Pinch gave a bark of laughter. "Dragons can move fast but not as fast as a meteorite. And meteorites are so hot when they hit the atmosphere that however hot dragon flame is, it couldn't stop a meteorite-even if a dragon could match its speed."

"I know, I know." Sebell sighed gustily.

"Now-" Pinch rattled Serubil's message. "Why don't I do something useful, like go to Crom Minehold?"

"I've asked N'ton to have you conveyed. You've about time to get your sketch of that Abominator and change into riding gear."

"Good. Bista loves going a-dragonback." Pinch neatly folded Serubil's message and put it in a thigh pocket. "I shan't be long."

"I hope not."

He was back by late evening. This time he knocked discreetly at Sebell's office door and entered, carrying a tray with a klah pot, cups, and a plate of sweet biscuits.

"1 do not come empty-handed," he said and strode to set the tray down on Sebell's desk. He gave the piles of papers a quick appraisal: Sebell seemed to have made little headway with the stacks. "Did you do nothing today about all those petitions?"

"I put them in different piles. What's your news?"

Pinch poured klah for them both before he made himself comfortable on the edge of the desk again.

"The prisoner did not have a scar on his face when he left. He lost the top joint of the first finger on his left hand in a mining accident. He had tried to escape before but was easily caught. The trackers were sure he couldn't hear them coming. That's one reason they delayed going after him."

"When were those attempts made?"

Pinch consulted notes he had made in the margin of Serubil's message. "In the first couple of Turns he was there-" His eyes widened and he pointed at the MasterHarper just as Sebell reached the same conclusion.

"So he got enough hearing back to try again!" They spoke in unison and then both grinned.

"And he waited for the right time-" Sebell said.

"What better time than when a meteorite has knocked out holes to escape through!" Pinch jumped to his feet again. "Right. The prison bathroom has partitions in its stalls so no one there remembers any scars on his arms."

"And no name?"

"They called him Glass because of the pipe calluses."

"So he could be Norist's journeyman?" Sebell asked.

"That's likely."

"So he'd have plenty of reason to hate Aivas. Norist thought of Aivas as the Abomination. There's enough circumstantial evidence to believe that the escaped prisoner is the new leader."

"My man, Fifth," Pinch put in. With a sigh, he sat back down on the edge of the desk. "Now all we have to do is find him and see if he can hear our questions clearly enough to answer them."

"I suggest we set our minds first to finding out what he and his fellow Abominators plan to do next," Sebell said gloomily.

Pinch watched his Master for a long thoughtful moment. Then, with an artificially bright expression, he asked, "Did you hear that M'rand and Pilgra are retiring to Cathay?"

"Yes," Sebell said. "And I'm glad. For their sakes-they've fought Thread long enough-and because the new Weyrleaders are young and will balance old G'dened who's so conservative you wonder where he got the courage to make the trip Forward thirty-odd Turns ago."

F'lessan and Tai still reported to their respective Weyrs for Threadfall but F'lessan was in Benden as infrequently as possible, returning to Honshu and his continued maintenance of the weyrhold. Though he knew that most of the Monaco riders were now settled in new quarters, Tai kept returning to Honshu-and him. He also got her to talk to him, about her childhood in Keroon, her schooling with Master Samvel, her work at Landing, and her apprenticeship with Master Wansor and Erragon. In the bright evenings, they would take turns identifying more and more of the stars in the southern skies.

"You know, I've often wondered why there are four more telescopes in the Catherine Caves," F'lessan said one night on the terrace as they lay comfortably beside each other on a wide mattress.

"I didn't know you knew that," she exclaimed, lowering the binoculars to her chest and looking at him.

He chuckled. "You forget, I was in Landing almost from the beginning and I certainly took every opportunity I could to poke about in those Caves. I even made up outrageous treasures for the sealed cartons-that is, before I learned to read the bar codes and ancient invoice words. Speaking of outrageous, how doesZaranth move trundlebugs? And for that matter, how did she rescue those hides of yours? The ones Mirrim got so upset about the day after the Fireball."

F'lessan silently berated himself for startling her with those questions. Hurriedly he went on, "I mean, I don't doubt it was Zaranth who saved them, but how? All the while I was there helping clear Monaco Weyr, you were too busy loading Zaranth with personal things, you couldn't even have timed it to your place." He rose to one elbow, turning his body against hers, and running a caressing finger down her face, which had turned all stiff and uncommunicative. "Zaranth told me she got them. I know her. I know you."

Tai's taut body relaxed and she turned her face, inviting his touch.

"All I know is she got them. Sometime before we had to leave Monaco ahead of the first tsunami wave and before we got to Landing." She shook her head back and forth on the mattress, vaguely waving one hand. "I was so tired by then. I don't know how long T'lion kept us timing it, back and forth-" Her voice trailed off.

He kissed the side of her mouth and nibbled at her lips. "Did you ever ask her? I mean, later, when all the furor had died down and we could start thinking again?"

"No."

"Could we ask her now?"

"I don't think she knows. But I'll ask her." Her eyes took on the unfocused look of a rider speaking to a dragon. She blinked and gave a little laugh. "She says she knew I'd want them before they floated away so she just brought them to me."

F'lessan thought that over, not much the wiser.

"Well, does she know how she moves the trundlebugs? The ones at Benini Hold?"

"Oh," Tai said, her voice less taut, "she does that with any that get close to her. She just points them in another direction."

"How?"

This time Tai closed her eyes to speak to Zaranth. "She says she used to do it to tunnel snakes who got close to my weyr, too."

"What could she do it to here? Now! Tonight!"

"There aren't that many trundlebugs around here and snakes would all be holed up."

F'lessan sat up and looked around the terrace. "Ask her to move that bench," and he pointed to one against the wall, "here." He patted the ground beside him.

"The bench is not threatening you and it won't climb into your nose or your bed."

"So, something has to be harmful for her to shift it?" F'lessan asked, a little vexed with Zaranth's lack of comprehension. Then he remembered how patient Aivas had been when trying to get the fire-lizard, Farli, to go to the Yoko'sbridge, so far above Landing.

"No, just aggravating. The bench is not aggravating her."

Swiftly, F'lessan took a bowl from the tray of refreshments they had brought out to eat while stargazing. He aimed it at Zaranth, lounging beside Golanth on the upper terrace.

"What-" was all Tai had time to say before the bowl reappeared on the tray.

Glaring at him, her fists clenched, Tai turned on her lover with more anger than he had ever seen her display.

"You may notthrow things at my dragon!"

"It wasaggravating of me but look how she reacted!"

It took him time and much coaxing to calm Tai down, a pleasurable enough activity since her body responded to his deft caresses even if she did not wish it to. When she did see what he had been trying to prove, she herself made a suggestion: a cover from their bed since the night wind was proving chill.