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Ski
Old Runel was dead, he thought with a flash of regret. Old Runel and all the Ruathan begets as well as the bloodlines of ru
Ski
Alessan came to the fork in the track, each direction leading to nursery fields. Dag would have taken the less accessible one, he decided, but he paused long enough to see if there had been a message left at the division. Not a rag, a bone, or an u
He dug his heels into Ski
Then they were at the rise that led to the pasture and, for a heartbreaking moment, Alessan could see nothing of man or beast in the rolling fields. But the barrier had been man-made, with prickly hedge and stone, high enough to contain docile beasts. He rose in his stirrups, numb with the fear that Dag had brought the plague with him and died with all the animals. Then he saw the thin column of smoke to his right, saw the flapping of a shirt drying on a branch. He heard a piercing whistle.
From the slope down to the stream, ru
His whoop was answered from the rude shelter dug into the high side of the slope. The small figure standing at its entrance waved both arms. One small figure! Inadvertently Alessan checked Ski
"You took your time. Lord Alessan!" The boy's expression was as impertinent as his words were resentful and unforgiving.
"Dag?" Alessan's voice broke in consternation. He could not move from the saddle. Until that moment, he hadn't realized how much he had looked forward to seeing the old handler, how sorely he needed Dag's knowledgeable advice if Ruathan ru
A
"I thought you'd forgotten us!" He stepped to one side and gestured toward the shelter. "He broke his leg. I took care of all the ru
Alessan would have swatted him for impudence had he been able to catch him but Fergal, gri
"Alessan?" Dag's summons came from the shelter and Alessan put aside any thought of discipline to rush in to his old ally. "I saved all I could for you, Alessan. I saved all I could."
"You have also saved Ruatha!"
"I do apologize for intruding on the Hatching Ground, Moreta," Capiam said, peering cautiously around the entrance.
"Come in. Come in!" Moreta beckoned him eagerly to join her in her temporary accommodation in the first tier.
Capiam looked back over his shoulder a moment and then entered, keeping an anxious eye on Orlith among her eggs.
"She does seem quite serene, doesn't she?"
"Oh, she is!"
"M'barak, who conveyed Desdra and me here, said that she will even show off that splendid queen egg she clutched." With due respect for the hot volcanic sands, Capiam walked quickly to Moreta.
"Desdra's here? I've heard a great deal about her from M'barak and K'lon."
"She's chatting with Jallora so I could have a private word with you." Capiam cleared his throat in an uncharacteristic show of nervousness.
Moreta thought he was wary of Orlith and extended her hands to him. She supposed she must get used to the changes wrought in people by the plague. Capiam appeared only to have lost weight, for his eyes sparkled out of a craggy face that would become more attractive with age. His hair was thi
"To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?" she asked.
His eyes twinkled. "An unexpected . . . challenge is what I told Master Tirone."
Alerted by his geniality, Moreta searched his face. "What sort of a challenge?"
"I'll come to that in a moment, if I may. First, would you know if ru
Moreta stared at him a moment, surprised to be asked the same question twice in a short space of time, and surprised that the question had to be asked at all. She was angry that no one had taken steps to safeguard the ru
"I answered that same question for Alessan last night."
"Oh!" Capiam blinked with surprise. "Oh, and how did you answer Lord Alessan?"
"Affirmatively."