Dragon Song Read online

  The little queen was Beauty because she was and because she took such elaborate pains with her grooming and required much more attention and oiling than the others. She was forever digging at her talons with her teeth, spreading them to clean between the toes, or licking any specks of dust from her tail, burnishing her neck ridges in the sand or grass.

  At first Menolly talked to her creatures to hear the sound of her own voice. Later she spoke with them because they seemed to understand what she was saying. They certainly gave every indication of intelligent listening, humming, or crooning an encouraging response when she paused. And they never seemed to get enough of her singing to them, or playing her pipes. She couldn't exactly say that they harmonized with her, but they did hum softly in tune as she played.

  Chapter 8

  Wheel and turn

  Or bleed and burn.

  Fly between,

  Blue and green.

  Soar, dive down,

  Bronze and brown.

  Dragonmen must fly

  When Threads are in the sky.

  As it turned out, Alemi sailed Elgion to the Dragon Stones to search there for the elusive fire lizards.

  One windy day, not long after the visit of N'ton, the young sea man broke a leg bone when the rough seas tossed him against the pilot house of his ship. They were coming into harbor and the high tide made for heavier waters there than he'd expected. Yanus grumbled a good deal about Alemi being too experienced a seaman to get injured, but his grumbling subsided when Mavi pointed out that here was a chance to see if Alemi's first mate would be capable of assuming command of the ship being finished in the building Cavern.

  Alemi tried to take the injury in good part, but after four days in bed, with the swelling eased, he was heart-bored and restless. He plagued Mavi so constantly she handed him the crutch she had not meant to give him for a full sevenday more, and suggested that if he broke his neck, too, he would have only himself to blame.

  Alemi had more sense than that and navigated the inner stairways, narrow and dark, slowly and carefully, he kept to the wider outer stairs and the Sea Hold's main rooms and the holdway whenever possible.

  While he had some mobility, he didn't have much activity if the fishing fleet was out; so he was soon attracted by the sound of the children learning a new ballad from the Harper. He caught Elgion's eye and received a courteous wave to enter the Little Hall. If the children were startled to hear a baritone suddenly take up the learning, they had too much respect for the Harper to do more than hazard a quick peek and the class progressed.

  To Alemi's pleasure he found himself as quick to memorize the new words and tune as the youngsters, and he thoroughly enjoyed the session; he was almost sorry when Elgion excused them.

  "How's the leg, Alemi?" the Harper asked when the room had emptied.

  "I have a weather-wise ache now for sure."

  "Is that why you did it?" Elgion said with a broad grin. "I'd heard you wanted to be sure Tilsit got a chance at command."

  Alemi let out a snort of laughter. "Nonsense. I haven't had a rest since the last five-day gale. That's a fine ballad you're teaching."

  "That's a fine voice you were singing it with, too. Why don't you sound out more often? I was beginning to think the sea wind snatches the voice of everyone at about twelve Turns."

  "You should have heard my sis . . " and Alemi stopped, flushed, and clamped his lips tight "Which reminds me: I took the liberty of asking N'ton, Lioth's rider, to spread the word at Benden Weyr that she's missing. She may still be alive, you know."

  Alemi nodded slowly.

  "You Sea Holders are full of surprises," said Elgion, linking to switch to a less painful topic. He went to the racks of wax tablets and removed the two he might. "These must have been done by that fosterling who took over when Petiron died. The other slates are all in the older script notations, which the old Harper used. But these ... A lad who can do this sort of work is needed in the Harper's craft. You don't know where the boy is now, do you?"

  Alemi was torn between duty to the Hold and love of his sister. But she wasn't in the Hold anymore, and commonsense told Alemi that she must be dead if, in this length of time, with dragonriders looking for her, she hadn't been found. Menolly was only a girl, so what good did it do that her songs found favor with the Harper? Alemi was also reluctant to put the lie to his father. So, despite the fact that Elgion was impressed by the songs, since the songmaker was beyond them, Alemi answered truthfully that he didn't know where "he" was.

  Elgion wrapped the waxed slates carefully, and with a noticeable sigh of regret. "I'll send them on to the Harper Crafthall anyway. Robinton will want to use them."

