111Disclaimer: Pern and the Dragons of Pern belong to Anne McCaffrey
AN: Well… here I am again… kind of hoping that you guys will like this one as much as the last… just remember to review, please! If you're a new reader, then don't worry, you don't have to have read my earlier story to understand and like this one – but if you do like this one, you might want to look up Lystar Fool, which comes before this.
Hi to all my old friends! And hi also to all the new friends I hope I'm gonna make!
I apologise in advance that updates may be extremely slow on this story. However, I'm pretty good about finishing off stories, so I expect I'll get there in the end.
The wind whipped K'beth's hair out of his face as they coasted upwards and he shook out his stiff shoulders, patting his green dragon's soft hide. It'll be good to be home, huh? he asked. Still, I feel like a bit of a failure. I can't believe we finished a whole Search without even finding one decent candidate! I wonder how the others got on?
As usual, Rosith said, leveling out her flight so that she could coast gently without using too much energy.
K'beth laughed. That bad, huh? Come on, let's get back to the Weyr and you'll feel better. Ready to hop between? He closed his eyes and imagined the volcanic cone of Ista Weyr spread out beneath him.
After a minute he opened his eyes. Rosith, love, I asked you to take me back to the Weyr.
That's a nice lake down there… Rosith said, wistfully.
K'beth groaned, and leaned over to look. He could see what looked like a small Hold not far away, but no buildings beside the lake itself, which shimmered like an uneven shaped jewel in the pale sunshine. Where are we?
We came east. We're nearly at the border of Nerat.
All right. I guess you've worked hard enough to deserve your fun. Go on down.
Hold on tight, Rosith warned. She waited for K'beth to get a firm hold on his riding straps and then flipped over on a wingtip to plummett downwards towards the round blue lake she'd spotted. She held the dive until the last minute, skimming the surface of the water with her claws as she leveled out and throwing spray over her rider.
He laughed as she landed on the lakeshore, shaking the water out of his dark hair, and divested Rosith of her saddle. No, go play by yourself. I don't want to be wet and have to jump between. You're sure you wouldn't rather swim at the Weyr? I want to see my friends.
Rosith splashed underwater and then surfaced again, blowing bubbles at him. When you say that, you mean you want to see Lystar.
K'beth smiled self-conciously. Well, so what? I do want to see her.
Hmph. Rosith submerged herself again, scattering a spray of water droplets.
K'beth laughed and sat down, easing out his shoulders and stretching cramped muscles. The sky was filled with a patchy mess of swirling cloud, and sunshine and shadow whirled over him as he rested, feeling Rosith's pleasure as she dived and swam around the shallow lake.
He couldn't have said what made him look round. He certainly didn't hear anything. All at once, he had a sudden feeling that he was being watched. He jumped to his feet as he whipped his head around.
A few paces away, half-hidden behind a tree at the edge of the scrubby woodland behind him, a girl stood wide-eyed and poised to flee.
She's frightened, was the instant thought that came to him, even as he relaxed and smiled. 'Hello.'
The girl didn't say anything, just watched him intently from between lowered brows, but he thought that her taut body relaxed just slightly.
He smiled at her again, reassuringly, as he surreptitiously inspected her face. She was dirty, with her long dark hair tangled and dragged back from a face that was probably brown-skinned, angular and delicate under the smudges of mud and the dark bags under her eyes. Her eyes were huge and deep brown, and they were watching him suspiciously.
K'beth frowned and held out a hand. 'Are you all right? You look like you could use some help…' He couldn't tell how old she was. No more than ten years younger than him, he'd have guessed. Perhaps in her early teens? She was quite small, but not really a child any more. 'Are you hungry?' He dragged a strip of dried meat out of his belt pouch and tore it in two, biting into one half. His stomach growled and he realised with a little shock of surprise that he was starving. He should be getting back to the Weyr, not wasting his time with some girl in the middle of nowhere. Rosith love, are you ready to go?
Soon, Rosith said, plaintively, floating gently up to the surface, almost invisible with just her nose above water. One minute more?
