“Yes,” Jirana replied, having better ears than Taria had imagined. The little girl yawned and leaned against Xhinna’s chest. “That was the Sight.”
“It’s early,” Javissa said when Xhinna recounted the events to her later. She glanced down at Jirana, who was deep in sleep; she’d nodded off during the short walk from the meeting and couldn’t be stirred, even when Javissa bundled her up in a blanket. “The first Sight usually comes with adolescence.”
“So do you believe it?”
“I don’t know.” Javissa shook her head. “It’s possible, but it’s also possible that she’s imagining it.”
“I need to go soon,” Xhinna said.
“There’s danger?”
“Yes,” Xhinna said, recalling her conversation with K’dan and X’lerin. “We can’t be sure if timing it won’t get us trapped.”
“She said she’d get a queen?”
“And that only five Candidates were needed for Coranth’s clutch,” Xhinna said.
“And what of the others?”
“She didn’t say,” Xhinna told her.
Javissa looked up to the stars that were just peeping through the night sky. When she lowered her gaze, her eyes met Xhinna’s. “I never expected this.”
“You say she’s too young?”
“I do,” Javissa agreed, her lips pinching together in a quick frown. “But the way you described her, she behaved just like her father when he saw the future.”
“Could she be pretending?”
“No, she never saw her father when he had a Sight,” Javissa replied. A smile touched her lips briefly. “And she’s an honest child, mostly. I don’t think she’d scheme up something like this.”
“So what do we do?”
“If you can wait until morning, when she’s awake,” Javissa said, “I’ll ask her if she still wants to go.”
“It doesn’t matter so much when I go as when I go to.”
“Well, then,” Javissa said, turning to glance down tenderly at her only daughter, “let’s see what the dawn brings.”
“I can’t believe you’re going to listen to a little girl,” Taria chided her the next morning when they met on the beach. “There are eighteen eggs on the sands, not five.”
“I know,” Xhinna agreed. “But we’ve got to start somewhere and Tazith can only carry so many—”
“He could carry one more if she didn’t go,” Taria sniffed. She shivered as a cold breeze blew in from offshore where clouds were gathering and threatening a misty, perhaps even damp, morning.
She is very light, Tazith said to Xhinna.
“What?” Taria demanded, catching the distracted look in Xhinna’s eyes.
“Tazith says she’s very light,” Xhinna reported.
“Huh, he would!”
“Look, Taria, K’dan agrees that it makes sense to scout out for Candidates back in time,” Xhinna said. She made a face. “To be honest, if I could, I’d prefer to leave Jirana behind—”
“What?” Taria exclaimed. “Why?”
“Because K’dan could be wrong,” Xhinna told her. “It could be that no one can go between times.”
“X’lerin and the others—”
“I should have said, can go forward between times,” Xhinna corrected herself with a wave of her hand.
“But you’re not,” Taria said, “you’re going back—” She broke off.
“And then I’ve got to come back,” Xhinna said, nodding to affirm Taria’s unspoken conclusion. “That’s where the problems will come, if any.”
“Why can’t X’lerin go?” Taria asked. “He’s the Weyrleader.”
“It makes more sense for me to go,” Xhinna said. She said nothing, waiting for Taria to think of the reasons herself.
“You’re expendable,” Taria said at last.
“It’s my fault we’re in this mess—it was my decision to come here,” Xhinna said, not quite disagreeing.
“That’s unfair!” Taria said. She half-turned to glance at the distant broom trees that housed Sky Weyr. “Did X’lerin say that to you?”
“No,” Xhinna replied, “I said it to myself.”
“You take too much on,” Taria said.
“Someone’s got to find the Candidates. Who better than Tazith?”
Taria’s lips tightened; she couldn’t argue with that—it was well-known that blues were good at searching out Candidates and it was obvious that Sky Weyr couldn’t afford to risk X’lerin and Kivith, the only mature bronze.
“But why take her?” Taria asked, pointing to the distance. Xhinna turned and saw Jirana rushing across the sands toward them, Javissa and X’lerin following farther behind.
“Tazith says she gives good coordinates,” Xhinna said.
“What do you say?”
“If she really does See, then I have to take her with me.”
“Xhinna, Xhinna!” Jirana called, nearly doubled over and out of breath as she reached them. “I’m ready!”
“You should catch your breath first,” Taria told her absently.
Jirana smiled up at her, her dark eyes flashing. “I can do that when we’re in the air.”
“Only five?” Taria said to the girl.
“That’s all I saw,” Jirana told her.
“Could you be wrong?”
“Oh, yes!” Jirana said. She saw Taria’s look and added, “That was my first time, so I can’t say that I’ve got everything right. And—” She shrugged her shoulders. “—I don’t quite remember all of it.”
Taria cut her eyes to Xhinna imploringly.
“So are you sure you need to come, little one?” Xhinna asked. She waved a hand toward Javissa. “I’m sure your mother would appreciate it if you stayed here.”
“I have to go—it’s my duty,” Jirana said, shifting her gaze between Xhinna and her mother.
Javissa pulled the little girl into her arms and hugged her tight. “If you’re certain, go.”
Jirana pushed back far enough to peer up into her mother’s eyes. “I’m certain, Momma.”
Javissa’s lips curled up and she bent down, kissing the top of her daughter’s head. Gently, she turned her around and pushed her toward Xhinna.
“Weyrleader,” Xhinna said, nodding toward X’lerin, giving him final say in the manner.
“Good flying,” X’lerin said.
“Come on,” Xhinna said to Jirana, motioning her toward Tazith who, in deference to the child’s scant height, lowered his forelegs and shoulders to the ground.
“Thanks, Tazith!” Jirana said as she scampered up onto the blue’s neck.
That was very kind, Xhinna added as she climbed up behind the little girl. She rigged the riding straps and gave Tazith a silent command.
Hold on, Tazith cautioned as he righted himself. A moment later he took two steps forward, leapt with his back legs, and was airborne, clawing upward into the sky.
In front of Xhinna, Jirana let out a cry of pure joy.
I have the image, Tazith said, relaying it to Xhinna. She caught a flag at half-mast, realized it was the Crom Hold flag.
Let’s go, she said, even as she tried to puzzle out one niggling color in the image.
They were between when she realized what it was. Beneath the Crom Hold flag she’d seen another, smaller flag. Yellow. The Plague flag.
SEVEN
A Deed Redone
“We need to go back,” Xhinna said as soon as they burst into the sky above Crom Hold. Dawn was just breaking: The sun had just crested the horizon, casting the inner walls of the Hold in sharp relief. “We’ve gone back too far—”
“No, we haven’t,” Jirana said. “We’re right where we need to be.” She pointed down, behind them. “Tazith, turn around and go behind that hill. Land there.”