  "Use them? They're that good?" Alemi was startled and regretted the lies still more.

  "They're cracking good. Maybe if the lad hears them, he'll come forward on his own." Elgion gave Alemi a rueful smile. "Since it's obvious there's some reason you can't name him." He chuckled at the Sea Man's reaction. "Come now, man, the lad was sent away in some sort of disgrace, wasn't he? That happens, as any harper worth his salt knows and understands. Hold honor and all that. I won't tease you anymore. He'll surface to the sound of his own music."

  They talked of other things then, until the fishing fleet returned, two men of the same age but different background: one with an inquisitive interest in the world beyond his Sea Hold, and the other quite willing to satisfy it. Elgion was, in fact, delighted to find none of Yanus's inflexibility in Alemi, and the Harper began to feel that after all he might be able to follow Master Robinton's ambitious plan of broadening understanding beyond the limits of this Sea Hold.

  Alemi was back the following day after the children had been dismissed, with more questions. He stopped mid sentence finally, apologizing profusely for taking so much of Elgion's time.

  "I tell you what, Alemi, I'll teach you what you'd like to know if you'll teach me how to sail."

  "Teach you to sail?"

  Elgion grinned. "Yes, teach me to sail. The smallest child in my class knows more about that than I do, and my professional standing is in jeopardy. After all, a Harper is supposed to know everything.

  "I may be wrong but I can't imagine that you need both legs to sail one of those little skiff's the children use."

  Alemi's face lit up, and he pounded the Harper on the back with enthusiasm.

  "Of course I can. By the First Shell, man, I'd be glad to do it, glad."

  And nothing would satisfy Alemi but to take the Harper down to the Dock Cavern immediately and give him the fundamentals of seamanship. In his own subject, Alemi was as good an instructor as the Harper; and Elgion was able to tack across the Harbor by himself by the end of the first lesson. Of course, as Alemi remarked, the wind was from the right quarter and the sea calm, ideal sailing conditions.

  "Which rarely prevail?" asked Elgion; and he was rewarded by Alemi's tolerant chuckle. "Well, practice makes perfect, and I'd better learn the practical"

  "And the theory."

  So their friendship was cemented by mutual exchanges of knowledge and long visits together. Although their conversation touched many subjects, Elgion hesitated to bring up the subject of fire lizards, or the fact that the Weyr had asked him to search for traces of the elusive little creatures. He had, however, searched as much of the accessible coastline as he could on foot There were some beaches that should be checked now from the seaside. With Alemi teaching him how to handle the skiff, he hoped he'd soon be able to do it himself. Elgion knew with certainty that Yanus would be completely scornful of any search for fire lizards, and the Harper didn't want to implicate Alemi in any plan that would bring Yanus's anger down on his head. Alemi was in bad enough straits over breaking his leg.

  One clear bright morning, Elgion decided to put his solution to the test. He dismissed the children early, then sought out Alemi and suggested that today was not only a fine day but the sea was rough enough to test his ability. Alemi laughed, cast a wise eye at the clouds, and said that it wo
uld be mild as a bathing pool by afternoon but that the practice now would be useful to Elgion's progress.

  Elgion wheedled a large package of fish rolls and spice cakes from a kitchen auntie, and the two men set off. Alemi was agile enough now with his crutch and splint-bound leg on land, but he was glad of any excuse to be on the sea.

  Once beyond the protecting arms of the Half-Circle cliffs, the sea was choppy with crosscurrent and wind; Elgion's skill would be well tested. Alemi, disregarding an occasional wetting as the skiff plunged hi and out of the wave troughs, played silent passenger while the Harper fought tiller and sheet to keep them on the course, Alemi had set, down the coast. The Sea Man became aware of the wind shift some moments before Elgion, but it was the mark of his abilities as a teacher that Elgion was quick enough to notice the change.

  "Wind's slacking off."

  Alemi nodded, adjusting his cap slightly for the wind's new direction. They sailed on, the wind slackening to a gentle pressure against the sail, the skiffs speed aided more by the deep current than the wind.

  "I'm hungry," Alemi announced as he and Elgion saw the stumpy violet crags of the Dragon Stones to leeward.

