go.

Someone else, outside him, was holding something to his lips.

«Master Robinton, you must try to swallow the medicine. You must make the effort. It will ease the pain.» That voice he recognized. Lessa. Distraught.

Of course, she would be, with F'lar having to kill a rider, and all the trouble with the theft of the egg, and Ramoth being so upset.

Harper, obey Lessa. You must obey Lessa, Harper. Open your mouth. You must try.

He could ignore Lessa, he could bat feebly at the cup at his lips and try to spit out the bitter tasting pill which was melting on his tongue, but he could not ignore those insistent voices. He let them put wine in his mouth, and swallowed the pill with it. At least they had the kindness to give him wine, not water. Water would have been undignified for the Harper of Pern. He could never have swallowed water with the pain in his chest.

Something seemed to snap inside him. Ah, the pain in his chest. It was easing, as if the snap had been the loosening of the tight band that constricted his heart.

He sighed at the relief. One didn't fully appreciate the absence of pain, he thought.

«Take a sip of the wine, Master.» He felt the cup at his lips again.

Wine, yes, that would complete his cure. Wine always did revive him. Only he still wanted to sleep. He was so very tired.

«And another!»

You may sleep later. You must listen to us and stay. Harper, listen! We love you. You must stay.

The Harper resented their insistence.

«How long does it take the man to get here?» That was Lessa's voice, sounding fiercer than he'd ever heard her. Why did she also sound as if she were weeping? Lessa weeping?

Lessa is weeping for you. You do not want her to weep. Stay with us, Harper. You cannot go. We will not let you go. Lessa should not weep.

No, that was right, Lessa should not weep. Robinton didn't really believe that she was. He forced his eyes to open and saw her bending over nun. She was weeping! The tears were dropping from her cheeks to his hand which lay limp and upturned as if to receive the tears.

«You mustn't weep, Lessa. I will not have you weeping.» Great Shells, he was losing his voice control. He cleared his throat. This would never do.

«Don't try to talk, Robinton,» Lessa said, gulping back her sobs. «Just rest. You've got to rest. Oldive is coming. I told them to time it. Just rest. More wine?»

«Have I ever refused wine?» Why was his voice so faint?

«Never,» and Lessa was laughing and crying at the same time.

«Who's been nagging me? They wouldn't let me go. Make them let me rest, Lessa. I'm so tired!»

«Oh, Master Robinton, please!»

Please what?

Harper, stay with us. Lessa will weep.

«Oh, Master Oldive. Over here!» That was Lessa again, leaving his side.

Robinton tried to reach for her.

«Don't exert yourself!» She was holding him down, but she was staying beside him. Dear Lessa! Even when he was angry with her, he loved her nonetheless. Perhaps more, because she was angry so often and anger intensified her beauty.

«Ah, Master Robinton.» Oldive's soothing voice made him open his eyes. «The chest pain again? Just nod. I'd rather you didn't make the effort to speak.»

«Ramoth says he has great pain and is very tired.»

«Oh? Convenient having the dragon listen, too.» Master Oldive was putting cold instruments to his chest and on his arm. Robinton would have liked to protest.

«Yes, I know they're cold, my dear Harper, but necessary. Now listen to me, your heart has been overstrained. That was the pain in your chest. Lessa gave you a pill which has relieved that pain for the moment. But the immediate danger is past. I want you to try to sleep. You are going to need a lot of rest, my good friend. A lot of rest.»

«Then tell them to be quiet and let me sleep.»

«Who's to be quiet?» Oldive's voice was soothing, and Robinton was vaguely annoyed because he suspected Oldive didn't believe he'd heard them keeping him awake. «Here, take this pill and a sip of wine. I know you've never refused wine.»

Robinton smiled weakly. How well they knew him, Oldive and Lessa.

«It's Ramoth and Mnementh talking to him, Oldive. They said he had nearly gone…» Lessa's voice broke on the last note.

Nearly gone, was I? Is that what it feels like to be so close to death? Like being very tired?

You will stay now. Harper. We can let you sleep. But we will be with you. We love you.

Dragons talking to me? Dragons keeping me from death? How kind they are for I did not want to die yet. There is so much to be done. Problems to be solved. There'd been a problem on my mind.. about dragons, too…

«Who flew Caylith?»

Did he manage to say that out loud? He didn't even hear his own voice in his ears.

«Did you hear what he said, Oldive?»

«Something about Caylith.»

«Wouldn't you know he'd worry about that at a time like this?» Lessa sounded more like herself, acerbic. «Barnath flew Caylith, Robinton. Now, will you sleep?»

Sleep, Master. We will listen.

The Harper drew a deep breath into his lungs and relaxed gratefully into sleep.