The White Dragon

CHAPTER XX

JAXOM COULD NOT FEEL easy looking at the eastern face of the mountain. He arranged himself, Sharra and Ruth so that they did not have to see it. The other five made themselves comfortable in a loose semicircle about Ruth.

The seventeen banded fire lizards for at the last moment, Sebell and Brekke asked to be included in the group settled on Ruth's back. The more trained fire lizards, the better, reasoned Master Robinton, which, he went on to say, gave him the chance to include Zair.

Word of the ancients' settlement at the high Plateau had spread throughout Pern with a swiftness that had amazed even the Harper. Everyone clamored to see the place. F'lar sent the message that if Jaxom and Ruth were to prod the fire lizards' memories, they'd better do so quickly, or not at all.

Once Ruth had settled, the Southern fire lizards began arriving in fairs, led by their queens, dipping toward Ruth who crooned a greeting as Jaxom had suggested he do.

They are pleased to see me, Ruth told Jaxom. And happy that men come to this place again.

«Ask them about the first time they saw men.»

Jaxom caught an instant image from Ruth of many dragons arriving over the shoulder of the mountain.

«That's not what I meant.»

I know, Ruth acknowledged with regret. I will ask again. Not the time with the dragons, but a long time ago, before the mountain blew up.

The reaction of the fire lizards was predictable and discouraging. They flew up from their perches on and about Ruth and did wild sky dances, cluttering and bugling in dismay.

Disappointed, Jaxom turned to see Brekke's hand raised, a look of intense concentration on her face. He relaxed against Ruth, wondering what arrested her attention. Menolly also held up her hand. She was sitting near enough to Jaxom so that he saw her eyes were totally unfocused. On her shoulder, Beauty had assumed a rigid position, her eyes wheeling violently red. Above their circle, the fire lizards chattered and continued their wild gyrations.

They are seeing the mountain on fire, said Ruth. They see people running, the fire following them. They are afraid as they were afraid so long ago. This is the very dream we used to have.

«Can you see the mounds? Before they were covered?» In his excitement, Jaxom forgot and spoke aloud.

I see only people running, this way and that. No, they are running toward… toward us? Ruth looked about him as if he half expected to be overrun, so vivid were the fire lizard images.

«Toward us, and then where?»

Down to the water? Ruth wasn't sure himself, and turned to look toward the distant, invisible sea.

They are afraid again. They don't like remembering the mountain.

«Any more than they like remembering the Red Star,» Jaxom said imprudently. Every fire lizard disappeared, including the banded ones.

«That did it, Jaxom,» Piemur said in deep disgust. «You can't mention that bloody Red Star in front of fire lizards. Flaming mountains, but not red stars.»

«Undeniably,» Sebell said in his deep quiet voice, «there are moments that are branded in the minds of our little friends. When they start remembering, everything else is excluded.»

«It is association,» Brekke said.

«What we need then,» Piemur said, «is another spot that strikes less distressing memories in them. Memories… useful… to us…»

«Not so much that,» Menolly considered her words carefully, «as interpretation. I saw something. I think I'm right… it wasn't the big mountain that erupted, it was…» She turned, and pointed to the smallest of the three. «That's the one that blew in our dreams!»

«No, it was the big one,» Piemur contradicted, pointing higher.

«You're wrong, Piemur,» Brekke said with quiet certainty. «It was the smallest one… everything is to the left in my images. The big mountain is too much higher than the one I'm sure I saw.»

«Yes, yes,» Menolly said, excited. «The angle is important. The fire lizards couldn't see that high! Remember they're much, much smaller. And see, the angle. It's right!» She was on her feet, gesturing to illustrate her points. «People came from there, running this way, away from the smallest volcano! They came from those mounds. The largest ones!»

«That's the way I saw it,» Brekke agreed. «Those mounds there!»

«So do we start with these?» F'lar asked, the next morning, sighing at the task of unearthing a small hill. Lessa stood beside him, surveying the silent mounds, with the Master Smith, Masterminer Nicat, F'nor and N'ton. Jaxom, Piemur, Sharra and Menolly remained discreetly to one side. «This large one?» he asked, but his eyes swept down the parallel ranks, squinting with resignation.

«We could be digging until the Pass is done,» Lessa said, slapping her riding gloves against her thigh as she, too, did a slow thoughtful survey of the sprawl of anonymous earthen lumps.

«A vast area,» Fandarel said, «vast! A larger settlement than the combined Holds at Fort and Telgar.» He glanced up in the direction of the Dawn Sisters. «They all came from those?» He shook his head, staggered by the concept. «Where to start to best effect?»

«Is everyone on Pern coming here today?» Lessa asked as a bronze dragon burst into the air over their heads. «D'ram's Tiroth! With Toric?»

«I doubt we could exclude him if we wished, and it would be unwise to try,» F'lar remarked in a droll tone.

«True,» she replied and then smiled at her weyrmate. «I rather like him,» she added, surprised at her own verdict.

«My brother makes himself likable,» Sharra said quietly to Jaxom, a curious smile on her lips. «But to trust him?» She shook her head slowly, watching Jaxom's face. «He is a very ambitious man!»

«He's taking a good look, isn't he?» N'ton remarked, watching the circling dragon's lazy downward glide.

«It's worth looking at,» F'nor replied, scanning the broad, mounded expanse.

«Is that Toric aloft?» Master Nicat asked, digging his boot toe into the large mound. «Glad he's here. He sent for me when he found those mine shafts in the Western Range.»

«I'd forgot he's already had some experience with the ancients' handiwork,» F'lar said.

«He's also got experienced men to help us without having to go back to the Lord Holders,» N'ton said with a knowing grin.

«Whom I don't want too interested in these eastern lands,» Lessa said firmly.

When D'ram and Toric had dismounted, Tiroth glided down the grassy plain to where the other dragons were lounging on an outcropping of sun warmed rock. As Toric and the bronze rider walked toward them, Jaxom regarded the Southerner with Sharra's remarks in his mind. Toric was a big man, as big as Master Fandarel in build and height. His hair was sun streaked, his skin a deep brown and, while his smile was broad, there was a certain arrogant self possession in the very way he strode that suggested he felt himself the equal of any awaiting him. Jaxom wondered just how that attitude would strike the Benden Weyrleaders.

