In his capacity as Hold harper, Robinton was invited to the Hatching and the Impression. And impressive that was for the sensitive harper. He had never seen such joy, or felt so touched by another’s elation. Each new bonding added to the impact, and he found himself wishing desperately that somehow he could have been both harper and rider. He was in tears, and unashamed, by the end of the Hatching. Even F’lon, collecting him from the spectators’ seats above the Hatching Ground, was blurry-eyed with unshed tears.
“Gets to you, doesn’t it?” the bronze rider murmured, wiping his eyes.
“I didn’t realize it was like …” And Robinton spread his hand helplessly over the hot sands – which made him speed up his pace lest he scorch the soles of his feet even through good harper boot leather. “The most incredible moment in a man’s life … isn’t it?”
“Indeed.” F’lon glanced fondly over his shoulder at Simanith, who was leaving the Hatching Ground by the upper exit. Most of the dragons were already on their way to their own weyrs, and Robinton was awed by the sight of their deft insertion in the dark hole at the top of the immense cavern. He was amazed how gracefully imminent collisions were avoided as the flying dragons filed out.
F’lon draped a careless arm across Robinton’s shoulders. “Now is the good time. In the euphoria of an Impression, all old insults and agitations are put aside. Even Raid came today.”
“Wasn’t he supposed to?” Robinton asked, hoping that tonight he might at last get some answers to explain the estrangement between Raid and F’lon. They had once been very good friends. Robinton hadn’t noticed at first that the two were never in the same room together. But F’lon could be caustic, and Raid had his own foibles.
“Maidir and Hayara have talked of nothing else since the drum message came about the clutch.”
“And Maizella and that fish-faced spouse of hers.” F’lon grimaced. “She’s pretty enough to have done better than that.”
“Cording’s got a large and prosperous hold on the Eastern Sea.
He gives her sea jewels and goes goggle-eyed when she sings to him,” Robinton remarked, keeping his tone non-judgmental. He liked Maizella much better now than he ever had as a child. He also rather liked Cording, who was solicitous of his love’s parents and the brood of younger children, and courteous to his Lord Holder, but he did have a distinct resemblance to a fish: with that shock of sun-bleached hair, flat face, and rather blunted features. But a harper had to be careful of admitting to anything at all improper -even in confidence to a friend.
“That’s as may be, but he doesn’t believe in Thread,” F’lon said in a flatly disapproving tone.
Since that would have caused F’lon to dislike anyone, male or female, Robinton declined to comment further on Cording’s good
points. And now he’d been given a lead-in to the problem he’d been dying to address.
“Is that the basis of your argument with Lord Maidir and Raid?” Robinton asked. After all, one of his duties as harper was to act as mediator whenever necessary. Not that he felt himself an expert, but he could at least try to understand the dispute from both sides.
“Of course.” F’lon actually ground his teeth. “Neither of them will listen to S’loner or me. And it’s not as if we were the only riders of that opinion. M’odon is adamant that we’ll see Thread within the next three decades. And I’ve checked his figuring time and again. He might be out a Turn or two, but not by more than that.” He glanced about irritably, as if hoping to find something he could at least kick. A stone lay across his path, and he kicked that across the Bowl so that both of them heard it connect with the cliff and shatter. F’lon grunted at his success. Then, in one of his abrupt changes, he pointed to a table not far from the entrance to the Lower Caverns. “Let’s take that one before anyone else can settle.”
Robinton decided to wait for a more propitious opening to obtain further details. F’lon was not the most tactful of riders – nor, for that matter, was his father – but perhaps, in the aftermath of the Hatching, he could make some progress in healing the breach.