“Can you call the dragons now and get them to come take us away from here?” he asked, slathering numbweed on her legs and feet.

“No.”

He looked up at her face, confused. “Say again?”

“No, I will not call dragons. If I didn’t hear them, this never would have happened to me. Jayge,” she said, putting her cut and bruised hands on his arm, “you can’t know what it’s like. I can hear them now. Particularly Heth, who’s crying inside. I’m crying, too, but I won’t answer him. I can’t! They’d make me stay at Benden Weyr, and I’ll hear, and hear, and hear!” She was weeping, her fingers flexing on his arms. “It was better for a while at Benden Hold. There was only the watchdragon, and he was asleep so much of the time. If I heard the sweepriders talking, I would get very busy and pretend not to hear them.”

“But—you hear dragons! You belong in the Weyr.”

“No, Jayge, I don’t think I do,” she said, daubing numbweed on a bleeding knee. “Not the way I am. Oh, I stood on the Hatching Ground, and the little queen made a straight-line dash for Adrea. A very nice girl and welcome to Wenrenth. And I’m very fond of K’van and Heth. They saved me from Thella once already. You saved me this time. You went all that long way to Benden Weyr, and they didn’t believe how serious it all was. Yes, I heard them talking about you. But I had two strong fine men with me when I went to Gardilfon’s.” She took a long shuddering breath. “I saw Dushik break Brindel’s neck and Thella slit Hedelman’s throat. They liked doing it. The third man had the grace to look sick. Was he helping you get me out of there? Was it Thella or Dushik that dropped?” Her voice was low and urgent, but she sounded rational.

“I don’t know who took Readis down, and I’m not going back to look. We’d better get out of this vicinity. If you won’t call the dragon…” Looking down at her he saw that she had set her jaw resolutely, so he shrugged. He slung the pack over his shoulder and picked her up.

At first, she seemed to weigh nothing in his arms, but gradually he tired. He had to rest several times. “I’m trying to think light,” she said once, and he patted her shoulder reassuringly.

The glow died just as they reached the cave he had been looking for. He stumbled in, nearly dropping her. It was little more than a hollow where a large boulder had once lodged, but it was free of snakes and would do for shelter for the night. When he had shared his rations with her and made her take several long pulls at his spirit bottle, he got her to wrap up in the blanket.

“You get a good sleep and it’ll all seem better in the morning,” he said, echoing his long-dead mother’s advice.

“At least there’ll be light,” she said in a composed voice. Then she yawned, and very shortly he heard her breathing slow to a sleeping rhythm.

Jayge was accustomed to night vigils, but he wished that a dragonrider would land nearby whom he could shout to, or that he dared risk a fire without being sure if Thella had died down in that pit. And most earnestly he wished that Heth or Ramoth would hear him shouting at them with his mind.

Aramina’s cries roused him. She was thrashing about, sobbing, and she fought at first when he tried to quiet her. He had to wake her up with a rough shake, and then she collapsed against him, panting.

“See, there’s the moon,” he said, slewing about so she could see Belior setting. Her face was ghastly in the pale light, but he was relieved to see her taking deep breaths to calm herself. “You’re not in the pit, you’re not in the pit!”

“Giron! He was there! Chasing me. Only he suddenly turned into another man, much bigger, who turned into Thella. And then I woke up in the pit again. And the other voice I keep hearing, that had turned into a roar. It had been such a comfort to me, much more than just hearing dragons, even if I couldn’t understand what it was saying to me. But it was there, just as lonely as I was and wanting so much to be with someone. Only it wasn’t comforting in my dream. It was screaming at me.”

He comforted her, murmuring soothing nothings and not arguing with her irrational words. He rocked her in his arms, and eventually she fell asleep again, twitching and moaning occasionally. Her movements served to wake him up when he dozed off, but eventually both slept quietly.

In the morning he found her sitting cross-legged, gazing out at the rain that cascaded down like a waterfall over the cave mouth. She had built a little dam of earth and stones to keep the water from running into their shelter.

“Jayge, you must help me,” she said when he hunkered down beside her. “I cannot go back to either Hold or Weyr.”

“Where will you go? To Ruatha? I heard Lord Jaxom gave your father back his old place.”

She was shaking her head before he finished his sentence. “They would be appalled.” She gave a weary smile. “Me hearing dragons embarrassed them enough. To think I would leave the Weyr would crush them.”

Jayge nodded, since she seemed to expect some response of him.

“I shall go to the Southern Continent. I hear that there’s lots of it no one’s ever seen.”

“And that the Oldtimers don’t take their dragons out often,” Jayge said with a sly grin.

“Exactly,” she said, with a gracious nod. Then her expression altered. “Oh, please Jayge, help me. The dragons say that they’ve found no one.” Seeing his unspoken query she explained, “I can hear them whether I want to answer them or not.” She laid another pebble carefully where water threatened to spill over her little dam. She seemed so absorbed in her occupation that for a minute Jayge did not realize that she was adding slow tears of despair to the rainwater.

“‘What do you want me to do?”

Closing her eyes, she let out a relieved sigh and looked up at him, eyes still brimming with tears but a wan smile on her mouth. “Would that lean, wicked-looking-runner of yours carry two?”

“He could, but there’re plenty of others to buy around here. I’m a trader, after all. And?”

She pulled at the edge of his jacket, a rueful expression on her face. “I’ll need something to wear. Dushik slit mine off me…” An involuntary convulsion shook her, and he put a comforting arm about her shoulders until it passed.

“I’m a trader, remember,” he said again.

“On rainy days, they often hang clothes to air in the bathing rooms.” She bit her lip, realizing that she had just suggested he steal for her.

“Leave it to me.” He dragged the pack over and sorted out the rest of the food, she refused to keep the spirits bottle, though he made her take a drink for its warmth.

“You have to take back your jacket,” she said. “I’ll have the blanket to keep me warm. No one will question your losing a blanket, but shirt and jacket…and as soon as you leave here, I’m going to go out in that rain and get clean.”

“Then you’ll need the sweetsand.” He found the little bag in his pack and gave it to her. “Don’t stay out long. Thella could still be hanging around.”

Aramina had swathed herself in the blanket and was wriggling out of his jacket as he spoke. “I don’t think so. It had to have been Dushik who charged Readis. Thella would have thrown a knife.”

Jayge grimaced at the acuteness of Aramina’s observation. She was thinking clearly. So he would do exactly as she asked and get them out of Benden Hold. Back to…then he remembered the shipment of breeding pairs, slated to go to the Southern Continent. Well now, he might just do a bit of real trading and see if it solved Aramina’s problem. So long as he went, too. He had found her! He loved her! He would help her. The Weyrs and the Holds be damned. Hold and Weyr could not provide her with safety. He could and would!