Chapter 7
Spring came suddenly and beautifully to the mountainous little Hold, and the waterfall lived up to its name of Brightwater once again, gleaming in the sunlight as it laughed its immoderate way off the ledge from the tarn above, swelled with meltwater. The high pastures around were suddenly full of bright flowers and the air was alive with the humming of wings and the cries, squawks and whistles of weesweets, competing for mates. Prisca took herself off alone for a walk on a free afternoon, and found a high pasture not yet filled with herds, where the vegetation was soft and springy, and in sheer joy of living – and after checking for stray rocks – she proceeded to tumble and dance on the verdant turf.
As she paused for breath she became aware that she was being watched; and as she looked around she realised that what she had taken for a rock in silhouette was in fact a Blue dragon, his Rider watching her quizzically.
Prisca flushed; she had been showing off to herself, and somehow felt uncomfortable that this performance had been overlooked by another. She bowed a little stiffly to the dragon and inclined her head politely to the Rider.
"Do you always perform acrobatics for dragons?" the man drawled.
"I was unaware I was observed, Blue Rider," said Prisca, "The sun being behind your dragon, I fear I took him for part of the rock face, for I could not, at that angle, appreciate his beauty," she added softly. She knew dragons could have their feelings hurt by people speaking carelessly of them.
The man's face softened as he came forward. It was, she now saw, a face much scarred by Thread. He was an older man than the youths Prisca normally found attractive, but she felt a sudden tightness of lust in her belly. His eyes widened slightly and his nostrils flared.
"Streth asks me to convey his appreciation of your recognition of his beauty. He didn't lose his," he indicated the scoring.
"I want you," said Prisca.
"Direct," he said.
"I know. Shameless of me, isn't it?" said Prisca. "I don't give a tunnel snake's turds about the score, you know. You aren't even my type, but I don't care."
"You're not my type either, I like them older, plumper and blonde as a rule," said the Blue Rider, "but if we're being direct…" and he jerked her into his arms and kissed her hard.
Prisca swayed and pressed against him, and started undoing his clothing.
He reciprocated; and naked, they rolled on the springy turf in a passion of lust that took Prisca's breath away, giving and taking.
"Shells!" he grunted at last. "You're quite something, girl!"
She laughed shakily.
"I could say the same of you, Blue Rider! I've- it's never been as good as that!"
He caressed her naked body and she shivered in pleasure, and a little in cold as the breezes played on the sheen of sweat. He pulled his flying jacket over both of them.
"Makes me wish we took girls for Greens at Telgar," he said, "I'd be sore tempted to Search you when we have a clutch. I know you have power for sure."
"I – I wish so too," said Prisca. Maybe she could still do a lot for T'lana if she came for a Queen egg and Impressed a Green. She decided to voice part of that thought. "If there's a Queen egg, if I Impressed a Green accidentally because I was willing, if I came on Search…" she said.
He snorted.
"If Talmanth could manage to lay a Queen. Short flight. Nice thought, though, girl. What's your name, and where are you from?"
"I'm Prisca, originally of Talltrees Hold in Tillek, but I'm a paying student of the Harper Hall attached to Brightwater Hold down there," said Prisca. "What's your name, Blue Rider?"
"A paying student? Well, I hope there won't be any trouble from this for tumbling a Holder's brat," said the Blue Rider. "My name's St'adar."
"St'adar. I like it," said Prisca. "What trouble?"
"Pregnancy," said St'adar.
"I usually take herbs; I'm not an innocent," said Prisca. "Anyway, the deed is done, so we might as well do it again…"
He chuckled.
"I DO like you, Prisca!" he said. "I'm used to girls willing to lie with a Rider, who look away from my scars, and are all 'yes Blue Rider, anything you say, Blue Rider'. You know what you want and you aren't servile. And yet you aren't as arrogant as some of the stuck up little beasts who might be the sort to be paying studens, why are you laughing?"
"Siresha," giggled Prisca, "Who would be happy to tumble with a Rider for the prestige, would turn up her eyes at the scars and is so far beyond arrogant that most arrogant little brats seem filled with humility by comparison. We don't get on," she added.
