“Take us to the High Reaches, please, Holth,” she asked in a
subdued voice. The watchrider sleeps and the blue will not note our departure,
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern 213
Holth said impassively and, despite her dark reflections, Moreta smiled. So Leri and Holth had considered that detail.
Then Holth propelled herself from her ledge and was barely airborne before she went between. Moreta gasped at the audacity and hadn’t time to think of her verse before the darkness around them was relieved by the glows surrounding the High Reaches Bowl.
Tamianth is below but it is easier for me to take off from a ledge, said Holth, neatly landing on one. Tamianth will not object to my tenancy. Then she added gently, Orlith sleeps. And so does Leri.
“The pair of you!” Moreta’s exasperation was goodnatured.
Holth turned gleaming eyes toward her and huffed softly.
“Is that you? Moreta?” a quavering voice asked.
“It’s Moreta.”
“Oh, bless you, bless you. I’m so sorry to drag you here but I simply can’t do it. I’m afraid of hurting Kilanath. Hitting a nerve or something. They tried to explain to me how simple it all is but I can’t believe them. Oh, do wake up, Kilanath. Moreta’s come.”
A pair of dragon eyes lit the darkness below the ledge. Moreta put her hand on the wall, her left foot seeking for the top step. Light spilled from the weyrling quarters now occupied by Tamianth but the stairs were still in confusing shadow.
“Oh, do hurry, please, Moreta!” Diona’s plea was more wail.
“I would if I could see where I’m going.” Moreta spoke sharply, irritated by Diona’s ineffectuality.
“Oh, yes, of course. I didn’t think. You don’t know where anything is in this Weyr.” Dutifully Diona opened a glowbasket but, before she held it up, she turned its illumination away from Moreta. “Yes, Pressen, she’s here. Oh, do hurry, Moreta. Oh, yes, sorry.” Then she remembered to hold the basket high enough to show Moreta the steps.
Moreta skipped down them as fast as she could before something else could distract Diona. Kilanath dipped her head close to Moreta and sniffed, as if testing the quality of the visitor.
“Now, don’t fret, Kilanath,” Diona crooned in a saccharine voice that Moreta thought ought to irritate a queen. “You know she came here just to help.” Diona turned apologetically to Moreta. “She re-ally will behave because she’s terribly worried about Tamianth.”
As Moreta entered the weyrling quarters, she could see why. Tamianth looked more green than gold except for the gray wing and
214 Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
grayspread score on her side. The wing had been propped at the shoulder and put in a sling so that the queen could relax, but her hide twitched constantly from stress. Tamianth opened one lid of her eyes, which were gray with pain.
“Water! Water, please, water!” Falga’s voice rose in feverish complaint.
“That’s all she says.” Diona was wringing her hands. Pressen, the bright-eyed healer, ran to Falga’s side and offered her water, but she pushed it away before falling back into her restless tossing.
Muttering an oath, Moreta strode to the queen, picked up a fold of hide on the neck, and cursed. The dragon was dehydrated, her skin parched.
“Water. Of course, it’s Tamianth who needs the water! Has no one offered the queen water?” Moreta looked about for a water tank, for anything resembling a container.
“Oh, I never thought of that!” Diona snatched her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide with dismay. “Kilanath kept telling me about water but we all thought Falga …” She waved feebly at the fevered woman.
“Then, by the Egg of Faranth, get some!” “Please, water. Water!” Falga moaned, restlessly trying to rise. “Don’t stand there, Diona. Are there weyrlings in the next building? Well, rout them out! Use a cauldron from the kitchen but get water for this poor beast. It’s a wonder she’s not dead! Of all the irresponsible, ineffectual, dithering idiots I have ever encountered” Moreta saw the startled expression on Prcssen’s face as he rose from Falga’s side. She pulled herself together, breathing deeply to dispel the impotent anger and dismay that boiled within her. “I can’t keep coming here for oversights!”