CHAPTER X
From Harpercraft Hall to the Southern Continent, Evening at Benden Weyr, 15.7.4
As RUTH FLEW upward from the meadow, Jaxom experienced a tremendous sense of relief and excitement as well as the usual tension that gripped him when making a long jump between. Beauty and Diver were perched on Menolly’s shoulders, tails twined about her neck. He had given shoulder room to Poll and Rocky since these four had accompanied the Harper and Menolly on that initial trip. Jaxom would have liked to ask what they’d been doing sailing in the Southern Continent. The boat made some sense since Menolly, being SeaHold-bred, was a good sailor. But there’d been a challenging gleam in Menolly’s eyes that had kept him from asking. He was wondering, too, if she had told the Harper anything of her suspicions about his part in returning the egg.
They went between first to Nerat’s tip, circling again while Menolly and her firelizards concentrated on imagining the cove far to the southeast. Jaxom had wanted to time it to the night before; he’d spent hours working out star positions in the Southern Hemisphere. Menolly and Robinton had overruled him unless Ruth couldn’t get a vivid enough picture of the cove from the combination of Menolly and the firelizards.
Somewhat to Jaxom’s disgruntlement, Ruth announced that he could clearly see where he was to go. Menolly makes very sharp pictures, he added.
Jaxom had no option but to ask him to change.
The quality of the air was Jaxom’s first impression of the new location: sorter, cleaner, less humid. Ruth was gliding toward the little cove, expressing pleasure in anticipation of a good swim. Their guiding mountain peak glistened in the sun, distant, serene and unusually symmetrical.
“I’d forgotten how lovely it was,” Menolly said, breathing out a sigh in his ear.
The water had a clarity that made the sandy bottom of the cove quite visible, though Jaxom was sure that the water was by no means shallow. He noticed the brilliant reflection of yellowtails and the darting movements of whitefingers in the clear waters. Ahead of them was the perfect crescent of a white-sanded cove, trees of all sizes, some bearing yellow and red fruits, forming a shady border. As Ruth descended to the beach, Jaxom could see dense forest extending unbroken toward the low range of foothills that culminated m that magnificent mountain. Just beyond this cove, on both flanks, were other little bays, not perhaps as symmetrically shaped, but equally peaceful and untouched.
Ruth came to a backwinging halt on the sands, urging his passengers to disembark as he intended to have a proper bath.
“Go ahead, then,” Jaxom said, patting Ruth’s muzzle affectionately and laughing as the white dragon, too eager to dive, waddled ungracefully into the sea.
“These sands are as hot as at Hatching Grounds,” Menolly explained, picking up her feet in fast order and heading toward the shaded area.
“They’re not that hot,” Jaxom said, following her.
“My feet are sensitive,” she replied, casting herself down on the beach. She glanced up and down and then grimaced.
“No signs, huh?” Jaxom asked.
“Of D’ram?”
“No, firelizard.”
She unslung the pack with their provisions.
“They’re likely sleeping off their early-morning feed. You’re still on your feet. See if there’re some ripe redfruits in that tree there, would you, Jaxom? Meatroll makes dry eating.”
Jaxom found sufficient ripe fruit to feed a Hold and brought as much as he could carry back to Menolly. He knew her fondness for them. Ruth was disporting himself in the water, diving and surfacing to tail length before crashing down with great splashings and wave-makings, the firelizards encouraging him with shriek and buglings.
“Tide’s full in,” Menolly said as she bit into redfruit peel, tearing off a large hunk and squeezing the pulp for the juice. “Oh, this is heavenly! Why does everything Southern taste so good?”
“Forbidden, I guess. Does the tide make a difference to the firelizards’ appearing?”
“Not that I know of. Ruth will make the difference, I think.”
“So we have to wait until they notice Ruth?”
“That’s the easiest way.”
“Do we actually know there are firelizards in this part of the South?”