The betting was spread more evenly upon the reactions of various Lord Holders, Fiona covering all wagers against her father having a negative reaction. She seemed surprised to have no takers, but having played several games of chance with Fiona, Xhinna was reasonably sure that the blond Weyrwoman was bluffing.
Avarra pursed her lips in a thin line, glanced toward R’ney, and then said to Xhinna, “We were hoping to talk with you alone.”
“No,” Xhinna said, surprised to hear the word echoed by R’ney and Danirry. “I trust my wing.”
Avarra’s look grew darker and she cut her eyes toward Jerilli.
“We were hoping that you would talk with T’mar,” Jerilli said finally, filling in the other’s silence.
“About what?”
“About this assignment!” Avarra said angrily, tamping down her volume so only the first word carried throughout the room. She leaned closer toward Xhinna, continuing at just above a whisper. “Aren’t you as mad about it as we are?”
“Mad?” Xhinna repeated in a normal tone of voice. “Why should I be?”
“It’s beneath you, that’s why!” Avarra said. “We should be part of a fighting wing, not sent off on some silly ‘errand’ like we were mere weyrlings.”
Xhinna looked in surprise at the other woman and then glanced to Jerilli to see the same expression on her face.
“I’m sure if you really feel that way, you’ve only to tell X’lerin and he’ll have you back in an instant,” Danirry said. “In fact, why don’t I have Kiarith tell him …”
“Danirry!” Xhinna snapped at the blue rider. She turned to Avarra and Jerilli. “Didn’t H’nez send you here?”
“Yes,” Jerilli said, the hurt in her voice obvious. “I’d hoped—”
“Excuse me, may I join you?” an older man’s voice interjected.
“Seban!” Xhinna cried in delight as she identified him. “Certainly! You can sit opposite me.” She motioned for Taria to make room.
Seban sat and nodded to Avarra and Jerilli before saying in a pleasant tone, “I’m afraid I couldn’t help hearing some of what was said.”
Both of the blue riders looked slightly green at this because they’d had several prior encounters with the ex-dragonrider, either as Weyrlingmaster or general troubleshooter and occasional rider of various dragons, most particularly Xhinna’s own Tazith.
Seban had accepted Xhinna’s request with mixed emotions, and she was certain that he’d never completely conquered them, but still he rode when she asked—and he did the same favor for many others, especially those who, like Xhinna, were too great with child to safely fly for a while. He’d even taken Tazith on a few mating flights that Xhinna had been unable to attend for one reason or another. He was admired, respected, and revered throughout the Western Isle.
“Seban,” Avarra said in protest, “it’s just not fair—”
“Fair doesn’t enter into it,” R’ney interrupted. Seban raised a calming hand, and with the added weight of a glare from Xhinna, the brown rider subsided, nodding an apology to the ex-dragonrider.
“It’s not a question of fair, dragonrider,” Seban said, “but it is a question of honor.”
“Honor?” Jerilli repeated hopefully. “So you see—”
“The three wings chosen to protect Pern are all led by women,” Seban continued.
“Protect?” Avarra protested, her eyebrows rising high, “how can you—”
“How many dragons are there here on the Western Isle, do you know?” Seban asked.
“Nearly two thousand,” Jerilli said, glancing to Avarra for confirmation.
“And what would they eat if Thread destroys the island?” Seban asked.
Jerilli’s brow puckered.
“This is very lush land,” Xhinna said. “We don’t know how quickly a burrow would spread, but we do know that, once established, there are no natural boundaries from one shore to the next.”
“We had to fire several valleys at Southern Boll because of burrows,” Seban reminded them.
“And they lost a valley at Bitra,” Xhinna said, recalling Fiona’s account of the Threadfall that was still in their future.
“That was after our time,” Jerilli confessed. She, like all the other new riders on the Western Isle, had been rescued from the time between the last of the Plague and the start of the Third Pass. She glanced at Xhinna. “None of us have seen Threadfall, though—”
“I have,” Xhinna interrupted. She glanced over to R’ney, her eyes burning with a sense of urgency, as she continued, “Back at Eastern—”
“When you brought us back in time to here,” R’ney recalled, turning to Taria.
“That was near to this time,” Taria said, eyes wide. She looked at Xhinna. “We should tell Fiona—”
“I already have,” Xhinna said. She turned back to Avarra and Jerilli. “So, do you understand the need?”
“But up at the Dawn Sisters?” Avarra asked, still protesting.
“It’s a good place to start,” Xhinna said. She smiled at the other two blue riders. “Do you understand now that your Weyrleaders entrusted you—and your riders—with a great burden?”
Jerilli slowly nodded. “Sorry we were such fools.”
“I know X’lerin pretty well,” Xhinna reminded her. “After all, he was the first to make me wingleader.”
Jerilli’s mouth fell into an “O” of recollection. Xhinna turned to Avarra, adding, “And I know H’nez reasonably well. Certainly well enough to know that he’d never appoint a fool to lead a wing.” She raised an eyebrow. “Do you still want to protest?”
“No,” Jerilli said, going quite red. “I think I want to hide.”
“Don’t do that!” R’ney told her. She looked over at him. “Wingleaders are supposed to make mistakes,” he continued, glancing toward Danirry as his face expanded into a grin, and the two continued in unison: “That’s why they have wingseconds—”
Xhinna joined in: “—to correct them!”
EIGHTEEN
A Fall Through Nothing
As expected, the riders were tired and a bit sleepy after their rich meal, so although they grumbled, they were rather relieved to learn that they wouldn’t be expected to go all the way to the Dawn Sisters on their first flight.
“Remember, the Dawn Sisters are always following the dawn,” Xhinna said to her riders as they gathered into their assigned pairs. “We’ll start with the first watch at dawn over Eastern’s farthest shore.”
She held her arms above her head to quell the expected uproar.
“The first group will pass off the watch to the next group, and so on until we’ve followed the Dawn Sisters all the way around Pern,” Xhinna continued.
“But we’ll only see dawn, then!” Avarra said.
“Yes,” Lorana said, moving to stand by Xhinna. “The group that gets dawn at Benden needs to pay special attention. The same for the Telgar group and the High Reaches group.”
“Why High Reaches, why not Fort?”
“Because the Isles are more in line with High Reaches than with Fort,” Xhinna explained. “What we’ll do next is we’ll keep coordinated watches over Benden, Telgar, and High Reaches—from our height, we’re certain to spot any Threadfall that occurs during daylight.”
“So the groups will let the Dawn Sisters pass out of sight?” Jerilli said.
“Yes, we’ll set it up so that each of the three groups over the Northern Continent watches for eight hours—split into eight pairs each—and we’ll set up a twenty-four-hour watch here, plus we’ll have an all-day guard set at the easternmost tip of the Eastern Isle in case Thread comes at night.”
“And if Thread does come at night?” someone asked. “We’ve no watch-whers here.”