Coranth is worried about us, Tazith relayed.
We’re coming back, Xhinna said. She shook the two toddlers back out of their drowsiness long enough to tell them that they would be going between back to the camp so that they wouldn’t wake, terrified, in the cold darknes that was between. Kimar nodded sleepily and closed his eyes once more; Tiona perked up and took several deep breaths in anticipation.
“Can we do that again?” she asked when they’d returned from between and spiraled down to the camp.
“We’ll see,” Xhinna temporized, her eyes on the distant horizon. She had Tazith check his Turn as she peered into the distance. Something was falling, streaming down—
“Thread!”
TWO
Flight to the Past
Taria looked up as she heard Xhinna’s shout.
“Thread?” R’ney repeated in surprise.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Xhinna said, as she came running toward them. Two dragons alone with no firestone were no match for a Fall of Thread, which was normally met by no less than ninety well-trained fighting dragons.
“Where?” Taria asked.
“Are you sure it’s Thread?” R’ney asked.
“Sure enough that we’ve got to leave.”
“Very well,” R’ney said, glancing nervously around the small camp. “I trust you to be right, blue rider.”
“Where?” Taria repeated.
“When,” Xhinna corrected her with a shake of her head. “How many hatchlings can Coranth carry?”
“Two or three.”
“Make it two—can you carry the riders, as well?”
“Yes,” Taria said. Turning to R’ney, she added, “Can you help us rig the slings again?”
Tazith carried three dragonets and their riders, Coranth two. They were airborne before Xhinna had an answer to the question of where.
Tazith, go here, she said, picturing a night sky over the channel between the Eastern and Western Isles. She examined the image carefully to be certain that it was three Turns in the past, carefully placing the stars to their positions back in time.
I can go there, Tazith told her, and in an instant, they were between. Five coughs later, a blue and a green hovered, motionless, over the Big Channel.
There, Xhinna said, directing Tazith toward a spot on the Western Isle midway up the length of the channel. The Eastern Isle had proved unusable; at least there was a chance that the Western Isle was more viable. Land there.
They unloaded their passengers and returned between for the next load.
On their fourth journey, they had only three hatchlings to carry back—which was just as well, as both Xhinna and Taria were bone-weary, though both dragons insisted they still had energy to spare.
After settling his Rowerth into the sling carried by Tazith, R’ney handed Tiona and Kimar up to Xhinna and then climbed on himself. The sound of Thread hissing could be heard nearby. A Mrreow suddenly burst from the undergrowth, driven by fear, and charged toward them.
Now! Xhinna cried to her blue. Tazith strained to get airborne. Behind them, she heard Taria cry out and Coranth bellow in pain. And then they were airborne and between.
Coranth bellowed again when they broke out in the starlit sky above the Big Channel.
Tazith landed first, and Xhinna wasted no time in directing the unloading. Coranth landed with another pained cry just behind them, and Xhinna raced to the green’s side.
“A Mrreow got her!” Taria cried, tears streaming down her face.
The Mrreow had managed to dig its claws into one of Coranth’s hind legs just after she’d jumped into the air. The cuts were deep and long.
Xhinna looked around for an aid kit, but realized that they’d had no time to organize their supplies.
“Get a blanket,” she snapped to the person nearest her. “We’ll use it to bind her wounds.”
It was the best they could do. With Coranth’s wounds bound up, the green’s keening ceased and she fell into an uneasy sleep. Xhinna fought hard against the fatigue of so many quick jumps between time.
“I’ll take watch,” R’ney offered. “You rest—you look as green as Coranth.”
Xhinna didn’t have the energy to argue, merely nodding and trudging over to the twins. She lay down beside them and let their comforting presence warm her. A moment later, Taria joined them. Xhinna pulled Taria’s head against her shoulder, and soon they were all asleep.
Xhinna woke at dawn to the sound of the twins giggling. She opened her eyes blearily, and then jumped bolt upright.
“You were supposed to wake me!” she called to R’ney. The brown rider had bags under his eyes, but he was busily making faces for the amusement of the twins.
“We’re hungry,” Tiona said, looking up at Xhinna. Xhinna noted that the toddler used “we” when she wanted to emphasize something, as if adding her brother would lend weight to her point.
“There’s food in the trees, probably,” R’ney said, casting his gaze over the taller trees that grew up beyond the lower brush. “I think I recognize that one from Eastern.”
“You were supposed to be resting,” Xhinna snapped irritably. She glanced down. Taria was still fast asleep. She debated waking her, but decided against it. Tazith was sleeping with Coranth, curled around her protectively. The green seemed comfortable; waking her rider might wake her.
Xhinna made her decision, telling R’ney, “You stay here, I’ll scout.”
R’ney nodded, turning back to the twins and starting to lead them on a circuit around their makeshift camp. With a smile for his skillful handling of the children, she started off toward the distant treeline.
The brush was not much different than back on the Eastern Isle, Xhinna noted as she walked through it, her eyes scanning for signs of tunnel snakes or Mrreows. She saw what might have been a tunnel snake hole, but it could also have been the dwelling of any one of Pern’s other subterranean beasts. Still, she gave it a wide berth; they had too few supplies and fit riders for her to risk injury.
Xhinna grinned when she spotted a grove of the large-leafed trees that bore the hard nutfruit. It took some ingenuity for her to climb high enough to reach the large nuts and deft work with her belt knife to cut them down, but after a few minutes, she had two ready to bring back to the camp.
“Nutfruit!” cried Taria, who had been woken by the giggling of the twins, as she spotted Xhinna returning. “Where did you find them?”
Xhinna pointed, and soon a large party set out to fetch more. The leafy outer covering of the nutfruit could be hacked away to reveal a hard-shelled nut. Inside, there was a thin, milky-white liquid—it could be drunk alone, but it was better when infused with mint or some of the other edible leaves they’d found on the Great Isle. The white flesh could be scraped off and eaten. It had a taste all its own.
“This isn’t a good place to stay,” R’ney remarked quietly to her when his next circuit brought him close by.
Xhinna nodded. “When everyone’s fed, we’ll start scouting.”
“We?” R’ney asked, glancing pointedly at Coranth.
“We,” Xhinna repeated, indicating the whole group. “We need meat for the hatchlings. We’ll have to send out a hunting party and a fishing party, while I scout for a better camp.”
R’ney nodded, but then his eyes cut toward Coranth. “And when we have to move?”