Emorra looked to Tieran for enlightenment.
He shrugged. “She means that most mutations will be fatal immediately.”
“And PNA is the same for everything Pernese?” Emorra asked. At Tieran’s nod, she mused, “So whatever is affecting the fire-lizards and dragons in the future could be as simple as a symbiont that’s mutated into a parasite?”
“It could be,” Wind Blossom agreed.
“But how does that alter our problem?” Emorra asked. “Regardless of the origin, we have to teach our descendants how to effect a cure.”
“And you will undertake to teach our distant descendants how to use the mapper?” Wind Blossom asked.
“Of course,” Emorra said. “But I’ll need Tieran.”
“I shall need Tieran,” Wind Blossom countered.
“We’ll share,” Emorra said as a compromise.
“Agreed,” Wind Blossom said, with a faint triumphant light in her dark eyes.
Tieran looked from mother to daughter and back again and, wisely, kept his silence.
Tieran and Emorra stood on either side of a blackboard with identical expressions. They had managed to fill the blackboard twice with just the highlights of the materials they had to cover.
“If this were a lecture, how long do you think it would take?” Emorra asked Tieran.
The young man frowned thoughtfully before shaking his head. “I don’t know. Perhaps more important is how long they can afford to sit still just learning.”
“What, are you afraid that they’ll race ahead and start using the materials before they properly know how?”
“Wouldn’t you, in their situation?” Tieran asked.
“We’ll have to come up with a way to slow them down, then,” Emorra said. “Some sort of test, a hurdle they have to pass before they can move on.”
Tieran pursed his lips thoughtfully. Before he could reply, the door to the classroom burst open. It was Carelly.
“Come quickly, Wind Blossom needs you!”
The two exchanged alarmed looks and raced out the door to follow.
Upstairs, they found Wind Blossom lying in bed. Never before had they seen her looking so pale, so feeble.
“What is it, Mother?” Emorra asked, grabbing a chair and looking down worriedly.
“We have failed,” Wind Blossom said. “The gene mappers cannot store all the data.”
“What?” Tieran barked in surprise.
“There is too much data,” Wind Blossom repeated. “With all the information on the various immune codings, there is at least three times more data than the mapper can store.”
“So we eliminate some,” Emorra suggested, matter-of-factly.
“What if we eliminate the wrong data?” Tieran asked her, shaking his head.
“So, we don’t,” Emorra replied.
“And how can we do that?” Tieran demanded. “Are they just supposed to tell us what they need?”
Emorra’s eyes widened as she absorbed Tieran’s words.
“Yes,” she said. “And that will be the key to opening the second door in the classrooms.”
TWENTY-TWO
Kindan smiled at Lorana as she paused at the bottom of the stairs leading to the Oldtimer Rooms.
“It’s all right,” he told her. “I’ve been in them.” She cocked an eyebrow at him. “And I touched nothing.”
“We should get Ketan,” she said.
“Right behind you!” Ketan called out, clattering down the stairs to join them. He and the weyrlings-now grown dragons and riders-had returned the day before, exhausted. Of the lot, the weyrfolk without dragons had fared best, Ketan included. “I saw you headed this way.”
Reassured, Lorana moved in front of Kindan and was the first in the room. The sound of a disembodied voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Welcome,” it said. “I am Wind Blossom. If you have come to these rooms for an emergency involving the dragons, then please step inside. If not, please leave immediately.”
Eyes glowing, Lorana turned back to the other two, who stood poised in the doorway.
“She said her name was Wind Blossom,” Lorana called, gesturing excitedly for the others to enter.
“The song was right,” Kindan whispered, entering the room and peering cautiously around, as though afraid that his gaze might damage some unknown treasure.
“Indeed it was,” Ketan agreed, pointing to the far wall. There was a door outlined, but no sign of a square plate with which to open it. Instead, written on the door in strange paint was:
The voice changed to another’s. “I am Emorra, Wind Blossom’s daughter. Please, if you have come here to learn how to conquer the dragons’ illness, go to the first cabinet labeled ‘A’ and take the booklets there-one copy for each of you.” The voice paused. “When you have done that, please take one of the chairs and we will continue.”
Lorana gave Kindan a nervous look, but he nodded firmly to her and the cabinet.
“Apparently we are to be schooled,” Ketan surmised as Lorana passed a booklet to him. He glanced at it. “This may take a while.”
“Then the sooner we start, the better,” Lorana declared, seating herself.
Before she could open the booklet, footsteps on the stairs outside caught her attention.
“May we join you?” M’tal asked, as he and Salina appeared in the doorway.
Lorana, Kindan, and Ketan exchanged looks. “I don’t see why not,” Lorana replied.
“The more help, the better,” Ketan agreed.
“Excellent,” M’tal replied, nodding his head in thanks. “And Kiyary has promised to bring down refreshments in two hours.”
Ketan smiled. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he admitted. Neither, from their sheepish looks, had Kindan or Lorana.
“There are booklets in that cabinet behind us,” Lorana said, gesturing. “We were just getting started.”
“It was the most amazing thing,” Ketan added. “When we first entered, the voice of Wind Blossom herself greeted us.”
M’tal and Salina looked both surprised-and somewhat disappointed at having missed it.
“When everyone is ready,” the voice of Emorra spoke from the ceiling above them, “please have someone close the door. Instructions will be played while the door is closed and everyone is seated. If you wish to take a break, simply either all stand, or have someone open the door. The instructions will resume from where they left off when the door is again closed and people are seated.
“Please note that there is no way to know how many of you are present, so if one of you must leave, be sure to leave the door open until that person returns, or she will miss parts of the instruction.” There was a pause. “Now, the first thing to do is to read the first chapter of the booklet. If you have problems reading the text, you will have to see if you can locate someone who can read it for you. If you do have such problems, please leave the room immediately. The power required to light this room and provide my voice is limited and will eventually fail.
“At the end of the first chapter you will find instructions on how to indicate that you have finished the first chapter and understand it.”
Kindan’s furrowed his brows in puzzlement. “That will be some trick,” he said.