«You certainly have discovered the Southern Continent, haven't you, Benden?» he said, gripping F'lar's arm in greeting and bowing as he smiled at Lessa. He nodded and murmured the name of the other leaders and masters present, glancing beyond them with a raking look at the younger people. When Toric's eyes came back to his face, just briefly, Jaxom knew he'd been identified. Resenting the way Toric's glance slid from him, as if he were negligible, he stiffened. Then he felt Sharra's hand lightly on his arm.

«He does that to irritate,» she said in a very soft voice, with a ripple of her rich laughter in it. «Most of the time it's effective.»

«It puts me in mind of the way my milk brother used to tease me in front of Lytol, when he knew I couldn't retaliate,» Jaxom said, surprising himself with such an unexpected comparison. He saw her approval in her dancing eyes.

«Trouble is,» Toric was saying, his voice carrying to them, «that the ancients didn't leave much behind. Not if they could move it elsewhere and use it. Saving people they were!»

«Oh?» F'lar's exclamation invited Toric to explain.

The Southerner shrugged. «We've been through the mine shafts they left. They'd even pulled up the rails for their ore carts, and' the brackets where they must have hung lights. One place had a largish shelter at the mouth,» he gestured toward the smallest nearby mound, «about that size, carefully shut against the weather and totally bare inside. Again, you could see where things had been bolted to the floor. They'd prized the bolts out, too.»

«If this thriftiness applies here,» Fandarel said, «then if anything is likely to be found, it will be in those mounds.» He pointed to a smaller cluster on the edge of the settlement nearest the lava flow. «They would have been too hot or too dangerous to approach for a long time.»

«And if too hot to approach, what makes you think anything survived the heat?» Toric demanded.

«Because the mound has survived to this time,» Fandarel replied as if he were only being logical.

Toric regarded him for a moment and then clouted the Smith on the shoulder. He was oblivious to the startled look awarded him by Fandarel, whom men tended to treat with distant respect.

«Point in your favor, Mastersmith,» Toric said. «I'll dig gladly with you and hope you're right.»

«I'd like to see what's in the smaller humps,» Lessa said, wheeling and indicating one. «There are such a lot of them. Maybe they were used as small holds. Surely something would be left behind in the rush to leave.»

«What would they have had in such big places?» F'lar asked, kicking at the grassy roundness of the large one nearest him.

«There're hands enough and…» Toric took three long strides to the pile of digging implements, «plenty of shovels and picks for everyone to take a dig at the mound of his choice.» He picked up a long handled shovel and tossed it to the Mastersmith, who caught it in a reflex action as he stared, bemused, at the big Southerner. Toric shouldered another shovel, selected two picks and with no more discussion strode toward the cluster of mounds that were the Smith's choice.

«Presuming Toric's theory is correct, is it worth digging here?» F'lar asked his weyrmate.

«What we found in that long forgotten room at Benden Weyr was obviously a discard of the ancients. And after all, mining equipment they could have used elsewhere. Besides, I want to see what's inside.» Lessa said that with such determination that F'lar laughed.

«I guess I do, too. And I do wonder what they'd do in this size place! It's big enough to weyr a dragon or two!»

«We'll help you, Lessa,» Sharra said, urging Jaxom to pick a tool.

«Menolly, shall we assist F'lar?» F'nor directed the Harper girl toward the tools.

N'ton shook his head as he hefted spade and pick. «Master Nicat, what's your preference?»

The Masterminer looked about him dubiously but his eyes kept returning to the mounds nearest the mountain toward which Toric and Fandarel moved purposefully. «I think our good Mastersmith might have the right of it. But we'll spread the effort. And try those.» He pointed with sudden decision toward the sea side of the Plateau, where six smallish mounds made a loose circle.

It was not work to which any of them were accustomed despite the fact that Master Nicat had begun as an apprentice miner in the pits, and Master Fandarel still took long turns at the forges when he worked on something particularly intricate.

Jaxom, sweat pouring from his face and body, had the distinct feeling that he was under surveillance. But when he leaned on the pick for an occasional breather, or lifted colonies of grubs safely to one side, he could see no one looking in his direction. The sensation bothered him.

The big one watches you, Ruth said suddenly.

Jaxom shot a glance under his arm at the mound where Toric and Master Fandarel were working and, sure enough, Toric was looking in his direction. Beside him, Lessa groaned suddenly, jamming her shovel blade into the rough rooted grass of the mound. She examined her hands, reddened and beginning to blister.

«It's a long time since these have worked so hard,» she said.

«Use your flying gloves?» Sharra suggested.

«A few moments in them and my hands would swim in sweat,» Lessa replied, grimacing. She glanced at the other work parties and, chuckling to herself, sank gracefully to the mound. «Much as I dislike revealing this site to more people than necessary, I think we shall have to recruit strong hands and backs.» She deftly captured a tangle of grubs and deposited them to one side, watching them tunnel back into the rich gray black soil. She rubbed particles between her thumbs and forefinger. «Like ash. Gritty. Never thought I'd be dealing in ashes again. Did I ever tell you, Jaxom, that I was cleaning the fireplace in Ruatha Hold the day your mother arrived?»

«No,» Jaxom said, surprised at this unexpected confidence. «But then, few people ever mention my parents to me.»

Lessa's expression became severe. «Now I wonder why I called Fax to mind…» she said, glancing in Toric's direction and adding, more to herself than to Jaxom and Sharra, «except he was ambitious, too. But Fax made mistakes.»

«Such as taking Ruatha Hold from its rightful Bloodline,» Jaxom said, grunting as he swung the pick.

«That was his worst mistake,» Lessa said with intense satisfaction. Then she noticed Sharra staring at her and smiled. «Which I rectified. Oh, Jaxom, leave off a moment. Your enthusiasm exhausts me.» She mopped at the perspiration on her forehead. «Yes, I think some strong backs will have to be drafted. At least for my mound!» She patted it, almost affectionately. «There's no telling how deep the covering goes. Perhaps,» the thought amused her, «the mounds aren't big at all, just so overloaded. We may end up with nothing larger than a wherhole for all our digging.» Jaxom, conscious of Toric's scrutiny, continued to dig, though his shoulders ached and his hands were hot and stiff with blister.

Just then, Sharra's two fire lizards popped into the air, chirruping at each other as if they didn't understand what their friend was doing. They dropped lightly to the spot where Sharra had just planted her shovel and, with tremendous energy, they began to dig, their strong forepaws lifting the dirt to either side, their hindquarters pushing it farther out of the way. They had tunneled almost an arm's length while Lessa, Sharra and Jaxom watched in amazement.