The little dark girl was edging out of the woods towards K'beth, who held out the other half of the meat. Slowly, never taking her watchful eyes off his face, she reached out and took it from him, and stuffed it into her mouth in one piece, her cheeks bulging.
'That's better.' K'beth grinned at her. 'What's your name?'
The girl eyed him suspiciously, then said in a small, clear voice, 'Meliana.'
'THAT'S HER!' The shout came from a little way around the shore of the lake, where a dirt road ran close to the waterside. Jumping round, K'beth saw a little huddle of people, led by a stout man mounted on a shaggy runnerbeast, leave the road and come streaming along the lakeside towards them.
He felt Meliana shift beside him and instinctively reached out to grab her arm and stop her running away. 'You haven't got time! That forest won't slow men on foot, and there's not enough cover to hide. I don't suppose you'd like to tell me what you did?'
'I didn't do anything!'
K'beth glanced round at her, but before he had time to say anything else the runnerbeast was thundering down at him. He thrust Meliana behind him, still holding her wrist, and turned to face the angry man. Sweetheart, get here please! he called.
'Give me that girl!' snarled the red-faced man, forcing the runnerbeast right up to K'beth and jabbing his finger at the dragonrider's face. 'I don't know who you are, but –'
Rosith exploded out of the water like a primeval sea beast in an explosion of spray and angry dragon. She landed beside K'beth, eyes whirling red and teeth bared, and the unfortunate runnerbeast danced up onto its hind legs as it backed up and broke away, throwing its rider. K'beth made use of the time as the man picked himself up, face crimson with fury to sling the green dragon's saddle back on and fasten the straps with the precise economy of an often-practised move. He'd let go of Meliana to do so, but the girl had the sense not to run for it. Instead she backed up against Rosith, daring her pursuer to come within the dragon's reach to grab her.
The men on foot had caught up with their leader by this time. One had caught the panicking runnerbeast, and was standing well back with it, trying to sooth the animal which was still reacting to the terror of the dragon's presence, jerking its head about, eyes rolling madly and foam flecks flying from its mouth. The others had formed a cluster around their leader, and they were hanging back, fazed by Rosith's sudden appearance on the scene.
K'beth surveyed them coolly. There were a certain number of weapons visible, which made him uneasy. None of them would attack a dragonrider, though. No one was that stupid…
The fat leader stepped forwards again, and K'beth noticed this time that his clothes were well-made, rather better than the rest of the crowd, whom he took for ordinary Holders. Before it was covered in greasy stains, his tunic had evidently been fine, dyed cloth. On his own feet, however, the man was several inches shorter than K'beth, and the dragonrider looked down at him.
'Now, see here,' the man began, aggressively, 'you're a dragonrider, you've no business with the girl. She's a danger to us all and I've a right to do something about it!'
'What would "something" be?' K'beth enquired, coldly.
There was a general muttering and shifting within the group. No one seemed to want to say anything outright. 'It's for the best,' one man muttered. He coloured up when K'beth looked round at him, and his mumbling died away to nothing. 'It's our wives and children we're thinking of…'
'I see,' said K'beth. 'Well, as it so happens, you're wrong. I do have business with Meliana. I'm riding Search, and she is coming with me to Ista Weyr.'
I didn't Search her! Rosith said, surprised.
I know. But hush. Ready to go, love? he muttered silently. As the group of Holders looked at each other, breaking into a welter of confusion and unhappy muttering, he boosted Meliana up into the saddle and swung himself up behind her. Looking down on the Holders, he nodded once, distantly. Take it away, Rosith.
The Holders backed away hastily as Rosith spread her wings, and beat them furiously as she leapt off the ground, spiraling in circles around the lake to gain height. K'beth pictured his home Weyr in his head, his barely concealed fury helping to make every detail sharp and crystal clear. The last thing he heard was the red-faced man shouting something, his fist raised.
He remembered to mutter to the girl, 'Hold tight, and you may want to hold your breath.' Her hand closed sharply around his forearm, and then Rosith leapt between.
Rosith and K'beth are back, reported Caliath.
