Alessan would have swatted him for impudence had he been able to catch him but Fergal, grinning with positive malice at his little hoax, had slipped neatly out of range into the shelter of his charges.
“Alessan?” Dag’s summons came from the shelter and Alessan put aside any thought of discipline to rush in to his old ally. “I saved all I could for you, Alessan. I saved all I could.”
“You have also saved Ruatha!”
“I do apologize for intruding on the Hatching Ground, Moreta,” Capiam said, peering cautiously around the entrance.
“Come in. Come in!” Moreta beckoned him eagerly to join her in her temporary accommodation in the first tier.
Capiam looked back over his shoulder a moment and then entered, keeping an anxious eye on Orlith among her eggs.
“She does seem quite serene, doesn’t she?”
“Oh, she is!”
“M’barak, who conveyed Desdra and me here, said that she will even show off that splendid queen egg she clutched.” With due respect for the hot volcanic sands, Capiam walked quickly to Moreta.
242
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
243
“Desdra’s here? I’ve heard a great deal about her from M’barak and K’lon.”
“She’s chatting with Jallora so I could have a private word with you.” Capiam cleared his throat in an uncharacteristic show of nervousness. ‘
Moreta thought he was wary of Orlith and extended her hands to him. She supposed she must get used to the changes wrought in people by the plague. Capiam appeared only to have lost weight, for his eyes sparkled out of a craggy face that would become more attractive with age. His hair was thinning at the temples and she fancied that the gray had encroached farther into the black, but there was no diminution in the force of his personality, or in his grip as he clasped her hands.
“To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?” she asked.
His eyes twinkled. “An unexpected … challeage is what I told Master Tirone.”
Alerted by his geniality, Moreta searched his face. “What sort of a challenge?”
“I’ll come to that in a moment, if I may. First, would you know if runnerbeasts would respond favorably to a serum vaccine against the plague they also suffer?”
Moreta stared at him a moment, surprised to be asked the same question twice in a short space of time, and surprised that the question had to be asked at all. She was angry that no one had taken steps to safeguard the runnerbeasts, which were such valuable assets of the Northern Continent. She had tried to appreciate that saving human life had been the priority, but surely someone must have been rational enough in one of the runnerholds to apply the principal to the beasts. She had been complimented and touched that Alessan had sought her advice yesterday evening and, despite her varied irrita-tions, slightly amused that she, Weyrwoman of Fort, was now being approached by the Masterhealer.
“I answered that same question for Alessan last night.”
“Oh!” Capiam blinked with surprise. “Oh, and how did you an-swer Lord Alessan?”
“Affirmatively.”
“He contacted Master Balfor?”
“It was too late to drum up the Keroon Beasthold. Is Balfor the new Masterherdsman?”
“He is acting in that capacity. Someone must.”
“Alessan ought to have informed you, or at least the Harper Hall
. .” Moreta frowned. Tuero should have done it if Alessan was too busy. Perhaps Alessan had not had enough time to produce a serum? No. She had the impression that he wouldn’t have wasted any time.
“It is not quite noon,” Capiam said tactfully, willing to give the harried Lord Holder the benefit on any doubt. “In theory, serum vaccine ought to produce similar immunization in the runners. Alessan needs all the luck and help he can get.”
Moreta nodded in solemn agreement. “So why does the Healer Hall concern itself suddenly with animal vaccines?”
“Because, unfortunately, I have good reason to believe that the plague is transmitted to man by animals and may break out again ‘zoonotic’ and ‘recrudescent’ are the terms the Ancients used to describe those qualities.”
“Oh!” Moreta struggled to assimilate the information. The ramifi-cations were staggering. “You mean, we could easily have a second epidemic? Shards! Capiam, the continent couldn’t survive a second epidemic!” She threw up her arms in an excess of dismay that had to be vented. “The Weyrs are only barely able to get the requisite num-ber of wings in the air with every Fall, what with riders recovering from secondary infections and new injuries. If the plague went through us again, I doubt there’d be a full wing available!” In her agitation, she began to pace then she noticed his patient watching. She halted and gave him a closer scrutiny. “If the animal vaccine works, then you could stop the zoonosis? You would vaccinate both man and animal against it? And your challenge is …”she had to smile at the way he had led her to the conclusion“to the dragonriders for their assistance in distributing the vaccines?”