He rose, brushing off his knees with sharp slaps of his riding gloves. “Test her temper.”
Lessa did so with a silent, Had enough? She grimaced at Ramoth’s indignant rejection of the thought.
The queen went swooping down for a huge fowl, rising in a flurry of gray, brown and white feathers.
“She’s not as hungry as she’s making you think, the deceitful creature,” F’lar chuckled and saw that Lessa had reached the same conclusion. Her eyes were snapping with vexation.
“When you’ve finished the bird, Ramoth, do let us learn how to fly between,” Lessa said aloud for F’lar’s benefit, “before our good Weyrleader changes his mind.”
Ramoth looked up from her gorging, turned her head toward the two riders at the edge of the feeding ground. Her eyes gleamed. She bent her head again to her kill, but Lessa could sense the dragon would obey.
It was cold aloft. Lessa was glad of the fur lining in her riding gear, and the warmth of the great golden neck which she bestrode. She decided not to think of the absolute cold of between which she had experienced only once. She glanced below on her right where bronze Mnementh hovered, and she caught his amused thought. F’lar tells me to tell Ramoth to tell you to fix the alignment of the Star Stone firmly in your mind as a homing.
Then, Mnementh went on amiably, we shall fly down to the lake.You will return from between to this exact point. Do you understand?
Lessa found herself grinning foolishly with anticipation and nodded vigorously. How much time was saved because she could speak directly to the dragons! Ramoth made a disgruntled noise deep in her throat. Lessa patted her reassuringly. “Have you got the picture in your mind, dear one?” she asked, and Ramoth again rumbled, less annoyed, because she was catching Lessa’s excitement.
Mnementh stroked the cold air with his wings, greenish-brown in the sunlight, and curved down gracefully toward the lake on the plateau below Benden Weyr. His flight line took him very low over the rim of the Weyr. From Lessa’s angle, it looked like a collision course. Ramoth followed closely in his wake. Lessa caught her breath at the sight of the jagged boulders just below Ramoth’s wing tips.
It was exhilarating, Lessa crowed to herself, doubly stimulated by the elation that flowed back to her from Ramoth. Mnementh halted above the farthest shore of the lake, and there, too, Ramoth came to hover.
Mnementh flashed the thought to Lessa that she was to place the picture of where she wished to go firmly in her mind and direct Ramoth to get there. Lessa complied.
The next instant the awesome, bone-penetrating cold of black between enveloped them. Before either she or Ramoth were aware of more than that biting touch of cold and impregnable darkness, they were above the Star Stone. Lessa let out a cry of pure triumph.
It is extremely simple. Ramoth seemed disappointed.
Mnementh reappeared beside and slightly below them. You are to return by the same route to the Lake, he ordered, and before the thought had finished, Ramoth took off.
Mnementh was beside them above the lake, fuming with his own and F’lar’s anger. You did not visualize before transferring. Don’t think a first successful trip makes you perfect. You have no conception of the dangers inherent in between.
Never fail to picture your arrival point again.
Lessa glanced down at F’lar. Even two wingspans apart, she could see the vivid anger on his face, almost feel the fury flashing from his eyes. And laced through the wrath, a terrible sinking fearfulness for her safety that was a more effective reprimand than his wrath. Lessa’s safety, she wondered bitterly, or Ramoth’s?
You are to follow us, Mnementh was saying in a calmer tone, rehearsing in your mind the two reference points you have already learned. We shall jump to and from them this morning, gradually learning other points around Benden.
They did. Flying as far away as Benden Hold itself, nestled against the foothills above Benden Valley, the Weyr Peak a far point against the noonday sky, Lessa did not neglect to visualize a clearly detailed impression each time.