«I doubt it,» F'nor concurred helpfully. He glanced with apprehension up at the web-hung ceiling. He was certain he'd found most of the crawlers, but he didn't fancy their sting. Not on top of the discomforts already experienced in this forsaken Hold. If the night stayed mild, he intended curling up with Canth on the heights. «That would be a more reasonable suggestion than Fax or his Warder have made.»
«Hmmm,» F'lar muttered, frowning at the brown rider.
«Well, it's unbelievable that Ruatha could have fallen to such disrepair in ten short Turns. Every dragon caught the feeling of power, and it's obvious the watch-wher has been tampered with. That takes a good deal of control.»
«From someone of the Blood,» F'lar reminded him.
F'nor shot his wingleader a quick look, wondering if he could possibly be serious in the light of all information to the contrary.
«I grant you there is power here, F'lar,» F'nor conceded. «But it could as easily be a hidden male bastard of the old Blood. And we need a female. But Fax made it plain, in his inimitable fashion, that he left none of the old Blood alive in the Hold the day he took it. Ladies, children, all. No, no.» The brown rider shook his head, as if he could dispel the lack of faith in his wingleader's curious insistence that the Search would end in Ruatha with Ruathan blood.
«That watch-wher is hiding something, and only someone of the Blood of its Hold can arrange that, brown rider,» F'lar said emphatically. He gestured around the room and toward the window. «Ruatha has been overcome. But she resists . . . subtly. I say it points to the old Blood and power. Not power alone.»
The obstinate expression in F'lar's eyes, the set of his jaw, suggested that F'nor seek another topic.
«I'll see what may be seen around fallen Ruatha,» he mumbled and left the chamber.
F'lar was heartily bored with the lady Fax had so courteously assigned him. She giggled incessantly and sneezed constantly. She waved about, but did not apply to her nose, a scarf or handkerchief long overdue for a thorough washing. A sour odor, compounded of sweat, sweet oil, and rancid food smells, exuded from her. She was also pregnant by Fax. Not obviously so, but she had confided her condition to F'lar, either oblivious to the insult to the dragonman or directed by her Lord to let drop the information. F'lar deliberately ignored the matter and, except when her company was obligatory on this Search journey, had ignored her, too.
Lady Tela was nervously jabbering away at him about the terrible condition of the rooms to which Lady Gemma and the other ladies of the Lord's procession had been assigned.
«The shutters, both sets, were ajar all winter long, and you should have seen the trash on the floors. We finally got two of the drudges to sweep it all into the fireplace. And then that smoked something fearful till a man was sent up.» Lady Tela giggled. «He found the access blocked by a chimney stone fallen aslant. The rest of the chimney, for a wonder, was in good repair.»
She waved her handkerchief. F'lar held his breath as the gesture wafted an unappealing odor in his direction.
He glanced up the Hall toward the inner Hold door and saw the Lady Gemma descending, her steps slow and awkward. Some subtle difference about her gait attracted him, and he stared at her, trying to identify it.
«Oh, yes, poor Lady Gemma,» Lady Tela babbled, sighing deeply. «We are so concerned. Why my Lord Fax insisted on her coming I do not know. She is not near her time, and yet . . .» The lighthead's concern sounded sincere.
F'lar's incipient hatred for Fax and his brutality matured abruptly. He left his partner chattering to thin air and courteously extended his arm to the Lady Gemma to support her down the steps and to the table. Only the brief tightening of her fingers on his forearm betrayed her gratitude. Her face was very white and drawn, the lines deeply etched around mouth and eyes, showing the effort she was expending.
«Some attempt has been made, I see, to restore order to the Hall,» she remarked in a conversational tone.
«Some,» F'lar admitted dryly, glancing around the grandly proportioned Hall, its rafters festooned with the webs of many Turns. The inhabitants of those gossamer nests dropped from time to time, with ripe splats, to the floor, onto the table, and into the serving platters. Nothing replaced the old banners of the Ruathan Blood, removed from the stark brown stone walls. Fresh rushes did obscure the greasy flagstones. The trestle tables appeared recently sanded and scraped, and the platters gleamed dully in the refreshed glows. Those unfortunately, were a mistake, for brightness was much too unflattering to a scene that would have been more reassuring in dimmer light.
«This was such a graceful Hall,» the Lady Gemma murmured for F'lar's ears alone.
