Anne McCaffrey - The White Dragon

«It's already too late, Toric.»

As Jaxom watched the Benden Weyrleaders and the Harper walk toward the excavated house with Toric, he expelled with a deep breath the anger he had contained for Toric's belittling manner.

« 'Ruatha a table sized Hold?' «Indeed! Ruatha, the second oldest and certainly one of the most prosperous Holds on Pern. If Lessa hadn't come then, he'd have shown

Jaxom took another breath. Toric had the height and reach of him. He'd have been slaughtered by the Southerner if Lessa hadn't interfered and saved him from sheer folly. It had never occurred to Jaxom that Toric might not be honored by an alliance with Ruatha. He'd been stunned when Ruth had informed him of Sharra's contact that she had been lured back to Southern and told that Toric would not countenance a marriage for her in the North. Nor would Toric listen to Sharra's avowal of a true attachment to Jaxom. So he had set his queen on her two fire lizards to keep her from sending messages to Jaxom. Toric hadn't known that Sharra could talk to Ruth, something she had done as soon as she'd awakened that morning. There was a hint of amusement in Ruth's tone for the secret exchange.

Jaxom waited until the four had entered the little dwelling before he moved to Ruth. «Fly into Southern and carry her off,» the Harper had said in jest, but that was exactly what Jaxom intended.

«Ruth,» he asked in his mind as he closed the distance between them, «are there any fire lizards of Toric's about you?»

No! We are going to rescue Sharra? Where shall I tell her to meet us? We've only been to the Hatching Grounds in Southern. Shall I ask Ramoth?

«I'd prefer not to involve the Benden dragons in this. We'll go to the Hatching Ground. That egg is coming in useful to us after all,» he added, appreciating the irony of the situation as he vaulted to Ruth's back. «Give her the picture, Ruth. Ask her if she can reach the place?»

She says yes.

«Let's get there then!»

Jaxom began laughing openly as Ruth took them between.

They came in low from the east, just as they had not quite a Turn before. Now, however, the ring of warm sand was unoccupied. Only briefly, for fire lizards swooped down in cheerful greeting.

«Toric's?» Jaxom asked, wondering if he should dismount and search for Sharra.

She comes! Toric's queen is with her. Go away! You displease me, watching my friends!

Jaxom had no time to be astonished by his dragon's fierce attitude. Sharra, trailing a blanket which she was endeavoring to wrap about her thinly clad body, came running across the Ground. She pelted toward him, her expression anxious, and she almost tripped on an edge of her blanket as she looked back over her shoulder.

She says two of Toric's men are after her. Ruth half sprang, half glided toward Sharra, while Jaxom leaned down, holding his hands out to catch her and swing her onto Ruth's neck. Two men, swords drawn, came tearing onto the Ground. But Ruth launched himself, leaving the two men swearing helplessly at them as the Ground dropped away. The watchdragon of the Southern Weyr called out to Ruth, who replied in a greeting as he beat upward on the warm air.

«I think your brother has miscalculated, Sharra.»

«Take me away from here, Jaxom. Take me to Ruatha! I've never been so furious in all my life. I never want to see that brother of mine again. Of all the devious, misguided…»

«We have to see your brother again, for I'm not hiding from him. We'll have it out in the open today!»

«Jaxom!» There was real concern in Sharra's voice now. She clutched him tightly about the waist. «He'd kill you in a fight.»

«Our affair will cause no duel, Sharra,» Jaxom said with a laugh. «Bundle yourself well in that blanket. Ruth will take us between as quick as he can!'

«Jaxom, I hope you know what we're doing!»

Ruth took them back to the Plateau, caroling a greeting as he circled down.

«Oh, I'm frozen, but they took my flying gear away,» Sharra cried. Her bare legs on Ruth's neck were blue with chill. Jaxom leaned over to rub warmth into them. «And there's Toric. With Lessa, F'lar and Robinton!»

«And the largest of the Benden dragons!»

«Jaxom!»

«Your brother does things his way, I do them in mine! In mine!»

«Jaxom!» There was surprise as well as respect in her voice and her arms tightened again about his waist.

Ruth landed and when they had dismounted, he walked to Jaxom's left as the two young lovers went to meet the others. Toric no longer wore his customary smile.

«Toric, you cannot contain Sharra anywhere on Pern where Ruth and I cannot find her!» Jaxom said after the barest of nods to the Benden Weyrleaders and the Harper. There was no hint of compromise in Toric's hard expression. Nor did he expect it. «Place and time are no barriers to Ruth. Sharra and I can go anywhere, anywhen on Pern.»

A piteously crying queen fire lizard attempted to land on Toric's shoulder, but the man brushed her away.

«Further, fire lizards obey Ruth! Don't they, my friend?» Jaxom rested his hand on Ruth's headknob.

«Tell every fire lizard here on the Plateau to go away!»

Ruth did so, adding as the wide meadow was suddenly empty of the little creatures, that they didn't wish to leave.

Toric's eyes narrowed slightly at that show of ability. Then the fire lizards were back. This time he permitted his little queen to land on his shoulder, but his eyes held Jaxom's.

«How did you know Southern? I was informed that you've never been there!» He made a half turn as if to accuse Lessa and F'lar of complicity.

«Your informant erred,» Jaxom said, wondering if it had been Dorse. «Today is not the first time I've retrieved something from the Southern Weyr which belongs to the North.» He laid his arm possessively about Sharra's shoulders.

Toric's composure deserted him. «You!» He extended his arm, pointing at Jaxom; his face was a mixture of anger, indignant outrage, disappointment, frustration and, lastly, a grudging respect. «You took the egg back! You and that… but the fire lizards' images were black!»

«I'd be stupid not to darken a white hide if I make a night pass, wouldn't I?» Jaxom asked with understandable scorn.

«I knew it wasn't one of T'ron's riders,» Toric cried, his fists clenching and unclenching. «But for you to… Well now,» and Toric's whole attitude changed radically. He began to smile again, a trifle sourly as he looked at the Benden Weyrleaders and then the Harper. Then he started to laugh, losing anger and frustration in that laughter. «If you knew, Lordling…» again he pointed fiercely at Jaxom, «the plans you ruined, the… How many people knew it was you?» Now he did turn accusingly on the dragonriders.

«Not many,» Robinton said, wondering quickly if indeed Lessa and F'lar had ever guessed.

«I knew,» Sharra said, «and so did Brekke. Jaxom worried about that egg the whole time he was fevered. Her gaze on his face was proud.

«Not that it matters now,» Jaxom said. «What does matter is, do I now have your permission to marry Sharra and make her lady of Ruatha now?»

«I don't see how I can stop you.» Toric's broad gesture of frustration took in the people and the dragons.

«Indeed you couldn't, for Jaxom's boast about Ruth s abilities is valid,» F'lar said. «One must never underestimate a dragonrider, Toric.» Then he grinned without softening the implicit warning. «Especially a Northern dragonrider.»

«I shall bear that firmly in mind,» Toric said, the intensity of his big voice indicating his chagrin. The amenable grin reappeared on his face. «Especially in our present discussion. Before these impetuous youngsters interrupted us, we were discussing the extent of my Hold, were we not?»

He turned his back on Sharra and Jaxom, and gestured to the others to return to their temporary hall.