Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
"That was just lovely, Menolly. Oharan? Come over here; Menolly has a new harmony for that one."
"No, no, I couldn't."
"Why not?" demanded T'gellan, and poured a bit more wine in her glass. "A little music would give us all heart. There're faces around here as long as a wet Turn."
Timidly at first, because of the older injunction against singing in front of people, Menolly joined her voice to Harper Oharan's baritone.
"Yes, I like it, Menolly. You've got a sure sense of pitch," said Oharon so approvingly that she started to worry again.
If Yanus knew she was singing at the Weyr... But Yanus wasn't here and he would never know.
"Say, can you harmonize to this one?" And Oharan broke into one of the older ballads, one in which she had always sung a counter-tune against Petiron's melody.
Suddenly there were other voices humming along, softly but surely. Mirrim looked around, stared suspiciously at T'gellan, and then pointed at Beauty.
"She's humming in tune. Menolly, however did you teach her to do that? And the others... some of them are singing too!" Mirrim was wide-eyed with amazement.
Oharan kept on playing, nodding at Mirrim to be quiet so they could all hear the fire lizards while T'gellan craned his head and cocked his ears, first at Beauty, then at Rocky and Diver and Brownie who were near him.
"I don't believe it," said T'gellan.
Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
Across the courtyard, young voices broke into a lusty rendition of the Saga previously chanted. The fire lizards rose at the eruption of sound, settling again as Menolly laughingly reassured them.
Then a pure sweet trill from Beauty soared in delicate descant above the apprentices' male voices. Rocky and Diver joined her, wings half-spread as they expanded their lungs for breath. Mimic and Brownie dropped from the window ledge to add their voices. Lazy would not put himself to any such effort, and the two Aunties and blue Uncle were at best indifferent singers, but they listened, heads cocked, jeweled eyes whirling. The five singers rose to their haunches now, their throats thickening, their cheeks swelling as their jaws relaxed to emit the sweet pure notes. Their eyes were half-lidded as they concentrated, as good singers will, to produce the final descant.