Did they find any candidates? Lystar asked, absently. Her attention was currently taken up with the tunic she was repairing, trying to make her stitches small and neat – not something that came naturally to her. Her head was tilted on one side to bring the work into the centre of her vision. She had been blind in one eye for several years.
One – a girl. There was a pause, and then Caliath added. Orth says that as G'zul is busy we should go and settle her into the candidate barracks.
'Excellent.' Lystar grinned, discarded her sewing onto the floor, and leapt to her feet. C'mon then, Cal. Let's go see them. She bounced out of the weyr that she and K'beth shared and swung herself up onto Caliath's broad blue shoulders for the short glide down into the Weyr bowl.
The blue dragon landed right beside the slender, elegant green, and the two dragons touched noses in greeting as Lystar tumbled off Caliath's back. Before she hit the ground she was caught in strong arms, and looked up into K'beth's grinning face. 'One day you're going to learn to take care,' he remarked.
'And wouldn't life be boring if I did?' Lystar retorted. 'Put me down!'
'Oh no, I think not.' K'beth bent his head so that his face was close to hers. 'At least, not without a ransom…'
Lystar laughed, and thumped him lightly on the chest. 'I'm supposed to be meeting your candidate, not you!' Then she grinned and gave him a quick kiss.
K'beth laughed too, and set her on her feet. 'All right then, come and meet her…' He stepped aside so that Lystar could see the solemn-faced girl who had dismounted quietly from Rosith's back and was glancing around the Weyr with guarded eyes. 'Meliana, this is Lystar, the assistant weyrling master, and that's her dragon Caliath. This is Meliana, Lystar.'
Lystar grinned. 'Hey. Let's go and get you settled in. Do you have any stuff?'
The dark girl shook her head.
Lystar nooded. 'Right, in that case we'll drop into the stores first. And you look like you could use a bath, too. Come on, it's this way.'
She dropped a hand onto Meliana's shoulder to steer her in the right direction, and then briefly stopped, catching K'beth's eye.
'I'm going to change and then get some food,' K'beth said. 'I think Meliana probably needs some too. See you later.'
Lystar smiled. 'Yes. Right, come on, Meliana.'
Lystar leant against the wall as she waited for Meliana to finish washing and get into the new clothes she'd found. K'beth's candidate was a strange girl, no doubt about it. She was dark and wary and suspicious and silent and…
Lystar shook her head. She would have to keep an eye on Meliana, and it would be hard. She wasn't the type to confide her troubles. Then again, Lystar was notoriously good at persuading people to talk to her.
Cal? Where does Rosith say they picked up this girl? she asked.
Somewhere in a far-flung corner of Keroon. She shouldn't be a candidate at all, Rosith says.
What? Lystar frowned. What do you mean? Wasn't she Searched?
No. Not exactly. Lystar could feel Caliath's exasperated shifting. Some idea of K'beth's. She was in danger and the only way he could think of to get her out of it was to bring her to the Weyr.
Oh, poor girl! What happened to her, Cal, do you know?
No. Ask K'beth.
I will. Lystar drew her eyebrows together as a thought hit her. Does this mean that she won't Impress?
No – not necessarily. But I'm not a very good Search dragon, so how am I supposed to tell?
It doesn't matter. Lystar turned and smiled as Meliana drew aside the hide curtain covering the door of the bathing room, opening her mouth to speak. Then she blinked, and paused. Cleaned up, Meliana was very pretty indeed, with delicate, almost elfin, features that set off her huge dark eyes. Her long, dark hair had been braided into a thick plait that hung down her back almost as far as her waist.
Lystar shook her head slightly and recovered herself. 'I wouldn't have recognised you! Now, if you come along this way –' She led the way along the corridor, and pushed aside another hide covering. Inside the room, seven girls looked round from where they were sitting on beds or on the floor '– this is the girl's barracks, where all of you candidates will sleep until the Hatching. This is Meliana, everyone, introduce yourselves and then show her where to come down for dinner, will you? I want to catch G'zul – that's the weyrling master,' she explained to Meliana. She grinned at the girls and then went out again, leaving the little dark girl standing alone in the doorway.
All this time, Meliana had not said a single word.