  Elgion released the sheet line, and Alemi pulled the sail down, furling it with absent skill against the boom. At his direction, Elgion lashed the tiller so that the current carried them idly downcoast.

  "Don't know why," Alemi said through a mouthful of fishroll, "food always tastes better on the sea."

  Elgion contented himself to a nod since his mouth was full. He also had a good appetite; not, he qualified to himself, that he had been working overhard, just hanging on to the tiller and adjusting the sail sheet now and then.

  "Come to think, don't often have time to eat on the sea," Alemi added. He gestured to include their leisurely bobbing, the skiff itself and the informal meal. "Haven't been this lazy on a sail since I was old enough to haul a net" He stretched and then adjusted his splinted leg slightly, grimacing against the awkwardness and discomfort. Suddenly he leaned away from the bulwark, to reach into the small locker fitted against the curve of the hull. "Thought so." Grinning, he held up fishline, hook and dry worm.

  "Can't you leave off?"

  "What? And have Yanus give out about unproductive hands?" Alemi deftly threaded line to hook and baited it "Here. You might as well try hook line and bait. Or does the Masterharper object to cross-crafting?"

  'The more crafts the better, says Master Robinton."

  Alemi nodded, his eyes on the current "Aye, sending lads away to other Sea Holds for fostering doesn't quite answer, does it?" Deftly he threw the line from him, watched the cast carry it well away from the drifting skiff and sink.

  Elgion gave a fair imitation of that cast and settled himself, as Alemi had, to wait for results,

  "What would we be catching out here?"

  Alemi drew his mouth up in a grimace of indifference. "Probably nothing. Tide's full, current's strong, midday. Fish feed at dawn, unless there's Thread."

  "Is that why you use the dry worm? Because it resembles Thread?" Elgion couldn't suppress the shudder that went down his spine at the thought of loose Thread.

  "You're right."

  The silence that often grips fishermen settled comfortably in the boat "Yellow-stripe, if anything," Alemi finally said in answer to the question that Elgion had almost forgotten he'd asked. "Yellow-stripe or a very hungry packtail They'll eat anything."

  "Packtail? That' s good eating."

  "Line's break. Packtail's too heavy for this."

  "Oh."

  The current was inexorably drawing them closer to fee Dragon Stones. But, although he wanted to get Alemi talking about them, Elgion couldn't find the proper opening. At about the point where Elgion felt he'd better speak or they'd be pulled by the current into the Stones, Alemi casually glanced around. They were only several dragon lengths from the most seaward of the great crags. The water now lapped peacefully against the base, exposing occasionally the jagged points of submerged rock, eddying around others. Alemi unfurled the sail and hauled on the sheet line.

  "We need more sea room near those. Dangerous wife sunken rock. When fee tide's making, current can pull you right in. If you sail this way by yourself, and you'll soon be able to, make sure you keep your distance."

  "The lads say you saw fire lizards there once," Elgion found the words out of his mouth before he could censor them, Alemi shot him a long amused look. "Let's say I can't think what else it could've been. They weren't wherries: too fast, too small, and wherries can't manoeuvre that way. But fire lizards?" He laughed and shrugged his shoulders, indicating his own scepticism.

  "What if I told you that there are such things? That F'nor, Canth's rider, Impressed one in Southern and so did five or six other riders? That the Weyrs are looking for more fire lizard clutches, and I've been asked to search the beaches?"

  Alemi stared at the Harper. Then the skiff rocked in the subtle cross currents. "Mind now, pull the tiller hard aport. No, to your left, man!"

  They had the looming Dragon Stone comfortably abaft before further conversation.

  "You can Impress fire lizards?" If Alemi's voice was incredulous, an eager light sparkled in his eyes, and Elgion knew he'd made an ally; he told as much as he, himself, knew.

  "Well, that would explain why you rarely see grown ones, and why they evade capture so cleverly. They hear you coming." Alemi laughed, shaking his head. "When I think of the times ..."

  "Me, too." Elgion grinned broadly, remembering his boyhood attempts to rig a successful trap.

  "We're to look on beaches?"