«Ruth? Would you lend us your aid?» Jaxom called.

The white dragon obediently rose from his sunny perch and glided over to his friend, his eyes beginning to whirl more quickly with curiosity.

«Would you mind digging holes for us, Ruth?»

Where? Here? Ruth indicated a spot to the left of the fire lizards who had not stopped their efforts.

«I don't think it matters where, we just want to see what the grass covers!»

No sooner had the other dragonriders seen what Ruth was doing than they called on theirs. Even Ramoth felt inclined to lend her aid, with Lessa giving her every encouragement.

«I wouldn't have believed it,» Sharra said to Jaxom. «Dragons digging?»

«Lessa wasn't too proud to dig, was she?»

«We're people, but they're dragons!»

Jaxom couldn't help laughing at her incredulity. «You've got a jaundiced view of dragons, living among the Oldtimers' lazy beasts.» He caught her about the waist, pulling her toward him before he felt her stiffen. He looked in Toric's direction. «He's not watching, if that's what you're worried about.»

«He might not have been,» she pointed skyward, «but his fire lizards are. I'd wondered where they were.»

A trio of fire lizards, a golden queen and two bronzes, were circling lazily above Jaxom and Sharra.

«So? I'll just speak to Master Robinton to mediate…»

«Toric has other plans for me…»

«Am I not included in your plans?» Jaxom asked, experiencing sudden shock.

«You know you are, which is why… we loved each other. I wanted you while I could.» Sharra's eyes were troubled.

«Why should he interfere then? My rank is…» Jaxom took both her hands in his and retained them when she tried to pull away.

«He doesn't think much of the young Northern men, Jaxom. Not after coping with fairs of younger sons in the past three Turns who are really,» Sharra sounded exasperated, «enough to try the patience of a harper. I know you're not like them, but Toric…»

«I'll prove myself to Toric, never fear.» Jaxom brought her hands to his lips, holding her eyes with his, determined by the force of his will to banish the unhappiness in her eyes. «And I'll do it properly, through Lytol and Master Robinton. You will be my lady, won't you, Sharra?»

«You know I will, Jaxom. For as long as I can…»

«For as long as we live…» he corrected her, gripping her hands tight enough to make her wince.

«Jaxom! Sharra!» cried Lessa, who had been far too engrossed in Ramoth's industry to notice their quiet exchange.

Jaxom felt Sharra's hands struggle but, having decided to confront Toric in all his arrogance, Jaxom was not about to defer before Lessa. He kept a tight hold on Sharra as they turned toward the Weyrwoman.

«Come and see. Ramoth has struck something solid. And it doesn't look like rock…»

Jaxom pulled Sharra up the slight incline to Lessa's side of the mound. Ramoth was sitting back on her haunches, peering over Lessa to look into the trench her forepaws had scored.

«Move your head slightly, Ramoth. You're in my light,» Lessa said. «Here, take my shovel, Jaxom, and see what you think. Clear out a bit more dirt.»

Jaxom jumped into a trench which reached to mid thigh. «Feels solid enough,» he said, pressing his weight down before he tapped with the shovel. «Sounds like stone?» But it didn't. The shovel thunked echoingly. Scrapping clear a long swath, Jaxom stepped aside for all to see.

«F'lar, come here! We've reached something!»

«So have we!» came the Weyrleader's triumphant reply.

There was a mutual inspection from one dragon dug trench to the other which exposed much the same material, except that in F'lar's case the rocklike substance had an amber panel set into the curve of the mound. Finally the Mastersmith raised his huge arms above his head and roared for silence.

«This is not efficient use of time and energy.» A loud guffaw, almost contemptuous in agreement, came from Toric. «It is not funny,» the Smith said at his most serious. «We will concentrate on Lessa's mound since it is smaller. Then we will work on Master Nicat's and then…"He pointed to his own choice as Toric interrupted.

«All in one day?» he asked, again with a tone of supercilious derision that irritated Jaxom.

«We will do as much as we can, certainly, so let us begin!»

Jaxom decided that the Smith chose to ignore Toric's attitude, an example for him to follow.

It also proved inefficient to have more than two dragons working on Lessa's small mound since it was scarcely longer than a dragon. So F'lar and N'ton urged their bronzes to help Master Nicat.

By midafternoon the curving sides of Lessa's mound had been unearthed to the original floor of the valley. Six panels, three on an arc of the curved roof, tantalized, but their surface, once undoubtedly transparent, was now badly scored and darkened. Attempts to see through to the interior were vain. Disappointing, but no openings were found on the long sides so one end was promptly dug out. The dragons, despite the gray black dust that now dulled their hides, showed no sign of fatigue and considerable interest in this unlikely task. And shortly the access was unearthed.

A door, made of an opaque form of the material used in the roof panels, slid across the opening on rails. The dirt clogged tracks had to be cleared and dragonhide oil applied to the runners before the door could be forced wide enough to permit entry. Lessa, all set to enter first, was restrained by the Smith's hand.

«Wait! The air inside is sick with age! Smell! Let fresh air in first. The place has been shut who knows how many Turns!»

The Smith, Toric and N'ton, set their shoulders to the door and forced it fully open. The air that flooded out was fetid, and Lessa stepped back, sneezing and coughing. Dim rectangles of tan light fell on a dusty floor, touched cracked and water stained walls. As Lessa and F'lar, followed by the others, made their way into the small building, dust swirled under their boots.

«What was it for?» Lessa asked in a hushed voice.

Toric, unnecessarily ducking his head, for the top of the doorway cleared even his height by another hand's breadth, pointed to a far comer, to the now visible remnants of a wide, wooden frame.

«Someone could have slept on that!» He turned to the other corner, and then with a sudden movement that made Lessa gasp, he stooped and came up with an object which he then made a show of presenting to her. «A treasure from the past!»

«It's a spoon!» Lessa held it up for all to see, then ran her fingers over its shape. «But what's it made of? It's no metal I've ever seen. Certainly it's not wood. It's more like… like the panels, and the door, only transparent. But it's strong,» and she tried to bend it.

The Smith asked to examine the spoon. «It does seem to be a similar material. Spoons and windows, huh? Hmmmm!»

