The White Dragon

CHAPTER XVI

WHEN JAXOM AND SHARRA blurted out to Piemur the events at Ista Weyr, including the news of the Harper's illness, the young journeyman treated them to a colorful description of his Master's follies, shortcomings, stupid loyalties and altruistic hopes that quite stunned the listeners until they saw the tears leaking down Piemur's cheeks.

At that moment, Ruth returned, scaring Piemur's runner beast into the forest. Piemur had to coax the animal, cheerfully called Stupid, to come out again.

«He's really not stupid, you know,» Piemur said, wiping sweat and tears from his face. «He knows that yon,» Piemur jerked his thumb surreptitiously in Ruth's direction, «like his sort for eating.» He tested the knot on the rope with which he had secured Stupid to a tree trunk.

I wouldn't eat him, Ruth replied. He's small and not very plump.

Laughing, Jaxom passed the message to Piemur, who grinned and bowed his gratitude to Ruth.

«I wish I could make Stupid understand that,» Piemur said with a sigh, «but it's difficult for him to make distinctions between friendly dragons and hungry ones. As it is, his tendency to disappear into the nearest thicket when dragons come within his senses has saved my skin any number of times. You see, I'm not supposed to be doing exactly what I've been doing. Most of all, I'm not supposed to be caught doing it.»

«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…»

«You do have to rest that leg, don't you?» Jaxom kept his face expressionless.

Piemur caught his eye in surprise and then they both burst out laughing until Sharra, joining them, wanted to share the joke.

The next few days passed most agreeably for the three, starting with Ruth's assurances about the Harper's continued improvement. The first morning, noticing that Stupid had cropped all the ground greens in the area, Piemur asked if there was any grassland nearby. So Jaxom and Piemur flew Ruth to the river meadows that lay south and east of the cove, a good hour's flying inland. Ruth willingly helped harvest the tall waving grain grasses which Piemur pronounced fine fodder that might even put poor Stupid into condition. Ruth told Jaxom that he'd never seen such a hungry looking runner.

«We're not fattening him up for you,» Jaxom said, laughing.

He is Piemur's friend. Piemur is my friend. I do not eat the friends of friends.

Jaxom couldn't resist repeating this rationalization to Piemur, who howled with laughter and thumped Ruth with the same rough affection he used on Stupid.

They packed half a dozen heavy sheaves of grass on Ruth and were airborne when Piemur asked Jaxom if he'd been to the peak yet.

«Can't fly between.» Jaxom didn't bother hiding his frustration from Piemur.

«Too bloody right you can't. Not with fire head!»

Jaxom blinked at Piemur's unequivocal agreement.

«Don't worry! You'll get there soon enough.» Piemur squinted at the symmetrical peak, shading his eyes with one hand. «May look near, but it's several, four five maybe, days' travel. Rough country, I'd guess. You've…» he paused to give Jaxom an unexpected blow in the midriff which robbed him of breath, «got to get fit first! I heard you puffing, hacking down that grass. Huh!»

«Wouldn't it be easier to bring Stupid here and let him graze? There aren't any dragons about, except Ruth. And he's agreed not to eat Stupid!»

«Once he sees wild ones, he won't come back. He's too stupid to know he's much safer with me with a dragon to bring him food, instead of eating him as food.»

Stupid was delighted with the contribution to his diet and whistled with pleasure as he munched away at the piled grass.

«Just how intelligent is Stupid?» Sharra asked, stroking the creature's rough dun colored neck.

«Not as smart as Farli, but not really stupid. Limited is a fairer assessment of his scope. Within those limitations, he's pretty bright.»

«For instance?» asked Jaxom. He'd never thought much of runner beasts.

«Well, for instance, I can send Farli ahead, telling her to fly so many hours in the direction I've pointed, land and pick up anything lying on the ground. Generally she brings back grasses or bush twigs, and sometimes stone and sand. I can send her to look for water. That's what fooled me about the Big Bay. She'd found water, all right, so Stupid and I humped after her. I didn't specify drinking water.» Piemur shrugged and laughed. «But Stupid and I have to go on foot, and he's right smart about ground. Kept me from sinking in mud and those shifting sands time and again. He's clever about finding the easiest route over rough going. He's also good at finding water… drinking type water. So I should have listened to him when he didn't want to cross the sands to the Big Bay. He knew there wasn't any real water over there, although Farli insisted there was. I trusted Farli that time. Generally speaking, the two make one good reliable guide between them. We're a team Stupid, Farli and I.