  "That' s what N'ton suggested. Sandy beaches, sheltered places, preferably hard for small active boys to find. There's plenty of places where a fire lizard queen could hide a clutch around here."

  "Not with the tides so high this season."

  "There must be some beaches deep enough." Elgion felt impatient with Alemi's arguments.

  The Sea Man motioned Elgion out of the tiller seat, and deftly tacked about.

  "I saw fire lizards about the Dragon Stones. And those crags'd be right good weyrs. Not that I think we'd have a chance of seeing them today. They feed at dawn: that's when I saw them. Only," and Alemi chuckled, "I thought my eyes were deceiving me since it was the end of a long watch and a man's eyes can play tricks with him at dawn."

  Alemi sailed the little skiff far closer to the Dragon Stones than Elgion would have dared. In fact the Harper found himself gripping the weatherboard very hard and edging his body away from the towering crags as the skiff breezed lightly by. There was no doubt that the crags were riddled with holes, likely weyrs for fire lizards.

  "I wouldn't try this tack except when the tide is full, Elgion," said Alemi as they sailed between the innermost crag and the tide-washed land. "There's a right mess of bottom-reaming rocks here even at half-tide."

  It was quiet, too, with the waves softly caressing the narrow verge of sand between sea and cliff. Quiet enough for the unmistakable sound of piping to carry across the water to Elgion.

  "Did you hear that?" Elgion grabbed Alemi's arm.

  "Hear what?"

  "The music!"

  "What music?" Alemi wondered briefly if the sun were strong enough to give the Harper a stroke. But he sharpened his ears for any unusual sound, following the line of Elgion's stare to the cliffs. His heart leaped for a moment, but he said, "Music? Nonsense! Those cliffs are riddled with caves and holes. All you hear is the wind..."

  "There isn't any wind now..."

  Alemi had to admit that because he'd let the boom out and was even beginning to wonder if they had enough wind to come about on a tack that would clear the northern side of the stones.

  "And look," said Elgion, "there's a hole in the cliff face. Big enough for a person to get into, I'd wager. Alemi, can't we go inshore?"

  "Not unless we walk home, or wait for high tide again."

  "Alemi! That's music! Not wind over blow holes! That's someone playing pipes."
/>   An unhappy furtive thought crossed Alemi's face so plainly that Elgion jumped to a conclusion. All at once, all the pieces fell into place.

  "Your sister, the one who's missing. She wrote those songs. She taught the children, not that conveniently dismissed fosterling!"

  "Menolly's not playing any pipes, Elgion. She sliced her left hand, gutting packtail, and she can't open or close her fingers."

  Elgion sank back to the deck, stunned but still hearing the clear tone of pipes. Pipes? You'd need two whole hands to play multiple pipes. The music ceased and the wind, rising as they tacked past the Dragon Stones, covered his memory of that illusive melody. It could have been the land breeze, sweeping down over the cliffs, sounding into holes.

  "Menolly did teach the children, didn't she?"

  Slowly Alemi nodded. "Yanus believed the Sea Hold disgraced to have a girl taking the place of a Harper."

  "Disgraced?" Once again Elgion was appalled at the obtuseness of the Sea Holder. "When she taught so well? When she can turn a tune like the ones I've seen?"

  "She can play no more, Elgion. It would be cruel to ask now. She wouldn't even sing in the evenings. She'd leave as soon as you started to play."

  So he'd been right, thought Elgion, the tall girl had been Menolly.

  "If she's alive, she's happier away from the Hold! If she's dead ..." Alemi didn't continue.

  In silence they sailed on, the Dragon Stones falling away, back into violet indefiniteness as each man avoided the other's gaze.

  Now Elgion could understand many things about Menolly's disappearance and the general reluctance at the Hold to discuss her or find her. There was no doubt in his mind that her disappearance was deliberate. Anyone sensitive enough to compose such melodies must have found life in the Sea Hold intolerable: doubly so with Yanus as Sea Holder and father. And then to be considered a disgrace! Elgion cursed Petiron for not making the matter plain. If only he had told Robinton that the promising musician were a girl, she might have been at the Harperhall before that knife had a chance to slip.