Overcoming a sense of awe at being inside such an ancient place, everyone began to examine the interior, Shelves and cabinets had once hung on the walls, for marks of paint left outlines. The structure had once been partitioned into sections and there were distinct gouges in the tough material of the floor to indicate that large permanent objects had rested here and there. In one comer, Fandarel discovered circular outlets, leading down. When he checked the exterior, he had to assume that the piping went through the wall and underground. One, he maintained, was undoubtedly for water. But the other four puzzled him.

«Surely they can't all be empty!» Lessa said in a wistful tone, trying to hide a disappointment that everyone, Jaxom thought, was experiencing.

«One can assume,» Fandarel said in a brisk voice when they had all left Lessa's building, «that many of these of the same shape were also living quarters for the ancients. They would, I feel, take all their personal things with them. I think we ought then to devote more effort to the larger or the much smaller places.»

Then, without waiting to see if anyone concurred with his opinion, the Smith marched straight to the interrupted excavation of Nicat's mound. This building was square and once they had uncovered enough of the top to notice the same roof panels, they concentrated their efforts on the inner end. The tropical night was quickly descending when they finally unearthed the entrance, but they couldn't quite clear the door tracks to open it more than a crack. They were barely able to make out some sort of decorations on the walls. No one had thought to bring glow baskets with them and this second disappointment drained the last of their energy so that no one even suggested sending fire lizards for glows.

Leaning against the half open panel, Lessa gave a tired laugh and looked down at her muddied condition.

«Ramoth says she's tired and dirty and wants a bath.»

«She's not the only one,» F'lar promptly agreed. He made a vain effort to close the door, then laughed. «I don't suppose anything will happen overnight. Back to Cove Hold.»

«You'll join us, Toric?» Lessa asked, cocking her head to look up at the big Southerner.

«I think not this evening, Lessa. I've a Hold to manage and cannot always please myself,» he said. Jaxom saw the Southerner's eyes on him, the implication obvious to Jaxom. «All things being equal, I'll return tomorrow for a time to see if Fandarel's mound proves more profitable. Shall I bring more strong hands and spare your dragons?»

«Spare the dragons? They're enjoying themselves hugely,» Lessa said. «I need the relief. What do you think, F'lar? Or should we draft some Benden riders?»

«I can appreciate that you'd like to keep this for yourself,» Toric went on, smoothly, his eyes on F'lar.

«This Plateau will have to be available to everyone,» F'lar said, ignoring Toric's implication. «And since dragons enjoy earth moving..»

«I'd like to bring Benelek with me tomorrow, F'lar,» said the Master Smith, rubbing his gray mudded hands together and flicking off the dried pellets off his clothes. «And two other lads with good imaginations…»

«Imagination? Yes, you'll need a lot of that here to make sense out of what the ancients have left for you,» Toric said, the faintest hint of scorn in his tone. «When you're ready, D'ram?»

For some reason Toric's manner toward the old Weyrleader was more respectful than to anyone else. At least to Jaxom's sensitive ears. He was inwardly seething over Toric's insinuation that he did not manage his own Hold but pleased himself. He seethed because it was a valid accusation. Yet why, Jaxom sought to console himself, would anyone have expected him to return tamely to Ruatha, which prospered under Lytol's expert management, when all the excitement in the world was happening here? He felt Sharra's fingers curl around his arm, and he reminded himself of his own analogy between Toric and Dorse.

«I'll have a job getting Ruth clean,» he said with a rueful sigh as he undid Sharra's fingers from his arm and clasped them tightly, drawing her with him to Ruth.

As the dragons broke from between over the Cove, the Harper's tall figure was visible on the beach, his impatience to hear of their explorations echoed by the fire lizards who did dizzy spirals about him. When he saw the state the group was in, and how impatient they were to swim clean, he simply divested himself of his clothes and swam from one to another, hearing their reports.

It was an altogether deflated group that sat about the fire that evening.

«There's no guarantee, is there,» the Harper said, «that even if we had the energy to excavate all those hundreds of mounds, we'd find anything of value left behind.»

Lessa held up her spoon with a laugh. «No intrinsic value, but it does give me a tremendous thrill to hold something my hundred times ancestress might have used!»

«Efficiently made, too,» Fandarel said, politely taking the small object and examining it again. «The substance fascinates me.» He bent toward the flames to scrutinize it. «If I could just…» and he reached for his belt knife.

«Oh, no you don't, Fandarel,» Lessa said in alarm and retrieved her artifact. «There were other bits and pieces of the same stuff discarded in my building. Experiment on them.»

«Is that all we are to have of the ancients, their bits and pieces?»

«I remind you, F'lar,» Fandarel said, «their discards have already proved invaluable.» The Smith then indicated the spot where Wansor's distance viewer had been sited. «What men have once learned to do, can be relearned. It will take time and experimentation but…»

«We've only begun, my friends,» said Nicat, whose enthusiasm had not been daunted. «And as our good Smith says, we can learn even from their discards. With your permission, Weyrleaders, I'd like to bring some experienced teams, and go about the excavations methodically. There may have been good reasons for the rank system. Each file might belong to a different craft or «

«You don't believe, as Toric suggests, that they took everything with them?» F'lar asked.

«That's irrelevant,» Nicat said, dismissing Toric's contentions. «The bed, for instance, was unneeded because they knew they could obtain wood wherever they went. The little spoon for another, because they could make more. There may be other pieces, useless to them, which might very well form the missing elements of the Records which did come down to us, in whatever mutilated fashion. Just think, my friends,» Nicat held up one finger along his nose, closing an eye conspiratorially, «the sheer quantity they had to take from those buildings after the eruption. Oh, we'll find things, never fear!»

«Yes, they had to take great loads from those buildings after the eruption,» Fandarel murmured, frowning as he lowered his chin to his chest in deep thought. «Where did they take their possessions? Certainly, not immediately to establish Fort Hold!»

«Yes, where did they go?» F'lar asked, puzzled.

«As far as we could tell from the fire lizard images, they headed toward the sea,» Jaxom said.

«And the sea wouldn't have been safe,» Menolly said.

«The sea wouldn't,» F'lar said, «but there's a lot of land between the Plateau and the sea.» He stared at Jaxom a moment. «Can you get Ruth to find out from the fire lizards where they did go?»

«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 remarked.

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 Southwest, does he?» Jaxom asked when the others had dispersed.

