Anne McCaffrey - The White Dragon

It was an altogether deflated group that sat about the fire that evening.

«There's no guarantee, is there,» the Harper said, «that even if we had the energy to excavate all those hundreds of mounds, we'd find anything of value left behind.»

Lessa held up her spoon with a laugh. «No intrinsic value, but it does give me a tremendous thrill to hold something my hundred times ancestress might have used!»

«Efficiently made, too,» Fandarel said, politely taking the small object and examining it again. «The substance fascinates me.» He bent toward the flames to scrutinize it. «If I could just…» and he reached for his belt knife.

«Oh, no you don't, Fandarel,» Lessa said in alarm and retrieved her artifact. «There were other bits and pieces of the same stuff discarded in my building. Experiment on them.»

«Is that all we are to have of the ancients, their bits and pieces?»

«I remind you, F'lar,» Fandarel said, «their discards have already proved invaluable.» The Smith then indicated the spot where Wansor's distance viewer had been sited. «What men have once learned to do, can be relearned. It will take time and experimentation but…»

«We've only begun, my friends,» said Nicat, whose enthusiasm had not been daunted. «And as our good Smith says, we can learn even from their discards. With your permission, Weyrleaders, I'd like to bring some experienced teams, and go about the excavations methodically. There may have been good reasons for the rank system. Each file might belong to a different craft or «

«You don't believe, as Toric suggests, that they took everything with them?» F'lar asked.

«That's irrelevant,» Nicat said, dismissing Toric's contentions. «The bed, for instance, was unneeded because they knew they could obtain wood wherever they went. The little spoon for another, because they could make more. There may be other pieces, useless to them, which might very well form the missing elements of the Records which did come down to us, in whatever mutilated fashion. Just think, my friends,» Nicat held up one finger along his nose, closing an eye conspiratorially, «the sheer quantity they had to take from those buildings after the eruption. Oh, we'll find things, never fear!»

«Yes, they had to take great loads from those buildings after the eruption,» Fandarel murmured, frowning as he lowered his chin to his chest in deep thought. «Where did they take their possessions? Certainly, not immediately to establish Fort Hold!»

«Yes, where did they go?» F'lar asked, puzzled.

«As far as we could tell from the fire lizard images, they headed toward the sea,» Jaxom said.

«And the sea wouldn't have been safe,» Menolly said.

«The sea wouldn't,» F'lar said, «but there's a lot of land between the Plateau and the sea.» He stared at Jaxom a moment. «Can you get Ruth to find out from the fire lizards where they did go?»

«Does that mean I can't excavate more thoroughly?» Nicat asked, sounding irritable.

«By all means, if you've the men to spare.»

«I do,» Nicat replied a bit grimly. «With three mines worked out.»

«I thought you'd started to reopen the shafts Toric found in the Western Range?»

«We've been examining them, to be sure, but my Hall hasn't reached a miner's agreement with Toric yet.»

«With Toric? Does he hold those lands? They're far to the southwest, well beyond Southern Hold,» F'lar said, abruptly intent.

«It was an exploring party of Toric's which located the shafts,» Nicat said, his eyes shifting from the Benden Weyrleader's to the Harper's and then to the Smith's.

«I told you my brother was ambitious,» Sharra said softly to Jaxom.

«An exploring party?» F'lar seemed to relax again. «That doesn't make it a Holding then. At all events, mines come under your jurisdiction, Master Nicat. Benden supports your decision. I'll just have a word with Toric tomorrow.»

«I think we should,» Lessa said, holding her hand out to F'lar to assist her from the sands.

«I was hopeful you'd support my Hall,» the Miner said with a bow of gratitude, his shrewd eyes glinting in the firelight.

«I'd say a talk was long overdue,» the Harper remarked.

The dragonriders took their leave quickly, N'ton to deliver Master Nicat to Crom Hold from where they'd collect him the next morning. Robinton took Master Fandarel with him to Cove Hall. Piemur dragged Menolly off to check on Stupid, leaving Jaxom and Sharra to douse the fire and clear the beach.

«Your brother doesn't plan to hold the entire Southwest, does he?» Jaxom asked when the others had dispersed.

«Well, if not all, as much as he can,» Sharra replied with a laugh. «I'm not being disloyal to him telling you this, Jaxom. You have your own Hold. You don't want Southern lands. Or do you?»

Jaxom considered that.

«You don't, do you?» Sharra sounded anxious and put her hand on his arm.

«No, I don't,» he said. «No, much as I love this Cove, I don't want it. Today on the Plateau, I'd have given anything for a cool breeze from Ruatha's mountain, or a plunge in my lake. Ruth and I will take you there it's such a beautiful place. Only a dragon can get to it easily.» He picked up a flat pebble and skated it across the quiet swells that lapped the white sands of the beach. «No, I don't want a Southern Hold, Sharra. I was born in Ruatha, bred to Ruatha. Lessa obliquely reminded me of that this afternoon. She reminded me, too, of the price of my Holding and of all she's done to insure that I remain Lord of Ruatha. You do realize, don't you, that her son, F'lessan, is a Ruathan halfblood. That's more than I am.»

«But he's a dragonrider!»

«Yes, and weyrbred, by Lessa's choice so that I would remain the uncontested Lord of Ruatha. I'd better start acting like one!» He rose and drew Sharra up.

«Jaxom?» and her tone was suspicious, «what are you going to do?»

He put both hands on her arms, looking her squarely in the eyes. «I've a Hold to manage, too, as your brother reminded me…»

«But you're needed here, with Ruth. He's the only one who can make sense out of fire lizard images…»

«And with Ruth, I can handle both responsibilities. Manage my Hold and please myself. You'll see!» He drew her closer to kiss her, but suddenly she broke away from him, pointing over his shoulder, her face mirroring hurt and anger. «What's the matter? What have I done, Sharra?»

She pointed to the tree where two fire lizards were intently watching.

«Those are Toric's. He's watching me. Us!»

«Great! Let him have no mistake about my intentions toward you!» He kissed her until he felt her taut body responding to his, till the angry set of her lips dissolved into willingness. «I'd give him more to see but I want to get back to Ruatha Hold this evening!» He rapidly drew on his riding gear and called to Ruth. «I'll be back in the morning, Sharra. Tell the others, will you?»

Do we have to leave? Ruth asked even as he bent his foreleg for Jaxom to mount.

«We'll be back in no time, Ruth!» Jaxom waved to Sharra, thinking how forlorn she looked standing there in the starlight.

Meer and Talla circled once with Ruth, whistling so cheerfully that he knew Sharra had accepted his precipitous departure.

His abrupt compulsion to return to Ruatha and set in train the formalities of his confirmation as Lord Holder was by no means entirely due to Toric's barbed comments. His own suppressed sense of responsibility had been heightened by Lessa's odd nostalgia at the mound. But it had also occurred to him, at the fireside, that a man of Lytol's vitality and experience might find the Plateau's mysteries a challenge sufficient to replace Ruatha. His return to his birthplace had the same inexorable quality of his decision to rescue the egg.