I like dolphins. Flo is with them. And here come others from the pod.

Close to land now, F'lessan could see Zaranth sitting upright on the shore, watching her rider. Golanth landed, dipping his head politely to the big green and managing deftly not to churn sand onto her. Draped on Zaranth's neck ridge were a towel, a shirt, and shorts. F'lessan slipped off Golanth's back and took a moment to shuck off his flying gear, wishing he could strip and swim.

You could, you know.

Golanth!F'lessan should have grown accustomed to his dragon's teasing.

Then he saw Tai limping out of the water and, grabbing the towel from Zaranth's back, he jogged down to the edge of the sea. Only because he knew that his flying boots would take a long time to dry did he resist the impulse to continue into the water. Her body, legs, and arms were covered by bruises. Persellan had done a neat repair of the gash on her right cheekbone.

"What's wrong, F'lessan?" she asked anxiously, splashing the rest of the way.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, looking but not looking-as was polite-at her long lean figure and her long, lovely legs.

"Admiring Natua's calf," she answered tartly, taking the towel from his hand and wrapping it about her. "There he is." She pointed to the dolphin heads, large and small, bobbing as they watched her safely landed. "Salt water's good for wounds, you know."

"And washed off all the numbweed." He reached for his belt pouch. He had seen her wince when the towel rubbed against one of the contusions.

"I brought some with me," she said, pointing to her clothes.

"And I suppose Zaranth can apply it?" He gestured to the bruises running down her back.

"Why are you angry with me?"

F'lessan let his breath go out in one exasperated sigh and glanced around him, looking for a good answer. Even the right one.

"I'm sorry. I was worried."

She gave him a little smile. "Thank you. Zaranth was doing all the worrying I needed." She shot a fond glance at her green dragon, who had been joined by Golanth, sitting beside her in much the same pose, an arm's length taller at the shoulder. "How bad was it at the Healer Hall?"

F'lessan blinked, time-disoriented. Landing was half a day ahead of Fort.

"Give me your numbweed and I'll apply it while I tell you."

He did tell her-in perhaps more detail than was possibly discreet, but she was a rider, already involved, and deserved to know.

On her part, Tai was grateful that he could spread on more salve. The salty water had stung the cheek cut and the scrapes, although it had been good for the bruises. The solicitude of the dolphins had been another balm. When dolphins went to the aid of humans in the sea, they didn't stop to consider the consequences: they acted. Everyone else had lectured her on how foolish she had been to burst in on the vandals. She didn't bother to justify her actions. Of course, she hadn't had any reason to suspect what she'd found: men swinging hammers and crowbars with such fervent expressions of enjoyment on their faces that at first she'd thought they'd gone mad. She had wrestled a bar from one man's grasp, her interference confusing him enough to loosen his grip. She poked him hard in the groin and then, once he'd dropped to his knees, she started swinging the bar indiscriminately around her. She'd been so furious that she really hadn't thought of the danger to herself. The very idea of someone destroying healer remedies-some of which might be needed before the night was over-had given her a strength, and an agility, she hadn't known she had. But what would have happened to her if that vandal had managed to complete the swing of his hammer? She flinched, remembering how close it had come.

"Didn't mean to be so heavy-handed," F'lessan said in quick apology. "I'm nearly finished."

"Not your touch, F'lessan," she replied. "It's the thought that there are still Abominators, causing willful damage for some perverted reason. You'd think that a healer hall would be the last place to be attacked! For any reason!"

He screwed on the cap of the numbweed jar with an angry twist, and then stared out across the sea, turning his head northeast, in the general direction of the islands where the first Abominators had been exiled after the abduction of Master Robinton.

"There's no chance, is there," she asked, following his gaze and dreading the answer, "that they've been rescued and are responsible for these new attacks?"

F'lessan shook his head, rolling up the sleeves of his rumpled Gather shirt. The sun wasn't up very high yet, but even here by the sea, the air was getting warm with the new day.

"I suspect riders will investigate. Do you know if T'gellan learned anything?"

Tai shook her head, her lips twitching in amusement. "Green riders are the last to hear. Besides, Persellan sent me to my weyr. I went, but I couldn't get comfortable."

"Hmmm. That's understandable, considering the number of bruises I just tended. Have you fellis to take?" He had returned her numbweed jar and now fumbled in his pouch.

"Yes, I do," she replied and rose to her feet. "I help Persellan, you know. I've all I need." She grinned. "Except my arms don't bend to reach the awkward spots. Thanks. I think I will be able to rest now."

"Promise?"

She cocked her head at him in mild reprimand. "You're the one who needs to rest, bronze rider. Thank you for your concern." She extended her hand toward Golanth. "Zaranth will take me back."

And I will take you, F'lessan,Golanth said, rising to all four feet, to Honshu.

For a confused moment, F'lessan looked after Tai's towel-draped body striding across the white sands to her dragon and saw her begin to dress.

It will make sense when you've had some sleep,Golanth remarked as rider and dragon watched the green make a graceful spring into the air, neatly down-winging to gain altitude and quickly reaching a gliding height on a sea thermal. Zaranth's a good size for a green. You're sweating. It 'II be cooler, and much nicer, in Honshu right now.

F'lessan rolled down his sleeves, shrugged into his riding gear, and jumped to his dragon's back.

"Then let's get there, please, Golly."

They were already airborne when a horrible thought crossed F'lessan's mind. What if yet another gang of Abominators had broken into Honshu during one of his absences and smashed some of the brittle artifacts?

You are silly-tired,Golanth said with exasperation. It takes days to walk there. Not even a runner trace to guide a stranger.

"Runners!" F'lessan exclaimed. "The Runners should be asked if they've seen any suspicious groups out on their tracks!"

Someone else will remember to do that. We're going to Honshu.With that, Golanth took them between.

The Benden and Fort Weyrleaders, along with Lord Jaxom and Lady Sharra of Ruatha Hold, joined Lord Groghe, his sons, Masterharper Sebell, and Master Healer Crivellan at a late private meeting in the small dining room. Not as lavishly decorated for Turnover as the Main Hall and located on the inside rank of the Hold's main reception area, the warm, comfortably sized room was partly wood-paneled, and hung with amixture of tastefully arranged portraits and landscapes of varying styles and periods.

Since the possibility that the Abominators exiled in 2539 had somehow escaped their remote island occurred to others during the afternoon, N'ton had gone with one of Sebell's most discreet men to make certain that those men and women were all present and accounted for. The island was one of many in the long eastern archipelago, its precise location known only to N'ton; even the most diligent search by other dissidents would have been unlikely to find the inhabited one.