"Do tell," said St'adar. "I think you made a suggestion…" and he began touching her and caressing her, always falling just short of touching the main erogenous zones until Prisca was shouting at him and demanding more.
"Say 'please'," he said.
"Crackdust take you, PLEASE!" said Prisca; then he was laughing, and pleasing her again.
The heat had gone out of the sun when they emerged, shivering, from a post coital lassitude, wrapped in each others' arms.
"I have to find some way of keeping you, you know," he said, conversationally.
"If there's no Queen egg as an excuse, I could offer my services as an administrator," said Prisca, "I'm pretty able with that sort of thing. I haven't been training to be able to play pretty tunes, but in law, politics, history and record keeping."
He whistled.
"Can you manage pretty tunes too?"
"If I have to," she said.
"Good, that will please Bedella as much as having someone who can keep records straight. Are you patient?"
"Not when your hand is there, no," said Prisca.
He moved, regretfully.
"We'd better dress….they'll miss you soon, anyway. I mean, can you wait until there's a clutch just to see if there's an easier way to sneak you into the weyr? If you'd give up your privileged life for me?"
"I would do so gladly," said Prisca. "And I'll wait. I'll wait for you until the sky falls."
He kissed her swiftly.
"I don't know what's come over me, acting like this," he said.
"Nor me," said Prisca. "Sometimes it's better to ignore the why and just go with the flow."
He nodded.
"I meant to ask. How come the acrobatics? They don't teach that to ladies, commonly, do they?" he asked.
"I wanted to eat as much as I liked and still have a good figure; I found myself a teacher," said Prisca.
"Faranth's egg, if there were a Queen, you'd deserve her more than most," he said, savagely.
"My turn for a question," said Prisca, as she finished doing up her fine leather trews, "What were you and Streth doing here?"
"Hiding from a proddy Green whose Rider I dislike as well as not being inclined to that sexual preference," said St'adar. "Normally I'd leave Streth to it, and lock myself away with a nice girl, but some people crow if your dragon flies theirs."
"Enough said," said Prisca. "I can imagine; I've heard some Green Riders can be a trifle histrionic and bitchy."
"And we don't generally talk about it out of the Weyr either," said St'adar, warningly.
She nodded, and stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.
"Come find me in a few weeks, St'adar," she said.
oOoOo
Valys was inclined to scold when Prisca got back, for being gone so long.
"I'm sorry, Valys," said Prisca. "It was so beautiful, I lay down on the soft ground, and before I knew where I was, the time had gone."
"You went to sleep in the sunshine? Well, well, I suppose we've all done that," said Valys, indulgently. "Go and bath, my dear; you look as though you've had green firelizards nesting in your hair and clothing while you slept!"
"I expect she's been sleeping her way through all the apprentices," said Siresha, nastily.
"Oh sorry to disappoint you Siresha, what really happened was that I went for a walk and this absolutely gorgeous dragonrider turned up and the afternoon passed in a haze of passion," said Prisca, who was well enough versed in how to hint at affaires she had NOT had to make the telling of the truth sound utterly implausible.
Siresha sniffed.
"You should be so lucky," she said, rudely.
Prisca grinned. She was in a very good mood indeed and could even feel tolerant towards Siresha.
oOoOo
It has to be said that Prisca lay awake for a long time that night, reliving the afternoon. St'adar was somewhere in his late thirties, at a guess, by no means handsome, and not her usual choice at all. Still, he had said she was not his usual choice either… and yet there had been instant attraction between them that had survived conversation. Prisca considered hard.
Her task laid upon her by T'lana was to Impress a Queen; and she could not abrogate that just because she had fallen hard for the Blue Rider. Of course, if she went to Impress a Queen, and instead Impressed a Green, the problem would be solved in a way, and she would still be in the Weyr and able to make herself indispensable to Bedella. It would not be as easy, but it was possible.
If she DID Impress a Queen?
Well, there was nothing to stop her weyring with St'adar when her Queen was not involved. Dragonlust was supposed to be fun, no matter who flew you; and that this was not always the person of choice to weyr with was understood. He and she might have gone their separate ways in the three turns it took for a Queen to mature in any case; and if they had not, well, he was doubtless weyrbred and Prisca was sensible about such things.