«Which reminds me, I found a fire lizard clutch, a queen's, five…» Farli chittered at him, «all right, maybe six or seven coves back. I kind of lost track there, but she'll remember where.… In case someone wants some. You know if green fire lizards weren't as stupid as they are, we'd be up to our ears in little green ones. And they're downright useless.»

Sharra grinned. «I remember the day I found my first clutch in the sands. I didn't know the difference between green and gold nests. Oh, how I watched that clutch… for days. Never told a soul. I was going to Impress all of them…»

«Four or five?» Piemur asked with a laugh.

«Six, in fact. Only I didn't realize that a sand snake had got the lot from beneath long before I found the nest.»

«How is it, then, that sand snakes don't get a queen's eggs?» Jaxom asked.

«She's never far from her clutch,» Sharra said. «She'd spot a snake tunnel right away and kill it.» She gave a shudder. «I hate snakes worse than I hate Thread.»

«Much the same thing, isn't it?» Piemur asked, «except for the direction of attack.» He gestured with both hands, one coming down, the other coming up on an imaginary victim.

During the hot part of the day, Jaxom, Sharra and Piemur began to turn his Records, measurements and rough sketches into proper detailed maps. Piemur wanted to get the report back to Sebell, or Robinton or F'lar if so directed, as soon as possible.

In the cool of the next morning, with Stupid as pack animal and Ruth overhead, the three friends backtracked to Piemur's queen clutch. Twenty one eggs were in the nest, all nicely hardened to within a day or two of Hatching. Their approach had sent the wild fire lizard queen to cover so they were able to excavate the eggs, packing them carefully in the carrier they had strapped to Stupid's back. Jaxom asked Ruth to alert Canth that they had fire lizard eggs.

Canth says that they are coming tomorrow anyway, Ruth replied. The Harper ate well.

Ruth gave them such snippets of information about Master Robinton periodically. It was as good as being in the same Hall with the invalid, without having to hear him complain, Piemur observed.

They returned to the shelter cove through the forest. The fruit trees near the clearing had been picked clean and if F'nor were coming, he'd surely appreciate some fresh fruit to take back to Benden Weyr.

«Should you be around when F'nor comes?» Jaxom asked the young harper.

«Why not? He knows what I've been doing. You know, Jaxom, when you see how beautiful this continent is, you wonder why our ancestors went north…»

«Maybe the South was too big an area to keep Threadfree until the grubs had been seeded,» Sharra suggested.

«Good point!» Then Piemur snorted with derision.

«Those old Records are worse than useless; they leave out the most important things. Like telling farmers to watch for the grubs in the North and not mentioning why! Like leaving the Southern Continent alone, and not why! Though if there were half as many earthshakes then as there are now, I can't fault them for common sense. When I was on the way to Big Bay, I bloody near got killed in a shake. Nearly lost Stupid from fright. If it hadn't been for Farli keeping her eye on him, I never would have caught up with the stupid idiot!»

«Earth shakes happen in the North,» Jaxom said, «in Crom and High Reaches and sometimes Igen and the Telgar Plain.»

«Not the kind I've been through,» Piemur said, shaking his head at the memory. «Not where the earth drops beneath your feet and two paces beyond you lifts above your head half a dragonlength.»

«When did that happen? Three, four months ago?»

«That's when!»

«Earth only trembled at Southern, but that's scary enough!»

«Ever seen a volcano pop up out of the ocean and spew fiery rock and ash about?» asked Piemur.

«No, and I'm not sure you have, either, Piemur,» Sharra said, eyeing him suspiciously.

«I have, and N'ton was with me, so I've a witness.»

«Don't think I won't ask him.»

«Where was it, Piemur?» Jaxom asked, fascinated.

«I'll show you on the map. N'ton's been keeping his eye on the place. Last time we met, he said the volcano had stopped smoking and it had built a regular island about itself as neat as… as neat as that mountain of yours!»

«I'd prefer to see it with my own eyes,» Sharra said, still skeptical.

«I'll arrange it,» the harper replied with good humor. «That's a likely tree!» he added and, leaping in the air, grabbed the lowest branch and swung himself neatly up. He began to sever the stems that held the redfruit, dropping them carefully into the waiting hands of Jaxom and Sharra.

