“You’ve ridden dragonback?” Menolly had been impressed.
“Once. Many Turns ago.” He shuddered again in remembrance. “Now, since we’re touching on the subject, sing me the Riddle Song.”
“If s been solved. Why do we have to know it now?”
“Sing it for me so I’ll know that you know it, girl,” Petiron had said testily. Which was no reason at all.
But Petiron had been very land to her, Menolly knew, and her throat tightened with remembered regret for his passing. (Had he gone between? Hie way dragons did when they lost their riders or grew too infirm to fly? No, one left nothing behind, going between. Petiron had left his body to be slipped into the deeps.) And Fetiron had left more behind than his body. He’d left her every song he’d ever known, every lay, every ballad, saga, every fingering, chord and strum, every rhythm. There wasn’t any way a stringed instru-24
ment could be played that she didn’t know, nor any cadence on the drums at which she wasn’t time-perfect She could whistle double-trills as well as any wherry with her tongue or on the reeds. But there had been some things Petiron wouldn’tor perhaps couldn’t tell her about her world. Menolly wondered if this was because she was a girl and there were mysteries that only the male mind could understand.
“Well,” as Mavi had once told Menolly and Sella, “there are feminine puzzles that no mere man could sort, so that score is even.”
“And one more for the feminine side,” said Menolly as she followed the fire lizards. A mere girl had seen what all the boysand menof the Sea Hold had only dreamed of seeing, fire lizards at play.
They’d ceased following the queen and her bronzes and now indulged in mock air battles, swooping now and then to the land itself. And seemingly under it Until Menolly realized that they must be over the beaches. The sand was slipping under her feet An unwary step could plunge her into the holes and dips. She could hear the sea. She changed her course, keeping to the thicker patches of coarse marsh grasses. The ground would be firmer there, and she’d be less visible to the fire lizards.
She came to a slight rise, before the bluff broke off into a steep dive onto the beaches. The Dragon Stones were beyond in the sea, slightly hidden by a heat haze. She could hear fire lizards chirping and chattering. She crouched in the grasses and then, dropping to her full length, crept to the bluff edge, hoping for another glimpse of the fire lizards.
They were quite visibledelightfully so. The tide was out, and they were exceedingly busy in the shallows, picking rocfcmites from the tumbled exposed boulders, or wallowing on the narrow edging of red and .white sand, bathing themselves with great enthusiasm in the little pools, spreading their delicate wings to dry. ; There were several flurries as two fire lizards vied for
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the same choice morsel. In that alone, she decided, they must differ from dragons; she’d never heard of dragons fighting amongst themselves for anything. She’d heard that dragons feeding among herds of runner-beasts and wherries were something horrible to behold. Dragons didn’t eat that frequently, which was as well or not all the resources of Pern could keep the dragons fed.
Did dragons like fish? Menolly giggled, wondering if there were any fish in the sea big enough to satisfy a dragon’s appetite. Probably those legendary fish that always eluded the Sea Hold nets. Her Sea Hold sent their tithe of sea produce, salted, pickled or smoked, to Benden Weyr. Occasionally a dragonrider came asking for fresh fish for a special feasting, like a Hatching. And the women of the Weyr came every spring and fall to berry or cut withies and grasses. Menolly had once served Manora, the headwoman of Benden Lower Caverns, and a very pleasant gentle woman she’d been, too. Menolly hadn’t been allowed to stay in the room long because Mavi shooed her daughters out, saying that she had things to discuss with Manora. But Menolly had seen enough to know she liked her.
The whole flock of lizards suddenly went aloft, startled by tie return of the queen and the bronze who had flown her. Tlie pair settled wearily in the warm shallow waters, wings spread as if both were too exhausted to fold them back. The bronze tenderly twined his neck about his queen’s and they floated so, while blues excitedly offered the resting pair fingertails and rock mites.