We are starting to get to the climax of the story - thank you for hanging in there with me so far. In response to the query about the firelizards - only Beauty seems to be around Andova.
No one came to bother Andova in the afternoon, however. She found a quiet corner and sat writing down what Master Healer Oldive had told her. She found time to ask about eyeglasses and discovered there were glass workshops.
"Is that for someone you know?" Mendal asked.
"My sister. She can't see very far and of course in straining her eyes she gets headaches. I thought they might be able to grind a glass to make things bigger."
"They probably can, once they've got over the rush of commissions people think they need," Mendal said comfortably. "Now look there - firelizards - they're becoming much more common, so I'm told. You need to go to the beaches to find them, so they say."
"No beaches near us," Andova said regretfully. "They do make pretty pictures, though."
He stared at her. "You can speak to them?"
"Well - it's not speech. It's pictures. You make a clear picture for them, and they might be able to make one back."
"Amazing. Dragons can talk, though?"
"To their riders, their bonded partners, yes. Not to anyone else - unless they choose to - I don't know much about them!"
"Nor does anyone else," Mendal said with a laugh and a shake of the head. "But there seem to be plenty of those pretty little creatures around here."
They sat in companionable silence watching the firelizards darting around. Up at the Weyr there would be a Watch wher, but that was another difficult concept, as Andova acknowledged to herself. A distorted form of dragon life. Living in the dark, coming out at night, hiding in the daytime. What sort of man would take those for companions?
"Look," Mendal said quietly, touching her arm, and Andova looked up and saw a flight of dragons coming out of the north. At first they were no more than dots, growing larger.
"Why haven't they travelled between?" she asked. "That's what they do best!"
"Not if they have sick people on board," Menolly answered from where she had come up to them. "I've come to beg your pardon, Andova, for pushing at you today."
"That's all right, I shouldn't have been so touchy," she replied at once with a smile. "Why should they bring sick people? Won't it spread the infection?"
"It might do. They'll come into isolation, though, and the dragons will flash between to clean themselves. Nothing could survive that."
They watched for a while, and became aware that two dragons had come from between and were landing at Healer Hall.
"No one sick on those, but they might be carrying a Healer with experience," Menolly said. "From the past."
"Did they bring their healers, then?" Mendal asked, and Menolly nodded.
"Everyone from each Weyr came, except for the very lowest of the drudges. I suppose they just woke up one morning and - everyone was gone."
"And they were released to go back to their homes?" Mendal asked. "Sounds a bit hit and miss to me, if you don't mind me saying so!"
"I haven't been close enough to an Old Timer to ask," Menolly replied dryly. "I wouldn't want to pass the time of day with most of them!"
"It must have been a shock, to come forward and find everything so changed," Andova said thoughtfully. "People they knew all gone, and the world changed so much."
Menolly sighed and shook her head. "I know. We shouldn't be too quick to condemn them, but really - "
She bent over the notes Andova had been writing out, asking then about the healers they had in the valley, agreeing that most women in a hold would have knowledge of remedies for cuts and bruises and fevers.
"Child birth is still all too dangerous," Mendal said sombrely. "In all the ages we've been on this world, we still ask women to take the risks of it."
"Since it's the only process we know for producing children, then it will remain a risk," Menolly replied with a smile. "I have to go - what are you doing for the rest of the day, Andova?"
"I want to go back to the Healer Hall and ask about a few others things, from a journeyman or someone. It seems a shame to waste time when I might not be here again."
Mendal offered to escort her, and they came out of the Harper Hall to see the newly arrived dragons taking off again, winging upwards.
"They'll be going to Fort Weyr, maybe," Mendal said. "Take a rest before they go home. They might be able to flash between and lose no time, but it must be pleasant to visit."
Andova agreed as they came to the Healer Hall and she enquired about eyeglasses, and whether they would help her sister's headaches.
"This is so interesting," she said to Mendal. "I never had the chance to talk to people who train themselves in this sort of thing. In the valley, mostly, everyone knows as much as anyone else."
"Your notebook will be full. What will you do with the notes?"
"Write them out neatly and put them with other records," she said, and Mendal glanced at her.
"I'm not prying," he said mildly. "That valley of yours has been alone for too long, I think. It's become a habit to hide."
Andova laughed and shook her head.
"More likely, no one has any need to leave, all the work and all the pleasure we need is in the valley. It would take a seven day to walk from one end to the other, and there's always gossip to spread up and down between the holdings."
"I always liked the thought of what might be beyond the valleys," Mendal replied as they walked down towards the cot where Andova would spend another night. She hoped she would get the answer to her queries from the Weyr leader soon, and as she thought it, Mendal nudged her and pointed.
"That there is a dragon rider. See his mark? He comes from High Reaches, and he might have some knowledge of the Threadfall cycles you're after."
To Andova's horror, he put a hand under her elbow and marched her across to the dragon rider, who was handing over a parcel to one of the journeymen harpers.
"...and you'll have to make it last, this time - yes, what is it?"
He swung round and glared at them, but Mendal did not seem intimidated.
"This here is Mistress Andova, family name of Vikna," he said easily. "Would you have access to a Threadfall map?"
"A map of Threadfall? The Weyrleaders might have such, we just take to the air when Thread comes our way. Why would you want to know, on the ground? So long as you have your firecrews, we'll protect you."
"There's the matter of gathers," Mendal replied. "If the holders knew which days were Thread free, they could plan such a thing."
"I could ask, when I get back," the rider said. "I've never bothered with any maps, just fly with my dragon when there's a threat."
"Are you - did you come forward?" Andova asked, greatly daring.
"Yes I did, leaving everyone I knew behind. Excuse me."
He brushed past them and strode away, and the journeyman harper coughed in embarrassment.
"Sorry about that - he can be very touchy."
"Is he related to you?"
"No, not at all, he was bringing something for me, that's all."
He hurried away, and Andova watched him go.
"No secrets, Harper Menolly said, and that one is full of them."
"Yes. Illicit as well, I shouldn't wonder."
He escorted her to the cot and she came into the dining room to find two other people there, and the meal ready to be served.
"I was wondering if you'd be staying up at the Hall," Sola said. "You seem to be very friendly with that wagon driver?"
"He gave me escort down here from the Hall, yes," Andova said quietly. "Is there another convoy going out of here, do you know? Back to my home?"
"I doubt it," Sola said. "They don't go that way very often."
Andova nodded meekly, wondering if she could spare the money to hire a runner beast, because it was going to take a very long time to walk home.