“So Lorana, if you can give us the right coordinates, the wingleaders and wingseconds will go up,” Xhinna said. “And when you think we’ve been there too long, have us come back.”
The other green, blue, brown, and queen riders could not hide their disappointment, so Xhinna told them, “While we’re up, break into your groups, and when Lorana comes back we’ll take turns bringing you up, as well.”
The groans subsided. Xhinna glanced to Lorana, who gestured to R’ney, and the two mounted his brown Rowerth. As Xhinna clambered up onto Tazith, she motioned for Danirry to mount her blue Kiarith.
“May I come?” Seban asked. Xhinna thought for a moment and nodded. “Certainly!” To the others she said, “Don’t forget to tighten your straps!”
In moments, the nine dragons were airborne, and then, taking the image from Lorana, they winked out, between.
Xhinna gasped at the sight that filled her eyes when they came out of between. Stars. Brilliant, glowing stars. She swiveled her head and saw in the distance a bright red orb: the Red Star.
Look down, Lorana told her, and she swiveled her head to look through the gap between her left arm and her left leg.
It’s beautiful! Xhinna exclaimed as she saw the brown and green shades of the Great Isles so very far below. She looked to her right and thought she could spy a smudge on the horizon—High Reaches Tip or perhaps even Tillek, she wasn’t sure. Blue, laced with thin, white streaky clouds, marked the ocean, which filled most of her view. She was just beginning to try to make out the patch that would be Sky Weyr’s Meeyu Plateau when—
Come back! Lorana’s voice was full and firm. There was no disobeying it.
And then they were back in the sky above the beaches, warm and pummeled by a chorus of voices—human and dragon.
After that Xhinna went aloft three more times, first with Taria, then with a reluctant Mirressa and Danirry, and finally with Bekka and Jirana, all while the other wings rotated wingseconds, wingleaders, and riders up to the starry height above beautiful Pern.
“I never thought it would be so beautiful,” Jirana remarked when they were once again on the ground. The sun was setting and it was getting very cold on the beach where they’d gathered. In the distance, north of them, fires had been lit to warm the eggs against the cold and light the night against tunnel snakes. She turned to her little queen and absently rubbed the queen’s eye ridges as she continued, “I’ve only seen it when—”
“I know,” Xhinna said. Quickly she corrected herself, “At least, I can imagine.”
Jirana seemed ready to argue, then shook her head, sighing.
“You’ve got friends, you know,” Xhinna said. “We’re sisters because of Fiona—”
“Losing friends is what’s hard,” Jirana said miserably.
“Little one,” Xhinna replied, moving an open hand toward the youngster, “there’s no point in mourning them before they’re gone.”
Jirana raised a hand to meet Xhinna’s, fingers touching fingers, as she whispered, “You’ll see.”
Xhinna shivered.
“She’s not your child—why don’t you bring it up with Javissa?” Taria said later that night as they were settling their babies into bed.
“Because I offered my support, not her mother’s,” Xhinna replied.
Taria turned from the small bed where she’d laid Tarena and gave Xhinna a small smile. “Then, as you said, don’t mourn before it’s time.”
“She must be awfully lonely …”
“How can she be? She’s got the whole Weyr watching over her, five queen riders who positively adore her, and every Weyrleader hanging off her very words!” Taria shook her head. “It’s a wonder she’s not more spoiled than she is.” Xhinna gave her a sharp look, but Taria just smiled. “And you, my dear, are among the worst!”
“Really?” Xhinna said, examining her feelings critically. She hadn’t thought she’d doted on the youngster overmuch, but perhaps …
“And I’m next in line,” Taria said, chuckling. She fluffed the final pillow, eyed the sleeping room carefully, turned the glow, and gestured for Xhinna to precede her. “Now,” she said quietly as she moved along the thick branches that marked the hallway from one room to another, “we’re going to need to sleep—you’ve got an early start, remember.”
