Brevis whirled abruptly, startling her. He blinked rapidly, and almost seemed to pale for a moment upon seeing Yarrow. But he recovered fast enough to his normal genial state. "Yarrow! It's good to see you, though it must have been a hazardous journey coming here. How is your Hold standing up?"

She bowed to him. "We're as well as might be expected, I guess," she signed back. "And you?"

Brevis shrugged in his easy way – one that Besic had too, she realized, though on the older brother it was just – disturbing, at best. The young Lord waved a hand around, with a wry look on his face. A lot of rubble and junk strewn everywhere was what she saw. "We were unfortunately badly hit," he signed to her. "The main buildings were insalvageable. However, there are all these caves here and we are still not far from the coastline. My fishermen can still get out. A couple boats made it through the disaster."

They all should have, in fact, Yarrow knew; her lizards had sent her a picture of a nicely-sheltered cove not far from her current location. But she said nothing about that. You are here to gather information, she reminded herself sternly. "Are you all right for food and supplies, then?" she signed. She really wanted to ask him about that dragonrider, but kept it in check.

He ran a hand through his hair. "We are, mostly," he said, leading her along a twisting way that had been cleared-out better than the land she'd just come through. Oddly-made walls had been created from piles of rubble to line this lane. It was like nothing Yarrow had ever seen, and again she thought about Weyrleaders yelling about the amount of leaf and twig on the ground near the Hold – or what remained of it.

They presently came into a much more clear area, one that was by a series of open caves along a cliffwall that looked out onto the beach farther down. People were moving about here, though they were few and far between; well, he did say that his fishermen were out at sea, or at least he seemed to be intimating that, she thought. She did notice some odd scaffolding over to the west, a mile or so back . Yarrow had never seen any building bones like that.

Brevis noticed where she was looking, and smiled. "Yes, it's unusual, isn't it?" he signed to her but his eyes were sparkling. "You don't know; in a way this devastation has been very good for us!"

She pointed to herself. "'US?"

And his smile broadened further. "Well, you see, everyone at and near Southern," he added simply, grinning. Ah, she thought, and took a deep breath. "So anyway, tell me how it really fares down there," he continued, and took her arm to lead her inside one of the caverns, and away from the strange stuffs outside.

It was pleasant and cool in the caverns, Yarrow found. Brevis brought her down a winding passage that was being chipped at by drudges and other people, men mostly though a few women were there as well. He didn't mention what they were doing; shoring up the cave walls, maybe? She wondered, though didn't see anything being put in to hold up the ceiling. But each was very intent on their work. It's almost like a mine, by all accounts, she thought. Though, Yarrow had never heard of mines on this end of Southern Continent.

They finally came to a room that led off the corridor, and had its own thick wood door, one that she thought must have been salvaged from the Hold remains by the amount of carving on it. The door opened into a room that was small but cozy enough: a little table, a chair, a bed. A half-empty bookcase. Some dust came down from the ceiling as they entered, and Yarrow coughed, but Brevis took her hand soothingly and made her look at him. "It's all right," he signed. "A natural side effect of all the chipping and digging outside. You get used to it."

He insisted on giving her some dried fish and very weak klah they had somewhere in this cave-hold. It wasn't bad. As they ate, Brevis signed to her about the horrors of the quake on the seacoast; the farther end of the hold had been taken by lava flows – yes, they came out this far, he insisted – and the coastline had been battered by huge waves that were brought on by the first and second quakes. Some of his best ships were gone now; he hadn't had time to bring them into the cove or send them far enough out to sea.

In return, Yarrow told him about being brought out to Monaco along with Petia. She carefully tried to avoid mentioning Mink, but somehow Brevis guessed it anyway. "I heard," he signed to her, "that there is new ownership of Southern. Dragonriders have been here, of course, checking on us."

Yarrow thought again about the strange rider but only nodded. "The son of Hannin and Petia," she signed.

Besic only blinked, looking surprised. "Oh, good to know he survived," he signed. You weren't expecting that? She wondered. Though it would explain some of Besic's behavior. He smiled at her. "I always thought you yourself would make a good one."

Yarrow shook her head firmly. "I would rather be a Harper," she signed and the young lord smiled.

"And a lovely Harper you are."

He showed her a little bit around the Hold such as it was, pointing out the way that caves could be more stable than buildings. Yarrow wasn't so sure herself; after being able to go in and out so easily living at Southern Hold for so long, the closed-in caverns made her feel a little claustrophobic. It's only for a little while, she kept saying inwardly to calm her nerves.

"So you think you will stay in these caves?" she signed to him. "They may be stable, but they're closer to the Volcano than your previous Hold was."

"Great point. Oh, I don't know; we like it here," he signed back, smiling. And shrugged. "You know, the earthquake unearthed some prospects for me, so maybe it'd be good to stay."

Now that was interesting. Yarrow found herself wishing she'd gotten a chance before to inspect the region more closely; how open was this area before the disaster? Or is he just using it as an excuse...

That couldn't be right, part of her thought. Brevis wouldn't do something that slick – but his brother might, and his late father definitely would, she made herself realize. Then again they wouldn't admit it, necessarily... so many questions. "What kind of metal or something did you find, anyway?" she signed, to see how much she could get out of him after all.

Brevis reached into a pouch, and pulled out a chunk of grayish-something that shone dully in the hazy light. "This is iron," he signed to her. "Tons of it here – farther towards the Volcano is something the Ancients used to call 'obsidian,' and some strange rocks that are the hardest thing I've ever seen. My uncle said they were called something like 'dimmin,' but he wasn't sure. Not a metal, just kind of pretty to look at."

His uncle was here, then. Yarrow wondered at that; she'd never heard anything bad said abNo out – Hamian, was it? Toric didn't like him much by all accounts. What's he doing here, then? Something just didn't fit right, she was sure, but she couldn't put a finger on it. There were too many questions.

She looked out to sea from the cliffside they'd come to; it was a small one, you could reach the beach below by jumping six inches. No plant life had survived the eruption or the quake in this area, far over from where Brevis's original Hold had been. But the cliffs and caverns stretched all the way down, and she could now see the smoking tip of the mountain at least ten miles off in the distance. Cracks and gullies led all the way towards the thing, some full of black or brilliant red and golden stuff.

"Pretty, isn't it?" he signed. "That black stuff is tar, very sticky and you don't want to walk in it even when it's cooled down. And the red-yellow is lava, which you also don't want. I did some geology studies when I was younger, over at Landing. Believe it or not, there'll be plants there again, soon, if the Ancients are correct about things like that."

"You studied at Landing, so you don't prescribe to the notion that the Ancients were bad," she wondered.

Brevis threw back his head, and she could feel the vibrations of his laughter. "Like my fathter? Let me tell you, he also had a saying, 'know your enemy.' Da believed in knowledge, just not progress – unless it was something he could exploit." He shrugged, still grinning. "I don't see much wrong with that as long as I'm not hurting anyone. After all, doesn't everybody exploit something or someone to get what they want?"

Yarrow thought about it. Her head was swimming a little, with all the information she needed to process, all the new questions she needed to sort through. "I guess so," she finally signed to him. "Could we head back? It's getting a little late, and I'm in need of a drink."

"Beautiful view," he signed, and then suddenly she was holding his hand. He squeezed it as she blushed bright red. "I wouldn't want you to fall or anything, you see; you said you're tired." He ran a hand through her hair. "Must protect my favorite Harper."

Yarrow blinked, her heart pounding, as they stood there for what felt like an eternity. And then he just turned, and started to lead her back towards the caves.