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"Yeyah, they let us know where fish schools, when squalls're coming, but never seen 'em act like that before." The man preferred to watch the sinking fireball than attend the dragonrider.
"Look, man, it's not just Thread that falls from the skies!"
F'lessan said. "We're here to move you to the cliffs, up there, high enough to be away from the wave."
"Wave?" Another man walked toward F'lessan, his expression patronizingly amiable. "We're well above the high tide… "
"Not this one," F'lessan said.
"Ah, now, bronze rider, I can see you ain't even wearing Monaco's badge. What call have you to-"
"We're Monaco!" C'reel said and St'ven nodded emphatically. "Listen to F'lessan, Golanth's rider!"
"We're evacuating you," St'ven added. "All the coastal holds. Every Weyr is helping!"
F'lessan swung his leg over and slid down, gesturing for the brown riders to dismount. Maybe face-to-face, not perched on a bronze dragon, he could instill some urgency for the present crisis.
"Who's Seaholder?" he asked, striding as fast as he could across the soft sand to the crowd.
"Me!" The first man jerked a thick, scarred thumb at his ta
"Journeyman Bi
Bi
"It makes no difference where he should be,Journeyman," C'reel said, losing patience. "He isat Landing, meeting with everyone trying to save lives."
"Bi
"It's gone!" a woman cried, flagging her hand in a pathetic farewell to the novelty the fireball had presented to an isolated community.
F'lessan closed his eyes at the waste of time. Two hours to move over a hundred people, and whatever possessions they could grab, and he hadn't even managed to get them to see the gravity of their peril.
"You've a far-seer," he shouted, abruptly noticing the one slung in a holster at Bi
Bi
"Sompin's there, Bi
"Yeyah," Bi
"Dolphins was warning us then," another fisherman put in his opinion.
"Why… will… you… not… believe… me?" F'lessan demanded, spacing his words as he sensed the passage of such valuable time. "Pack your belongings! We'll convey children, your aunties and uncles first."
The reaction of the women was to hug their children to their legs, suddenly frightened of his presence. F'lessan struggled to control his aggravation. Didn't they trust dragonriders? T'gellan was a good Weyrleader.
"Look, spread out that fishnet," he said, pointing to the nearest man with one draped across his shoulder. "That will carry a lot."
"Ever had a ride a-dragonback?" C'reel asked, hunkering down by the youngster who had seen the dolphins.
F'lessan kept checking his watch. Maybe he'd just have to wait for the shock wave to hit to prove that an emergency existed. Being nearer the point of impact, this Seahold would feel it a lot sooner and harder here. It'd be seismic, wouldn't it, traveling ten times faster than sound along the rock of the seabed. They'd feel it, then hear it!
Right up through his boots-and the bare feet of most of the seaholders-came the shake! A boomthat beat eardrums with its intensity. Several people fell to the sands; even the dragons were unbalanced, raising wings to steady themselves.
"D'you believe me now, Bi
Two of the women began to keen, nearly as u
"Believe you, dragonrider!" The Journeyman could also see the disturbed ripple of the waves in the bay. "Go! Go!Pack!" Wide gestures of his arms sent the women scattering. "Lias, spread that net. Lads, go with your mothers. Collect everything you can carry. Petan, get the other nets. You sure your dragons are strong, bronze rider?"
"As strong as they need to be, Journeyman," F'lessan replied, gri
"Line…" C'reel corrected him when Lias looked puzzled.
"Line, then, in the corners, to make a knot for the dragons to lift the nets with. Where's the most sheltered place up on those cliffs, Bi
"Plenty shelter a-top," Bi
A lad came ru
"No, no, furniture will come last," F'lessan cried, waving the boy and the chair to one side. "Bring pots, pans, food, necessities," he called as the scared boy dropped the chair and sprinted back to the largest cothold.
"That's my old dam's chair," Bi
"Where is she?" F'lessan demanded.
"Coming. Lady Medda's coming." Bi
"She can be the first to go." If the woman managed the hold, then F'lessan would station her where she could do some good.
"She'll show you where!" Bi
Shards! But it wasted time to argue with him. F'lessan swung his arm in Golanth's direction. "Loop it on the third neck ridge. I'll take her myself and the two carrying her."
He ended up with far more draped on his bronze than the delighted Lady Medda, whose wrinkled face suggested nine or ten decades of living. She was in high spirits as she settled on Golanth's back, shouting orders to those who jumped to obey.
"Use tablecloths for the food and loose things. Bring the water skins. Stuff each pot with what comes to hand. Dragon-riders don't haul empty space when you can fill it with something useful."
C'reel's brown Galuth had two younger women on his back, with two children apiece, and rough packs hung from the neck ridges and trailed down his backbone. St'ven was leaning over Mealth's side at a dangerous angle to be sure nothing was spilling out of the first of the packed nets the dragon lifted from the sand.