Taria’s soft breathing was comfort enough to lull Xhinna quickly off to sleep. She had slept for several hours, she was certain, when she woke and spied a pair of small eyes peering from the entrance. Through long practice, she extended a hand from underneath the covers and beckoned the child to join them. Naturally, it was only a matter of moments before the bed was filled with cold, squiggly children. Taria surfaced long enough to roll an eye at Xhinna’s lack of discipline, and then she was asleep once more, while Xhinna reveled in the squirmy warm bodies that were a small portion of her children.
“You’ve too many babies,” Taria had said when Xhinna had broached the notion of getting pregnant again after Xelinan’s birth. In reply to Xhinna’s surprised look, Taria had explained, “Not only ours, but all the blues and greens.”
There was truth in Taria’s words, for the tight-knit group of blue and green riders that inhabited Sky Weyr, as well as many from the other Weyrs, had all asked Xhinna to stand in their place if, in the Turns to come, anything should happen to leave their babies without parents. Neither Xhinna nor Taria could deny these heartfelt requests, no more than could the others so honored. Xelinan had many fathers, including K’dan, T’mar, R’ney, X’lerin, Colfet, Seban, and all the bronze riders among the weyrlings that Xhinna had brought to the Sky Weyr more than two Turns before. The children played together and were watched together by various honorary parents and real parents, and it was a relief to know that, in the worst of cases, the children would all still have the love and support that they’d need.
It also meant that all the children were well-adjusted and cheerful, not so reliant on any one parent that the loss would be tragic to them.
It really was one of the greatest gifts Taria had given her—to be able to build and grow a family that was freely shared and fully loved.
Which was why, Xhinna thought as she tried to drift back to sleep, Jirana’s sorrow so upset her. Not just for the strange green queen rider, but also for what it meant for her extended family.
It’s going to get worse. Jirana had never been wrong.
NINETEEN
A Flame in the Void
“Xhinna.”
The voice that woke her was quiet and male. J’riz. Xhinna’s nose twitched as the scent of warm klah wafted her way.
“Shh,” she said, nodding toward sleeping Taria and the bumps that were various children. She shooed him out of the room as she slipped out from under the covers in what she hoped was a deft and draft-free move.
“Ugh!” Taria muttered, accompanied by various anxious sounds from the babies. She popped open a bleary eye as Xhinna turned back toward her, her expression full of apology, and closed it again with an accepting nod.
Relieved, Xhinna crept out of their room, took the mug of klah from J’riz with a thankful nod, and sent him off on the rest of his morning rounds.
She dressed quickly and made her way over to the Healer’s Quarters to find Mirressa already there, talking anxiously to Bekka.
“I can’t watch after the babies and you both, Mirressa,” Bekka was grumbling as Xhinna entered. “You’ll have to get Aressil or Javissa—”
“But—” Mirressa protested.
“Actually,” Xhinna interposed smoothly, “I’ve already arranged with Fiona.”
Mirressa’s eyebrows shot up in surprise and she started to protest, but Xhinna cut her off. “It’s not as though she doesn’t owe us, after all.”
“But—”
“You, in particular,” Xhinna cut across the green rider’s incipient objection.
“She’s right, and you know it,” Bekka said. She smiled at the green rider, adding, “And why do you think she’s used you so
unmercifully to sit her brood if she didn’t intend return payment?”
Mirressa’s objections died on her lips as she digested Bekka’s words.
“And it’s not as if she won’t pester my mother or Aressil or Colfet or any one of a dozen others to help at it,” J’riz added with a grin.
“He’s right,” Xhinna said to the green rider. “Now, come on, we’ve got work to do.”
“It’s still dark out,” Mirressa said.
“It’s lightening, and we’ve got to catch the Dawn Sisters over Eastern, not here,” Xhinna reminded her.
Mirressa sucked her lower lip worriedly.
“Go on!” Bekka said, shooing both of them out of her office. “There’s firestone waiting at the top of the trees.”
Xhinna looked at her in surprise.
“I made the boy get it,” Bekka said, nodding toward J’riz, who tried his best to look put upon. With any other person, J’riz’s brilliant green eyes and miserable look would have at least won an “Ahhh!” of sympathy, but Bekka merely swatted him on the arm. “Guide them up—I don’t need their broken necks to deal with on top of everything else.”