It had taken them only two hours to walk to the fire lizards' clutch along the beach. But it took them almost three times as long to hack a narrow path back to the shelter through the thick undergrowth. Jaxom began to appreciate the arduousness of Piemur's journey as he slashed valiantly away at the sticky sapped bushes. His shoulders ached and he'd branch spiked shins and skinned toes by the time they emerged near the shelter. Jaxom had lost all sense of direction. But Piemur had an uncanny sense and with Ruth and three fire lizards, had kept them on a direct line to their goal.

Once there, only Jaxom's pride kept him from collapsing on his bed and sleeping off his exertions. Piemur was all for a swim to wash off the sweat and Sharra thought that broiled fish would make a good supper, so Jaxom struggled to keep going.

That might have been why, he thought later, he had such vivid dreams when he finally did crawl into bed to sleep. The mountain, smoking and spewing out fire ash and glowing rock, dominated the dream, which was full of streams of running people. To Jaxom that was very sensible but he was also part of those people rushing away and it seemed that he couldn't run fast enough. The red orange glowing river that poured over the lip of the mountain threatened to engulf him and he couldn't make his legs move fast enough.

«Jaxom!» Piemur shook him awake. «You're dreaming! You'll wake Sharra.» Piemur paused, and in the dim twilight of predawn, the sound of Sharra's moaning was clearly audible. «Maybe I should. She sounds like she's having a bad dream, too.»

Piemur started to crawl out of his sleeping furs when they heard Sharra sigh deeply, and fall into a quieter sleep.

«I shouldn't have talked about that volcano. I relived that eruption. At least, I think that's what I was dreaming.» Piemur sounded confused. «Probably too much fish and fruit! I made up for lost meals tonight.» He sighed and made himself comfortable again.

«Thanks, Piemur!»

«For what?» Piemur asked in the middle of a yawn.

Jaxom turned over, found a good position and dropped easily back into a dreamless sleep.

Ruth's bugle woke all three the next morning.

«F'nor's coming,» Jaxom said, having heard Ruth's message.

F'nor brings others, Ruth added.

Jaxom, Sharra and Piemur had reached the cove when four dragons erupted into the air, the other three dwarfed by brown Canth. Shrieking in surprise, the fire lizards who had been draped about Ruth abruptly disappeared, leaving only Meer, Talla and Farli.

It is Piemur, Jaxom heard Ruth tell Canth. And then F'nor began to wave wildly, clasping two hands above his head in a signal of victory.

Canth deposited his rider on the sand. Roaring a command at the other dragons, he waddled happily into the water where Ruth was quick to join him.

«Well met, Piemur,» F'nor cried, unloosening his flying gear as he walked toward the others. «Began to wonder if you'd gotten lost!»

«Lost?» Piemur looked outraged. «That's the trouble with you dragonfliers. You've no respect for ground distances! You've got it too easy. Up, up and away! Wink out and you're where you want to be. No effort at all involved.» He made a sound of disgust in his throat. «Now I know where I've been, every bloody finger's length of it!»

F'nor grinned at the young harper and pummeled his back with such vigor Jaxom was surprised to see Piemur unmoved. «You'll amuse your Master then, with the full and properly embroidered tale of your travels…»

«You're to bring me to Master Robinton?»

«Not yet. He's coming to you!» F'nor pointed to the ground.

«What?»

F'nor was searching in his belt pouch and brought out a folded leaf. «This is my reason for coming today! And don't let me forget the fire lizard eggs, will you?»

«What's that?» Jaxom, Sharra and Piemur clustered close about the brown rider as he made a show of unfolding the sheet.

«This… is a hall for the Master Harper, to be built in this cove!»

«Here?» the three demanded in chorus.

«How'll he get here?» Jaxom asked. «He surely wouldn't be allowed to fly between.» He couldn't help the edge of resentment in his voice. F'nor cocked an eyebrow at him.

«Master Idarolan has put his fastest, largest vessel at the Master Harper's disposal. Menolly and Brekke are accompanying him. On a sea voyage there is nothing that can disturb or worry the Harper.»

«He gets seasick,» remarked Jaxom.

