Glowing? Unwilling to share food? What had Menolly mumbled about sending Beauty away? And to Toric? Why would she send Toric another message? What was the mat-ter with Kimi?
He wanted to reprimand her but could frame no message in his mind. And why were those bronzes waiting? Why didn’t they go away and leave Kimi? Why … ?
The “why” suddenly penetrated Sebell’s fire-lizard- linked confusion. Kimi eating alone, savagely; Menolly sending Beauty, another queen, away; Kimi, glowing golden and taunting the bronzes, her good friends, with her staring, whirling orage-red eyes! Kimi was about to By. And it was Menolly’s bronzes who would fly her. A surge of elation swept Sebell, who could scarcely believe his good fortune. And yet …
“Menolly?” He turned to her, hands outstretched, palms up, pleading with her and apologizing for what he knew was about to happen since there were only the two of them on this becalmed boat in the middle of the windstill sea. He hadn’t wanted Menolly coerced, as she now must be;
he’d wanted to be in full command of himself, not over-riden by the mating instinct of Kimi.
“It’s all right, Sebell. It’s all right.”
Smiling, Menolly put her hands in his and let herself be drawn into his arms where he had so yearned to have her.
As if their contact had been a signal, Kimi uttered a shriek and flung herself skyward from the prow, the two bronze fire lizards a length behind her. Sebell wasn’t standing on the deck with Menolly in his arms; he was with Kimi, exulting in her strength, in her flight, determined to outsmart those who pursued her. Just let them try to catch her!
Never had her wings responded so fully to her demands. Never had she flown so high, soaring, veering, gliding. The sun flowed across her body, its rays burning into her eyes as she flew on and ever upward. The heat was unendurable. She glided obliquely to the right, caught movement be-low her and, sweeping her wings back, dropped down, screaming with delight as she fell between the two startled bronzes.
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One of them tried to entangle her with his lashing tail and fell, his flight rhythm disrupted. She beat upward again, calling defiance and deliberately cutting across the path of the second bronze. But, in her desire to flaunt her flight superiority, she brushed just too close to him, and he veered, jamming his wing tip against hers. Her forward speed was momentarily checked. Before she could get away from him, he had caught her, neck twining hers in that instant. Locked together, they fell toward the shimmering sea so far below.
On the tiny bright oblong that was but a mote on the glistening water, Sebell and Menolly, too, were together, lips, bodies, hearts and minds as they, linked by and in the love of their fire lizards, experienced and repeated the joy that enveloped Kimi and Diver.
The flapping of the untended sail roused Sebell first, the rising sea breeze cooling his cheek. He moved aside, shaking his head, trying to orient himself. Menolly stirred against him, awakened by the same sea sounds. Startled, she opened her eyes and saw him, propped on his elbow above her. Surprise, and then memory, changed the color of her sea green eyes. Holding his breath, Sebell watched, fearful of her reaction. Her smile was tender as she lifted her hand and brushed ‘his hair back from his eyes.
“What chance did you have, dear Sebell, with Rocky and Diver so determined?”
“It wasn’t just Kurd’s need,” he said in a hurried voice, “you know that, don’t you?”
“Of course, I know, dear Sebell.” Her fingers lingered on his cheek, his lips. “But you always stand back and de-fer to our Master.” She did not hide from Sebell then how much she loved Master Robinton, nor would that ever come between them since they each loved the man in their separate ways. “… but I have so wished”
The ominous creak of the boom swinging across the cockpit warned her just in time to pull him back against her, out of its way.
“I wish,” said Sebell in a growl, “that the bloody wind didn’t choose to rise right now.”