“I don’t think so,” Jirana had said, giving the question her full attention and adding with a shrug, “They might.”
Xhinna now turned to Jirana, saying, “I want you and the other young queens to be certain that you don’t try to catch us. Leave that to the bigger queens.”
Jirana nodded. Around her, the others nodded just as solemnly, except the older Kiminy, who winked at Xhinna.
“But we’ll be able to go up to the Dawn Sisters, right?” dark-haired Elodie asked.
“Yes,” Lorana said. “You need to be able to see where you’re watching.”
“Between you and Jepara’s queens, we’ll have to ask you to take two-hour watches—”
“But even with the green queens, that’s only eleven of us!” Jepara objected. Before anyone could reply, another queen burst into the sky overhead and dropped with appalling speed to the ground below, her wings cupping at the very last moment. Her rider scrambled off and rushed over, crying, “Sorry I’m late, I had a broken arm to mend!”
“Bekka?” Jepara called in astonishment.
“Is that a problem?” the sturdy healer demanded, her eyes flashing.
“You’ll take the dawn shift, then,” Jepara declared, “seeing as you were late.”
“I was—” Bekka’s hot protest died as she caught a look from Lorana. “That’s fine.” A moment later she added, reflectively, “I’m usually up by then doing my rounds.”
“You’ll have your second do them,” Jepara ordered. “You’ll need your full attention for this.”
“When did your queen rise?” Bekka demanded hotly. She and the other queen rider had locked horns on so many occasions that Xhinna had feared they would finally come to blows, but so far, their arguments had always dissipated just short of that. After a while, Xhinna decided that their bickering was just their way of being friendly to each other. She’d seen them stick up for each other’s best interest countless times in the past two Turns, but it still seemed to her a strange way of expressing affection.
“Before yours, certainly!” Jepara snapped back.
“Enough,” Xhinna growled, cutting her eyes to the horrified looks of the other blue and queen riders. “Bekka—that would be great. I think Jepara has just volunteered to precede you—”
“I did not!” Jepara snapped. Xhinna lowered her head toward her with raised brows and the queen rider sighed, saying to Bekka, “Don’t expect any klah.”
“You’d probably spit in it,” Bekka shot back.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Jepara said, smiling sweetly.
“Children,” Xhinna said to the two of them, earning her a pair of dark looks—both of them were as near her age as made no difference.
“Are you sure you’d like them watching out for you?” Avarra asked in a choked voice.
“Absolutely,” Xhinna said. “I’d trust them with my life.”
“I can take the watch before Jepara,” Jirana offered.
“No, take the watch with Bekka,” Jepara said, turning toward the younger rider with an affectionate look. Her gaze fell on the other young queen riders and she added, “Maybe Devon will watch with me.”
The youngest queen rider beamed in agreement.
In short order the watches were set, Lorana noting them down on a slate for K’dan’s later confirmation.
“So, when can we go up?” Jepara asked when the last dispositions were made.
“Food first, then flying,” Bekka said authoritatively.
“Then, let’s eat!” Jepara said, springing to her feet.
Bekka coughed significantly and nodded toward Xhinna and Lorana. Jepara gave her a quizzical look and then blushed. “I mean, if that’s all right with you?”
Xhinna had to force herself to school her expression as she replied, “Of course.”
As the others filtered away, Lorana waited behind until only she and Xhinna were left. Then the ex-queenrider leaned over and said, “When were you going to tell them that they’ll have to wait until dawn?”
“After they’ve eaten and are feeling sleepy,” Xhinna told her. Lorana’s eyes widened in surprise and she gave the blue rider a wide smile. “I thought I’d have them practice afterward at altitude, to get their dragons used to holding air, the way you told me.”
“I see,” Lorana said approvingly.
“Would you like a ride to the High Kitchen?” Xhinna said, rising as she spied R’ney, Taria, and Danirry waiting patiently by their dragons.
“No, I think I’ll stay here and have a word with Fiona,” Lorana said, waving a hand at her. “You go on.”
Xhinna and Taria sat at the large table in what they’d come to call the High Kitchen. “Here they come,” Taria murmured.
In the Turns since they’d come to Sky Weyr, they’d learned that while spring and summer were often mild and pleasant, fall and winter were not the nicest seasons for tree dwellers. Fortunately, they had learned the lesson early and had discovered that some broom trees were more accommodating than others. So the original kitchen area had been superceded by a much larger, fully enclosed area in X’lerin’s broom tree—the one that the Weyrleader and his bronze Kivith had occupied. Softer pinus wood had been used to lay a floor and erect walls and ceilings for the large room. After that, several more rooms had been constructed in other broom trees, providing winter quarters that were later expanded to house most of the Weyr.
The High Kitchen provided sufficient seating for no more than a full wing at best, so Xhinna had arranged for the various wings to eat in shifts. Tonight she had invited the wingleaders, queen riders, and wingseconds to eat first, as they would immediately after be going up to the Dawn Sisters.
Taria had managed to insinuate herself into the group with accepting nods from both R’ney and Danirry, and then had insisted that Xhinna eat quickly, predicting that the other two female blue riders would seek her out.
Sure enough, both Jerilli and Avarra were already making their way toward Xhinna.
“May we sit with you?” Avarra asked.
“Of course,” R’ney said, moving closer to Taria and elbowing her to make more room. “Danirry, move away from the wingleader—you get to see her every day.”
Danirry favored him with a look that was a cross between a glare and a grin, but dutifully moved away.
Xhinna was just as unsurprised as Taria at their desire to sit with her—slightly more than half of all the new green riders and just a bit more than one in three blue riders were women, a tremendous break with Weyr tradition brought about mostly because of the dearth of able-bodied males of suitable Searching age.
Xhinna susupected that Nerra might have slightly “stacked the deck,” as R’ney had once described it, assiduously succoring girls by getting them into her orphanage, but whether or not that was true, she doubted that the Lady Holder’s discrimination would matter much in the long term. Able-bodied men and lads had been drafted first into the recovery after the Plague, and all too often women had been left to shift for themselves, with the tragic result that many young girls had been left homeless and starving.
Soon, rigid, inflexible old-timers like D’gan were going to be confronted with the new reality. Given both Fiona’s and Nerra’s harsh words, Xhinna was rather hoping she’d have the chance to see his reaction firsthand, although she was the first to bet against his “dying of apoplexy at the mere sight,” as Fiona had so cheerfully predicted.
There was an equally vigorous discussion of the possible reaction of Weyrwoman Tullea to the new organizations. There, Xhinna was in agreement with Fiona’s prediction that the tetchy Benden Weyrwoman would be at least secretly and maybe even openly ecstatic.