«You were a friend?» he asked politely.
«Yes, in my youth.» Her voice dropped expressively on the last word, evoking for F'lar a happier girlhood. «It was a noble line!»
«Think you one might have escaped the sword?»
The Lady Gemma flashed him a startled look, then quickly composed her features, lest the exchange be noted. She gave a barely perceptible shake of her head and then shifted her awkward weight to take her place at the table. Graciously she inclined her head toward F'lar, both dismissing and thanking him.
He returned to his own partner and placed her at the table on his left. As the only persons of rank who would dine that night at Ruatha Hold, Lady Gemma was seated on his right; Fax would be beyond her. The dragonmen and Fax's upper soldiery would sit at the lower tables. No guildsman had been invited to Ruatha.
Fax arrived just then with his current lady and two underleaders, the Warder bowing them effusively into the Hall. The man, F'lar noticed, kept a good distance from his overlord-as well a Warder might whose responsibility was in this sorry condition. F'lar flicked a crawler away. Out of the comer of his eye he saw the Lady Gemma wince and shudder.
Fax stamped up to the raised table, his face black with suppressed rage. He pulled back his chair roughly, slamming it into the Lady Gemma's before he seated himself. He pulled the chair to the table with a force that threatened to rock the none too stable trestle-top from its supporting legs. Scowling, he inspected his goblet and plate, fingering the surface, ready to throw them aside if they displeased him.
«A roast, my Lord Fax, and fresh bread. Lord Fax, and such fruits and roots as are left.»
«Left? Left? You said there was nothing harvested here.»
The Warder's eyes bulged and he gulped, stammering, «Nothing to be sent on. Nothing good enough to be sent on. Nothing. Had I but known of your arrival, I could have sent to Crom »
«Sent to Crom?» roared Fax, slamming the plate he was inspecting onto the table so forcefully that the rim bent under his hands. The Warder winced again as if he himself had been maimed.
«For decent foodstuffs, my Lord,» he quavered.
«The day one of my Holds cannot support itself or the visit of its rightful overlord, I shall renounce it»
The Lady Gemma gasped. Simultaneously the dragons roared. F'lar felt the unmistakable surge of power. His eyes instinctively sought F'nor at the lower table. The brown rider, all the dragonmen, had experienced that inexplicable shaft of exultation.
«What's wrong, dragonman?» snapped Fax.
F'lar, affecting unconcern, stretched his legs under the table and assumed an indolent posture in the heavy chair.
«Wrong?»
«The dragons!»
«Oh, nothing. They often roarat the sunset, at a flock of passing wherries, at mealtimes,» and F'lar smiled amiably at the Lord of the High Reaches. Beside him his tablemate gave a little squeak.
«Mealtimes? Have they not been fed?»
«Oh, yes. Five days ago.»
«Oh. Five . . . days ago? And are they hungry . . .now?» Her voice trailed into a whisper of fear, her eyes grew round.
«In a few days,» F'lar assured her. Under cover of his detached amusement, F'lar scanned the Hall. That surge had come from nearby. Either in the Hall or just without it. It must have been from within. It came so soon upon Fax's speech that his words must have triggered it. F'lar saw that F'nor and the other dragonmen were surreptitiously searching every face in the Hall. Fax's soldiers could be disqualified, and the Warder's men. And the power had an indefinably feminine touch to it.
One of Fax's women? F'lar found that hard to credit. Mnementh had been close to all of them, and none had shown a vestige of power, much less-with the exception of Lady Gemma-any intelligence.
One of the Hall women? So far he bad seen only the sorry drudges and the aging females the Warder had as housekeepers. The Warder's personal woman? He must discover if that man had one. One of the Hold guards' women? F'lar suppressed an intense desire to rise and search.
«You mount a guard?» he asked Fax casually.
«Double at Ruatha Hold!» he was told in a tight, bard voice, ground out from somewhere deep in Fax's chest.
«Here?» F'lar all but laughed out loud, gesturing around the sadly appointed chamber.
«Here!» Fax changed the subject with a roar. «Food!»
Five drudges, two of them women in such grimy brown-gray rags that F'lar hoped they had had nothing to do with the preparation of the meal, staggered in under the emplattered herdbeast. No one with so much as a trace of power would sink to such depths, unless . . .
