Dragonriders of Pern 16 - The Skies of Pern by McCaffrey Anne

Author:McCaffrey, Anne
Language: eng
Format: epub

BEN­DEN WEYR

The watch drag­on trilled the note that Weyr­lead­ers were fly­ing in­to Ben­den and Mne­menth and Ramoth on their ledges rose to bu­gle a wel­come, which in­formed Lessa and F'lar of im­por­tant, if un­sched­uled, vis­itors.

Tileth and Seg­rith,Ramoth said, rais­ing her head from her front legs.

“Re­al­ly?” Lessa was as sur­prised as F'lar. “Did you for­get they were com­ing?”

“I wouldn't for­get some­thing as un­usu­al as that,” he chid­ed her as he quick­ly slipped off the soft, fleece-​lined an­kle-​boots he was wear­ing and pulled on leather ones warm­ing near the heat­ing unit, shrugged off the wool vest, and rose to his feet, straight­en­ing his col­lar and set­tling the deep cuffs of his wool shirt.

With an air of not notic­ing his re­ar­range­ments, she wrapped her long braid in­to a more for­mal coro­net and smoothed the creas­es out of her woolen trous­er-​skirt.

“We have wines, don't we? And per­haps Mano­ra will send some­one with fresh klah and what­ev­er is fresh­ly baked,” she said. “I won­der why they're here!” she added.

“No doubt they'll in­form us!” he said as he opened the thick cur­tain that kept cold air from leak­ing in­to their com­fort­able quar­ters. He frowned as he looked out. “They should have checked our weath­er first. It's turned in­to a miser­able day.”

Did they ask, Ramoth?

No, or I would have told you. I, too, do not for­get any thing.Ramoth turned light­ly, whirling re­proach­ful eyes on her rid­er.

“Of course not.”

She heard voic­es on the ledge and stepped around the curve of the wall to see Pil­gra slip­ping, putting one hand firm­ly out to the stone to get her bal­ance.

“My dear Pil­gra, you should have checked the weath­er,” she said so­lic­itous­ly. Pil­gra was not her fa­vorite of the Old-​timer Weyr­wom­en but any­one ven­tur­ing out to­day would re­ceive her con­cern. “Come to the heat. Let me take your coat. Ah, you've one of the new long ones! Is it warmer, d'you think?”

“On a bet­ter day, it might be enough but I didn't ex­pect it to be so mis­er­able here. It's cold enough in High Reach­es, but at least the sun's out.”

Hold­ing the wet coat, Lessa no­ticed that Pil­gra's wool trousers were bag­gy at the knees and unattrac­tive­ly creased at the thigh.

“Oh, how warm you've made your weyr,” the old­er wom­an said, her eyes tak­ing in the heat­ing units. “Good day to you, Ramoth,” she added, nod­ding for­mal­ly to the queen who was ob­serv­ing the vis­itor with tran­quil green eyes. Then she walked rapid­ly to the near­est source of warmth, giv­ing a mock shiv­er. “How mar­velous! We have heat now, too, but noth­ing seems to pen­etrate the cold in High Reach­es.”

Sud­den­ly Lessa had an idea why the two Weyr­lead­ers had come.

The sun may shine on High Reach­es, but it nev­er warms,Ramoth re­marked.I have told Tileth and Seg­rith to warm them­selves on our Hatch­ing Sands. It would be bet­ter than wait­ing on the ledge in this weath­er. How thought­ful!Lessa re­spond­ed. Then she turned to greet M'rand and saw the pinched look on his face. Yes, def­inite­ly, they were here about step­ping down. Not

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