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“Fair enough. I’d expected it. Mardra and T’kul won’t like it, and they may try Deckter’s resolve”
“He’ll remain firm”
“So he has no problem.” Then Toric laughed to himself, shaking his head from side to side in his amusement. “No, Mardra -won’t like it, but it’ll do the old one good to be thwarted. She was going to give Meron every dead fire lizard egg she could find for sending her a half-empty sack.”
“Half-empty?” Sebell caught Menolly’s eye.
“Yes, the sack arrived with the top loosened and she’s certain some of the shipment, some materials she’s been plaguing the Masterweaver for, dropped out between. Why?” Toric caught the significant glances between the harpers. “Oh, that missing lad you queried me about several sevendays back? You tl-nnfe he came south in it?”
“It’s a possibility.”
“Never occurred to me to connect the two before now.” Toric stroked his cheek thoughtfully. “A small lad? Yes, he’d doubtless have fit in that sack. Anything else about him I should know perhaps?”
Sebell thought how like Toric to want answers before he gave his own.
“A queen fire lizard egg was involved… .”
“Oh ho,” and Toric’s eyes crinkled with satisfaction. “Then it’s not a possibility anymore, but a probability that your lad got here.” He stressed the word “got,” strangely, but went on before Sebell could question his emphasis. “Four, no three Threadfalls ago, weyrmen went after a wherry circle. Most of the time that means fire lizard hatchings so they do stir themselves to investigate.” Toric gave a sour laugh. “Not that that energy will profit them now if this Deckter fellow won’t follow Meron’s ways. The strange thing was that when they reached the area, the wherries flitted away through the forest, and they found only a queen’s shell on the beach. They spent a good deal of time going up and down that strand, but there wasn’t any trace of a full clutch.”
“Piemur does have his friend after all,” cried Menolly, grabbing Sebell and dancing about with him in her relief.
“Piemur? That’s your missing boy? Hey, stop that, you’ll set every fire lizard in the place a-wing.”
ISO
Kimi and Diver swooped into the cavern at that point, and with Beauty and Rocky bugling their delight, some of the southern fire lizards were also reacting. Sebell and Menolly called their four to order, and Toric sent his away.
“Yes, it’s Piemur who’s been missing, our apprentice,” said Menolly, so jubilant that for a moment Sebell thought she’d swing Toric into their joyful antics.
“He and I were at Meron’s Gather,” said Sebell. “Somehow he got into the Hold itself and purloined the queen fire lizard egg. Meron was livid… .”
“I can well imagine,” said Toric with a snort.
“Only none of his men could find Piemur or the egg. Kimi said she couldn’t reach him,” Sebell went on.
“That was when he’d hidden in the sack,’” Menolly said. “Oh, that wretched, that clever rascal.”
“More clever than he knew, or could guess,” Sebell continued, for Toric’s expression told him that he didn’t think so highly of Piemur’s escapade. The harper explained to To-ric all that had occurred after Piemur’s daring theft: the fear of the main contenders for the Holding that Benden Weyr would discover Meron’s dealings with the Southern Oldtimers. The heirs apparent now wanted no part of the succession, nor did they want the Hold in contention, so they pressured Meron to name a successor, who would then try to placate the Benden ‘weyrleaders. But Meron had collapsed, and both the Master Healer and the Masterharper were summoned, for the Harper could act as mediator. He convoked other Lord Holders and the High Reaches Veyrleader to force Lord Meron to name his successor. About the methods, Sebell remained discreet. Nor did To-ric inquire, since Sebell’s recitation was limited to facts rather than story-telling embellishments.
“So we think,” Sebell finished, “that since Kimi specifi-cally said it was too dark, as in a sack, and she couldn’t ‘find’ Piemur, or room enough to get to him, he did secrete himself in a sack, which the Oldtimers collected that nightI saw the dragonsand brought here. That would also explain why none of our fire lizards could find a trace of him anywhere in Nabol.”