The greater problem would be in the situation of a Queenrider – and Prisca reminded herself that the chance of that was not a given – weyring with someone perceived as relatively lowly, in the strictly hierarchical atmosphere of a traditionalist Weyr, full of formality and what Prisca described to herself as well plugged fork juice. Well, discretion would have to be called for until she was an established member of the Weyr.
Nobody, least of all T'lana, ever said this was going to be easy.
Well with a gorgeous lover like St'adar, she wasn't likely to be bored at all!
oOoOo
Routine returned to Brightwater Hold, and Prisca tried not to think about the eggs maturing in the body of the second Telgar Queen. She did calculate on her fingers when the clutch should be due to be laid, however.
When a little gold firelizard burst out from between peeping self importantly, Prisca recognised her as Merry, T'lana's firelizard, and held out her arm for the little creature to land, trying not to wince as claws held her arm firmly. Merry was trained to be gentle on people without protective clothing, but even so she had unintentionally sharp claws. The little creature extended her neck to permit Prisca to undo the letter attached.
"Well! Who do you know who gets a queen firelizard?" said Siresha in angry envy.
Ketalla giggled.
"Maybe she really did meet a handsome dragonrider," she said.
"Prisca, as your temporary guardian, I should really see any letter, if it's from a man," said Valys, looking anxious.
"It isn't; this is Merry, who looks to a girlfriend of mine, it'll be gossip from the Reaches, I expect," said Prisca.
"You promise faithfully it's not from a man?" asked Valys.
Prisca looked up at her.
"It's not from a man, or about a man," she said. She had unrolled the note and scanned it quickly. It was short and to the point in T'lana's firm boyish hand.
"14+Q, T" it said. Fourteen eggs, plus a Queen. Clear enough to Prisca but obscure for anyone else.
She tossed it to Valys.
"It refers to a bet my friend made with me before I left – she won, and I owe her some drudging duties which I bet her," said Prisca. It was not far off the truth. Valys looked at the note; it was not complex enough to be any kind of assignation, and she nodded. Besides, Prisca had shown herself to be a steady girl who worked hard enough and did not waste time flirting. Which description would have had the Weyrwomen of High Reaches laughing at the changes in Prisca!
Only fifteen eggs! Prisca was shocked, the Oldtimer Queens of Telgar REALLY needed new blood. And it was an Oldtimer type Queen egg too… really the little Queen could do with a Bronze from Benden stock for her own mate, if there was truly to be a second Pass.
Prisca had no business knowing about the possibility of a second Pass but she managed to extract more from J'nara than that gentle girl realised; and J'nara's weyrmate M'gol was one of H'llon's intimates and was inclined to pick up quite a lot. The reason for keeping a second Pass secret was, of course, to avoid frightening the general populace before it was necessary; however, Prisca did not frighten easily, and saw the fact merely as a balance for the Long Interval, and something to be endured. But it was worrying that Telgar would not be ready for it – and indeed, with only two Queens and such low numbers of eggs, Telgar could scarcely hope to keep up the standard of covering Threadfall even of the current pass. They might not be as stretched as Benden had been for the first Falls, before the other Weyrs came forward in time, but they would be stretched. And R'mart and Bedella would not ask for help, especially from the efficient High Reaches Weyr, having dismissed them as nothing but a bunch of cranks and cripples. Prisca recalled the rapidly forbidden skipping rhyme the children of High Reaches had used, 'R'mart, R'mart is a silly old fart, there's no doubt, if you miss the loop you're out!'. Pilgra had taken a dim view of the rhyme as no Weyrleader should be publicly disrespected. Even if R'mart and Bedella did not stop their people disrespecting the leadership of High Reaches. She could understand better than many how pride might stop someone for asking for help, especially if that called for eating one's words after making a public stand; but for oneself! R'mart was responsible for a whole Weyr, and surely anyone would swallow pride for dependents!
