“What if he—they get caught in that knot?”
“K’dan was careful to give them a good image,” Xhinna said. “Tazith and I both checked it.”
“But—” Taria snapped her mouth shut and stormed off, leaving Xhinna hurt and confused.
“There’s more left, but not much,” W’vin told X’lerin and K’dan when the three dragons returned later that afternoon. They stood in the clearing not far from the broom trees that constituted their aerial home. “We’ve got all the clothes, more canvas, more rope, and anything edible that was left.”
“It was a heavy load,” J’keran said, “but not too much for our browns.” He smirked at V’lex as he added, “I think even V’lex’s Sarinth worked off some fat this trip.”
X’lerin caught V’lex’s hurt look and said, “Well, I appreciate it, all of you.” He gestured to the full cargo nets that lay on the ground below. “I’ll have some of the bronze weyrlings help you with the stowing.”
J’keran’s eyes narrowed. “Where’s the rest of our wing?”
“Hunting,” X’lerin replied easily. “Xhinna found a nest of wherries and they’ve all gone after them.”
“Ah, Wingleader Xhinna,” J’keran muttered softly. “I’m sure that’s the best use of her abilities.”
“It doesn’t matter, J’keran,” X’lerin replied, “as I am the one who set the work.”
“And she did so well in finding five Candidates,” J’keran said. “I can see why you’d want her hunting wherries.”
“We’ve time enough to get more,” X’lerin told him coldly. He nodded to W’vin and V’lex, saying, “Once you get the goods stored, you can join the hunt or rest as your dragons need.”
“Weyrleader,” W’vin said with a firm nod to X’lerin and a beckoning look toward V’lex and J’keran. They each gave X’lerin quick nods, though J’keran’s was sketchy, barely perceptible—just short of insult.
A noise overhead heralded the return of the hunting party. X’lerin glanced up as the others were departing and declared loudly enough for his voice to carry, “Ah, good! They’ve each got a wherry! We’ll be able to celebrate our bounty tonight.”
In a quiet voice that carried only to X’lerin’s ears, K’dan said, “He’s pushing you, you know.”
“I know,” X’lerin replied with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “I know.”
“I think he’s angry that they didn’t get lost.”
“Caught between?”
K’dan nodded. “We need to keep an eye on him.”
“I’ve heard that he’s got a new brew going,” X’lerin said. “He’ll be trying the first batch tonight.”
K’dan’s brow creased. “How can it be any better than the others?”
“Rumor,” X’lerin laid stress on the word, “has it that he’s found a secret ingredient and does a double brew.”
“Wonderful,” K’dan said in a tone that belied the word.
“We’ve only got a little time,” Xhinna said as she reached up to help the girls down onto the sands. “They’ll be serving dinner soon—roast wherry.”
Alimma was the first down, followed by Mirressa and Aliyal. The other two followed more slowly, insisting that they could climb down from Tazith’s neck by themselves. Alimma looked around wide-eyed at the eggs clustered on the sands, dim in the evening’s fading light. Xhinna could see her counting and waited until she said, “Eighteen?”
“Yes,” Xhinna said. “The first clutch of a green on Western Isle.”
“Is that where we are?” Mirressa asked, turning around to look back inland to the stand of broom trees from whence they’d come.
“Why can’t we live down here?” Cliova asked hopefully. She’d found the height of the broom trees frightening and at first had closed her eyes and refused to move. Fortunately, Timar and Kiona had chosen that moment to race by, shouting and chattering, causing Cliova to open her eyes and follow their antics with amazement. After that, she was willing to try a few steps, but not on her own—she insisted upon holding Alimma’s hand until the other threw it off in annoyance.
“Tunnel snakes and Mrreows,” Xhinna replied. “The tunnel snakes are like the ones at home, only bigger.”
“Mrreows?” Alimma asked.
“They are four-footed, large, and furred, but not like dogs,” Xhinna explained. “We named them for the sound they make when they’re angry. If you ever hear that sound, you should get to safety.”
“And where’s that?”
“Up in the broom trees,” she told them, gesturing to the trees in the distance. “They can’t climb that high.” A moment later, to ease their fear, she added, “They’re afraid of fire and the dragons.”
“So we’re safe?”
Xhinna shrugged. “We can’t be sure; they attacked during the Hatching and—”
“Will they attack again?” Mirressa asked.
“We hope that with all the dragons watching, we’ll be safe,” Xhinna replied.
Mirressa shivered. Cliova looked back to the distant broom trees with longing. “Shouldn’t we get back now?”
“Of course,” Xhinna said. “You can get back on Tazith while I check with the guards.”
“Guards?”
“We keep a dragon and rider or weyrling and rider to guard the eggs,” Xhinna explained.
“Will they hatch soon?”
“Do you remember your Teaching Ballads?” Xhinna asked as she headed toward the bronze rider standing guard.
Mirressa’s very sweet voice sang out:
“Count three months and more
,
And five heated weeks
,
A day of glory, and
In a month, who seeks?”
She looked at Xhinna, adding, “Is that what you mean?”
Xhinna chuckled. “You should sing for K’dan,” she called back to Mirressa. “He’ll have you as his apprentice.”
“A harper?” Mirressa asked dubiously.
“Indeed!” Xhinna said as she joined J’sarte, who stood beside his bronze Nineth. To him she said, “Anything to add?”
J’sarte chuckled. “Just don’t tell Bekka if you’ve any knowledge of healing.”
“My mother was a midwife,” Cliova called from her perch on Tazith’s neck.
“Oh, you’re doomed,” J’sarte said, laughing harder. “Bekka’s mother was a midwife.”
“And she rides a queen,” Mirressa said in awe.
Xhinna told J’sarte, “I’ll send someone down to relieve you.”
“Thanks,” J’sarte said. “I’d hate to miss out on the feast.” To the girls on the dragon’s back, he called, “Ladies, good evening!”
“Good evening!” Alimma called back loudly.
“It seems you picked well,” J’sarte told Xhinna in a voice pitched for her ears alone.
“We’ll see,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. She turned and, with a departing wave, made her way back to Tazith.
“Who was that?” Alimma asked as Xhinna set Tazith to climbing in the darkening sky.
“J’sarte, rider of bronze Nineth,” Xhinna told her easily, glad of the question—it was first sign of interest Xhinna had seen in Alimma—and gladder that the holder girl was in front of her and couldn’t see her gleeful expression. “Remind me to send him relief.”
“Okay,” Alimma said firmly.
“ ‘Five heated weeks’ is the time from clutching to hatching,” K’dan told Cliova when she approached him that evening in the clearing below the broom trees. Xhinna and the others joined them around one of the three large fires that had been built on what they had started to call the Meeyu Plateau, as the cage was not far away. “Coranth clutched four weeks back, so the Hatching should come any time in the next sevenday.”