Minim had by no means exaggerated the amount of work to be done. It was just past sunrise, but obviously the main cooks had already been up for hours, judging by the breadssweet, spiced and sourcooling on long tables. Two weyrmen were trussing a huge herdbeast for the main spit and at the smaller hearths, wild wherries were being cleaned and stuffed for roasting later.
For added protection in the busy kitchen, someone had placed the small table over her fire lizard egg basket They were doing fine, the sand nice and warm all around. Felena caught sight of her, told her to feed herself quickly from the sauce hearth and did she know anything flavorful to do with dried fish? Or would she prefer to help pare roots?
Menolly instantly elected to cook fish, so Felena asked what ingredients she’d need. Menolly was a little dismayed to leam the quantity she’d have to prepare. She had had no idea that so many people came to a
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Hatching: the number coming was more than lived at Half-Circle Sea Hold.
The knack in making the fish stew tasty was in the long baking so Menolly applied herself to prepare the huge pots quickly, to give them enough time to simmer into succulence. She did so with such dispatch that there were still plenty of roots left to pare.
Excitement filled the air of the kitchen cavern. The mound of root vegetables in front of Menolly melted away as she listened to the chatter of the other girls and women. There was great speculation as to which of the boys, and the girls for the queen egg, would Impress the dragons to be hatched that day.
“No one has ever re-Impressed a dragon,” said one woman wistfully. “IXyou think Brekke will?”
“No one’s ever been given the chance before.”
“Is it a chance we should take?” asked someone else.
ttWe weren’t asked,” said Sanra, glaring at the last speaker. “It’s Lessa’s idea, but it wasn’t F’nor*s or Manora’s…”
“Something has to help her,” said the first woman. “It tears my heart to see her lying there, just lying, like the undead. I mind me of the way D’namal went He sort of… well… faded! completely away.”
*Tf youTl finish that root quickly, we can put this kettle on,” said Sanra, briskly rising.
“Will all of this be eaten?” asked Menolly of the woman beside her.
“Yes, indeed, and therell be some looking for more,” she said with a complacent smile. “Impression Days are good days. I’ve a fosterling and a blood son on the Hatching Ground todayl” she added with understandable pride. “Sanral” she turned her head to shout over her shoulder, “just one more largish kettle will take whafs left/Then white roots had to be sliced finely, covered with herbs and placed in clay pots to bake. The succulent odors of Menolly’s fish concoction aroused compliments from Felena, who was in charge of the various
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hearths and ovens. Then Menolly, who was told to keep off her poor feet, helped decorate the spiced cakes. She giggled with the rest when Sanra distributed pieces of one cake about, saying they had to be certain the bake had turned out well, didn’t they?
Menolly did not forget to turn the fire lizard eggs, or to feed her friends. Beauty stayed within sight of Menolly, but the others had been seen bathing in the lake and sunning themselves, scrupulously avoiding Ramoth, whose bugles punctuated the morning.
“She’s always like that on Impression Day,” Tgellan told Menolly as he grabbed a quick bite to eat at her table. “Say, will you get your fire lizards to hum along with you again this evening? I’ve been called a liar because I said you’d taught them to sing.”
“They might turn difficult and shy in front of a lot of people, you know.”
“Well, we’ll wait till things get quiet, and then we’ll give it a try, huh. Now, I’m to see you get to the Hatching. Mid-afternoon, I’d say, so be ready.”
As it happened, she wasn’t. She felt the thrumming before she heard it. She and everyone else in the cavern stopped working as one-by-one they became aware of the intensely exciting noise. Menolly gasped, because she recognized it as the same sort of sound the fire lizards had made when their eggs had hatched.