«Only in small boats.» F'nor looked at them with a very solemn expression. «So. We'll set to work at once. I've brought tools and extra help,» and he gestured toward the three Weyrlings who had joined them. «We'll enlarge that shelter to a proper small hold,» he said as he glanced down at the leaf. «I'll want every bit of that underbrush cleared off..»

«Then you'll fry the Harper in the sun which is unpleasant,» Sharra pointed out.

«I beg your pardon…»

Sharra took the leaf from him, frowning critically at it. «Small hold? This is a bloody hall,» she said, «and not the least bit suitable to this continent. Furthermore,» and she dropped to the sand, picking up a long shell fragment with which she began another sketch. «First, I wouldn't build where the old shelter is too close to the cove in rough seas and they have them here. There's a rise… with mature fruit trees screening it, over there…» She pointed to the east of the shelter.

«Mature trees? For Thread to eat?»

«Oh, you dragonriders! This is Southern, not the North. It's all been grubbed. Thread sears a leaf every sevenday or so, but the plant heals itself. Meanwhile, you're coming into the hot season and, believe me, you'll want as much green about you as possible to keep cool. You want to build off the ground, on pilings. There's plenty of reef rock for foundations. You want wide windows, not these tiny slits, to catch every breeze. All right, you can shutter them if you want to but I've lived south all my life, so I know how you should build here. You want windows, and corridors straight through the interior for breezeways…» As she spoke, she was delineating the revised hold with strokes that were strong enough to stay in the hot dry sand. «And you want an outdoor hearth for so many. Brekke and I did most of our baking here in stone pits,» she pointed to the spot on the cove, «and you don't really need a bathing room with the cove a few steps from the door.»

«You don't object to piped water, do you?»

«No, that would be handier than lugging it from the stream. Only put another tap in the cooking area as well as one in the house. Perhaps even a tank by the hearth so we can have heated water, too..»

«Anything else, Masterbuilder?» F'nor was more amused and admiring than sarcastic.

«I'll let you know when the thought occurs to me,» she replied with dignity.

F'nor grinned at her and then frowned down at her drawing. «I'm not really certain how the Harper will like having so much greenery near him. You are, I know, used to being out during Threadfall…»

«So's Master Robinton,» Piemur said. «Sharra's right about the heat and the building down here. We can always cut forest down, F'nor, but you can't build it back up so easily.»

«A point. Now you three, B'refli, K'van and M'tok, loose your dragons. They can swim and sun with Ruth and Canth. They won't be needed until we've cut some wood. K'van, let me have your sack. You've got the axes, haven't you?» F'nor passed out the tools, ignoring Piemur's mutterings about slogging through days of forests only to end up cutting one down. «Sharra, take us to your preferred site. We'll clear some of those trees and use 'em for supports.»

«They're stout enough,» Sharra agreed and led the way.

Sharra was correct about the trees: F'nor marked off the proposed site of the hall and the trees to be cut. This was a lot easier said than done. The axes didn't seem to bite the wood, rather bounced off. F'nor was surprised, muttering about dull axes and brought out his sharpening stone. Having achieved a suitably sharp edge at the expense of a slit finger, he tried again with slightly more success.

«I don't understand it,» he said, peering at the cuts in the trunk. «This wood shouldn't be that tough. It's a fruitwood, not a northern hardwood. Well, we've got to clear the site, boys!»

The only one who didn't have a fine set of blisters by midday was Piemur, who was used to hacking. More discouraging was the lack of progress only six trees were down.

«Not for lack of trying, is it?» F'nor said, mopping the sweat from his forehead. «Well, let's see what Sharra's got for us to eat. Something smells good.»

They had time for a swim before Sharra's meal was ready, the salt water stinging in their blisters which Sharra slathered with numbweed. When they'd eaten the broiled fish and baked roots, F'nor set them to sharpening their axes. They spent the rest of the afternoon lopping off branches before they asked the dragons to haul the timbers to one side. Sharra cleared underbrush and, with Ruth's help, brought black reef rock to mark out the piles of the foundation.

As soon as F'nor took his recruits back to the Weyr for the night, Jaxom and Piemur collapsed on the sand, rousing only long enough to eat the dinner Sharra served them.

«I'd sooner tramp around the Big Bay,» Piemur muttered, wincing as he stretched his shoulders this way and that.

«It's for Master Robinton,» Sharra said.

Jaxom regarded his blisters thoughtfully. «At the rate we're going it'd better take him months to get here!»

