Chapter 11
Once out of the grip of the Great Current, Sebell wrestled with the gaudy striped mainsail, untying it from the runners on the boom and folding it away neatly in its bag. Then he and Menolly bent the bright red southern sail to the boom and mast. Practice had made it a smooth operation, though the Erst time Menolly and.Jhe had changed the sail halfway to the Southern Continent, it had taken them hours, with him cursing at his ineptness and she patiently explaining the trick.
No sooner had they hauled the red sail up the mast than the wind, which had so favored their journey, dropped to a toere whisper.
With a sigh, Menolly surveyed the bright blue and cloudless sky and then laughed as she sank to the deck by the all but motionless tiller handle.
“Wouldn’t you just know?”
“All right, weather eye, breeze at sunset?”
“Possibly, usually does come up again, then,” she replied, squinting up to see what made Sebell so irritable.
“Sorry, Menolly,” he said, running his hand through wind-disheveled hair. He dropped to the deck beside her.
“You’re not worried about Piemur, are you? Something you’ve kept from me?”
“No, girl, I’ve kept nothing from you.” Her anxious query seemed at this moment more of an accusation to him than a plea for reassurance, and he had answered with more asperity than was customary for him. She was quiet, though he could sense her confusion at his manner; he was unable to explain it to himself. “I didn’t mean to snap, Menolly,” he said, realizing that she wouldn’t speak until he had. “I just don’t know what’s gotten into me. I honestly believe we’ll find Piemur in the south.”
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“Maybe we ought to have taken someone else to help with the sailing”
“No, no, it’s not that!” Again his tone was churlish. He bit his lips together, took a deep breath and carefully added, “You know I like sailing. Better, I like sailing with you alone!” That came out sounding more like himself, and he gave her a smile.
Menolly started to respond to his oblique apology, but then stared at his face, her eyes widening. Suddenly, she glanced skyward, where the fire lizards were aerially following the skiff in swoops and glides. She watched them for a long moment, frowning slightly as she saw one dive into the waves. Sebell, puzzled by her abrupt curiosity, identified the fisher as his own Kimi and smiled indul-gently as she brought the neatly captured yellowtail back to the prow of the ship. Oddly, the others stayed aloft while Kimi tore savagely into the flesh of her still-strug- gling prey.
Sebell wondered why the other three fire lizards didn’t come to share the feast, but the thought didn’t absorb him long. The ferocity with which Kimi ate fascinated him; he felt as if he were somehow involved in tearing the strips, as if he could savor the warm salty flesh in his mouth, as if
“I’m sending Beauty to Toric at Southern Hold. She can’t stay here now, Sebell.”
Sebell heard Menolly’s voice but made no sense of the words, his entire attention was concentrated on the unusual actions of his fire lizard queen. He wanted, to go to her, but he couldn’t move. He found that he was alternately clenching his hands and then rubbing his sweating palms against his legs. He was unbearably hot and tore at his shirt to open the throat.
“Oh!” he heard Menolly exclaim. “Oh, what else can I do? I can’t send Rocky and Diver away. That’s not fair to Kimi. “We’re too far from land to raise more fire lizards, and there’s not a breath of wind to attract them here!”
Sebell pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside. The coolness of the day seemed to have no effect on the heat that consumed him. Then he noticed the two bronze fire lizards, crouching on the roof of the small cabin. They made no attempt to join Kimi in her feast. She was growling,
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too, her eyes glowing orangely at the two impertinent bronzes, and she seemed to be glowing in the sunlight.