So some things had changed—and many hadn’t.
Danirry had been elevated to wingsecond, third in command of what was still known as Xhinna’s wing, when the work had become too much for the combined efforts of Xhinna, R’ney, and whichever bronze rider had the position.
“Actually, you brought it on yourself,” Jepara had remarked when Xhinna had once let the strain show. Jepara, like Danirry, was a secret source of pride for Xhinna: The young queen rider had matured a lot and was often found at the forefront of Weyr activity. When Xhinna had groaned at her, Jepara had laughed, quoting, “ ‘What’s the reward for a job well done?’ ”
Xhinna’s groan had become louder before she muttered, “I’ll get you for that.”
Xhinna was sorry that Jepara’s Sarurth would probably not rise before they returned to the Northern Continent.
Now she pulled herself out of her musings as she heard voices in the first of the rooms of the Stone Hold. She nodded to those working under the wide awnings spread from each side of the stone building and made her way into the entrance, following T’mar’s voice.
“You sent for me?” Xhinna asked as she entered the room that most often served as the Sky Weyr council room.
“I did,” T’mar said, rising from his chair on the opposite side of the table that filled the center of the room and extending his hand toward her. Xhinna took it in a quick grasp. With his other hand, T’mar gestured her toward a seat.
Xhinna nodded to the others in the room, not surprised at the sight of X’lerin, H’nez, C’tov, K’dan, and Fiona. With T’mar present, she had expected nothing more than a full council of the Weyrleaders. They often met—that was no surprise. That they wanted her, however, was.
“I understand you’ve been thrashing the Weyrwoman again,” T’mar began in a bantering tone.
“I’m only trying to keep her fit, Weyrleader,” Xhinna had said in the same tone. “Far be it for me to say that she’s getting out of shape—”
“Ha!” Fiona cried.
“No, indeed not,” K’dan agreed blandly.
“And who was it stopped our bout today?” Fiona asked with no rancor in her tone.
The others chuckled, and then T’mar leaned forward in the manner that Xhinna had come to recognize as his “getting down to business” posture.
“Getting down to business,” T’mar said, predictably, “we’re wondering if we can add to your duties.”
“Weyrleader?” she said, glancing toward K’dan. His dragon was only now starting to flame—at half a Turn under three, perhaps a bit too soon—but his authority as Weyrleader had been firmly established from the moment T’mar had first thrust it upon him. As T’mar had said at the time, “If ever there’s a person able to lead this lot, it’s you.”
K’dan, to Xhinna’s surprise, had seriously suggested her instead, but when she’d thrown her wholehearted support behind T’mar, the harper had smoothly bowed to the inevitable—which Xhinna had thought not only right but very diplomatic of him, given that Fiona would have added her voice to the argument if he hadn’t. And no one resisted Fiona for long.
A flash of thought crossed Xhinna’s mind—did Jirana want Xhinna to learn how to resist Fiona? She shook the thought away even as K’dan said, “Actually, it was my idea.”
“And if we let the men keep talking, we’ll all die before they get to it,” Fiona said in exasperation. “What they’re trying not to ask, is whether you’d be willing to start flying watch for us.”
“Watch?”
“Thread’s due soon,” T’mar said. “We don’t know when, and we don’t know where—on these isles—it will fall.”
“We need to establish the pattern, so we can predict the Falls,” K’dan put in.
“And,” H’nez added, clearly following an earlier conversation, “we don’t know if the first Falls will be dust like they were for us back home.”
“I see,” Xhinna said. “But why me?”
“That is my fault,” Fiona confessed, waving a hand at the Weyrleaders. “I told them that you’d jump at the chance to go back to the Dawn Sisters.” She leaned forward in her chair, her eyes never leaving Xhinna’s face as she added triumphantly, “And I’m right, aren’t I?”
“The Dawn Sisters?” Taria repeated that evening as they gathered their food and found a cool place amongst the eggs in which to eat.
“What about the Dawn Sisters?” Jepara demanded, following behind them with a plate of her own.
“Dawn Sisters?” Mirressa echoed as she joined the others.
“Wait a moment!” Jepara demanded, holding up a hand. “Let’s get the whole wing here, and then you can talk.”
“It’s not our wing, Weyrwoman,” Meeya declared sternly. “Fiona—”
“Gave us back to Xhinna,” Jepara reminded her. “If you recall, she said—”
“ ‘You can learn a lot from her,’ ” Meeya quoted. Of all the riders, she had the best memory after Fiona. In fact, she had spent all her spare time with K’dan and Fiona learning Ballads and writing Records. She had a good voice and was often in demand, singing solo or duet with the harper.
“So,” Jepara said, glancing around to assure herself that the whole extended wing was present, “teach.”
“Wingleader?” Xhinna said.
“I’d like to know myself,” M’gel, Turenth’s rider, allowed. He was one of the youngest of the fourteen bronze riders who had Impressed the only eggs to survive the Great Clutch of Eastern Weyr, but he was neither apologetic about his age nor jealous of the temporary rank he’d assumed. That was why, when the bronze riders had all completed their two-month duties, he had been selected as the first to take another month-long round.
Xhinna held up a restraining hand to indicate that she was sorting out her thoughts, but Taria said, “Eat first, talk later!”
When Xhinna started to protest, Taria reminded her, “You’ve a feeding coming up, and who knows how soon.”
Xhinna nodded and bent her head to her plate, chewing slowly after the first growled warning from Jepara and thinking while she swallowed.
What K’dan had said made sense. Of all the wings in Western, Xhinna’s was the oldest and most familiar with the landmarks of the island. Xhinna herself had been to the Dawn Sisters nearly five Turns earlier when the Telgar riders had retraced Lorana’s reasoning to discover the Great Isles.
From the position of the Dawn Sisters, it was thought, it should be possible to track the fall of Thread and give early warning if the Isles were threatened.
“Okay, now talk!” Jepara demanded as Xhinna cleared the last of her plate.
“She might want seconds,” Taria muttered.
“I’ll get them for her after,” Jepara promised, leaning closer to Xhinna. “Just tell us.”
Xhinna shared a quick look with Taria—the queen rider looked so much like one of the beaming-faced weyrchildren they’d minded so many Turns before—and then she began, “We need to look for Thread.”
“Of course,” Jepara said dismissively. “So what?”
“They want us all to go to the Dawn Sisters?” Meeya broke in.
Xhinna shook her head. “No, just us,” she said, waving toward the other blue and green riders.
“What?” Jepara cried, glancing to her fellow queen riders for support. “Why not us?”
“Because we can lose greens and blues, not queens,” Alimma replied. For all that she tried to sound bitter about it, Xhinna could hear the excitement in the young rider’s voice.
“No! No, not by the Egg of Faranth!” Jepara cried. “We ride with you.”