The aroma that reached him as the platter was placed on the serving table distracted him. It reeked of singed bone and charred meat. Even the pitcher of klah being passed smelled bad. The Warder frantically sharpened his tools as if a keen edge could somehow slice acceptable portions from this unlikely carcass.
The Lady Gemma caught her breath again, and F'lar saw her hands curl tightly around the armrests. He saw the convulsive movement of her throat as she swallowed. He, too, did not look forward to this repast.
The drudges reappeared with wooden trays of bread. Burnt crusts had been scraped and cut, in some places, from the loaves before serving. As other trays were borne in, F'lar tried to catch sight of the faces of the servitors. Matted hair obscured the face of the one who presented Lady Gemma with a dish of legumes swimming in greasy liquid. Revolted, F'lar poked through the legumes to find properly cooked portions to offer Lady Gemma. She waved them aside, her face ill concealing her discomfort.
As F'lar was about to turn and serve Lady Tela, he saw Lady Gemma's hand clutch convulsively at the chair arms. He realized then that she was not merely nauseated by the unappetizing food. She was seized with the onslaught of labor contractions.
F'lar glanced in Fax's direction. The overlord was scowling blackly at the attempts of the Warder to find edible portions of meat to serve.
F'lar touched Lady Gemma's arms with light fingers. She turned her face just enough so that she could see F'lar out of the comer of her eye. She managed a socially correct half-smile.
«I dare not leave just now. Lord F'lar. He is always dangerous at Ruatha. And it may only be false pangsat my age.»
F'lar was dubious as he saw another shudder pass through her frame. The woman would have been a fine Weyrwoman, he thought ruefully, if she were younger.
The Warder, his hands shaking, presented Fax the sliced meats, slivers of overdone flesh, portions of almost edible meats, but not much of either.
One furious wave of Fax's broad fist and the Warder had the plate, meats and juice, square in the face. Despite himself, F'lar sighed, for those undoubtedly constituted the only edible portions of the entire beast.
«You call this food? You call this food?» Fax bellowed. His voice boomed back from the bare vault of the ceiling, shaking crawlers from their webs as the sound shattered the fragile strands. «Slop! Slop!»
F'lar rapidly brushed crawlers from the Lady Gemma, who was helpless in the throes of a very strong contraction.
«It's all we had on such short notice,» the Warder squealed, bloody juices streaking down his cheeks. Fax threw the goblet at him, and the wine went streaming down the man's chest. The steaming dish of roots followed, and the man yelped as the hot liquid splashed over him.
«My Lord, my Lord, had I but known!»
«Obviously, Ruatha cannot support the visit of its Lord. You must renounce it,» F'lar heard himself saying.
His shock at such words issuing from his mouth was as great as that of everyone else in the Hall. Silence fell, broken by the splat of crawlers and the drip of root liquid from the Warder's shoulders to the rushes. The grating of Fax's boot heel was clearly audible as he swung slowly around to face the bronze rider.
As F'lar conquered his own amazement and rapidly tried to predict what to do next to mend matters, he saw F'nor rise slowly to his feet, hand on dagger hilt.
«I did not hear you correctly?» Fax asked, his face blank of all expression, his eyes snapping.
Unable to comprehend how he could have uttered such an arrant challenge, F'lar managed to assume a languid pose.
«You did mention, my Lord,» he drawled, «that if any of your Holds could not support itself and the visit of its rightful overlord, you would renounce it.» Fax stared back at F'lar, his face a study of swiftly suppressed emotions, the glint of triumph dominant. F'lar, his face stiff with the forced expression of indifference, was casting swiftly about in his mind. In the name of the Egg, had he lost all sense of discretion?
Pretending utter unconcern, he stabbed some vegetables onto his knife and began to munch on them. As he did so, he noticed F'nor glancing slowly around the Hall, scrutinizing everyone. Abruptly F'lar realized what had happened. Somehow, in making that statement, he, a dragonman, had responded to a covert use of the power. F'lar, the bronze rider, was «being put into a position where he would have to fight Fax. Why? For what end? To get Fax to renounce the Hold? Incredible! But there could be only one possible reason for such a turn of events. An exultation as sharp as pain swelled within F'lar. It was all he could do to maintain his pose of bored indifference, all he could do to turn his attention to thwarting Fax, should he press for a duel. A duel would serve no purpose. He, F'lar, had no time to waste on it.
