“Jaxom, wait! Don’t be so quick …”
Menolly’s words were lost in the noise of Ruth’s wings. Jaxom grinned to himself as he saw her jumping up and down in the sands in her frustration. He concentrated on the moment in time to when he wished to jump: predawn, with the Red Star far east, a pale, malevolent pink, not yet ready to swoop down on an unsuspecting Pern. But Menolly had a final say. He felt a tail wrapping about his neck just as he told Ruth to transfer between time.
It seemed a long moment, suspended in that cold nothingness that was between. He could feel that chill inching its way through skin and bones warmed by a kind sun. He steeled himself for the ordeal. Then they were out in the cool dawn, the pink gleam of the Red Star low on the horizon.
“Can you sense Tiroth, Ruth?” Jaxom could see nothing in the crepuscular light of this new day so many Turns before his birth.
He sleeps, so does the man. They are here.
Elation brimming inside him, Jaxom told Ruth to get back to Menolly but not too soon. Jaxom pictured the sun well over the forests and that was what he saw as Ruth burst back into now over the cove.
For a moment he couldn’t see Menolly on the beach. Then Beauty and the other two bronzes-it was Rocky who had accompanied him-exploded beside them. Beauty blistering the air with her angry comments, while Diver and Poll chittered anxiously. Then Menolly appeared from the forest, planted both hands on her hip bones and just watched. He didn’t need to see her face to know she was furious. She continued to glare balefully at him while Ruth settled to the sand, careful not to flick it over the girl.
“Well?”
Menolly was very pretty, Jaxom thought, with her eyes flashing like that, but she was daunting, too.
“D’ram was then. Twenty-five Turns back. I used the Red Star as a guide.”
“I’m glad you used something constant. Do you realize that you’ve been gone from this time for hours?”
“You knew I was all right. You sent Rocky with me.”
“That didn’t help! You went so far Beauty couldn’t touch him. We had no idea where you were!” She flung her arms wide with her exasperation. “You could’ve met up with those men the other firelizards saw. You could’ve miscalculated and never come back!”
“I’m sorry, Menolly, really I am.” Jaxom was genuinely contrite, if only to spare himself the sharp edge of her tongue. “But I couldn’t remember what time it was when we left, so I made sure we didn’t double up on ourselves coming back.”
She calmed down a trifle. “You didn’t need to be that cautious. I was about to send Beauty for F’lar.”
“You were worried!”
“Bloody right.” She swooped and gathered up the pack, shrugging into her jacket and slapping her helmet on. “Incidentally I found the remains of a lean-to, near a stream back there,” she said as she slung him the pack. Vaulting neatly to Ruth’s back, she looked around for her firelizards that had disappeared. “Off again.” She gave a call, and Jaxom instinctively ducked from the rush of wings about his head.
Menolly settled them down, Beauty and Poll on her shoulders, Rocky and Diver on Jaxom’s, and they were ready.
When they emerged above Benden Weyr, Ruth caroled his name. Menolly’s firelizards cheeped uncertainly.
“I wish I dared take you into the queen’s weyr, but that wouldn’t be smart. Off you go to Brekke!”
As they disappeared, the watchdragon let out an outraged roar, wings extended, neck arching, eyes flashing with angry red. Startled, Menolly and Jaxom turned to see a fair of firelizards arrowing toward them.
“They followed us from the South, Jaxom. Oh, tell them to go back!”
The fair winked out abruptly.
They only wanted to see where we came from, Ruth said to Jaxom in an aggrieved tone.
“At Ruatha Hold, yes. Here, no!”
They won’t come again, Ruth said sadly. They got frightened.
By that time the watchdragon’s alarm had stirred up the Weyr. With sinking spirits, Jaxom and Menolly saw Mnementh raise himself on his ledge. They could hear Ramoth’s bellow and before they had landed in the Bowl, half the dragons were bellowing, too. The unmistakable figures of Lessa and F’lar appeared on the ledge by Mnementh.