Prisca's thoughts on this matter reflected perhaps the quiet influence of her father in her upbringing that had laid a groundwork long before her mother's ideas had left her wasting her opportunities in the High Reaches. As indeed did Prisca's acceptance that she had wasted her chances, and therefore lost the opportunity to be part of the camaraderie that typified the Riders at High Reaches Weyr. And the chance to be a dragonrider was again offered to her, and an opportunity to atone for having cause T'lana, L'rilly and Pilgra trouble by trying to use the lessons she had learned to move towards a similar camaraderie one day in Telgar Weyr. Nobody would turn a hair at a Blue Rider with a Queen Rider at the Reaches – other than to commiserate that they could not be together for the best ride of their lives.
And she was still counting a Queen before she was hatched – but T'lana expected it of her, which rather went beyond the expectations of her mother when she had first gone to High Reaches Weyr. Prisca laughed to herself; she had never thought that she would end up dancing willingly to the piping of the mercurial little Weyrwoman.
She had but to wait now; and to hope that St'adar had not changed his mind in the meantime.
oOoOo
The Blue dragon dropped out of the sky and landed in the courtyard with a neat backwing. Prisca sent thoughts of admiration; it was well done, as well done as anything she had seen the more flamboyant Riders of the Reaches perform. It was Streth, and she laughed to herself that she identified the dragon first.
"My Rider says, how typical," said Streth, laconically. "He is willing for me to convey the remark to you," he added.
"Please tell him that I appreciate his amusement,"Prisca thought hard back.
Then St'adar was coming down off Streth's back, and striding towards the knot of girls who had been chatting after their morning workout. He looked straight at Prisca without batting an eyelid or any sign of recognition; but his eyes smouldered.
"I need to speak to the Holder here," he said, "I am on Search, and there is a source of power. More than one, actually," he added thoughtfully, "but one who should definitely be in a Weyr."
His almost imperceptible glance at Prisca made that comment double edged; and Prisca felt her belly stir!
Camys stepped forward.
"My father is the Holder here, and I can also introduce you to the Master of the Harper Hall, if you wish, Blue Rider," she said, politely enough, but with a definite undercurrent of resentment. "You are welcome, of course. I would remind you, however, that the Charter gives all the autonomy over themselves; and any have the right to accept or decline an invitation to the Weyr."
St'adar stared; then laughed.
"Oh perfectly true, shortstuff," he said, "but very few people ever do decline the honour of going on Search."
Camys inclined her head.
"So long as it is understood and no undue pressure is brought to bear, sir," she said.
"They breed them feisty here," said St'adar. "Lead on, then; I am in your hands."
Camys gave him an old fashioned look, but led.
"Good job he's a reasonable type," said Ketalla, "half the stuck-up sons of whers would have blistered Camys for standing up for her rights and those of others. Arrogant turds!"
Prisca did not mention that if St'adar could not hear that comment, Streth certainly could, and would likely relay it. Having the unvarnished opinion of those outside the Weyr might work on the Blue Rider and make him amenable as an ally as well as a lover.
She shrugged and went with Ketalla to bathe and change.
A drudge brought the message that the three remaining girls were to eat in the Refectory for breakfast; they would sit at the table at the head of the other tables which was used by the Holder on feast days and Gathers to be a part of his people; and the Blue Rider would join them. And when they came to the table, St'adar pointed at Prisca.
"The other who has enough potential to ride a Queen is too young; your daughter," he said. "Perhaps in the future…"
"If, and only if, she wishes it," said Camtar, equably. "Prisca, the dragonman is here on Search for a Queen egg. Is it your wish to accept his invitation?"
"It is," said Prisca. "Will I be allowed time to pack?"
"Yes," said Camtar firmly.
"I will check the Harper Hall after the meal," said St'adar. "There may be boys suitable for other eggs; I would not wish to deprive them of the chance because of the amount of… noise… the power of a potential Queenrider makes."
"Quite so," said Camtar.
oOoOo
The only boy St'adar judged suitable politely declined; he was expecting to be made Journeyman soon, and to him that outweighed flying a dragon. St'adar might not have understood what was to him an incomprehensible choice; but he did not press the matter.
And so Prisca was soon mounting behind him onto Streth, careful to climb with consideration for the dragon as she had been taught.
"BORN to be in a Weyr," grunted St'adar; and then they were airborn with that belly-lurching launch, and Prisca, her belly disturbed by more than the takeoff, mixing lust and nerves both, clung to St'adar as they went Between.