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That spring young Robinton had a revelation which made a tremendous impact on his mind: he met dragons.
He'd always known they existed, and once in a while a wing would be seen flying in formation high overhead. He knew that Fort Weyr had been empty for several hundred turns, and that no one knew why. He knew, from Teaching Songs and Ballads, why there were dragons: that they kept Thread away – though he didn't understand why Thread was so dangerous. People's clothes were made of thread, and they wouldn't wear something that was dangerous to them, would they? When he asked Kubisa about it, she said that Thread was a living organism, not spun and woven as was the undangerous thread that went into clothing. This bad Thread fell from the sky and hungrily ate anything living that it touched, from grass to ru
"Then why," the logical Robie asked, "do we keep singing about it?"
"In appreciation of those times when the dragons did keep the danger away," she said, at her most reassuring.
Robinton asked his mother about Thread and got much the same answer, which really wasn't sufficient to satisfy his curiosity. If the dragons were so important, and they were still flying the skies of Pern, they were there to keep Thread away. They were keeping it away, but there weren't as many as there used to be – not with five Weyrs empty. Would they be enough if Thread came?
Lexey had told him once – Lexey talked a lot to Rob because he would listen to him – that his mother kept telling him that if he didn't behave better, they'd leave him out for Thread to get.
"You know so much, Rob. Would it?" Lexey asked plaintively, sufficiently scared of the threat that most times it achieved the object of making him more obedient – at least for a few days.
"I never heard of it being done to anyone, no matter how bad you are. And "sides, there isn't any Thread in the skies right now." "But, if I was bad enough, would it come to get me?"
"Hasn't yet, has it?" was Robinton's logical reply. "You were awful bad yesterday, making a mess with the colours when you were told to clear them up."
"Yes, I was." Lexey gri
He always tried very hard not to upset either his mother or his father – especially his father.
Lexey's paint-smearing occurred the day before the dragons came, so they were at the forefront of Robie's mind when they came circling down into the big Harper Hall courtyard. His parents were busy packing for their trip to Nerat, so he'd been told to go outside and play. He always missed his mother, but it would be nice to stay with Kubisa and her daughter Libby, where he could sing and play his pipe or his drum without worrying about a
"Oh, look, Robie!" she cried.
"That's not fair ..."
His complaint died as he realized that the dragons soaring above were coming closer to the Harper Hall, rather than the Hold where they usually landed. Half a wing of dragons – six of them. As they swept closer, backwinging, their hind legs stretched downwards to land in the Harper Hall rectangle, Robie, Libby and Lexey pressed themselves tightly against the wall to stay out of the way. As it was, two of the dragons had to land outside, since the four made the big quadrangle suddenly appear very small.
The ridged tail of a bronze was so close to Robie that he could reach out and touch it. Which he did, greatly daring, while Lexey regarded him with staring eyes, aghast at his impudence.
"You'll get left out for Thread for sure, Robie," Lexey whispered hoarsely, pressing his sturdy body as close to the stone wall as he could, well away from the dragon's tail.
"He's soft," Robie whispered back, surprised. Ru
No, not precisely, a voice said in his mind. The dragon turned his huge head to see who had touched him, causing Lexey to hiss in alarm and Libby to whimper in terror. There are many differences.
"I do apologize. I didn't mean to insult you, bronze dragon," Robie said, giving a jerky little bow. "I've never seen one of you up close before."
We do not come as often to the Harper Hall as we used to. It had to be the dragon speaking, Robie decided, because the deep voice couldn't have come from anyone else near by. The rider had dismounted and was standing on the steps talking to his mother and father.
"Are my mother and father going to ride on you to Nerat?" Robie knew that was why the dragons had come, to take all the harpers to Nerat for the espousal. His mother had told him that. Nerat Hold had asked the Weyrleader to provide dragon transport. Going a-dragonback meant they didn't have a long land journey to make, so they wouldn't be away long. And besides it was a great honour to go a-dragonback.
They are harpers? the dragon asked.
"Yes, my mother's MasterSinger Merelan and my father is Master Petiron. He writes the music they're going to sing."
We look forward to hearing it.
"I didn't know dragons liked music," Robie said, greatly surprised. That had never been mentioned with all the other things he'd learned about dragonkind.
Well, we do. So does my rider, M'ridin. Robie could not miss the affection with which the dragon named his rider. He asked especially to convey your mother and father. It will be an honour for us to take a MasterSinger to Nerat.
"Who are you talking to?" Libby asked, her eyes still wide with fright for Robie's presumptuous behaviour towards the huge and powerful creature.
"The dragon, o' course," Robie said, having no real sense of doing something unusual. "You'll be careful with them, won't you, dragon?"
Of course!
Robie was certain the dragon was laughing inside. "What's so fu
I have a name, you know.
"Oh, I know that all dragons have names, but I've only just met you so I don't know your name." Robie turned his head ever so slightly to be sure his friends were observing how brave he was.
And courteous.
Cortath is my name. What is yours, little one ?
"Robie ... that is, Robinton, and you will fly my parents very carefully, won't you?"
Of course I will, young Robinton.
Greatly reassured by that, Robie took advantage of this unparalleled opportunity and asked, "Will you be fighting Thread when it comes back?"
The tail gave such a convulsive twitch that it nearly swept both Lexey and Robinton, who were nearest, off their feet. The dragon swerved his body around so that his great head, with its many-faceted eyes swirling with a variety of colours rapidly turning into orange and red, came closer to Robie.
Dragons always fly when Thread is in the sky, was the unequivocal answer.
"You know the song then?" Robie asked, delighted.