Dragon's Fire

EPILOGUE

As C’tov circled down, he was surprised by how much Fire Hold had changed in the three Turns since his Impression of bronze Sereth.

He was not surprised to see Halla standing in the center of all the activity, but he was surprised at how tall and graceful she had grown. She raised a hand as soon as she identified him and then was jumping up and down, waving both hands frantically to catch his attention.

C’tov smiled. Ready?

Ready, Sereth agreed. The bronze dived and then flipped wingtip over wingtip, rolling around in the air so that the world was one moment below, next moment beside, next moment above, beside again and, finally, properly below. A surge of elation spread through dragon and rider while beneath them erupted noises first of fear, then of amazement and outright pandemonium.

I think they know we’re here, C’tov said with a huge grin. He asked Sereth to land in the clearing.

Halla had grown into great beauty; for a moment C’tov’s heart faltered and he wondered whether it had been a mistake to return, particularly on this festive day. The moment lasted only as long as it took Halla to race across the distance and grab him in her arms tightly.

“You came, oh, we’d hoped you’d come!” she roared into his good ear, her exuberance complete and unfeigned.

Just as C’tov thought he might recover, another figure thundered into him and grabbed both him and Halla into a huge bear hug.

Pellar? C’tov thought to himself in amazement. C’tov had never imagined that Pellar could grow so tall and broad. Indeed, the bronze rider felt nearly dwarfed by the other.

The two fireminers pulled back as one and in that instant, C’tov lost any misgivings he’d had at coming back. Pellar’s gentle movements were complemented and amplified by the exuberant but indefinably graceful movements of Halla.

Just as he, C’tov, was forever bonded with Sereth, so were Pellar and Halla bonded to each other. They moved, C’tov decided, like parts of the same body, with a respect and strength that flowed between them.

“I’m glad I came,” he replied, and he realized that he truly was. He took a moment to grab Pellar and pull him into a deep hug, putting into his motion all the gratitude he felt for the other’s selflessness Turns gone by. Strengthened by the warm embrace, he pushed Pellar away and stared deep in his eyes. Then he turned to Halla. “Would you let us talk alone for a moment?”

Halla raised a hand toward Pellar, who nodded in response. Halla cocked her head at both of them. “Only for a moment, no longer,” she declared and raced back to the other miners of the hold.

Pellar followed her prancing movement with his eyes until she was lost in the throng, then politely turned his attention back to C’tov.

C’tov turned to Sereth, unable to keep the joy of Impression from brightening his face. He turned back to Pellar again, looking serious.

“You could have had him, you know,” he said softly. “I’m sure you would have got a bronze.”

Pellar met his friend’s eyes and nodded slowly, glancing only briefly at the beautiful bronze dragon.

“Why?” C’tov asked, his face full of honest inquiry.

Pellar pulled something from his tunic and handed it to C’tov. It was a tiny yellow flower. He reached into another pocket and pulled out a second yellow flower. Beckoning politely to C’tov to hand the first flower back, Pellar gently took the two flowers and wound them together by the stems. He handed the paired flowers back to C’tov.

C’tov looked at them and then at Pellar. “I don’t understand.”

Pellar pointed to the flowers and then to C’tov and Sereth. Then Pellar pointed to the flowers again and to himself and off to where Halla had vanished.

“You are bound to Halla like I am to Sereth?” C’tov guessed. “I’d say that everyone sees that,” he added with a laugh.

Pellar waggled at hand in response: not quite. He turned away from C’tov and gestured far off in the distance. C’tov followed his gesture and spotted a meadow full of yellow flowers, the same as those Pellar had produced.

The flowers are on mounds, Sereth, with his greater eyesight, informed him.

“Graves?” C’tov asked Pellar. “Halla was the one who put the flowers on the graves?”

Pellar smiled and nodded.

“But you could have still Impressed and brought Halla to the Weyr,” C’tov protested. He wouldn’t have traded his bond with Sereth for anything, but he couldn’t help feel that the chance should have been Pellar’s instead.

Pellar turned back to C’tov and nodded, his lips pursed in acknowledgment.

“So why didn’t you?”

Pellar pointed to the two twined flowers in his hand. He crumpled them up and then pointed to the graves in the distance.

“If you and Halla weren’t here, then no one would tend the graves?” C’tov guessed.

Pellar nodded, then held up a hand—there was more. He raised both hands and made the gesture of pushing away, turning in a great circle.

“And no one would care for the Shunned,” C’tov guessed.

Pellar nodded.

“That still doesn’t seem enough to exchange for a dragon,” C’tov said.

Pellar held up a hand again for patience, then raised the other and grabbed them together, going down on one knee—pleading.

“Whatever you want,” C’tov told him fervently. “Always and forever.”

Pellar shook his head and held up just a finger—only once.

“Anytime,” C’tov corrected him firmly. “Ask away.”

Pellar looked very nervous, which surprised C’tov. For a moment the bronze rider wondered if he had promised more than he could deliver, then the moment passed as he resolved that he would meet any request Pellar placed on him.

Pellar pointed, hesitantly to his head, and then to Sereth’s great head.

C’tov grasped the request instantly. Sereth, what does Pellar want to say to me?

C’tov waited, trying to control his anxiousness, as he felt his dragon communicating with another. It was an odd feeling, and C’tov forced any jealousy out of his mind. After all, he could talk with Sereth anytime.

Pellar, and C’tov was surprised by the warmth of his dragon’s tone when referring to the mute harper, says that Halla is his voice; that he is her song; and only together can they make music. The dragon paused for a moment. The music they make is compassion, and their song is for all Pern.