A groan escaped Lady Gemma and broke the eye-locked stance of the two antagonists. Irritated, Fax looked down at her, fist clenched and half-raised to strike her for her temerity at interrupting her lord and master. The contraction that rippled across the swollen belly was as obvious as the woman's pain. F'lar dared not look toward her, but he wondered if she had deliberately groaned aloud to break the tension.
Incredibly, Fax began to laugh. He threw back his head, showing big, stained teeth, and roared.
«Aye, renounce it, in favor of her issue, if it is maleand lives!» he crowed, laughing raucously.
«Heard and witnessed!» F'lar snapped, jumping to his feet and pointing to his riders. They were on their feet in an instant. «Heard and witnessed!» they averred in the traditional manner.
With that movement, everyone began to babble at once in nervous relief. The other women, each reacting in her way to the imminence of birth, called orders to the servants and advice to each other. They converged toward the Lady Gemma, hovering undecidedly out of Fax's range like silly wherries disturbed from their roosts. It was obvious they were torn between their fear of their Lord and their desire to reach the laboring woman.
He gathered their intentions as well as their reluctance and, still stridently laughing, knocked back his chair. He stepped over it, strode down to the meat stand and stood hacking off pieces with his knife, stuffing them, juice dripping, into his mouth without ceasing to guffaw.
As F'lar bent toward the Lady Gemma to assist her out of her chair, she grabbed his arm urgently. Their eyes met, hers clouded with pain. She pulled him closer.
«He means to kill you, bronze rider. He loves to kill,» she whispered.
«Dragonmen are not easily killed, brave lady. I am grateful to you.»
«I do not want you killed,» she said softly, biting at her lip. «We have so few bronze riders.»
F'lar stared at her, startled. Did she. Fax's lady, actually believe in the Old Laws? He beckoned to two of the Warder's men to carry her up into the Hold. He caught Lady Tela by the arm as she fluttered past him in their wake.
«What do you need?»
«Oh, oh,» she exclaimed, her face twisted with panic; she was distractedly wringing her hands. «Water, hot, clean. Cloths. And a birthing-woman. Oh, yes, we must have a birthing-woman.»
F'lar looked about for one of the Hold women, his glance sliding over the first disreputable figure who had started to mop up the spilled food. He signaled instead for the Warder and peremptorily ordered him to send for the birthing-woman. The Warder kicked at the drudge on the floor.
«You . . . you! Whatever your name is, go get her from the crafthold. You must know who she is.»
With a nimbleness at odds with her appearance of extreme age and decrepitude, the drudge evaded the parting kick the Warder aimed in her direction. She scurried across the Hall and out the kitchen door.
Fax sliced and speared meat, occasionally bursting out with a louder bark of laughter as his thoughts amused him. F'lar sauntered down to the carcass and, without waiting for invitation from his host, began to carve neat slices also, beckoning his men over. Fax's soldiers, however, waited till their Lord had eaten his fill.
CHAPTER VI
Lord of the Hold, your charge is sure
In thick walls, metal doors, and no verdure
Lessa sped from the Hall to find the crafthold birthing-woman, her mind seething with frustration. So close! So close! How could she come so close and yet fail? Fax should have challenged the dragonman. And the dragonman was strong and young, his face that of a fighter, stern and controlled. He should not have temporized. Was all honor dead in Pern, smothered by green grass?
And why, oh, why, had the Lady Gemma chosen that precious moment to go into labor? If her groan hadn't distracted Fax, the fight would have begun, and not even Fax, for all his vaunted prowess as a vicious fighter, would have prevailed against a dragonman who had Lessa's support. The Hold must be secured to its rightful Blood again. Fax would not leave Ruatha alive!
Above her, on the High Tower, the great bronze dragon gave forth a weird croon, his many-faceted eyes sparkling in the gathering darkness.
Unconsciously she silenced him as she would have done the watch-wher. Ah, that watch-wher. He had not come out of his den at her passing. She knew the dragons had been at him. She could hear him gibbering in his panic. They'd drive him to his death.
The slant of the road toward the crafthold lent impetus to her flying feet, and she had to brace herself to a sliding stop at the birthing-woman's stone threshold. She banged on the closed door and heard the frightened exclamation of surprise within.