«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 mountain, 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 born 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 halfblood. 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 Toric's. He's watching me. Us!»

«Great! Let him have no mistake about my intentions 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 precipitous 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.

I used to like snow, Ruth said as if encouraging himself 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 courteously, noticing that the cushions bore the recent imprint of buttocks and thighs.

«I suspect you're about to take more than that, Lord Jaxom.»

«Not without due courtesy,» Jaxom said, dragging a 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,» Lytol 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 undivided 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 understanding 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 object. 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 absence?»

«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. Farli, 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 Farli 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 yesterday'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 evening 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 moment 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 suggestion, 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 moment. 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 general 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 brilliance, 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 placement 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 and noticed the curious conformation: 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 excitement and unbelievable pleasure.

«What are they saying, Ruth? Let's try to keep them calm enough to make sense. Do they have any images about these hills?»

Too many. Ruth raised his head, crooning softly to the fire lizards. They were dipping and darting about so erratically that Jaxom gave up trying to see if any were banded. They are happy. They are glad you are come back. It has been so long.

«When was I first here?» Jaxom asked Ruth, having learned not to confuse the fire lizards with generations. «Can they remember?»

When you came out of the sky in long gray things?

Ruth sounded bewildered even as he relayed the answer.

Jaxom leaned against Ruth, scarcely crediting the reply. «Show me!»

Brilliant and conflicting images stunned him as he saw vistas, unfocused at first, then resolving into a clear picture as Ruth sorted out the myriad impressions into one single coherent view.

The cylinders were grayish, with stubby wings that were poor imitations of the graceful pinions of the dragons. The cylinders bore rings of smaller tubes at one end while the other was blunt nosed. Suddenly an opening appeared about a third of the way from the tubed end of the first ship. Men and women walked down a ramp. A progression of images flashed across Jaxom's mind then, of people running about, embracing each other, jumping up and down. Then the images Ruth obtained from the cluttering bugling fire lizards dissolved into chaos as if each separate fire lizard had followed one person and each was trying to give Ruth his individual image rather than a group view of the landing and ensuing events.

There was no doubt in Jaxom's mind that here was where the ancients had taken refuge from the volcano's havoc, the ships that had brought them from the Dawn Sisters to Pern. And the ships were still here because for some reason they couldn't go back to the trio of stars.

The opening into the vessel had been a third of the way from the tube end? With ecstatic fire lizards doing acrobatics about his head, Jaxom paced the grass covering the cylinder until he thought he'd reached the appropriate spot.

They say that you have found it, Ruth advised him, nudging Jaxom forward. His great eyes were spinning with yellow fire.

To support their verdict, scores of fire lizards settled on the bush covered place and began to tug at the vegetation.

«I should go back to the Hold and tell them,» Jaxom muttered to himself.

They are asleep. Benden is asleep. We are the only ones awake in the world!

That was, Jaxom had to admit, rather likely.

I dug yesterday. I can dig today. We can dig until they wake, when they can come help us.

«You have claws. I don't. Let's get some of the tools from the Plateau.»

They were accompanied in both directions by excited, happy fire lizards. With a shovel, Jaxom marked out the approximate area he wanted them to unearth to reach the door to the vessel. Then it was only a question of supervising Ruth and the sometimes obstructive assistance of the fire lizards. They stripped the tough grass from the earth, first, the fire lizards depositing it in the bushes beyond the scar. Fortunately the covering was firmly packed dirt blown over the landing site in the course of thousands of Turns. Even so, rain and sun had hardened a thick covering. When his shoulders began to ache, Jaxom eased his pace. He munched on a breadroll, occasionally urging squabbling fire lizards back to work.

Ruth's claws scrabbled on something. It isn't rock! Jaxom jumped to the spot, slamming his shovel through the loose dirt. The edge hit a hard, unyielding surface. Jaxom let out a wild yell that set all the fire lizards gyrating in midair.

Brushing away the last of the covering dirt with his hands, he stared at what he had unearthed. With cautious fingers, he touched the curious surface. Not metal, not the stuff of the mounds, rather like improbable as it seemed clouded glass. But no glass could be that hard!

«Ruth, is Canth awake yet?»

No. Menolly and Piemur are. They wonder where we are.

Jaxom crowed in triumph. «I think we'll go tell them!»

They were waiting for him and Ruth when they arrived from between in Cove Hold the Harper, Menolly and Piemur. Over their babble of questions about his disappearance to Ruatha the night before, Jaxom tried to explain what he'd found. The Harper had to silence the babble with a huge bellow that stunned every fire lizard into between. Having obtained silence, the Harper took a deep breath.

«Who could think or hear in such noise? Now, Menolly, get us some food! Piemur, get drawing materials. Zair, come here, my beautiful rascal. You've to take a message to Benden. You are to bite Mnementh's nose if necessary to wake him. Yes, I know you're brave enough to fight the big one. Don't fight! Wake! High time those lazy louts at Benden were up anyway!» The Harper was in great spirits, his head high, his eyes sparkling, his gestures broad. «By Shard and Shell, Jaxom, you've started a dull day with a bright promise. I was laggard in bed because there was nothing to rise for but more disappointment!»

«They may be as empty…»

«You said the fire lizards imaged the landing? People emerging? Those cylinders could be as empty as grudging forgiveness but they'd still be worth seeing. The actual ships which brought our ancestors from the Dawn Sisters to Pern!» The Harper expelled his breath slowly, his eyes brilliant with excitement.

«You're not too stimulated, are you, Master Robinton?» Jaxom asked, looking about for Sharra. «Where is Sharra?» He saw Menolly and Piemur running on their errands. Surely Sharra wasn't still asleep. He glanced among the fire lizards for Meer and Talla.

«A dragonrider came for Sharra last evening. There's some illness at Southern and she was urgently needed. I've been selfish, I suppose, keeping you all about me when the real need is over. In fact,» the Harper said, «I'm surprised to find you here and not at Ruatha still.» Robinton's eyebrows arched as an invitation to explain.

«I should have been back in my Hold some time ago, Master Robinton,» Jaxom admitted in a contrite tone, then he shrugged at his reluctance to leave the Cove. «Furthermore, it was snowing when I got there. Lord Lytol and I had a long talk…»

«There'd be no opposition to you taking Hold now,» the Harper said with a laugh, «and no more hedging and hawing about lands and you being a dragon's rider.» The Harper's eyes twinkled as he mimicked Lord Sangel's pinched tones. Then his face altered and he put his hand on Jaxom's shoulder. «How did Lytol react?»

