“That you found D’ram and Tiroth safe, Jaxom, is the least of this affair, I think. I knew I was right to involve you and Ruth. Don’t be surprised if you hear more from me on this business, with Lytol’s permission, of course.”
With a final affectionate grip of his arm, Robinton stepped back to let Jaxom mount Ruth, the firelizards shrilling their disappointment at the end of their friend’s visit. As Ruth obediently climbed higher, Jaxom waved a cheery farewell to the diminishing figure of the Master Harper. Then Jaxom looked down toward the river for Menolly and Sebell. He was annoyed with himself, at the same time, for wanting to know where they were-and further irritated, because, when he did spot them, the intimacy of their attitude proved that they enjoyed a relationship of which he had been totally unaware.
He did not go straight back to Ruatha Hold. Lytol would not be expecting him at any particular hour. As he also saw no firelizards abroad to betray his delinquency, he asked Ruth to take him to the Plateau Hold. At Ruth’s cheerful compliance, he wondered if the white dragon knew his mind better than he did himself.
Now, it was close to midday in western Pern, and Jaxom wondered how he was going to attract Corana’s attention without every dependent in the hold knowing of his visit. His need of her was great enough to make him irritable.
She comes, Ruth said, dipping his wing so that Jaxom could see the girl emerging from the hold, walking in the direction of the river, a basket balanced on one shoulder.
What could have been more fortuitous! He told Ruth to take them to the river edge where the women of her hold generally did their washing.
The stream is not very deep, Ruth said casually, but there is a large rock in the sun where I can be comfortable and warm. And before Jaxom could answer, he began to glide down to the river, past the rapid boiling waters flowing across treacherously strewn boulders, to the calm pool and the flat stone outcropping. Angling himself neatly so as not to foul his wings in the branches of the heavy shade trees that bordered the river, Ruth landed lightly on the biggest rock. She comes, he repeated, ducking his shoulder so that Jaxom could dismount.
Suddenly Jaxom was assailed by a conflict of desires and doubts. Mirrim’s angry remarks resounded in his head. Ruth was indeed well beyond the usual age of mating and yet…
She comes and she is good for you. If she is good for you, it is good for me, Ruth said. She makes you feel happy and relaxed and that is good. The sun here makes me warm and happy, too. Go.
Startled by the strength of his weyrmate’s tone, Jaxom stared up at Ruth’s face. The eyes were whirling gently, with the blues and greens of a contentment at odds with the force of his voice.
Then Corana reached the last loop in the path to the river’s edge and saw him. She dropped her basket, spilling the linen, and ran, embracing him so fiercely, kissing his face and neck with such uninhibited delight, that he was soon too involved to think.
Together they moved toward the soft moss that carpeted the ground beyond the stones, out of sight of the river bank, out of Ruth’s actual vision. Corana was as willing and eager as he was to satisfy desires thwarted on his previous visit to the hold. As his hands touched her soft flesh and he felt her body press against his, he wondered briefly if she’d have been as willing a lover had he not been Ruatha’s Lord. But he didn’t care! He was her lover now! He gave himself to that pursuit with no further reservation. At the precise moment of his release, exquisite to the point of pain, he was aware of a gentle touch and knew, with a sense of relief that enhanced his own, that Ruth was joined to him then, as always.
CHAPTER XII
Ruatha Hold, Fidello’s Hold, Threadfall, 15.7.6
KEEPING A SECRET from one’s dragon was not easy. About the only safe time for Jaxom to think of anything he didn’t wish Ruth to perceive was very late at night when his friend was sound asleep, or in the morning if Jaxom happened to wake before Ruth. He had seldom needed to shield his thought from Ruth, which further complicated and inhibited the process. Then, too, the pace of Jaxom’s life-the now-boring training with the weyrling wing, helping Lytol and Brand to gear up the Hold to full summer activity, not to mention excursions to the Plateau Hold-caused Jaxom to fall asleep as soon as he pulled his bed furs about his shoulders. Mornings, he was often dragged out of his bed by Tordril or another fosterling just in time to keep appointments.