“As you say, Weyrwoman,” J’riz returned with a low and overly obsequious bow. Bekka snarled at him and he took off like a wounded Meeyu, Xhinna and Mirressa trailing behind, neither of them taken in by the act.
At the top of the broom trees the weather was less forgiving and as the morning breeze picked up, moist with the threat of later rain, Xhinna was glad that she’d chosen her warmest riding gear.
She and Mirressa picked up their firestone sacks, waved farewell to J’riz, and called their dragons to them.
“We’re going to Eastern first,” Xhinna said just before they mounted. “We’ll fly straight to the near coast to warm up, then between to Eastern’s far coast. When we get there, we’ll do a quick check with Lorana and then go up to the Dawn Sisters.”
Mirressa nodded. Xhinna leaned forward to pat her on the arm. “Are you ready?”
Mirressa took a deep breath. “Yes.”
The flight between the islands was a good thirty minutes and in that time the night brightened considerably.
As Xhinna had hoped, the dawn and the Dawn Sisters were still a short ways off the Eastern Isle’s east coast when the two dragons emerged from between. Xhinna had them slowly circle to recover from the cold and then contacted Lorana, who arrived on Talenth and gave them the image of their destination. And then, each taking a deep gulp of air, Xhinna and Mirressa took their dragons between.
Eastern Isle lay far below. The gleaming shapes of the three brilliant spacefaring ships that so many Turns before had brought humankind to Pern floated nearby as silent sentinels to the dawn they followed.
Xhinna urged Tazith closer to Mirressa and her Valcanth, caught the green rider’s attention, and received her assurance that she was all right. Satisfied, Xhinna turned first to peer at the nearest ship and then looked down at the beautiful blue-and-green orb that was their home.
Mirressa says she can see High Reaches Tip, Tazith relayed. Xhinna bent over the other side of his neck to crane down. Spotting the dark smudge that was the far tip of the Northern Continent—home—she waved back to Mirressa in agreement. Then she returned to the other side, studying the terrain below and glancing about for any sign of Thread.
It’s time. Talenth’s voice was clear, and Xhinna knew that all the dragonriders could hear it.
The next group? Xhinna asked. As if in answer, another pair of dragons—Alimma’s blue Amanth and Aliyal’s green Leyanth—popped into sight. They were surrounded by a thin nimbus—the air that Lorana had said they’d bring with them.
Alimma waved. Xhinna waved back, gestured to Mirressa, and then ordered Tazith to return.
Back once more above Eastern, Mirressa laughed and waved to Xhinna and Lorana both.
She says that wasn’t too bad, Tazith relayed.
Tell her she can go back, Xhinna said. I’m going to stay on.
Mirressa waved in acknowledgment, and then she and her green Valcanth were gone between. Instinctively, Xhinna checked with Bekka to be sure that dragon and rider had returned safely.
She’s making breakfast, came the relayed reply, devoid of any intonation from having passed through two different dragon minds. Xhinna smiled.
Cliova and J’valin appeared and dutifully relieved Alimma and Aliyal; just as quickly, they were relieved by R’ney and Taria, and so on until the entire wing had been up to the Dawn Sisters.
By then the dawn had moved back to the Western Isle, and Xhinna and Lorana had moved with it.
Avarra and her wing arrived in time to take up the sunward chase just as Jepara insisted that Lorana take a break. Xhinna could see the reluctance in the older woman’s eyes, but Jepara wouldn’t back down and at last Lorana relented.
“She’s really quite dedicated,” Xhinna said as she and Lorana made their way into the Kitchen Hall. Seeing the look in the older woman’s eyes, she added with a chuckle, “And you’re keeping an eye on things anyway.”
“I was,” Lorana admitted, placing a couple of warm rolls beside the redfruit on her plate. “She’s got the images just right, so I’ll not worry.”
“That is, until the next queen takes over,” Xhinna guessed. Lorana admitted as much with a twitch of her shoulders. Xhinna gestured toward the table where Mirressa and some others of her wing were seated. “Would you like to join us?”
Lorana acceded, and shortly they were joined by Weyrwoman Fiona and Weyrleader K’dan. The large table filled up as R’ney, Danirry, Cliova, Alimma, Aliyal, and the others all returned.