«He wasn't surprised,» Jaxom said, allowing his relief and wonder to color his voice. «And I've been thinking, sir, that if Nicat continues to excavate the Plateau buildings, someone with Lytol's gift for organizing…»

«My own thinking exactly, Jaxom,» the Harper said, giving Jaxom another clout on the shoulder in his enthusiasm. «The past is a fit occupation for two old men…»

«Sir,» Jaxom cried in outraged tones, «you'll never be old. Nor will Lytol!»

«Kind of you to think so, young Jaxom, but I've had warning. Ah, here comes a dragon Canth, if I don't mistake in the sun's glare!» Robinton shielded his eyes with his hand.

The glare might also account for the frown on F'nor's face as he strode up the beach toward them. Zair had given him the most confused images, which had excited Berd, Grail and every fire lizard in Benden Weyr to the point where Lessa had told Ramoth to banish the whole lot. In proof of which, the air above the Cove was filled with fair upon fair of fire lizards, making a tremendous clamor.

«Ruth, settle them down,» Jaxom asked his dragon. «We'll not be able to see or hear for fire lizards.»

Ruth gave such a bellow he startled himself and drew an awed whirl of Canth's eyes. The ensuing silence was broken by a frightened lone chirp. And the sky emptied of fire lizards as they rapidly found perches on the tree ringed beach.

They obeyed me. Ruth sounded amazed, and smug. The display of control put F'nor in a considerably better frame of mind.

«Now, tell me what you've been up to so early in the morning, Jaxom?» F'nor asked, loosening his flying belt and helmet. «It's getting so Benden can't turn around without Ruatha's assistance.»

Jaxom peered intently at F'nor in surprise, but the brown rider gave him such a look that Jaxom realized F'nor was being exceptionally cryptic. Could he be referring to that damned egg? Had Brekke mentioned something to him?

«Why not?» he said in answer. «Benden and Ruatha have the strongest ties, F'nor. Blood, as well as mutual interest.»

F'nor's expression turned from daunting to amused. He clipped Jaxom hard enough on the shoulder to make him lose balance.

«Well said, Ruatha, well said! So, what did you discover today?»

With no little satisfaction, Jaxom recounted his morning's labor, and F'nor's eyes widened with excitement.

«The ships they landed in? Let's go!» He tightened his belt, fastened his helmet and gestured for Jaxom to speed up his dressing. «We've Thread tomorrow at Benden, but, if this is as you say…»

«I'm coming, too,» the Harper announced.

Not even the boldest fire lizard chirped in the silence that followed that remark.

«I'm coming, too,» Master Robinton repeated in a firm reasonable tone to override the protest he saw in every face. «I've missed too much. The suspense is very bad for me!» He placed his hand dramatically on his chest. «My heart pounds harder and harder with every passing moment that I'm forced to wait until you decide to send me dribbles and drabbles of tantalizing details.» He held up his hand as Menolly recovered her wits and opened her mouth to speak. «I will do no digging. I will merely watch! But, I assure you that the vexation, not to mention the loneliness and suspense while you are on making Records, will put a totally unnecessary and dangerous strain on my poor heart. What if I collapsed from the tension, with no one here?»

«Master Robinton, if Brekke knew…» Menolly's protest was very weak.

F'nor covered his eyes with one hand and shook his head at the Harper's base tactics. «Give the man a finger and he'll take a length.» Then he looked up and shook his finger at Robinton. «If you move a muscle, pick up a pinch of dirt, I'll… I'll. .»

«I'll sit on him,» Menolly finished, giving her Master such a fierce glare that he pretended to ward off her glance.

«Get my flying gear, Menolly, there's a dear child.» The Harper, with a cajoling expression, gave her a gentle push toward the Hold. «And my writing case from the worktable in my study. I really will behave myself, F'nor, and I'm certain I wouldn't come to harm in such a short journey between. Menolly,» he raised his voice to a carrying roar, «don't forget the half sack of wine on my chair! It was bad enough yesterday being unable to see the Plateau buildings!»

As soon as Menolly returned with his requirements, the wine sack bouncing on her back, there was no more discussion. F'nor mounted the Harper and Piemur on Canth, leaving Jaxom to settle Menolly behind him on Ruth. Fleetingly he wished that Sharra were still here. He wondered if Ruth could bespeak her all the way to Southern and then restrained the impulse. Day had not yet dawned that far west. The two dragons ascended with a dense escort of fire lizards. Ruth gave Canth the direction and, even as Jaxom worried that the Harper's action was very rash, they had gone between and were gliding toward the three peculiar hills.

Jaxom grinned with delight at the response to his discovery. Menolly's arms gripped him more tightly and she cried out an intricate arpeggio in her excitement. He could see the Harper gesticulating wildly, and hoped he had a good grip on F'nor's belt. Canth, never taking his eyes from the hole in the hill, veered to land as close to it as possible. They settled the Harper in the nearest spot of shade and had Jaxom ask Ruth to get the local fire lizards to image things for himself and Zair while he admired their labors.

To the chirping conversation of fire lizards, the others began to dig, Ruth standing to one side since Canth could move far more earth than he and there was only room for one dragon. Jaxom was keenly aware of an internal excitement that had been utterly lacking at the Plateau.

They dug perpendicularly now, for Jaxom had unearthed the top of the vehicle. Canth's enthusiasm often showered the Harper with clods of dirt as they worked down to the door area, but they'd been digging only a short time before the seam of the doorway, a fine crack in the otherwise smooth surface, came to light. F'nor had Canth shift the angle of excavation slightly to the right and very shortly the entire upper edge of the opening was uncovered.

Much encouraged, fire lizards joined Canth and the riders, and dirt flew everywhere. When the opening was all but clear, they had also uncovered the rounded, leading edge of one of the stubby wings as well, proving, as the Harper was quick to point out, that the fire lizards did recall accurately what their ancestors had seen. Once you could get them to remember, of course.

When the whole doorway had been cleared, the workers stood aside for the Harper to approach and examine it.

«I think we really had better contact Lessa and F'lar now. And it would be unkind in the extreme to exclude Master Fandarel. He might even be able to tell us what they constructed this ship of.»

