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"It wasn't so hard. If you'll look, you'll see there're plenty of hand and
foot holds, even before I made a regular path."
"A regular path? Hmmm. Yes. Monarth, can you get us a bit closer, please?"
Monarth obligingly angled against the cliff face and raised himself to his
haunches; Menolly was amazed to see that they could step off his shoulders
right into the cave.
Her nine came arrowing into the opening, trumpeting and squealing, their
bugles abruptly amplified by the vaulting height of the inner cavern. Just as
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she and Tgellan reached it, the light was suddenly blocked. Turning, she saw
Monarth's head in the opening, his great eyes whirling idly.
"Monarth, get your great, bloody, big head out of the light^ wffl you?" asked
Tgellan.
Monarth blinked, gave a little wistful rumble, but removed his great head.
"Why didn't anyone find you on Search, young lady?" Tgellan asked, and she saw
that he'd been watching her intently.
"No one's ever been Searched at Half-Circle Sea Hold."
"TTiat shouldn't surprise me. Now, where did the old queen have her clutch?"
"Right where you're standing."
Tgellan jumped sideways, giving her a second admonitory look, which she
couldn't interpret. He knelt, running his fingers through the sand, making
pleased noises in his throat
"You tossed out the old shells?"
138
"Yes. Was that wrong?"
"I don't think so."
"Would she come back here again?"
"She might If the cove waters remain high the next time she mates. IXyou
happen to remember when you saw her mating flight?"
"Yes, I do. Because we had ThreadfaH just after. The one when the leading edge
hit the marshes halfway to Nerat"
"Good girl!" Tgellan tipped his head back, pressing his lips together, and
Menolly thought he was doing some rapid mental calculations. Alemi had a
similar habit when he was charting a course. "Yes. And when did these hatch?"
"I lost track of my sevendays, but they hatched five Falls ago."
"TTiars great. She may mate before high summer, if fire lizards follow the
same sort of cycle the dragons do during a Pass." He glanced around him at the
bits and pieces with which she had made the cave livable. "EKyou want any of
these things?"
"Not many," Menolly said and dove for her sleeping rug. Her pipes were still
there, so he hadn't seen them in his first visit to the cave. She bundled the
rug round the pipes again. "My oil..." she said, grabbing up the pot "111 need
that"
"Not realty," said Tgellan with a grin, "but bring it along. Manora's always
interested in such things."
She took her dried herbs, too, and made a neat package, which she could tie on
her back. Ruthlessly then she began to chuck her homemade crockery out of the
cave entrance.
"Ohl" Aghast, she rushed to the mouth, looking about for Monarth.
"You missed himl He's got more sense than to stay around when there's a
cleaning." With that Tgelkn launched her boiling pot into the air.
'That's everything, I think," she said.
"Lefsgol"
139
At the entrance, Menolly turned for one last look at the cave and smiled to
herself. She'd never thought to leave it; certainly not to step to the
shoulders of a dragon. But then, she'd never thought she'd live in a cave like
this at all, much less ride a dragon. Nothing now marked that anyone had ever
sheltered in this cave. Even the dry sand was falling back into the
depressions their feet had made. Tgellan held out his hand to help her to
Monarth's back, and then they were away to find the fire lizard's clutch.
Chapter 11
The little queen, aU golden
Flew hissing at the sea.
To keep it back, To turn it back
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She flew forth bravely.
140
Menolly and Tgellan brought the thirty-one eggs of the clutch safely to Benden
Weyr without so much as cracking a shell in the double, furred sack that had
been provided for the journey between. Their return caused a flurry of
excitement, the weyrfolk crowding around to examine the eggs. Duly informed,
Lessa arrived, imperiously ordering a basket of warm sand from the Hatching [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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