“Take a hint from Orlith. She’s relaxed enough. And I won’t dis-rupt their concentration with an unnecessary question at what could be an awkward moment,” she replied testily. “They’ll be very tired. They’ll have had to fight time and make every minute into twenty to get the vaccine distributed.” Leri balled one hand into a fist and pounded her thigh. “I’m going to rend M’tani.” She flexed her fingers as if to encircle M’tani’s neck. “Holth’ll rake that bronze of his into shreds.”
K’lon regarded her with startled awe. “But I thought Sh’gall”
Leri gave a snort of contempt. “L’mal would not have needed to ‘discuss’ the matter with K’dren and S’ligar. He’d have been at Tel-gar, demanding satisfaction.”
“He would? What?”
“No Weyrleader can disregard a continental emergency. Capiam has not revoked his priority. Well, M’tani will wish he had cooperated. And”Leri’s smile was malicious“Dalgeth will answer to the other queens.”
“Really?”
“Hmm. Yes. Really!” Leri drummed her fingers on the stem other wine cup. “As soon as Moreta comes back, you’ll see.”
K’lon peered out of the Hatching Ground. “The sun’s nearly down now. It must be dark in Keroon …”
Afterward, K’lon realized that both the rider and the dragon knew in the same instant. But Orlith’s reaction was vocal and spectacular. Her scream, tearing at his taut nerves, brought him round to witness the initial throes of her bereavement. Orlith had been lying at the rear of the Ground, her eggs scattered on the sand before her. Now she reared up on her hind legs, her awkwardly coiled tail all that prevented her from crashing backward as she arched her head back, howling her despair. The sounds she emitted were ghastly ululations in weird dissonances, like throat-cut shrieks. Then, in an incredible feat, Orlith launched herself from that fully extended posture, over her eggs, missing them by a mere handspan. She sprawled, muzzle buried in the sand as all color faded from her golden hide. Then she
306 Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
began to writhe, thrashing her head and tail, oblivious to the fact that she had caught her right wing under her, nailing the air with the left.
Holth is no more, Rogeth told K’lon.
“Holth dead? And Moreta?” K’lon could barely comprehend that statement and frantically tried to deny the corollary even as he watched its effect on the stricken queen.
Leril
“Oh, no!”
K’lon whirled. Leri lay against the cushions, gasping, her mouth working, her eyes protruding. One hand was pressed to her chest, the other clawed at her throat. K’lon leaped toward her.
She cannot breathe.
“Are you choking?” K’lon asked, horror mounting as he scanned her contorted face. “Are you trying to die?” K’lon was so appalled at the thought of Leri expiring before his eyes that he grabbed at her shoulders and shook her violently. The action forced breath back into her lungs. With a thin wail more piteous than Orlith’s shattering cries, Leri went limp in his arms, her body wracked with sobs.
Hold her. Rogeth’s voice was curiously augmented.
“Why?” K’lon cried, suddenly aware that in his selfish panic, he had thwarted Leri. If Holth was dead, she had the right to die, too. His heart swelled with a crippling ache of compassion, anguish and remorse. “How?” he demanded, unable to comprehend what terrible circumstance could have robbed Orlith of Moreta and Leri of Holth.
They were too tired. They ought not to have continued so long. They went between … to nothing, the composite voice replied in the sad conclusion perceived by all the dragons in the Weyr.
“Oh, what have I done?” Tears streamed down K’lon’s face as he rocked the frail body of the old Weyrwoman in his arms. “Oh, Leri, I’m so sorry. Forgive me. I’m so sorry. Rogeth! Help me! What have I done?”
What was necessary, the augmented Rogeth spoke in a tone ineffably sad. Orlith needs her to stay.
Now the air was filled with the lamentations of the Weyr’s dragons as they joined Orlith’s dreadful keen. Sound battered the Hatching Ground, echoing wildly in the great stony cavern. As K’lon rocked Leri, the dragons were respectfully gathering at the entrances to the Ground. They lowered their great heads, their eyes dulled to gray as