They walked quietly across the huge Fort Hold square, up past the beastholds and cots, and then Shonagar led them through the tunnel which had been bored in the Fort Cliffside, one of the minor wonders of the world that their ancestors had made, and through to the next valley.Across it, at a good pace now that the noise the runners made wouldn't be heard, and up the winding road that led to Fort Weyr.Again another tunnel had been bored by the amazing equipment the Ancients had once possessed, and through this they went.For Robinton, that was the scariest part, even though Shonagar opened the glowbasket he had brought.Then they were out into the night, on the floor of the Weyr itself.Robinton could just about make out the openings to the Lower Caverns and a few of the individual weyrs in the weak light of a half-moon.
"You can build a fire if you want in the Cavern," Shonagar said, pointing and gesturing for Robinton to dismount.
One of the other lads laughed."If you can find any firing, that is."
"Leave it," Shonagar said sternly."We'll be back for you an hour before dawn.Have a good night."
With that he led the others, and Robinton's mount, away and Rob stumbled towards the black maw of the living quarters which had once teemed with weyrfolk.
His footsteps echoed slightly in the still night and he hugged his jacket closer around him.Well, it wasn't as cold as between.He did wish he'd had some warning so he could have saved a bit of his supper.Eating always made him feel better.
Once under the vaulting roof of Fort's Lower Cavern, he could see little but the hearths along its outer edge.
"If you can find any firing, indeed," he said with a snort."And nothing to light it with." He thought he'd best get some matches and hand them out to the other lads so that they could start a fire on their turns.Maybe see that there was some tinder for them to smuggle along.A glowbasket, even the smallest of them, couldn't be hidden under a jacket.Even the smallest blaze would be better than this deep black darkness.Not as dark, though, as between.
But there was light outside, so Robinton went exploring.He'd taken the precaution of looking at the plans of Fort Weyr in the Archives.He'd told his room-mates to do so, as well, when they had a chance during their script lessons.So he found the steps leading to the rank of junior queen weyrs.They'd be warmer since they got their heat, as Fort Hold and the Harper Hall did, from deep inside the earth.No one now knew how that had been done, but it was why they didn't all freeze in the bleaker months of full winter.
He was somewhat glad that this ordeal occurred in the early autumn.
He stumbled twice going up the stairs: the steps were slightly uneven, though wide enough to accommodate his whole foot.He found the entrance to the first weyr by almost falling into it, he'd been guiding himself along the ledge with one hand on the stone wall on his right.
Entering, still one hand on the wall, he once again almost fell inside when he reached the outer room, where the queen dragon had slept.As he moved cautiously into the room, he could smell the odd spicy odour that was so "dragony'.
Where had the weyrfolk gone to?There were so many notions about that: including the one which had all the dragonriders and weyrfolk returning to where the Ancients had come from.If they had, then why had no one else come to Pern?Surely there would be interest in the dragons of Pern!
He barked his shin on the dragon's couch and let out an exclamation, rubbing his leg.In the ensuing silence he heard the faint rustle of tunnel snakes making their way out (he hoped) of the weyr.He decided he'd gone far enough into the darkness, and sat down on the raised stone.Unexpectedly, he sat in a shallow declivity and felt around in it.Obviously, large and heavy dragon bodies had formed depressions in the stone, and he ran daring fingers in the dust, as if he could conjure the creatures which had made the hollows.That, more than anything else, reassured him.He grinned and rearranged his body, swinging his legs round so that he was facing the faint light coming down the hall, the wallow accommodating his still slight frame while he could pillow his head on his arms on the outer edge.He must remember to thank Falloner for taking him around Benden Weyr.Fort might be empty of its people and creatures, but it was still a Weyr and one of the safest places on his world.He could smell dragon, and dust, but mostly dragon.He went to sleep listening to the faint rustlings of tunnel snakes, but he doubted they would dare venture where dragons had lain.
It did him no harm with all the other apprentices that he had to be wakened in the dusk preceding dawn by some loud shouting.When Robinton emerged on the weyr ledge, Shonagar urgently waved him down.
"Where have you been, Rob?We gotta get back to the Hall before they know we've borrowed the runners.We've been all over the place looking for you."
"It's warm in a weyr," Robinton said, yawning.
"Sorry to disturb your slumbers.Mount up.We're going to have to move!" Shonagar had a respectful scowl on his face as he handed the initiate the reins."And remember, not a word to the others.
They must do it themselves, too."
"Oh, it's not so bad," Rob said, grinning.
"Just don't let me hear you've warned "em about anything,
Robinton!" Shonagar repeated, bailing his hand into a fist.
"No.I'll obey."
Of course, Robinton realized he wouldn't actually tell them anything, but he'd show them the matches and tinder he'd put in their pockets.
As they cantered towards the tunnel, Robinton looked up at the Star Stones, immense black dolmens against a lightening eastern sky.He caught a flick of something and wondered if the ghosts of departed dragons still kept a watch on the heights.Looking again, he saw a wherry wheeling down, probably from its nest in one of the upper weyrs.
Robinton really liked being an apprentice.In this he astonished his room-mates and the other twenty in his class.They would come to him for his advice and, often, comfort, and he'd help the slow ones with their lessons.
"Going to take over from me, Rob?" Shonagar asked him once.
"Me?" Rob grinned back."You can keep the responsibility, for now.And I'm just one of them, so it's easier for them to ask me because I'm handy and know the place, that's all."
Tor all of that, you've not had it that easy," Shonagar said with a wry smile.They'd just finished a long rehearsal for the Turn's End concert: Rob, as usual, was singing the solo treble parts.
Halanna and Maizella were also soloists, but though Petiron remarked favourably on their performances, he had not so much as a nod for his son.The apprentices, being as astute as they were, did not fail to notice this.But if any complained, he'd shrug and remark that his father expected him to be note-perfect.
His mother kept up his vocal training, and he had now graduated to apprentice classes.He particularly enjoyed his stint in the Drum Tower, because at last he got to learn the meaning of the codes he had been hearing all his life.Like everyone else, he knew that the initial beats indicated the final destination of the message and who had sent it, but it took time to get the sense of the actual message.
In fact, he was on duty the day Feyrith, Carola's queen, produced her final clutch, though no one knew at the time that it would be her last.The best news was that there was a queen egg, and the drum message added the extra beats for excitement and major news.A large clutch, too, with nine bronzes.
Robinton spent a few seven-days hoping that there would be a Search and he'd be found acceptable, and become a harper-dragonrider. But no dragons came on Search to Fort Hold or the Harper Hall, and no other Hold reported the arrival of dragons looking for candidates.Robinton was bitterly disappointed.He had been so sure that the dragons liked him.Didn't they like him enough to come and find him?