Silvina returned, offering Menolly the mug she’d brought, and stood over her while she downed the dose, gagging a little at the bitterness.

“Yes, I know. I made it strong on purpose. You need to sleep. And Master Robinton, there’s a messenger from the Hold for you below. Urgent, he said, and he’s out of breath!”

“Sleep yourself out, Menolly,” the Harper said as he rapidly left the room.

“Trouble?” Menolly asked Silvina, hoping to be told something.

“Not for you, or because of you, m’girl.” Silvina chuckled, pushing the sleeping fur under Menolly’s chin. “I understand that Groghe, Lord of Fort Hold, experienced the same unnerving nightmare, as he calls it, that you did and has sent for Master Robinton to explain it to him. Now rest and don’t fuss yourself.”

“How could I? You must have doubled that dose of fellis juice,” said Menolly, relaxed and tactless in the grip of the drug. She couldn’t keep her eyes open and effortlessly drifted to sleep to the sound of another chuckle from Silvina. One last thought let her slip easily into unconsciousness: Lord Groghe’s fire lizard had reacted, so she wasn’t hysterical.

She awoke slightly at one point, not quite conscious of her surroundings but aware of a rumbling voice, a treble response, and hungry creelings. When she woke completely later, there was an empty bowl on the floor, and her friends were curled up about her in slumbering balls, wing-limp. The gnawing in her stomach suggested that she had slept well into the day, and the hunger was all her own. If the fire lizards had been that starved, they’d’ve been awake. Doubtless Camo and Piemur had done her the favor of feeding her friends. She grinned; Piemur and Camo must have been delighted at the chance.

The shutters were open and, with no sounds of music or voices, she guessed it must be afternoon and the Hall’s population dispersed to their various chores. The watch dragon was back on the fire heights.

She sat upright in bed as the memory of the previous night’s tenor shattered her pleasant somnolence. At the same moment there was a tap on her door, and before she could answer, Silvina entered, carrying a small tray.

“My timing’s very good,” she said, pleased and smiling. “Do you feel rested?”

Menolly nodded in reply and thanked Silvina for the hot klah she was handed. “But, if I can be bold, you don’t look as if you slept at all.” Silvina’s eyes were dark-circled and red-shot.

“Well, you’re right and you’re not bold, but I’m on my way to my bed, I can assure you, as soon as I’ve straightened up for Robinton. Now…” and Silvina nudged Menolly’s hip so the girl made room for her to sit on the bed, “you ought to hear what disturbed your friends last night. No one else will think to tell you with the Harper away. Also, I’ve just checked the eggs, and I think you should take a look at them… Not, however, until you’ve finished your klah,” and Silvina put a restraining hand on Menolly’s shoulder. “I want your wits in place and not fellis-fuddled.”

“What happened?”

“The bare bones of the matter are that F’nor, brown Canth’s rider, took it into his head to go to the Red Star last night…”

Menolly’s gasp woke the fire lizards.

“Mind your thoughts, girl. I don’t want them turning hysterical again, thank you.” Silvina waited until the creatures had settled back into their naps.

“That’s what seems to have set the fire lizards off, at any rate. And not just yours. Robinton said that anyone who has a fire lizard had the same trouble you did, only with your having nine, it was intensified. What happened was that Canth and F’nor went between to the Red Star…Yes, small wonder you were terrified. What you told us about grayness and all that hideous heat and churning, that’s what’s on the Red Star. No one could land there!” She paused, gave a smug grunt. “That’ll shut up the Lord Holders for wanting to go there!”

“Canth and F’nor?” Menolly felt fear stab coldly up her throat, and she remembered the scream.

“They’re alive, but only just. And when you said, ‘Don’t leave me alone’? What you heard…and it had to be through your fire lizards…was Brekke calling out to F’nor and Canth.” Silvina broke her narrative for effect. “Somehow they got back. Well, partway back from the Red Star. It must have been the most incredible sight…” Silvina’s tired eyes narrowed, reconstructing that vision. “The reason the hold dragon took off was to help land Canth. It was like a path, Robinton tells us, of dragons in the air, catching Canth and F’nor, and braking their fall. They were both senseless, of course. Robinton says there isn’t a scrap of hide left on Canth; as if some mighty hand had sanded his skin away. F’nor is not much better, for all he wore wherhide.”

“Silvina, how could my fire lizards know what was happening at Benden Weyr?”

“Ramoth called the dragons…the Benden queen can do that, you know. Your fire lizards have been at Weyr. Perhaps they heard her, too,” Silvina dismissed that part of the mystery impatiently.

“But Silvina, my fire lizards were afraid long before Ramoth called the Fort dragon, even before I heard Brekke call!”

“Why, that’s right. Ah well, we’ll find the answer to that mystery in due time. We always do at the Harper Hall. If dragons can talk to dragons across distance, why can’t fire lizards?”

“Dragons think sense,” Menolly said, gently scratching her waking queen’s little head, “and these beauties don’t. At least not often.”

“Babies don’t make sense, and your fire lizards aren’t all that long out of the shell. But think on it, Menolly. Camo doesn’t make much sense, but he does have feelings.”

“Was it he who fed my fire lizards this morning so I could sleep?”

“He and Piemur. Camo fussed and fussed before breakfast until I had to send him up here, with Piemur, to shut his moans.” Silvina’s chuckle was half amusement, half remembered irritation. “Nag, nag, nag about ‘pretties hungry,’ ‘feed pretties.’ Piemur said you didn’t wake. Did you?”

“No.” But the matter of fire lizard intelligence was more urgent in Menolly’s estimation. “I suppose being at might explain their reaction.”

“Not entirely,” Silvina replied briskly. “Lord Groghe’s little friend responded too. It wasn’t hatched at Benden and has never been there. There may well be more to these creatures than being silly pets after all. And making idiots of men who fancy themselves as good as dragonriders.”

“I’ve finished my klah. Shall we see the eggs now?”

“Yes, by all means. If his egg should hatch without the Harper, we’d never hear the end of it.”

“Is Sebell about?”

“Hovering!” Silvina’s grimace was so maliciously expressive that Menolly laughed. “How’re your feet today?”

“Only stiff.”

“Just remember that that salve doesn’t do you any good in the jar.”

“Yes, Silvina.”

“Don’t you ‘yes, Silvina’ me meekly, m’girl,” and there was unexpected warmth and affection in the woman’s tone. Menolly smiled shyly back as the headwoman left the room. She dressed quickly in one of the new tunics and the blue wherhide trousers, plumped up the rushes in their bag and smoothed the sleeping fur over all.

Silvina had just finished tidying up the Harper’s room when Menolly entered, Beauty winging in gracefully behind her. She landed on Menolly’s shoulder and, as Menolly checked both eggs, peered with equally curious interest. She chirped a question at Menolly.

“Well?” drawled Silvina, “now that you experts have conferred…”

Menolly giggled. “I don’t think Beauty knows anymore than I do. She’s never seen eggs hatch, but they are a good deal harder. They’ve been kept so nicely warm. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect they’ll hatch at any time now.”

Silvina drew in her breath sharply, startling Beauty. “That Harper! The problem will be keeping track of him.” She gave the rush bag a final poke and twitched the sleeping fur straight. “If Lord Groghe,” and Silvina jerked her head toward the Fort Hold palisade, “isn’t sending for him, F’lar is. Or Lord Lytol for that white dragonet.”