Sharra took pity on their aching muscles and rubbed salve that smelled aromatic and burned pleasantly into the soreness. Jaxom liked to think that she spent more time massaging his back than Piemur's. He'd been glad to see the young harper and was fascinated by the Records and the charts he was drawing from his travels, but he did wish that Piemur had taken a day or two longer before he'd reached the camp. There was no way he could consolidate his hold on her attentions with a third party about.

There was even less opportunity by the following morning. Sharra woke them to announce that F'nor had arrived, with more helpers.

Jaxom should have been more suspicious of her bland expression, and the calls and orders that he beard outside the shelter. But he was totally unprepared for the sight that met his eyes when he and Piemur, moving stiffly, emerged from the shelter.

The cove, the clearing, the sky all were full of dragons and men. As soon as a dragon was unloaded, he took off to allow another to land. The waters of the cove were full of splashing, playing dragons. Ruth was standing on the eastern tip of the cove, head turned skyward, bugling welcome after welcome. A full fair of fire lizards chattered at one another on the roof of the shelter.

«Sear and scorch it, will you look at that?» Piemur called at Jaxom's side. Then he chuckled and rubbed his hands. «One thing for sure, no chopping today!»

«Jaxom! Piemur» The two swung round at F'nor's cheerful greeting and saw the brown rider striding toward them. Following close on his heels were the Mastersmith Fandarel, Masterwoodsman Bendarek, N'ton and, from his shoulder knots, a wingleader from Benden. Jaxom thought he was T'gellan.

«Did I give you the two drawings last night, Jaxom? I can't find them… Ah, here they are!» F'nor pointed to the sheets on the small table Brekke's original drawing and the alterations suggested by Sharra. The brown rider retrieved the sheets and showed them to the Craftmasters. «Now, here, Fandarel, Bendarek, this is our idea..»

Acting as one, the two men lifted the sheets from F'nor's hands and scrutinized first one then the other. Both shook their heads slowly from side to side in disapproval.

«Not very efficient, F'nor, but well meant,» the huge Smith said.

«Weyrleader R'mart allowed me sufficient riders to bring in well seasoned hardwoods for the frame,» Bendarek told the Smith.

«I have piping for water and other conveniences, metals for a proper hearth and fitments, kitchen implements, windows..»

«Lord Asgenar insisted that I bring stonesmiths. Proper foundations and flooring must be well laid..»

«First we must correct this design. Master Bendarek…»

«I quite agree. This is a nice enough little cot but not at all suitable accommodation for the Masterharper of Pern.»

The two Craftmasters became so involved in amplifying the rough sketches that, oblivious to the other occupants of the room, they moved as one toward the table Jaxom had contrived for his charts. Piemur leaped forward and rescued his pouch of notes and sketches. The Masterwoodsman, ignoring any such interruptions to his thoughts, took a clean sheet, slipped a writing tool from a pocket and began, with neat lines, to draw what he had in mind. The Smith, taking a sheet of his own, began to delineate his ideas.

«Honest, Jaxom,» F'nor said, his eyes crinkling with amusement, «all I did was ask F'lar and Lessa if I could draft a few more helpers. Lessa gave me a stern look; F'lar said I was to recruit as many free riders as I needed and, at dawn, the rim of the Weyr was packed solid with dragons and half the Craftmasters of Pern! Lessa must have bespoken Ramoth, who evidently told everyone in Pern..»

«You gave them the excuse they needed, F'nor,» Piemur said, surveying the traffic on the once quiet beach, the throngs of riders and craftsmen piling dragonloads on the already crowded perimeters.

«Yes, I know, but I hadn't expected such a response. And how could I tell 'em they couldn't come?»

«I think,» said Sharra, who had joined them, «that this is quite a tribute to the Masterharper.» Her eyes caught Jaxom's and he knew that she was aware of his ambivalent feelings about this invasion of their private, peaceful cove.

Then Jaxom saw F'nor watching him and managed a weak smile. «Yesterday's blisters will have a chance to heal, I guess. Right, Piemur?»

Piemur nodded, his jaw muscles working as he observed the activity on the beach. «I'd better find Stupid. All this confusion has probably scared him deep into the forest. Farli!» He held up his arm for his fire lizard, who swooped down from the roof. «Find Stupid, Farli. Lead me to him!»

