“Better too early than too late,” J’keran replied, not at all repentant. He leered at X’lerin as he added, “I’m sure there’ll be a proper bronze to attend to the matter.”
“J’keran,” X’lerin said, “perhaps you’d best get back to the rest of the wing and help with the off-loading of supplies.”
“Check with Javissa—she’ll find someplace to put them,” K’dan added frostily. “I do hope that Fiona thought to send coverings—something we could use to cover the supplies and for tents in the rain.”
“Javissa’s here?” Xhinna asked in surprise.
“She insisted,” J’keran said with a note of respect in his voice. “She didn’t want J’riz to—”
“J’riz’s Qinth is recovering,” K’dan said. The brown and bronze riders looked amazed.
“Bekka doesn’t like losing a patient,” Xhinna said dryly.
“She is some healer,” X’lerin said. Shaking his head, he added, “I wouldn’t have given the little green more than a day.”
“How did you know about it?” K’dan asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
X’lerin gave him a wry grin. “Ah … I believe Fiona mentioned something about a note left at Red Butte?”
“So we know something that has to go into this note we’ve yet to write,” K’dan commented sardonically.
X’lerin looked alarmed. “Fiona said we weren’t supposed to tell you anything!” He sighed, then in an effort to change the topic, asked, “And how is this Qinth?”
“Qinth proves that dragons are even tougher than we thought,” K’dan said. “Did you bring anyone else with you?”
“Javissa’s daughter, Jirana,” X’lerin said. “She insisted that she’d be needed as much as her mother.”
Xhinna noted that J’keran was still with them. “Tell Javissa that I’m glad she’s here and ask her to coordinate with Taria about storing the goods.”
“I don’t think I can find my way back,” J’keran said wryly.
“I’ll show you,” Taria offered.
“Lead on, green rider!” J’keran said with a mock bow.
“Did you bring any klah bark?” K’dan asked. “I’m pretty certain we’re almost out.”
“Not enough for three Turns,” X’lerin told him ruefully.
“Klah and rolls for four, please!” Xhinna yelled down to the group at the fire near the base of the tree.
“On the way,” C’nian called back.
“Sit,” Xhinna said, gesturing to the makeshift seats marked by nothing more than pads strategically placed on horizontal branches.
“We’ll have to eat in shifts,” X’lerin remarked as he found a spot.
“We can seat six in a pinch,” Bekka said stiffly.
“I don’t think he meant to be rude,” Xhinna said to her, referring to J’keran.
“No, he probably did,” X’lerin said, shaking his head.
“He was always a bit of a hothead,” K’dan agreed. “I remember Fiona regaling me with his antics as a weyrling.”
“And the knot between really shook him,” X’lerin added.
“Not only him,” K’dan declared, giving the younger man a probing look.
“No, not only him,” X’lerin agreed.
“Tell us.”
X’lerin sighed. “As I said, I’ve got notes from Fiona, Lorana, Shaneese, and T’mar.”
“We can read them later,” K’dan said.
X’lerin gave K’dan a pained look. But before he could start his account, C’nian’s voice called up from below.
“Ready!”
“Thanks!” Xhinna called back. They had rigged a platform and rope that served to carry items up and down between ground and treetop camp. Now she pulled on the rope to bring up the food prepared below. A tray set on the branches between the padded seats served as a table.
“I’ll serve,” K’dan told her agreeably. “Just sit.”
There was a pitcher of klah, mugs for all, and a basket of warm rolls.
“There’s no butter, nor sweetening,” Xhinna said. “If you want cold meat—”
“This is fine,” X’lerin assured her. They sat in companionable silence for several moments as they ate and sipped their klah.
Finally, X’lerin nodded to K’dan. “As I said, being stuck between shook many people—”
“Fiona in particular,” K’dan guessed.
“Fiona in particular,” X’lerin said, nodding. “She was lost all alone in between and abandoned until Lorana came back for her. And when she did, Fiona wasn’t breathing.”
“But she recovered?” K’dan asked.
“She did,” X’lerin assured him. “We were only back a few days before she woke up in the middle of the night, convinced that she’d heard Xhinna.”
“Well, I’m glad T’mar was wise enough to listen to her,” K’dan said, thinking back to a time when he had doubted Fiona’s intuition.
“Her, Lorana, and Talenth,” X’lerin said. “Even so, D’gan was totally—”
“D’gan?” K’dan broke in. “He’s alive?”
“Yes,” X’lerin said. “I’m sorry, I should have explained better.” He took a breath. “No one at Telgar understands it completely, but when we tried to jump forward in time to Telgar, we crossed with the riders who’d tried to jump to fight Thread—the lost riders of Telgar Weyr.”
“Yes, I thought as much,” K’dan said.
“And we got caught, part of us locked in Fiona’s cry and part locked in D’gan’s cry—”
“ ‘Can’t lose the babies,’ ” Bekka repeated. She turned to K’dan. “She was talking about her babies.”
“ ‘The Weyrs must be warned’ was D’gan’s cry,” K’dan remembered. He shuddered. “I remember when I first heard that cry.” The others looked at him. “Lorana said it, echoing him.”
“And now she’s brought him—and all those lost riders—back to Telgar.”
“Oh,” Xhinna said with sudden understanding.
“That must be … awkward,” K’dan said.
“We’d only just started to see some of that … awkwardness when Fiona heard Xhinna’s cry,” X’lerin said.
“D’gan was opposed to your going,” K’dan guessed.
“D’gan doesn’t know you went,” Xhinna said.
X’lerin raised his mug to her with a smile. “Precisely.”
“You’d hardly be noticed in the throng of all those old Telgar riders,” K’dan said. He tipped his mug and took a hefty gulp of klah. “I can’t imagine him yielding his leadership to T’mar with any grace.”
“And the problem won’t necessarily be solved by the time we return,” Bekka noted. When the others looked at her, she explained, “It might be three Turns for us, but it may be less than a day for them.”
“Indeed,” K’dan said.
There was a tone of worry in his voice that made the others glance away from him until Xhinna reached across the table to put a hand on his arm. “She’ll be fine, K’dan.” The harper looked over to her. “They’ll all be fine.”
“What matters for us, now, is what we’re going to do,” Bekka declared.
Xhinna dropped her arm and turned to X’lerin. “So, Weyrleader, what should we do?”
“Me?” X’lerin gasped, sitting bolt upright. He threw a hand beseechingly toward K’dan. “You’re oldest. By the First Egg, you were my Weyrlingmaster—you should be Weyrleader!”
“I’m already Werylingmaster, father, and harper,” K’dan said, shaking off the offer. “And my dragon’s just out of the shell.” He jerked his head toward the bronze rider with a smile. “No, X’lerin, I’d say your position is clear.”