The egg is dead, Tazith reported sadly. Xhinna could see the sand under the egg growing darker as the egg’s vitals leaked out.
“Eat it up, gnaw it, tear it all you want, you two,” Xhinna encouraged the two Meeyus. “You deserve it.”
With a tear in her eye, she stepped back, letting the dead egg rock upright once more. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned as Aliyal handed her the still ichor-slimed knife.
“Well done,” Xhinna said, taking the knife and sliding it into the sand to clean the worst of the mess off.
“I would have preferred to kill it before it got the egg,” Aliyal said with a hard edge to her voice. She met Xhinna’s eyes squarely. “I’d kill them all, by myself, if I could catch them.”
Xhinna nodded; the green rider had reflected her sentiments exactly.
“I’m sorry, T’rennor,” Xhinna said as Kisorth’s rider watched the crew haul away the wrecked egg.
“You did your best,” T’rennor said. Beside him, hand on his shoulder, V’lex frowned.
“It wasn’t good enough,” Xhinna said, glancing directly at the older rider. V’lex looked up, flinched, and then dropped his eyes. Xhinna turned away, toward X’lerin, who stood close by, watching the egg as the work party moved it to the shore and slid it gently past the surf, into the sea.
“Weyrleader,” Xhinna said around the heavy lump in her throat. X’lerin lifted his eyes to her and shook his head slightly. “I may not be able to keep my vow—”
“No,” X’lerin said with a fierce undertone in his voice, raising a hand to forestall her words, “don’t say it.”
“But—”
“You gave your word, I expect you to keep it,” he said sternly. Around them, heads turned to watch the interplay. “We know now that the tunnel snakes can attack through the sand, and we know our Meeyus can find them, so your job has gotten that much easier.” He gave Xhinna a slight wink, barely visible, as he said, “Now do it.”
X’lerin wasn’t blaming her, Xhinna thought with a wave of relief. The Weyrleader trusted her still.
“Very well,” she said. “If you’ll join us at the hold, I’m calling a meeting to discuss our options.”
“Strategies,” he corrected absently, tearing his eyes away from the sea, where they had wandered once more, and focusing back on Xhinna. “I believe that’s the word you were looking for.”
“Precisely,” she said with a curt nod. She marched briskly to Tazith, nodded thanks to Jepara, who was watching Scruff this morning, and ordered the blue skyward.
Ahead in time, from whence they’d escaped, without these new eggs fully hatched, Impressed, and matured, Pern had no hope, only the last remnants of those fighting against steadily increasing losses until the last dragon on Pern died, overwhelmed by masses of unopposed Thread.
If she could not find a way, Pern would die.
Tazith started his spiral down to the half-finished stone hall. X’lerin’s bronze was already there.
Xhinna sprang down quickly and trotted into the room where she’d slept. As she did she heard voices becoming clearer ahead: R’ney, Danirry, X’lerin.
“We can’t put the eggs in the broom trees. How would they stay warm?” X’lerin was saying.
“And when they hatched?” Danirry said.
“Stupid idea,” R’ney said, his voice weary. “Sorry I said it.”
“Don’t be,” Xhinna said as she stepped into the room. She smiled. “It was an honest thought, keep going.”
“We could bring them here,” R’ney said.
“Wouldn’t we need sand?” Danirry asked.
“I don’t know,” R’ney said. “If the sands are for warmth, then anything that keeps them warm will help.”
“But we know the sand insulates from losing heat to the ground,” Danirry told him.
“And the sand lets the tunnel snakes through,” X’lerin countered in R’ney’s defense.
“Could we carry all the eggs from the sands here?” Xhinna asked, glancing at X’lerin. She raised an eyebrow toward R’ney and Danirry. “If we used slings, couldn’t we bring the sand they’re sitting on?”
“Perhaps,” X’lerin said. “But we’ve fourteen fit dragons and fifteen healthy eggs.”
“And we figure with the sand we’d need, we’d need four dragons for each load,” R’ney said.
“That much,” Xhinna said with a grimace. She shrugged. “Well, it was an idea.”
“It won’t help anyway,” R’ney said, shaking his head. “We’ve got another month or two—at least—before the rock here is clear enough to lay out an area large enough for all the eggs.”
Xhinna frowned. “Just the area outside now would be enough.”
“For Kisorth’s eggs,” R’ney corrected her. “But—for all the eggs we’ll need?” He shook his head. “Whatever answer we find has to work for all of them.”
Xhinna slumped her shoulders and nodded wearily.
“It’s a pity that the eggs can’t talk, like the dragons,” Danirry said wistfully. “Then we could ask them if the tunnel snakes were near.”
Xhinna rose and headed outside, toward Tazith. “Well, keep working on it. I’m going to check on the camp.”
Through the rest of the day, whenever asked by a rider or weyrfolk, Xhinna would give the cheerful answer that they were working on a solution and she was certain they’d find one soon. And each time, as she saw the relief and trust light up their eyes, she felt worse. She had no answers—but she couldn’t tell them that.
Bekka found her wandering the beach and stopped her long enough for J’riz to massage the tense muscles of her shoulders and neck. It was a momentary comfort, for when he was done, she felt the weight of all the Weyrs of Pern fall on her back once more.
It was almost dusk when Jirana accosted Xhinna and casually grabbed her hand, swinging their arms together. Xhinna, too tense to think clearly, instantly felt alarmed.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, stopping to look at the girl.
“Nothing,” Jirana said. Xhinna give her a harder look, grabbed Jirana’s other hand, and boosted the child up on her hip so that she could look directly into the worried brown eyes.
“What’s wrong, little one?” Xhinna asked softly.
Jirana wouldn’t meet her eyes as she said again, “Nothing.”
Xhinna felt a tremor: Jirana was shivering. “Are you cold?”
“No,” Jirana said curtly, suddenly straining against her. “I’m fine, let me down.”
“Why don’t I sleep near you tonight?” Xhinna suggested.
“No,” Jirana said, and darted away into the gloom.
FOURTEEN
A Body Torn
Once more Xhinna woke with a feeling of dread. The thick morning fog had rolled back in from the sea, shrouding the sands in a blanket of muffling white. She felt for Tazith and found him awake, standing on all fours, nervously scanning around him.
She had chosen to sleep by an egg at the outskirts of the group, far enough from Jirana that the trader girl couldn’t get angry, but close to hand. Two Candidates shared Xhinna’s egg, sleeping soundly in their thick pile of blankets. Because she was often interrupted in the night or got up to patrol on her own, Xhinna had elected to be on the outside and they, young holders that they were, glad to be rescued from certain death by starvation, did not argue with her—a trait she had come to appreciate. And they adored Scruff who, despite all Xhinna’s efforts to keep an emotional distance, had become such a sweet ball of fluff that she slept with them, tethered by a collar attached to a long rope.