The fire lizard looked over her left shoulder and chirped, and Piemur strode off in that direction without a backward glance.

«That young man's been alone too long,» F'nor said.

«Yes!»

«You know how he feels?» F'nor asked, grinning at Jaxom's terse reply. He clapped him on the shoulder. «I wouldn't let it get to me, if I were you, Jaxom. With the amount of help we've got, the hold will be up in next to no time. You'll have your peace and quiet back.»

«Idiots!» Sharra exclaimed suddenly.

Jaxom, avoiding F'nor's quizzical expression, looked at her. She'd been half listening to the conversation between the two Masters.

«Now I have to have it out with them!» Her fists were clenched with exasperation as she strode purposefully up to the two Craftsmen. «Masters, I must point out something you have clearly overlooked. This is hot country You're both used to cold winters and freezing rains. If you build this hold on those lines, people will stifle in the full heat of summer which is almost upon us. Now, where I live in Southern Hold, we build thick walls to keep the heat out and the cool in. We build off the ground so air circulates under the floor and keeps that cool. We build lots of windows wide ones and you've brought enough metal shutters, Master Fandarel, to outfit a dozen holds. Yes, I know, but Thread doesn't fall every day and the heat does. Now..»

F'nor made a clicking noise against his teeth. «She sounds like Brekke. And if she acts at all like my weyrmate when she's in that sort of mood, I'd rather be elsewhere. You,» F'nor poked Jaxom in the chest, «can show us where to hunt. Food was brought along but since you're in effect the resident Lord Holder, it's up to you to play host with some roasting meat…»

«I'll just get my flying gear,» Jaxom said with such a tone of relief that the three dragonriders laughed.

Jaxom quickly slipped long trousers over the short pants he'd been wearing for sunning and swimming, threw his jacket over his shoulder and joined the three riders by the doorway.

«I think we can mount on the left hand arm of the cove, near Ruth,» said F'nor.

Something whizzed by Jaxom's ear and instinctively ducking, he looked back as Meer came to a hover, clutching a piece of black reef rock in his front paws. Jaxom heard Sharra thanking her fire lizard for his prompt return.

He hastily left before she could think of any errands for him. F'nor had hunting ropes for each of them which they checked and coiled over their shoulders. As they made their way past piles of assorted woods in various lengths and widths, past metal shutters and unlabeled bales, men hailed the riders and inquired how Jaxom was feeling.

Before they completed the short walk to the cove tip, Jaxom had identified men from every Weyr except Telgar which was expecting Thread that day and representatives of every craft in Pern, mostly journeyman rank and higher. Isolated as he'd been for so many sevendays, it hadn't occurred to Jaxom that his illness might have been a subject of widespread interest through Weyr, Craft, and Hold. He was embarrassed as well as gratified, but that did not ease his sense of being overwhelmed, or this violation, however well intentioned, of the privacy and peace of his cove.

What had F'nor called him? Resident Lord Holder?

He gave himself a shake just as Ruth, dripping wet, landed lightly beside him.

So many people. So many dragons! This is fun!

Ruth's eyes were whirling with excitement and pleasure. The white dragon, now dwarfed by two huge bronzes and a nearly as large brown dragon, was so delighted with all this excitement that Jaxom could not remain disgruntled.

Laughing, he thumped Ruth affectionately on the shoulder and sprang to his neck. The other riders were also mounted so, raising his arm, fist closed, he pumped it to indicate ascent. Still laughing, he braced himself as Ruth launched straight upward, leaving the heavier beasts sandbound while he was in free air. Politely Ruth circled while the others became airborne and then, heading southeast, he led the way.

He headed toward the farthest of the river meadows that he and Sharra had found. Wherries and runner beats generally made their way there about midmorning, to wallow in the water and the cool mud. There would also be sufficient open space for the bigger dragons to maneuver and permit their riders good casts.

Sure enough, herd and flock were wandering about the river meadows, where the land sloped from the trees to the flood edges of the river in a series of banks where successive rainy seasons had made it impossible for trees to root. Grass abounded now, about to turn sere as the hotter weather burned it relentlessly to hay.

We are to hunt singly. F'nor asks that we get a large wherry. They will try for a buck apiece. That should be enough for today.

«If it isn't,» Jaxom replied, «we can always go after one of the big fish.»

