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"So long as your riding straps hold" was Piemur's quick retort. Then he shook his head. "Come to think on it, with Aivas as your mentor, you don't need to worry about what mere men could do to you."
"Lord Jaxom will not be in any jeopardy, Harper Piemur," Aivas said with customary composure.
"So you say!" Then Piemur fixed Jaxom with a fierce stare. "So you're going to do it? Without checking with anyone?"
Jaxom glared right back, anger rising. "I don't need to check with anyone, Piemur. I've been making my own decisions for a long time, This time I get to make it without anyone else's interference. Not yours, or F'lar's, or Lessa's, or Robinton's."
"Sharra's?" Piemur cocked his head, his eye contact unswerving.
It doesn't seem to be a hard thing Aivas asks us to do, Jaxom, Ruth said. It is no more dangerous than going between, where we have nothing to hold on to. My talons are strong. My grip will be secure for both of us.
"Ruth sees no problems. If he did, I would certainly listen to him," Jaxom said, very much aware that Sharra would undoubtedly share Piemur's reservations. "I don't know why you're upset about an EVA. I thought you'd want to be first."
Piemur managed a flicker of a smile. "One, I don't have a dragon to reassure me. Two, I dislike being trussed up in this thing." He flicked his hand at the space suit. Then his expression changed to a cocky grin. "And three, it's just likely I'm one of those humans who'd panic out there with solid earth a million dragon-lengths away from my feet. So," he finished, rising to his feet and reaching for Jaxom's helmet, "since I can't talk you out of it, go and do it. Now! Before I get myself in a knot!"
Jaxom gripped his shoulder. "Don't forget that Aivas ca
So let us go. Ruth pushed himself away from the window with just enough force to arrive by Jaxom. He peered down at Piemur's scowling face. Tell Piemur that I won't let anything happen to you.
"Ruth says he won't let anything happen to me," Jaxom said.
With a roughness born of anxiety, Piemur adjusted Jaxom's helmet, securing the fastenings, checking the oxytank unit, and gesturing for him to turn on the helmet's audio.
"Keep up a ru
"Nod if you can hear me all right." The sound of his own voice echoing in the confines of the helmet still sounded u
Piemur nodded, his expression carefully blank.
"Aivas, show us where we're going so Piemur can watch." Jaxom gave his friend one more buffet and then, pulling first one foot and then the other free of the deck, he floated up to Ruth. Hauling himself into position, he attached his riding straps to the toggles that had been designed to hold snap-on equipment for EVA.
"You wearing the right riding harness?" Piemur asked acidly.
"That's the second time you've asked me that today."
"Bears repeating. Can you see the screen perched up there?" Piemur's tone was even more acerbic. Jaxom wished the harper wouldn't worry so much. But that was yet one more difference that only another rider would understand: the supreme confidence one could have in one's dragon's abilities. And Ruth had more than most.
"I can see it," he said, his voice high and ti
Do you know where we're going, Ruth?
Certainly. Shall we go?
Jaxom was accustomed to very short passages between, but this must have been the shortest they had ever taken. One moment they were on the bridge; the next, they were surrounded by a different sort of darkness. For one heartbeat, Jaxom tasted as deep a fear as he had ever known. But Ruth's head, erect and swinging around as he surveyed the scene. was all the token of reassurance Jaxom needed. Then he became aware-unlike the total lack of sensation in between-of his legs pressing against Ruth's neck and even the tug of the straps against his belt.
I won't let go, Ruth said as calmly as ever. I could hang by my claws. The metal is .so cold it feels hot.
Jaxom peered down over the lower edge of his helmet and saw that Ruth had, indeed, curled his talons about the spars-two different spars. Carefully the white dragon had extended his forepaw talons to grip the upper bar and had arranged his hind feet on tiptoe, one in front of the other, for a purchase on the lower one, stretching comfortably between the two levels.
I'm holding my breath, but I am in no discomfort, Ruth conti
"Are you all right, Jaxom?" Aivas asked.
"Perfectly," Jaxom replied. He would have been unwilling to give any other response, but in truth, he felt his muscles relax just a trifle even as he spoke. After all, nothing had happened.
"Ruth suffers no discomfort?"
"He says not. He's holding his breath."
I wish to climb higher, for a better view. There is nothing to be seen here but the engines. They are uninteresting. Before Jaxom could forbid him, Ruth had reached for the spar above his head.
Whatever you do, Ruth, don't let go entirely, Jaxom said urgently.
I'd only float.
Jaxom wondered at his dragon's nonchalance in this new and dangerous environment. But then, didn't dragons meet danger head on every time they flew Thread? At least there was none of that here to score the white hide or pierce a fragile wing-or his space suit.
See? And Ruth did begin to float, rather than climb, upward. Jaxom was so surprised by his dragon's initiative that he could think of nothing to say. And it doesn't matter if I float, Ruth went on, because all I have to do is jump between wherever I need to go. Is it not beautiful up here?
Jaxom had to agree. Ruth had them perched on the topmost rail, and before them, the globe of Pern glowed in brilliant greens and blues: He thought he recognized the Paradise River Hold estuary and, just at the curve of the horizon, the purple hills of Rubicon and Xanadu. Above were the stairs; behind him, shining far too brightly, was Rukbat's blaze. He thought he caught sunlight glinting off one of the other ships-the Bahrain, no doubt. And far, far above him, at an impossible distance, was the Red Star and the Oort Cloud that the erratic planet would penetrate yet again in another hundred or so Turns.
Abruptly Meer and Farli appeared floating beside Ruth, blinking out a moment later only to reappear, hanging on to the spar with their claws, daintily keeping their flesh from contact with the absolute chill of the metal. Their eyes began to whirl into excited reds.
We're not staying much longer. You d better go in. You can't hold your breaths as long as I can, Ruth told the two fire-lizards. They say space is much too big, he said to Jaxom. It is also colder than between. I think we will go in now. I feel the need to breathe.
Once again, before Jaxom could direct the proceeding, Ruth had executed his intention. Almost without ally sensation of transfer, they were back on the bridge of the Yokohama.
That was splendid! Ruth exclaimed, chirping happily.
Piemur's complexion, Jaxom noted, was noticeably pale under his southern tan, and his expression was unusually grim for a man who traversed the Southern coasts for months with only a gold fire-lizard and a runt ru
"Did you have to make Farli and Meer come?"
"They came of their own accord. Ruth says they think space is too big." Jaxom laughed at their understatement. "Ruth thoroughly enjoyed it," he went on, realizing even as he said it how inadequate the comment was. "And so did I," he added staunchly, picturing again that vision of grandeur and immensity, "once I got used to it." He undid his helmet and gri