Jaxom grinned at his plaintive question and nodded. “I wasn’t much better than you, Piemur. I got away by having to hunt. Then I tracked down that clutch and spent the afternoon rigging fishnet.” He gestured toward the next cove.
Piemur nodded. “Funny thing that, not wanting to be among people. Felt as if I couldn’t breathe with so many using the same air supply. And that’s downright foolish.” He looked about him, at the black bulks of supplies lining the cove. “We’re not stuffed in a Hold, with fans going!” He shook his head. “Me, Piemur, harper, a social fellow. And I turn and run from people … faster than Stupid did!” He gave a snort of laughter.
“If it’ll make you two feel any better, I was a bit overwhelmed myself,” Sharra said. “Thank you for the fruit, Piemur. That … that horde ate all we had. I think there’s some roast wherry left, and a few rib bones from the buck.”
“I could eat Stupid, only he’d be too tough.” Piemur breathed a sigh of relief and eased himself down to the sand.
Sharra chuckled as she went to get him something to eat.
“I don’t like to think of a lot of people here,” Jaxom told Piemur.
“Know what you mean.” The young harper grinned. “Jaxom, do you realize that I’ve been places no man has ever stepped before? I’ve seen places that scared me to leaking, and other spots that I had trouble leaving because they were so beautiful.” He exhaled in resignation. “Oh, well, I got there first.” Suddenly he sat up, pointing urgently into the sky. “There they are! If only I had a far-viewer!”
“Who are?” Jaxom slewed himself around to see where Piemur was pointing, expecting dragonriders.
“The so-called Dawn Sisters. You can only see them dusk and dawn down here and much higher in the sky. See, those three very bright points! Many’s the time I’ve used them as guides!”
Jaxom could scarcely miss the three stars, gleaming in an almost constant light. He wondered that he hadn’t noticed them before now.
“They’ll fade soon,” Piemur said, “unless one of the moons is out. Then you see them again just before dawn. Must ask Wansor about that when I see him. They don’t act like proper stars. The Starsmith’s not scheduled to come down and help build the Harper’s hold, is he?”
“He’s about the only one who isn’t,” Jaxom replied. “Cheer up, Piemur. The way they worked today, it won’t take long to finish that hold. And what do you mean about the Dawn Sisters?”
“They just don’t act like proper stars. Didn’t you ever notice?”
“No. But we’ve been in most evenings and certainly every dawn.”
Piemur pointed with several stabs of his right arm at the Dawn Sisters. “Most stars change position. They never do.”
“Sure they do. In Ruatha they’re almost invisible on the horizon …”
Piemur was shaking his head. “They’re constant. That’s what I mean. Every season I’ve been here, they’re always in the same place.”
“Can’t be! It’s impossible. Wansor says that stars have routes in the sky just like-”
“They stay still! They’re always in the same position.”
“And I tell you that’s impossible.”
“What’s impossible? And don’t snarl at each other,” Sharra said, returning with a tray piled high with food and a wineskin slung over her shoulder. Giving Piemur the food, she filled cups all around.
Piemur guffawed as he reached for a buck rib. “Well, I’m going to send a message to Wansor. I say it’s bloody peculiar behavior for stars!”
A change in the breeze awakened the Master Harper. Zair chirped softly, curled on the pillows above Robinton’s ear. A sunscreen had been rigged above the Harper’s head but it was the airless heat that roused him.
For a change, no one was seated in watch over him. The respite of surveillance pleased him. He had been touched by the concern of everyone, though at times the attention bade fair to smother him. He’d curbed his impatience. He had no choice. Too weak and tired to resist the ministrations. Today must be another small indication of his general improvement: leaving him alone. He reveled in the solitude. Before him, the jib sheet flapped idly and he could hear the mainsail, behind him-aft, he corrected himself abruptly-rumbling windless as well. The gentle rolling swells seemed to be all that drove the ship forward. Waves, curls of foam on their crests, were mesmeric in their rhythm and he had to shake his head sharply to break their fascination. He raised his glance above the swell and saw nothing but water, as usual, on all sides. They would not see land for days more, he knew, though Master Idarolan said they were making good speed on their southeasterly course now that they had picked up the Great South Current.