wishes. Not that she’d been inclined to believe any of the blithe and
extravagant promises Ganmar or Boris had made her. All they wanted was
a strong body with lots of hard work in it.
But she had seen a lot of dragons in the sky the day before, most of
them carrying passengers. Balan Hold was not that far from Telgar Weyr
– not even by surface travel. So, the moment she’d read the message,
she’d made her plans right then, without any have ring She’d been
Searched: she had the right to be there. No matter how life in the Weyr
might be, it couldn’t be worse than what she now endured. And if she
could be a dragon rider Debera had tucked the paper into her hip pocket
and slammed the drawer shut. She was alone in the kitchen, and sun was
streaming in, almost as if adding light to her resolve.
She didn’t even go back to the room she shared with her three
half-sisters, but grabbed her jacket and made for the paddock where the
riding horses were kept. There was no-one about in the yard: all were
at work. Assignments had been given out over breakfast, and everyone
had better show their father completed chores or there’d be no lunch
break until they were done.
She didnt even dare collect a saddle or bridle from the barn because her
eldest brothers were restacking hay – they’d done a sloppy job of it the
first time round. She just grabbed up a leather thong.
Since she’d had the most to do with the hold horses, she’d have little
trouble managing any of them with just a lip rein.
Bilwil would be the fastest. She had probably three hours before the
midday meal when her absence would be noticed.
By then, she’d be well up the track to the Weyr.
With one look over her shoulder to see if she was being observed, she
walked quickly – as if she were on an errand to the paddock.
Bilwil was not far from the fence which she climbed – the gate would be
too near the vegetable garden where two half-sisters were weeding.
They loved nothing better than to report her idling ways’ to either
their mother or her father. Two brothers in the barn, the next pair out
with him in the forestry, and her stepmother in the dairy hold making
cheese. Debera had been grinding wheat for flour when the cotter pin
had snapped. That’s what she’d been trying to find in the drawer; a
nail or something to replace the cotter pin so she could continue her
task. So Gisa wouldn’t miss her for a while to sound an alarm. For
until flour had been made there’d be no bread and Gisa wouldn’t want to
turn that heavy stone, not pregnant as she was.
Bilwil nickered softly when she approached him she grabbed his forelock.
No-one had bothered to rub him down last night and his coat was rough
with perspiration from yesterday’s timber hauling. Maybe she should
take one of the others.
But Bilwil had lowered his head to accept the twist of thong around his
lower jaw. She could scarcely risk chasing a better-rested, less
amenable mount about the paddock so she inserted the rein, grabbed a
handful of mane and vaulted to his back. Would she be vaulting to the
back of a dragon tomorrow? She lay as flat as she could across his
neck, just in case someone looked out across the paddock, and kneed him
forward towards the forest.
Just before they reached the intertwined hedging that marked the far
boundary she took one brief look back at the hold buildings – windows
chiselled out of the very rock, the uneven entrance to the main living
quarters, the wider one into the animal hold. Not a soul in sight.
C’mon, bilwil, let’s get out of here,’ she’d murmured and kicked him
sharply intc) a trot, heading him right at the fence, a point not far
from (ne of the tracks through the forest.
It was a good thing Bilwil liked to jump anyhw, because she’d given him
only enough room to gather himself up. But he was nimbly over and had