«That's enough people to know of this,» F'nor said before the Harper could include any other names. «I'll go for the Master Smith myself. It'll spare time and prevent gossip. Canth will tell Ramoth.» He rubbed sweat from his face and neck and the worst of the mud stains from his hands before he shrugged into his flying gear. «Don't any of you do anything while I'm gone!» he added, glaring at each one in turn and most fiercely at the Harper.

«I wouldn't know what to do,» the Harper said in a reproving tone. «We shall take refreshment,» he said, reaching for the wineskin, and gesturing the others to sit around him.

The diggers welcomed a respite and a chance to contemplate the marvel they were unearthing.

«If they flew in those things…»

«If, my dear Piemur. No doubt obtains. They did. The fire lizards saw those vehicles land,» Master Robinton said.

«I started to say that if they flew in those things, why didn't they fly them away from the Plateau after the explosion?»

«A very good point.»

«Well?»

«Perhaps Fandarel can answer, for I certainly can't,» Robinton said truthfully, regarding the door with some chagrin.

«Maybe they'd need to take off from a height, the way a lazy dragon does,» Menolly said, casting a sly glance at Jaxom.

«How long does it take F'nor to go between?» the Harper asked with a wistful sigh, squinting up at the bright sky for any sign of returning dragons.

«Takes longer to take off and land.»

The Benden Weyrleaders arrived first, Canth with F'nor and Fandarel only a few seconds behind them so that all three dragons landed together. The Smith was first off Canth, rushing to the new wonder to run reverent hands over the curious surface, murmuring under his breath. F'lar and Lessa came striding through the long grasses, picking their way past dragon strewn dirt; neither took their eyes from the softly shining doorway.

«Aha!» the Smith cried in sudden triumph, startling everyone. He'd been examining the rim of the doorway minutely. «Perhaps this is meant to move!» He dropped to his knees to the exposed right hand corner. «Yes, if one excavated the entire vessel, this would probably be man height! I think I ought to press.» He put action to words and a small panel slid open to one side of the main door. It displayed a depression occupied by several colored circles.

Everyone crowded about him as his big fingers wiggled preparatorily and then hovered first over the upper rank of green circles. The bottom ones were red.

«Red has always meant danger, a convention we undoubtedly learned from the ancients,» he said. «Green we will therefore try first!» His thick forefinger hesitated a moment longer and then stabbed at the green button.

At first nothing happened. Jaxom felt a clenching, like a cold hand on his guts, the prelude to intense disappointment.

«No, look, it's opening!» Piemur's keen eyes caught the first barely perceptible widening of the crack.

«It's old,» the Smith said reverently. «A very old mechanism,» he added as they all heard the faint protest of movement.

Slowly the door moved inward and then, astonishingly, it moved sideways, into the hull of the ship. A whoosh of rank air sent them reeling and gasping backward. When they looked again, the door was fully retracted, sunlight streaming onto flooring, darker than the ship's hull but, when the Smith rapped it with his knuckles, apparently made of the same peculiar material.

«Wait!» Fandarel restrained the others from entering. «Give fresh air a chance to circulate. Did anyone think to bring glows?»

«There're some at the Cove,» Jaxom said, reaching for his flying gear and jamming his helmet on his head as he raced to Ruth. He never did bother to belt up and the frigid moment of between was a shocking cooler after the exertions of digging. He got as many glow baskets as he could carry. On his return, he realized no one seemed to have moved in his brief absence. Awe of the unknown beyond that great entrance had restrained them. Awe and perhaps, Jaxom decided, a reluctance to repeat the disappointment of the Plateau.

«Well, we will never know anything standing out here like numbwits,» Robinton said, taking a glow basket from Jaxom and unshielding it as he strode forward into the ship.

It was mete, Jaxom thought, as he passed out the other baskets, that the Master Harper should have the honor of entering first. Fandarel, F'lar, F'nor and Lessa walked abreast through the opening. Jaxom grinned at Piemur and Menolly as they fell in behind.

Another great door, with circular wheel for locking thick bars ceiling and floor, lay open and inviting. Master Fandarel was making inarticulate noises of praise and awe as he touched the walls and peered at what looked to be control levers and more colored circles. As they penetrated further, they came upon two more doors, an open one on the left and one closed on their right which would lead, Fandarel was certain, to the rear, tube encircled end of the vehicle. How could tubes make a cumbersome, snub winged thing like this fly? He simply had to bring Benelek here, if no one else was to see it.

They all turned to the left and entered a long narrow corridor, their boots making muffled noises on the nonmetallic floor.

«More of the substance they used for pit supports, I think,» Fandarel said, kneeling and pressing his fingers against the floor. «Ha, what was in these?» he asked, fingering brackets which were empty now. «Fascinating. And no dust.»

«No air or wind to carry it in here for who knows how long,» F'lar remarked in a quiet tone. «As in those rooms we discovered in Benden Weyr.»

They moved along a corridor of doors, some open, some closed. None locked, for Piemur and Jaxom were able to peer into the emptied cubicles. Holes in the flooring and on the inside walls proved that there had been fittings.

«All of you, come here!» came the excited voice of the Harper, who had prowled ahead.

«No, here!» F'nor called from further beyond the Harper. «Here's where they must have controlled the ship!»

«No, F'nor, this is important to us!»

And F'lar seconded the Harper's vibrant claim.

As everyone gathered about the two, their glow baskets adding to the illumination, it was clear what had arrested their attention. The walls were covered with maps. In great detail, the familiar contours of Northern Pern and the not so familiar Southern Continent, all of it in its immensity, had been drawn eradicably on the wall.

With a sound half moan, half shout Piemur touched the map, tracing with his forefinger the coast which he had so arduously tramped, but which was only a small portion of the total shoreline.

«Look, Master Idarolan can sail almost to the Eastern Barrier Range… and it's not the same range I saw in the west. And…»

«Now what would this map represent?» F'nor asked, interrupting Piemur's excited comments. He was standing to one side, his glow basket lighting another chart of Pern. The outlines were the same, but the bands of different colors covered the familiar contours in puzzling configurations. The seas were depicted with varying shades of blue.

