[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

you can as quickly as you can. No more than you can carry. Tell everyone to
make for the heights." He pointed the path Tai had indicated. "You need to be
at least two hundred meters from the shore, up into the grove of fellis
trees." He gave the bell another clanging to reinforce the urgency and those
who had heard what he had to tell them dispersed in seconds, running in all
directions.
Mirrim came out, herding little ones in front of her, helped by her sturdy
son, Gellim, while other weyrwomen followed her, some carrying sacks and
bundles. Tai had one arm burdened with packs and the other around a screaming
toddler.
Page 85
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Tai, get aboard Zaranth and I'll hand the babies up to you. F'lessan, use the
safety straps to tie them to her. Oh, do stop screaming, Vessa," Mirrim said
to the hysterical child behind her. "F'lessan, get her aboard Golanth. She can
hold another once she's on his back.
He can follow Zaranth to the heights with this lot. Then come back for
another. It's too far for them to make it on their own."
Minim's bossy streak was in full operation, F'lessan thought as he hoisted an
hysterical mother up to Golanth and started passing up sacks and bundles. Tai
placed the screaming toddler on Zaranth's neck, an action that instantly
silenced it. She leaped astride and took the others Mirrim lifted up to her.
"I'm ready," Tai cried.
Follow Zaranth, Golly!
Of course!
"I know we're responsible for all of Monaco but I can work better if I know
our folk are safe," Mirrim said, excusing her actions.
"While Golanth's gone, you can help me organize the others inside. We have
cradlers to take, too. Will Golanth mind?"
"Not likely," F'lessan said; even his dragon would not thwart Mirrim in this
mood or under these circumstances. Fortunately Mirrim was already on her way
back inside the room and did not see how close to the ground both green and
bronze had been when they went between.
Think of the time they saved, he told himself.
"You, you can go on Path," he heard her saying and she nearly ran him down on
her return with three older women, barely able to move for the things they
were clutching. "F'lessan, we'll need rope to tie the cradles to Golanth. Over
in that closet."
"We have some time to spare, Mirrim," he told her as he complied. Golanth!
Carry cradles? Well, who better?
"I'll send these off on my Path. She knows where to go. F'lessan, when you've
got the ropes, put them on the porch. The tanner journeyman needs your help
with his materials. And we've rolls of fabric in the loft we simply must
save."
"There's Monarth doing nothing," F'lessan muttered under his breath, but he
got the ropes, put them on the porch, and went to the assistance of the
crafter who was trying to carry too many hides as well as various tools, and
dropping things. And where was T'gellan with his maps?
By the time much of the Weyr's most urgent household items had been shoved or
bundled into packs, brown, blue, and green dragons had arrived to be loaded
and sent off. Three other blues took the cradled children. Browns were draped
with fabric rolls and sleeping furs, and bulky items were tied to willing
backs.
It was as well that dragons had an innate instinct for avoiding each other on
the ground as well as in the air, for the traffic in and out of the main Weyr
clearing was amazing. With Zaranth, Golanth had made three more trips between
without his rider, conveying the healer and half a dozen patients.
T'gellan finally came to F'lessan's end of the porch, lugging one end of a
heavy chest as two brown riders held the other. Tucked under his belt were
maps. While the brown riders lifted the chest to Monarth's back, T'gellan
beckoned to F'lessan, who was beginning to worry about how much time this was
all taking.
The Weyrcook, arms full of bundles, nearly fell down the steps, followed by
weyrfolk struggling with sacksful of clicking pots and leaking supplies just
as Golanth touched down again. T'gellan rolled his eyes significantly at the
younger rider and F'lessan offered
Golanth's services. The cook mounted first, securing as many things as she
could to Golanth's ridges. When no more could fit on his back, he raised just
high enough above the ground to go between yet again.
Then T'gellan was at F'lessan's side, unrolling one of the maps just as three
bronze dragons deposited their riders on the recently cleared space. Two
riderless brown dragons hovered above the trees, waiting to land.
Page 86
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"I suspect you're more adept at timing than that trio, my friend," T'gellan
said, admirably cool in manner, "so you get to go the farthest. Take St'ven on [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]