«A birth. A birth at the Hold,» Lessa cried in time to her thumping.
«A birth?» came the muffled cry, and the latches were thrown up on the door, «At the Hold?»
«Fax's lady and, as you love life, hurry, for if it is male, it will be Ruatha's own Lord.»
That ought to fetch her, thought Lessa, and in that instant the door was flung open by the man of the house. Lessa could see the birthing-woman gathering up her things in haste, piling them into her shawl. Lessa hurried the woman out, up the steep road to the Hold, under the Tower gate, grabbing the woman as she tried to run at the sight of a dragon peering down at her. Lessa drew her into the Court and pushed her, resisting, into the Hall.
The woman clutched at the inner door, balking at the sight of the gathering there. Lord Fax, his feet up on the trestle table, was paring his fingernails with his knife blade, still chuckling. The dragonmen in their wher-hide tunics, were eating quietly at one table while the soldiers were having their turn at the meat.
The bronze rider noticed their entrance and pointed urgently toward the inner Hold. The birthingwoman seemed frozen to the spot. Lessa tugged futilely at her arm, urging her to cross the Hall. To her surprise, the bronze rider strode to them.
«Go quickly, woman. Lady Gemma is before her time,» he said, frowning with concern, gesturing imperatively toward the Hold entrance. He caught her by the shoulder and led her, all unwilling, toward the steps, Lessa tugging away at her other arm.
When they reached the stairs, he relinquished his grip, nodding to Lessa to escort her the rest of the way. Just as they reached the massive inner door, Lessa noticed how sharply the dragonman was looking at them. At her hand on the birthing-woman's arm. Warily, she glanced at her hand and saw it, as if it belonged to a stranger-the long fingers, shapely despite dirt and broken nails, a small hand, delicately boned, gracefully placed despite the urgency of the grip. She blurred it
The Lady Gemma was indeed in hard labor, and all was not well. When Lessa tried to retire from the room, the birthing-woman shot her such a terrified glance that Lessa reluctantly remained. It was obvious that Fax's other ladies were of no use. They were huddled at one side of the high bed, wringing their hands and talking in shrill, excited tones. It remained to Lessa and the birthing-woman to remove Gemma's clothing, to ease her and hold her hands against the contractions.
There was little left of beauty in the gravid woman's face. She was perspiring heavily, her skin tinged with gray. Her breath was sharp and rasping, and she bit her lips against outcry.
«This is not going well,» the birthing-woman muttered under her breath. «You there, stop your sniveling,» she ordered, swinging around to point at one of the gaggle. She lost her indecision as the requirements of her calling gave her temporary authority over those of rank. «Bring me hot water. Hand those cloths over. Find something warm for the babe. If it is born alive, it must be kept from drafts and chill.»
Reassured by her tyranny, the women stopped their whimpering and did her bidding.
If it survives, the words echoed in Lessa's mind. Survives to be Lord of Ruatha. One of Fax's get? That had not been her intention, although
The Lady Gemma grabbed blindly for Lessa's hands, and despite herself, Lessa responded with such comfort as a strong grip would afford the woman.
«She bleeds too much,» the birthing-woman muttered. «More cloths.»
The women resumed their wailing, uttering little shrieks of fear and protestation.
«She should not have been made to journey so far.»
«They will both die.»
«Oh, it is too much blood.»
Too much blood, thought Lessa. I have no quarrel with her. And the child comes too early. It will die. She looked down at the contorted face, the bloodied lower lip. If she does not cry out now, why did she then? Fury swept through Lessa. This woman had, for some obscure reason, deliberately diverted Fax and F'lar at the crucial moment. She all but crushed Gemma's hands in hers.
Pain from such an unexpected quarter roused Gemma from her brief respite between the shuddering contractions that seized her at shorter and shorter intervals. Blinking sweat from her eyes, she focused desperately on Lessa's face.
«What have I done to you?» she gasped.
«Done? I had Ruatha almost within my grasp again when you uttered your false cry,» Lessa said, her head bent so that not even the birthing-woman at the foot of the bed could hear them. She was so angry that she had lost all discretion, but it would not matter, for this woman was close to death.
