“Is that why you use the dry worm? Because it resembles Thread?” Elgion couldn’t suppress the shudder that went down his spine at the thought of loose Thread.

“You’re right.”

The silence that often grips fishermen settled comfortably in the boat

“Yellow-stripe, if anything,” Alemi finally said in answer to the question that Elgion had almost forgotten he’d asked. “Yellow-stripe or a very hungry packtail. They’ll eat anything.”

“Packtail? That’s good eating.”

“Line’ll break. Packtail’s too heavy for this.”

“Oh.”

The current was inexorably drawing them closer to fee Dragon Stones. But, although he wanted to get Alemi talking about them, Elgion couldn’t find the proper opening. At about the point where Elgion felt he’d better speak or they’d be pulled by the current into the Stones, Alemi casually glanced around. They were only several dragon lengths from the most seaward of the great crags. The water now lapped peacefully against the base, exposing occasionally the jagged points of submerged rock, eddying around others. Alemi unfurled the sail and hauled on the sheet line.

“We need more sea room near those. Dangerous wife sunken rock. When the tide’s making, current can pull you right in. If you sail this way by yourself, and you’ll soon be able to, make sure you keep your distance.”

“The lads say you saw fire lizards there once,” Elgion found fee words out of his mouth before he could censor them.

Alemi shot him a long amused look. “Let’s say I can’t think what else it could’ve been. They weren’t wherries: too fast, too small, and wherries can’t maneuver that way. But fire lizards?” He laughed and shrugged his shoulders, indicating his own skepticism.

“What if I told you that there are such things? That F’nor, Canth’s rider, Impressed one in Southern and so did five or six other riders? That the Weyrs are looking for more fire lizard clutches, and I’ve been asked to search the beaches?”

Alemi stared at the Harper. Then the skiff rocked in the subtle cross currents. “Mind now, pull the tiller hard aport. No, to your left, man!”

They had the looming Dragon Stone comfortably abaft before further conversation.

“You can Impress fire lizards?” If Alemi’s voice was incredulous, an eager light sparkled in his eyes, and Elgion knew he’d made an ally; he told as much as he, himself, knew.

“Well, that would explain why you rarely see grown ones, and why they evade capture so cleverly. They hear you coming.” Alemi laughed, shaking his head. “When I think of the times ... ”

“Me, too.” Elgion grinned broadly, remembering his boyhood attempts to rig a successful trap.

“We’re to look on beaches?”

“That’s what N’ton suggested. Sandy beaches, sheltered places, preferably hard for small active boys to find. There’s plenty of places where a fire lizard queen could hide a clutch around here.”