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A harsh sound broke through her words. Drumbeats, loud, fast, staccato.
Wind Blossom stood back and cocked her head, listening intently.
Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! The rules were emphatic-each repeat of an
emergency gave increased urgency to the call. One more repeat and the drummer
would be reporting a Pern-wide emergency.
Emergency! Medical alert. Wind flower-there was no code for "blossom"-bring
medical bag immediately!
"It's Tieran!" Emorra said.
Janir dove through the door in the same instant. "What's all that drumming
about?" he demanded.
"Janir, get my bag and meet me at the Drum Tower," Wind Blossom ordered,
bundling past him through the door.
"The Drum Tower? Wind Blossom, it's pouring in buckets outside-you'll drown!"
"Just do it, Janir," Emorra said, following hard on Wind Blossom's heels.
"Tieran just sent a planet-wide emergency."
Janir caught up with them halfway to the Drum Tower. As he passed them, Wind
Blossom yelled, "Stay back! Give me my bag and stay back."
"We can't have both of you get infected," Emorra explained as Janir looked
questioningly at her.
With a decisive nod, Janir heaved to and crouched, lungs heaving in the
downpour.
When did the boy get taller than me? Wind Blossom found herself wondering as
she
drew near the Drum Tower and Tieran, who was standing at the foot of the
stairs.
High above in the tower itself, she could make out the shape of another
person
peering down anxiously, all glows exposed to light up the scene. She nodded
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approvingly to herself-Tieran had remembered his quarantine protocols.
Tieran cupped something in his hands protectively. Beside him, on the ground,
was the crumpled form of a fire-lizard.
"They fell from the sky," he shouted down to them. "I couldn't catch them
both."
It was quite dead. From its little mouth flowed some ugly green spittle.
"You were lucky to catch either on a night like this," Emorra shouted back
encouragingly.
Wind Blossom flung an outstretched arm in Emorra's direction. "Stay where you
are! This area is in quarantine."
Emorra stopped, examined the situation for a moment, then stepped boldly
forward, grabbing her mother's outstretched arm.
"Silly girl! Why did you do that?" Wind Blossom hissed at her only child.
"You'll need help," Emorra answered firmly.
"But not at the loss of my only child," Wind Blossom answered sadly. "Not
with
him in danger, too. Pern can't lose both of you."
Emorra arched an eyebrow. "One day you must explain that," she said. "But not
now. What can I do?"
Tieran heard them and looked relieved when he saw Wind Blossom's medical bag.
"This one's still alive," he said, indicating the fire-lizard in his arms.
"He
needs antibiotics."
"How can you know?" Wind Blossom demanded, stepping forward and kneeling down
to
examine the dead fire-lizard on the ground. She prodded it gently, got out a
spatula from her medical bag, and gingerly sampled some of the green fluid
leaking from the fire-lizard's mouth.
"Get me a specimen bag," she ordered Emorra curtly. When Emorra complied,
Wind
Blossom put the spatula in the bag.
"He's wheezing-he's got an infection," Tieran said. "He needs antibiotics."
"Which one?" Wind Blossom asked. "How can you know the right sort of
antibiotic?
What dosage level?"
Tieran gritted his teeth. "There is only one and you know it. The
general-spectrum antibiotic. Maximum dosage for his body mass."
"There isn't that much of the general antibiotic left, Tieran," Wind Blossom
said, voice barely carrying over the wind and the rain. "If we use it and
it's
not enough, the fire-lizard will die. And even if it lives, that antibiotic
was
being saved for your surgery."
Tieran remained silent, focused on an internal debate.
When he spoke again, it was with a harsh certainty. "It's the only chance he
has, Wind Blossom."
NINE
Jump,
Cup air,
Bound into the sky.
A wink
Between; beyond the eye.
Benden Weyr, Second Interval, AL 507
Two dragons burst into existence under the low clouds near Bay Head. One was
gold, the other, bronze.
"I can't believe we're doing this," Tullea grumbled to her dragon. She looked
around and found B'nik's Caranth sidling up on their right side. Her eyes
darted
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to the seashore and the nearby rain-soaked fields. "I can't understand why I
let
B'nik talk us into this."
Because you love him, Minith replied with a hint of questioning in her tone.
Tullea laughed and patted her beautiful gold dragon's neck. And you wanted
some
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