The Lady Gemma's eyes widened. «Butthe dragonman . . . Fax cannot kill the dragonman. There are so few bronze riders. They are all needed. And the old talesthe star . . . star . . .» She could not continue, for a massive contraction shook her. The heavy rings on her fingers bit into Lessa's hands as she clung to the girl.
«What do you mean?» Lessa demanded in a hoarse whisper.
But the woman's agony was so intense that she could scarcely breathe. Her eyes seemed to start from her head. Lessa, hardened though she had become to all emotion save that of revenge, was shocked to the deeper feminine instinct of easing a woman's pain in her extremity. Even so, the Lady Gemma's words rang through her mind. The woman had not, then, protected Fax, but the dragonman. The star? Did she mean the Red Star? Which old tales?
The birthing-woman had both hands on Gemma's belly, pressing downward, chanting advice to a woman too far gone in pain to hear. The twisting body gave a convulsive heave, lifting from the bed. As Lessa tried to support her. Lady Gemma opened her eyes wide, her expression one of incredulous relief. She collapsed into Lessa's arms and lay still.
«She's dead!» shrieked one of the women. She flew, screaming, from the chamber. Her voice reverberated down the rock halls. «Dead . . . ead . . . ead . . . ddddd,» echoed back to the dazed women, who stood motionless in shock.
Lessa laid the woman down on the bed, staring amazed at the oddly triumphant smile on Gemma's face. She retreated into the shadows, far more shaken than anyone else. She who had never hesitated to do anything that would thwart Fax or beggar Ruatha further was trembling with remorse. She had forgotten in her single-mindedness that there might be others motivated by a hatred of Fax. The Lady Gemma was one, and one who had suffered far more subjective brutalities and indignities than Lessa had. Yet Lessa had hated Gemma, had poured out that hatred on a woman who had deserved her respect and support rather than her condemnation.
Lessa shook her head to dispel the aura of tragedy and self-revulsion that threatened to overwhelm her. She had no time for regret or contrition. Not now. Not when, by affecting Fax's death, she could avenge not only her own wrongs but Gemma's!
That was it. And she had the lever. The child . . . yes, the child. She'd say it lived. That it was male. The dragonman would have to fight. He had heard and witnessed Fax's oath.
A smile, not unlike the one on the dead woman's face, crossed Lessa's as she hurried down the corridors to the Hall.
She was about to dash into the Hall itself when she realized she had permitted her anticipation of triumph to destroy her self-discipline. Lessa halted at the portal, deliberately took a deep breath. She dropped her shoulders and stepped down, once more the colorless drudge.
The harbinger of death was sobbing in a heap at Fax's feet.
Lessa gritted her teeth against redoubled hatred for the overlord. He was glad the Lady Gemma had died, birthing his seed. Even now he was ordering the hysterical woman to go tell his latest favorite to attend him, doubtless to install her as his first lady.
«The child lives,» Lessa cried, her voice distorted with anger and hatred. «It is male.»
Fax was on his feet, kicking aside the weeping woman, scowling viciously at Lessa. «What are you saying, woman?»
«The child lives. It is male,» she repeated, descending. The incredulity and rage that suffused Fax's face was wonderful to see. The Warder's men stifled their inadvertent cheers.
«Ruatha has a new Lord.» The dragons roared.
So intent was she on achieving her purpose that she failed to notice the reactions of others in the hall, failed to hear the roaring of the dragons without.
Fax erupted into action. He leaped across the intervening space, bellowing denials of the news. Before Lessa could dodge, his fist crashed down across her face. She was swept off her feet, off the steps, and fell heavily to the stone floor, where she lay motionless, a bundle of dirty rags.
«Hold, Fax!» F'lar's voice cut across the silence as the Lord of the High Reaches lifted his leg to kick the unconscious body.
Fax whirled, his hand automatically closing on his knife hilt
«It was heard and witnessed. Fax,» F'lar cautioned him, one hand outstretched in warning, «by dragonmen. Stand by your sworn and witnessed oath!»
«Witnessed? By dragonmen?» cried Fax with a derisive laugh. «Dragonwomen, you mean,» he sneered, his eyes blazing with contempt, one sweeping gesture of scorn dismissing them all.
He was momentarily taken aback by the speed with which the bronze rider's knife appeared in his hand.
«Dragonwomen?» F'lar queried, his lips curling back over his teeth, his voice dangerously soft. Glowlight flickered off his circling blade as he advanced on Fax.