It was Mirressa who said it best, her shining eyes trained on Lorana: “Thank you! I have never seen anything so amazing!”
“It’s nice to see what we’re fighting for, isn’t it?” Fiona commented.
The others were talking excitedly about all the features they’d seen, comparing notes on the colors and sights that the moving dawn had brought them.
“I think we should stay up longer next time,” Danirry said during a lull in the conversation. Fiona glanced at Lorana and Xhinna.
“I think it’s too early,” Xhinna said. “Let’s wait until we’ve got the full orbit done, then we’ll see.”
“I think you’re right,” Lorana agreed. She was about to say something more when Jirana rushed up, forcing open a spot between Xhinna and Taria.
“When can I go up?” the little queen rider demanded. “All the queens want to know!”
“Even Bekka?”
Jirana rolled her eyes. “Who do you think sent me?”
“Isn’t J’riz going up now?” Xhinna asked, glancing toward Lorana, who nodded. J’riz was paired with J’valin, rider of blue Nerinath.
“Would there be any chance Bekka would take up another when she goes?” Seban asked.
“If she doesn’t, I’ll take you myself,” Fiona said.
“Bekka’s Pinorth is up to it,” K’dan said. The queen had a tendency—in common with her rider—of over-exerting herself; K’dan made a point of keeping tabs on her.
“Well, then,” K’dan said, gesturing to Jirana and Fiona. “When you’re finished, with Lorana’s agreement, we’ll all take a look.”
They arrived near the Dawn Sisters when they were midway across the Western Isle, nearly over Midriver Weyr, although they couldn’t make it out through the vast expanse of green growth and brown earth beneath them—more green than brown.
Xhinna waved to the surprised riders of Avarra’s wing who had expected to be alone on this watch, while Lorana quickly relayed explanations for their intrusion. Xhinna caught snatches of conversations relayed to her by Tazith, but she was more interested in staring at the view below, trailing her eyes east and west to the extreme edges of the sun’s light, trying to absorb the huge expanse of the vista.
Eight hours, Tazith said. When he caught Xhinna’s surprise, the blue added, K’dan says that we’re seeing about eight hours of sunlight.
&nb
sp; All too soon it was time to return. Xhinna waved at the watch riders, and then they went between once more, and back to Sky Weyr.
At the start of the next watch, Xhinna and Mirressa got their image from the last pair of Jerilli’s wing and went up to the Dawn Sisters. Each assured herself that the other was not suffering from oxygen starvation, and then they took quick scans of the new horizon until finally it was time for them to hand off to the next pair.
Three hours later, they repeated the effort, this time seeing a smudge on the western horizon that must have been Benden’s shoreline.
When they went up again, they were right over the mountains that surrounded the Weyr itself.
They can’t see us, can they? Mirressa relayed through her Valcanth to Xhinna.
The Dawn Sisters are bright lights in the sky, Xhinna relayed back by way of answer.
And then, once more, it was time to return earthward.
Back at Sky Weyr, the two dragonriders warmed themselves with klah before Xhinna checked in with her other riders and the two other wingleaders. The initial excitement was waning, but it had renewed at the sight of their home continent.
“We need to start keeping an eye out for Thread,” Xhinna said to Avarra and Jerilli later as the watch riders took post with the dawn over Telgar Weyr.
“I thought we had a month at least,” Avarra protested.
“We can’t be certain,” Xhinna said. “We know that there were dustfalls before the Fall over Benden, Bitra, and Tillek.”
Jerilli furrowed her brows. “Thread fell at three different places?”
Xhinna shook her head. “The fall over Benden continued to Bitra. The fall over Tillek was separate.”
Xhinna could tell that the blue rider was confused. “I’ve asked K’dan if he could draw us a map.”
“Ah, so that’s why he was up with us earlier!” Avarra exclaimed. She quickly explained that the Weyrleader had joined her watch for a while over Benden and was even now up with the Dawn Sisters over Telgar.
Lorana is with him, Tazith added in unbidden anticipation of Xhinna’s thoughts.
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