«That would indicate the depth of the water,» Menolly said, running her fingers along what she knew was the Nerat Deep, here colored a deep blue. «Look, here are arrows to indicate the Great South Current. And here's the Western Stream,»

«If that is so,» the Harper said slowly, «then this ought to indicate the height of the land? No. For here where there should be mountains in Crom, Fort, Benden and Telgar, the color is the same as this part of the Telgar Plains. Most puzzling. Whatever could this have meant to the ancients?» He glanced from Northern to Southern spheres. «And none of that shade except this little bit here on the underside of the world. Perplexing. I shall have to study this!» He felt along the edges of the map, but it was evidently drawn on the wall itself.

«Here's one for Master Wansor's eyes,» Fandarel said, apparently so engrossed in the section he was studying that he hadn't attended Robinton's words.

Piemur and Jaxom turned their glows toward the Smith.

«A star map!» the young Harper cried.

«Not quite,» the Smith said.

«Is it a map of our stars?» Jaxom asked.

The Smith's big finger touched the largest circle, a brilliant orange with licking flames jagging out from its circumference.

«This is our sun. This must be the Red Star.» His finger described the orbit about the sun which had been designated for the wanderer. He now touched the third, very small, round world. «This is our Pern!» He grinned at the others, for the humble size of their world.

«What's this then?» Piemur asked, putting his finger on a dark colored world on the other side of the sun, away from the other planets and their described lines of orbit.

«I don't know. It ought to be on this side of the sun, as the other planets are!»

«And what do these lines mean?» Jaxom asked, having traced the arrowed lines from the bottom of the chart to the Red Star and then off the edge of the chart on the far right.

«Fascinating,» was all the Mastersmith would allow, rubbing his chin as he stared at the enigmatic drawings.

«I prefer this map,» Lessa said, smiling with a great deal of satisfaction at the two continents.

«You do?» F'lar asked, turning from his examination of the star map. «Ah, yes, I take your point,» he said as he watched her hand cover the western section. Then he laughed. «Yes, I quite agree, Lessa. Very instructive.»

«How can that be?» Piemur asked with some scorn. «It's not accurate. Look,» he pointed, «there's no sea volcanoes beyond the Plateau cliffs. And there's far too much shore in this section of the South. And no Great Bay. It doesn't go like that. I know. I've walked it.»

«No, the map isn't accurate anymore,» the Harper said before Lessa could level a criticism at Piemur. «Notice Tillek. There's a good deal more of the northern peninsula than there should be. And no mark for the volcano on the south shore.» Then he added with a deep smile, «But I suspect the map was accurate, when it was drawn!»

«Of course,» Lessa said in a cry of triumph. «All the Passes, each one stressing our poor world, caused upheaval and destruction…»

«See, this spur of land, where the Dragon Stones are now?» Menolly cried. «My great grandsire remembers the land falling into the sea!»

«No matter that there have been minor changes,» Fandarel said, dismissing these casually, «the maps are superb discoveries.» He frowned again at the one with the anomalous shadings. «That shade of brown designates our first settlements in the North. See, Fort Hold, then Ruatha, Benden, Telgar,» he looked at F'lar and Lessa, «and the Weyrs. They all are placed in this same coloration. Is that what it means, perhaps? Places where people could settle?»

«But they settled the Plateau first of all, and it's not that same brown,» Piemur said, disgruntled. «We must seek Master Wansor's opinion. And Master Nicat's.»

«I'd like to see Benelek look over the controls by the doors and perhaps investigate the rear of the ship,» F'nor said.

«My dear brown rider,» the Smith said, «Benelek is very clever with mechanical things but these…» His broad gesture indicated that the highly advanced technology on the ship was well beyond his apprentice's skill.

«Perhaps one day, we will know enough to fathom all the ships' mysteries,» F'lar said, smiling with intense pleasure as he tapped the maps. «But these… are current and exceedingly valuable to us, and Pern.» He paused to grin at Master Robinton, who nodded his head in comprehension, and Lessa, who continued to smile, her eyes dancing with a mischief only the three seemed to share. «And, for the time being, no mention is to be made of them!» He was stern now, and held up his hand when Fandarel began to protest. «A short time only, Fandarel. I have very good reason. Wansor must certainly see these equations and drawings. And Benelek can puzzle what he may. As he talks only to inanimate objects, he's no risk to the necessary secrecy I feel we must impose on these ships. Menolly and Piemur are harperbound, and you've already proved your discretion and abilities, Jaxom.» F'lar's glance, direct and intense, caused Jaxom an inner pang because he was certain then that the Benden Weyrleader did know of his episode with the dratted egg. «There's going to be quite enough to confuse Hold, Craft and Weyr on that Plateau without adding these riddles.» His eyes went back to the broad expanse of the Southern Continent and, as he shook his head slowly, his smile and those of the Harper and Lessa increased. Suddenly a shocked expression crossed his face, and he looked up. «Toric! He said he'd be here today, to help excavate.»

«Yes, and N'ton was to collect me,» Fandarel said, «but not for an hour yet or more. I was dragged from my couch by F'nor…»

«And Southern is in Telgar's time area. Good! However, I want a copy of this map. Which of you three can we best spare today?» he asked.

«Jaxom!» the Harper said quickly. «He copies neatly and when the rider came for Sharra last evening, Jaxom had gone to Ruatha. Besides, it is wise to keep Ruth apart. The local fire lizards will bear him company here and not chatter to Toric's trio.»

The matter was quickly decided and Jaxom left with copying materials and all the glows. A screen of branches was contrived to hide the opening from any chance observer. Ruth was asked to entice the local fire lizards to him and hopefully get them to nap. Because the morning's exertions had tired Ruth, he was quite willing to curl up in the sun and sleep. The others departed to Cove Hold and Jaxom began to copy this peculiarly significant map.

As he worked, he tried to figure out why it had so pleased the Weyrleaders and Master Robinton. To be sure, it was a gift to know the extent of Southern without having to walk it all.

Was that it? Of course. Toric didn't know how large the Southern Continent was! And now the Weyrleaders did. Jaxom regarded the Hold peninsula, estimating how much Toric and his holdless men had managed to explore. Never could Toric, even with his Hold swollen by younger sons from every Hold and cothold in Northern Pern, explore this vast continent. Why, even if he tried to Hold as far as the Western Range in the south, to the Great Bay in the west… Jaxom smiled, so pleased with his deduction that he nearly smeared the line he was drawing. Should he mark in the Great Bay as they now knew it, or copy the old map faithfully? Yes, it was this one that mattered. And when Toric finally saw it… Jaxom chuckled, imagining with intense pleasure the chagrin which Toric would feel at first sight.