“Whooo!” The exclamation escaped him as he experimentally felt the two lumps on his head. The bandage had come off during the night.
“Piemur?” Jancis’s soft voice made him whirl, which proved to be another injudicious movement. She was already dressed, a cup of klah in one hand and a reed basket containing bandage rolls and two salve pots in the other. “Stiff, are you?” Her smile was fondly proud.
“You bet.”
“Here.” She held out the klah.” Wake up a bit more. Healer Jancis urges Harper Piemur to consider a gentle dip in the sea, and then she’ll tend to his honorable wounds. Head ache?”
Piemur grimaced. “A slight improvement on yesterday.” He sipped the klah gratefully. “How come you’re so bright at this wretched hour?”
Jancis gave him an impish grin. “Oh, I slept, but excitement woke me up.”
“Excitement? Yesterday’s?” On top of the fight with Thella’s men, Piemur and Jancis had had the privilege—and thrill—of riding Ramoth and Mnementh back to Cove Hold, where F’lar and Lessa had stopped to confer with Master Robinton.
“No, today’s!” And she seemed altogether too pleased with herself. “But first, I want you able to concentrate your harper wits. Finish the klah, swim, I’ll patch you up, and then I’ll tell you.” She hauled him up from his bed and started dragging him from the small sleeping room.
“You found something in the warehouse?”
“Not until you’ve swum!”
Jancis was adamant, and, annoyed as he was, Piemur had to admit later that the swimming eased the aches, though the salt water stung his cuts. He felt much better after she had slathered numbweed where it was needed. He was both pleased that she had taken no harm from her part in the previous day’s skirmish and chagrined that he had sustained so much. He had kept right by her side during the ambush of Thella’s band, had cheered when her spear throw had wounded her target, and had been exceedingly relieved to see Alemi leading reinforcements into the grove.
When she insisted that he eat, Piemur discovered that he was hungrier than he had realized, and they both ate a hearty breakfast. Then Jancis cleared their dishes, and only after that, with an air of triumph, did she carefully unroll a transparent sheet of the ancients’ peculiar material. She held the corners down with spoons and forks and waited while he examined it.
“Ad…min an…nex,” he read slowly, enunciating each syllable of the caption. “For aivas. Aivas?” He looked inquiringly up at Jancis.
“I don’t know what an aivas is either, but it must be important. See? They went to a lot of trouble to reinforce it. ‘Cer…a…mic tiles’—well, we know ‘tiles.’ Heat resistant, that’s obvious, too. I don’t understand what the figures mean, but ‘tolerance’ would indicate they were determined to protect this aivas thing.” Jancis was excited.
“Admin annex? We haven’t excavated that one yet, have we? It’s up near the edge of the lava flow. And what’re so…lar pan…els?” he asked, tapping the long strips that were apparently attached to the roof of the aivas annex.
“Solar’s an old word for sun. Panels, we know.”
“Sun panels? What would they do?”
“I don’t know, but I’d like to find out.” Jancis’s eyes sparkled vivaciously.
“You were very brave yesterday, fighting right alongside us,” he said irrelevantly because she looked so pretty just then. Her flush deepened. “And if you hadn’t released the canines so that Thella didn’t get her hands on Ara and the children at the start…”
“Well, she didn’t, and that was yesterday. This is today, and I think we’ve got the clue to something very important. No other building on this plateau was especially reinforced against lava. What they couldn’t move, they left to slag.”
“We’ll have to wait until Master Robinton’s awake. After yesterday, I doubt I can coax V’line to convey us anywhere without the Harper’s authority.”
“And just why is that needed?” the Harper asked, yawning as he entered the kitchen.
When applied to later that morning by Master Robinton himself, T’gellan dispatched one of the green weyrlings, who had strict orders, respectfully begging the Master Harper’s pardon, to go only to the Plateau and return immediately to the Eastern Weyr.
“Lessa wasted little time distancing Weyrs from our problems,” the Harper said, more amused than offended. “However, you two go on. Not only is a green beneath my consequence, but I must construct a report on this matter for Sebell. Yesterday may have broken one thorn in the sides of the Lord Holders but—” He sighed deeply. “—only one, and it behooves me to sweeten the inevitable furor. I am thankful that Jayge is confirmed as a holder. I doubt Larad, or even Asgenar, will feel that the lad exceeded his authority, but he’s new to his honors. Some may feel he ought not to have killed Thella. The Telgar Bloodline is an ancient, and generally an honorable one.”
Piemur and Jancis were relieved to be allowed to go, Piemur now infected by Jancis’s curiosity. They had assembled their tools by the mound when Piemur saw the white dragon arrive. So much had happened that he had forgotten his offer to Jaxom until that very moment. He waved vigorously to attract the Ruathan lord’s attention, sending Farli to reinforce his message by way of Ruth. Jaxom and Ruth landed in the aisle in front of the annex, which put Jaxom on a level with the two on the mound top.
“What happened to you?” Jaxom asked with some concern, noting Piemur’s bruised face. “Fall down one of those caves?”
“Something like that,” Piemur said diffidently. “Lord Jaxom of Ruatha, this is Smith Journeywoman Jancis, Master Fandarel’s granddaughter.”
“Don’t I remember you from Telgar Smithcrafthall?” Jaxom smiled winningly as Jancis regarded him frankly.
“Yes,” she replied mischievously. “I used to serve you bread and klah when you came to the Smithcrafthall for lessons with Wansor.”
“You’re not that old,” Piemur protested, and Jancis cocked her head at him.
“What are you doing on this building?” Jaxom asked. “I was looking forward to a prowl through endless caverns and fascinating treasures.”
“We may be onto something a lot more exciting, Jaxom,” Piemur said, placing the rod at the edge of the long narrow band nearest him and tapping the point gently. “We’re following Jancis’s hunch.”
“I’ve had one or two of those myself,” Jaxom said with a rueful grin. “About this building?”
“I—we—” Jancis stammered, breaking off uncertainly and turning helplessly to Piemur.
“Jancis found an old drawing,” the harper said, smoothly taking up the tale and rescuing her from a possible indiscretion. Jaxom would learn about Thella’s raid soon enough. “Gave us a hint that this might be an important site. So we thought we’d take a closer look. It’s her hunch. According to the master map the Harper and I found, that”—he pointed to the mound perpendicular to them—“is marked as ‘ADMIN.’ This section we’re standing on is marked ‘AIVAS.’ The ancients went to considerable trouble to protect this aivas thing from the lava flow with heat-tolerant shielding, so we’re investigating.”
“That’s enough to make me curious, too,” Jaxom said, suddenly stepping from the white dragon’s back to the top of the mound. “I’ll help.”
“Great!” Piemur tapped his rod again and suddenly the point clicked against something. “That’s odd. The click, I mean.”
“Usually it’s a thunk,” Jaxom agreed knowledgeably.
Jancis consulted her sheet, which she had carefully taped to a writing board. “These unusual long protruberances are listed as solar panels,” she said, showing Jaxom the diagram. “None of the other buildings have such features.” She moved her arm in a wide sweep of the nearby mounds. Suddenly she grinned at Jaxom so infectiously that he responded with a broad smile. “D’you think it’s a good hunch?”