"Maybe Golanth could bring us some wine?" she proposed.

Golanth peered down from the terrace above, his eyes whirling with some anxiety. Idon't know how Zaranth brings things you want.

"Maybe we should try him with trundlebugs in his way," Tai said, giving her lover a sly grin. "If he does it Zaranth's way, they don't get upset and spread that stink of theirs."

We don't have trundlebugs in Benden,Golanth told his rider but he was plainly curious about how Zaranth had managed to move things around. Dragons moved themselves and their riders across great distances all the time; and recently Golanth had moved between times, but this moving something elsewas another matter altogether-one he had never attempted and could not do.

"We'll find some then," F'lessan said aloud as well as mentally to his bemused bronze. Some stray memory-associated with the time Farli and Ruth had gone to the Yoko-hovered at the back of his mind. "Will you have time tomorrow to help us locate some?" he asked Tai.

"In the afternoon, perhaps, but I did volunteer to help Erragon calculate orbits."

"Well, if you should see any trundlebugs at Cove Hold, give us a shout."

"Why not come help me calculate orbits?"

"A splendid notion since you know very well that I need the practice. Speaking of practice-" Carefully he lifted the thong of the binoculars from her neck and put them to one side and practiced making love to her. That was the most important reason he had brought the mattress out to the terrace and suggested they lie down and challenge each other at identifying stars.

When they met the next afternoon on the west side of Cove Hold where Tai had already spotted trundlebugs, they landed. Golanth was still dubious about arranging himself in the direct path of a mother trundlebug and two offspring, and Zaranth crouched behind a nearby thicket to encourage him. F'lessan and Tai stood in the shadow of a large frond tree as spectators.

Sublimely unaware of the obstacle set in its path, the trundlebug continued.

"Zaranth is telling Golanth that it's just a matter of turning it."

With a wide and mischievous grin, F'lessan closed his fingers around Tai's hand.

"My very dear green, I can hear everything she says."

"Can you?" Tai shot him a surprised glance. She knew that Ramoth and Mnementh, even Monarth and Path, spoke to each other's people.

The unmistakable stink of trundlebug interrupted this revelation.

What did you do?both riders cried, holding their noses as they ran for their dragons to mount and leave the clearing before they were actively ill.

I turned it,Golanth said as he leaped into the air, hoping betweenwould absorb the awful reek.

Into mush,Zaranth said with some disgust.

They came out, so high above Cove Hold that they could see the whole of it spread out before them and the observatory sitting on its hill. I can't smell me,Golanth said in an unusually meek voice.

I hope no one visits that clearing in the next day or two,F'lessan told Zaranth.

Tai says she sees another clearing and that Golanth must try again. I think I know what he didn't do,Zaranth said.

Riding at Golanth's right wing tip, Tai grinned across at his rider and gestured down. F'lessan nodded vigorously. Zaranth and Tai veered left and let the following wind ease them down until both dragons circled the new clearing of the thick young growth that was springing up after the tsunami flooding.

Again Golanth sat himself down in the path of the trundle-bug, one with five offspring, the last nearly big enough to go off by itself.

Now, you want to turn them just enough so they go in another direction,Zaranth was saying calmly. Not grind them into the sand at the same time. Just point to the east and give them a gentle…I SAID GENTLE… Where'd you send them?

East,Golanth said very softly.

The green dragon and both riders looked to the east. There was a noticeable passage, trundlebug-wide, in a straight line through the grasses as far as they could see to the very waters of Cove Hold.

"Didn't you say they can tread water?" F'lessan asked, almost as chagrined as his dragon.

"If they don't already, they'll learn today," Tai replied. "Trundlebugs are survivors."

He does understand what to do,Zaranth said. He was–well, maybe, too enthusiastic?

"I think," F'lessan said, making good use of a chance to put his arm around Tai, "that more practice will determine exactly how much-energy? enthusiasm?-is enough to do the trick."

When Tenna came in from her run and handed Torlo her packet of letters from the Southern Boll stations, he leaned close, on the pretext of making a notation of her arrival on his schedule pad.

"Need to see your friend-" The old man paused so that Tenna would appreciate which friend. "-tonight. You, too. Side bench. Ten-thirty."

Tenna was becoming accustomed now to arranging meetings with Haligon for Torlo.

"You've a run uphill tomorrow, Tenna," he said more audibly.

She made an amused grimace. "Then I'm for the baths and a good long soak."

"As well, things considered," was his reply and she went off, pausing first in the dormitory she shared with other girls. It faced the main street and she pulled the curtain across to the exact center of the window. Haligon, who knew she was back at the Station, would now realize that she wished to see him. She didn't know which hold child ran his messages but they always got to him. She gathered up clean clothes, and then had a long soak and a brisk leg massage before the evening meal.

It was a fair evening, if cold, and a wind always blew down the main road from the hills so she had her lined jacket ready when Haligon appeared at the door. Everyone expected the two to be together when she was in Station so she smiled him a welcome and was glad to see his expression lighten at the sight of her. He'd had a lot of responsibility laid on him by Lord Groghe this Turn, being what Haligon privately described as "the Lord Holder's Runner," and had remained cheerful and accommodating. Or such was the impression she had from Torlo, as much because of what the Station-manager didn'tsay as what he did.

"Walk, Tenna?" Haligon asked, nodding courteously to Torlo and his wife, and extending the acknowledgment to the others in the main room.

The usual jibes of "a walk will do her good after the run" and "don't walk her legs off " followed them out. Such impudent comments were better than disapproving silence.

The new electric lights, fashioned like glowbaskets, were positioned on poles up and down the main road so, despite the chill, they weren't the only ones taking an evening stroll. They walked beyond the fixed lights and off to the side, near a shed by the beastholds. In the shadows there, she and Haligon could embrace without being overseen and with considerable enthusiasm. She'd been away a sevenday and she had missed him. Considering the ardor with which he kissed and nuzzled her, the feeling was mutual.

They had not really-not in so many precise words-discussed their association. She knew that he knew she felt that she wasn't good enough for a son of one of the oldest Bloodlines on Pern. He felt she would miss the freedom of her profession and did not wish to constrain her. He had other, older brothers so his father might not be so particular about whom he espoused. With the problems caused by the Fireball-which Haligon called the Comet--and Flood, they had both been extremely busy. Fort Hold had taken no damage but Lord Groghe had sent Haligon to arrange assistance in Southern Boll, which had had bad flooding. Tenna wondered if perhaps that was Lord Groghe's way of suggesting that Haligon favor Lady Janissian. Thatwould have been an acceptable alliance to Tenna's way of thinking. Haligon's only comment was that the young woman would make a good Holder and he liked her.