In fact, Jaxom quite looked forward to the opportunity. He had never had occasion to use a spear headed rope but… He spotted a wherry, a fine big one, fanning its tail spines as it stalked majestically after the wherry fens. Jaxom tightened his legs on Ruth's neck, tested the weighted loop end of the rope in his hands. He pictured the wherry male to Ruth, who turned his head obediently to point. Then Ruth dove, his wings back to give Jaxom room to throw, his tucked up legs nearly touching the meadow grass. Jaxom leaned forward over Ruth's near side and threw the loop deftly about the wherry's big ugly head. The creature reared back, helpfully tightening the noose. As Jaxom dug his heels into Ruth, the dragon soared upward. With a deft yank, Jaxom neatly broke the wherry's neck.

It was a heavy bird, Jaxom realized as the dead weight pulled his arms almost from the sockets. Ruth took some of the strain as he caught the rope with his forepaw.

— F'nor says good catch. He hopes he can do as well!

Jaxom guided Ruth to the edge of the meadow furthest from the other hunters. Then, letting the carcass down lightly, Ruth landed and Jaxom began to secure the snatch across Ruth's back. They were airborne again in time to see T'gellan valiantly pursuing the buck he'd missed on his first throw. F'nor and N'ton had their beasts neatly dangling. F'nor pumped his arm in triumph as he and N'ton circled back to the cove. As Ruth followed, Jaxom saw T'gellan succeed in his second throw; none too soon for they'd had to soar to miss the edge of the forest and nearly entangled the depending buck in the trees. A good quick hunt, though, which meant the quarry would forget quickly the small excitement. Undoubtedly they'd have to hunt again tomorrow. Jaxom couldn't see even that enormous work force finishing the Harper's new hold in a day! Maybe tomorrow they could go after the big fish.

They had not been gone long, although their return trip took slightly more time, burdened as they were. A massive clearing had been made in the center of the grove. Just as Jaxom wondered how on earth even that many men had been able to fell the necessary trees, he saw a dragon lift one out of the ground by the roots, and carry it to the beach of the next cove east where the tree was neatly stacked on others. As Ruth and he neared the site, Jaxom saw that pillars of black reef rock were in place and several crossbeams of the treated, seasoned hardwoods Master Bendarek had brought were being secured in position. A wide avenue in a graceful curve had also been cleared and sand dumped from firestone sacks transported on dragonback. Other workmen on the edges of the clearing were involved in a variety of tasks sawing, planing, nailing, fitting while another file of men carried black reef rock from piles on the cove edge.

On the eastern tip, Jaxom could see that pits had been dug for roasting, metal spits erected and fires started. Tables had been placed in the shade on which Jaxom could see the piled mounds of red, orange and green fruits.

Ruth hovered over the clearing, gently landing. Two men by the fire pits leaped to Jaxom's assistance as he offloaded the wherry. Ruth immediately vaulted out of the way so that Jaxom could guide the other carcasses dangling from the hunting ropes of the bigger dragons.

F'nor, stripping off his flying gear, walked slowly up to Jaxom, squinting against the brilliant glare from the sands as he surveyed the activity in the once peaceful cove. He sighed deeply but began to nod his head as if unexpectedly satisfied by something.

«Yes, it'll work out all right,» he said, more to himself than to Jaxom because he turned then, smiling, and gripped Jaxom by the shoulder. «Yes, they'll make the transition easily.»

«Transition?»

F'nor clearly didn't mean the present building frenzy.

«Dragonfolk going back to the land, the hold. How much exploring have you been able to do around here?»

«The coves, as far back as those river meadows, and some of the immediate interior the day before yesterday with Piemur.»

As one, the two men turned toward the cone of the volcano that lay, cloud clad, in the distance.

«Yes, it does sort of draw your eye, doesn't it?» F'nor grinned. «You'll get there first, Jaxom. In fact, I'd prefer it if you and Piemur began some serious explorations with that as your goal. Yes, that pleases you, doesn't it? Better for you, too, and Piemur. Now, before I forget it again, where's that fire lizard clutch you reported?»

«There're twenty one eggs and I'd like to have five of them, if I may…»

«Of course!»

«To be taken to Ruatha!»

«By evening.»

«You know, that's curious.» Jaxom craned his body about, looking everywhere.

«What?»

«Usually there're a lot more fire lizards around. I don't count more than a double handful. And they're all banded.»