Dragonheart

Stepping into Talenth’s weyr, she checked on her sleeping mate, quietly oiled a new flaky patch that she’d been eyeing, and made her way out onto the ledge and into the Weyr Bowl.

The sun had crested over the easterly ridge of Fort Weyr , but there were still heavy banks of fog rising from the Bowl itself. Still, Fiona had no trouble negotiating her way to the Dining Cavern.

“Fiona!” Cisca hailed her as she entered. Fiona looked around and saw the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman seated by themselves at one of the regular tables. Cisca was beckoning to her. Fiona waved back and trotted over to sit beside them.

“We don’t have enough weyrlings,” K’lior began without preamble, not even looking up from the roll he was buttering. He was dressed in a worn tunic and looked haggard.

“No,” Fiona agreed.

“K’lior! Let her eat!” Cisca said, pushing the rolls toward Fiona and offering, with a quirk of her eyebrow, to pour the klah.

“It’s okay,” Fiona said after her first gulp of klah.  Cisca glanced pointedly to K’lior before glancing back to see if Fiona understood. Fiona didn’t, but she gathered that the Weyrwoman wanted her to eat before she spoke again, so she took a roll herself and began to butter it quietly.

“Cisca,” K’lior murmured warningly to his mate.

“Shh,” Cisca said firmly in response. “Eat! Talk after.”

“We need an answer before the others get here,” K’lior grumbled before returning dutifully to his eating.

Fiona bit into her roll, still hot and melting the butter, chewed reflexively, swallowed, and asked, in defiance of Cisca’s warning looks, “How many weyrlings would we need?”

“A Flight of flying weyrlings would be best,” Cisca said, raising a hand to keep K’lior from answering.

“They need to have at least a Turn from the Egg, right?”

“More would be better,” Cisca said in agreement. “In easier times, we wouldn’t have them lifting firestone until they have at least two Turns.”

“Don’t want to overstrain them,” K’lior put in.

“The younger ones will need another ten months before they can help,” Fiona observed, realizing that she and Talenth would start their training at about the same time.

“Queens wait longer,” Cisca told her warningly.

“In good times,” Fiona pointed out.

“And these are not good times?” Cisca asked with a grin.

“You’re to start training with the weyrlings, too,” K’lior told Fiona abstractedly.

“I’m responsible for her training, Weyrleader,” Cisca reminded him, adding a playful poke to remove any sting in her words.

“So tell her!” K’lior said, flinching from her fingers.

“You’re to train with the weyrlings,” Cisca said, turning back to administer another fast playful poke to her mate.

“Can I?” Fiona’s eyes shone with excitement. “That’d be great.” K’lior snorted humorously.

“How did it work with T’mar and Tajen?” Fiona asked, returning to the original problem.

“Well enough,” K’lior said. “But that solves only part of the problem.”

“And we still don’t know if one dragon will let another ride it.”

“Can’t you test that?” Fiona wondered. The other two looked at her. “Can Cisca ride Rineth?”

The two gave her startled looks. Fiona wondered what was wrong with her suggestion.

“Better a brown rider on a bronze,” K’lior said after a moment. Seeing Fiona’s perplexed look, he explained, “I’d be surprised if a bronze would let a woman ride him.”

“Any more than I could see a man on a queen,” Cisca said by way of agreement.

“Of course,” K’lior added reflectively, “no one has ever tried, so I can’t be certain it wouldn’t work.”

Cisca’s eyes narrowed as she said thoughtfully, “I wonder if Rineth would  let me ride him?”

K’lior shrugged. “I’d prefer it if you never have to find out.”

“Me, too,” Cisca agreed fervently.

“What did you do last Threadfall?” Fiona asked, her mind still working on the question before them.

“We used the older weyrlings and rotated a wing from each of the flights,” K’lior told her.

“We left you to handle the problem yourself yesterday because we wanted to give you the chance to come up with a better solution,” Cisca explained to Fiona.

“And we have so few dragons now that a wing would be a big loss to our fighting strength,” K’lior added.

“Especially with the illness,” Cisca added bitterly. She glanced at K’lior consideringly, then added, “I think we’re going to lose Yerinth and Casunth today.”

K’lior nodded, his expression set.

“H’nez will stay with F’vin, and M’valer says he has someone with S’pevan,” Cisca added.

“Thank you for that,” K’lior said, acknowledging Cisca’s foresight.

“We’ve got another forty or more who are feverish,” Cisca continued unhappily.

“How many will be ready for this Fall?”

“If it comes to the worst, a little more than a full Flight,” Cisca told him. “But that would be spread out amongst the wings.”

“A Flight,” K’lior repeated with anguish in his voice.

“We’ll find a cure,” Fiona said, surprising herself. “We have to. What about Benden Weyr? Have we any news from them?”

“They found a room,” Cisca said after a moment of silent communion with her dragon. “Melirth tells me that Gaminth says they are searching it.”

“See? Then they’ll find a cure,” Fiona predicted confidently.

“In the meantime,” Cisca said, looking pointedly at K’lior to get his full attention, “it is up to us,  Weyrleader and Weyrwomen, to keep up our spirits.”

“I agree,” K’lior said. “If we lose hope, then all the Weyr will lose hope.”

Fiona’s mind was back on the issue of firestone. “How much firestone can one of the larger dragons carry?” Weyrleader and Weyrwoman looked at her expectantly, so she continued, “Could one of the browns or bronzes carry enough for a full wing?”

“Just detach a dragon from the wing to get the firestone?” K’lior repeated to see if he was following Fiona’s line of thought. When she nodded, Cisca brightened, saying, “That could work!”

“It’d be difficult for the wing, though,” K’lior said consideringly. “They’d lose cohesion, which would make fighting Thread harder.”

“They’d have to train for it,” Cisca agreed. K’lior frowned.

“But wouldn’t they have the same problem if a dragon or rider got injured?” Fiona asked.

“Yes, they would,” K’lior agreed. His expression brightened. “Your suggestion certainly could work.”

“I think you should try it out tomorrow,” Cisca said.

“Why not today?” K’lior asked in surprise.

A bugle and the sound of dragons keening erupted in the Weyr Bowl outside.

“Yerinth has gone between, ” Cisca responded.

A moment later the keening increased to a higher pitch.

“Casunth?” K’lior asked.

Cisca nodded sadly.

The loss of two more dragons to the illness cast a pall on the entire Weyr. Fiona found some solace in oiling Talenth’s hide, and for a change it was frustrating that the queen’s skin had very few of the dangerous dry patches.

She was happy to be interrupted by a voice from outside her ledge calling, “Weyrwoman? Wingleader T’mar sends his compliments and asks if you and Talenth would join the weyrlings in the morning drill.”

“We’d be delighted!” She called to Xhinna, “Xhinna, we’re going to drill with the weyrlings! Join us if you want!”

“I don’t have a dragon!” Xhinna called back grumpily.