Dragonheart

very well.

Tajen walked quickly toward Talenth, with Fiona following a few steps behind.

“Ask her to spread her wings if she can, and hold them,” Tajen requested of Fiona.

Talenth was willing but curious. I think he wants to check your muscles,  Fiona guessed. She was right. Tajen ran his hands over Talenth’s pectoral muscles and across her chest, gesturing for Fiona to follow behind him with her hands.

“I’m feeling for any heat and any signs of knotted muscle,” he explained. He paused for a moment in his exploration, widening his movements around one particular spot, then pointing it out to Fiona. “Feel here.”

Fiona did. The muscle seemed tighter than elsewhere.

“Nothing major,” Tajen assured her, “just some normal tightness.” He continued his inspection. “But if you were to feel the same tightness the next time she flies, you might want to tell me.”

“Would that be bad?”

“I doubt it,” Tajen said with a shrug. “Usually it’s just the muscles getting their strength. Often one muscle has to do more work to compensate for weaker muscles until they get stronger. But if it persists, we may need to let her rest for a few days so that she doesn’t strain herself.” He smiled and beckoned for Fiona to come closer, murmuring, “Young dragons rarely do themselves an injury — the worst they do is get sore for a day or so — but it’s always wise to keep an eye on them in case it’s more serious.”

Can I do it again?  Talenth asked eagerly.

“Not today,” Fiona replied, adding to Tajen, “She wants to do it again.”

“Of course she does,” Tajen replied with a grin. He caught Talenth’s whirling eyes and said to her, “Tomorrow, if you feel up to it.”

I will!  Talenth declared fervently, climbing back up the ledge to her weyr. Tajen followed her progress with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“Are you thinking she’s doing too much?” Fiona guessed.

“No,” Tajen said, shaking his head and smiling. “I was thinking how much her gliding exercise will help her muscle tone.”

“Will that mean she’ll be ready to fly sooner?” Fiona asked hopefully, working to keep her emotions from Talenth. She didn’t want to raise the gold’s hopes falsely.

“I don’t think so,” Tajen said. “But it might mean that she’ll be more fit when she does  first fly.” He paused for a moment before adding, “But that wasn’t what I was thinking.”

Fiona’s look challenged him to explain.

“I was thinking,” Tajen answered, “that if it were to help her, it might also help the hatchlings.” Before Fiona could respond, he added, “Those of her clutch, I mean.”

“I don’t know how the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman would feel about that.”

“We can find out by asking them,” Tajen said. “But first, I wanted to know if you or Talenth had any objections.”

“No,” Fiona said without really thinking over her answer. Tajen cocked an eyebrow at her, challenging her response. “No, honestly, I think it’d be fun.”

“Then we should ask the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman, shouldn’t we?”

“They’ll be at lunch,” Fiona said. “Just let me make sure that Talenth is settled in.”

They found Cisca and K’lior at the head table on the dais.

“We figured that today we should be easy to find,” Cisca murmured to Fiona as she joined them at the table. “I heard that your dragon flew today.”

Fiona nodded, looking somewhat surprised that this was remarkable.

“You know that Melirth keeps an eye on her hatchlings,” Cisca explained. “And Talenth was quite proud of herself.”

“Yes, she was,” Fiona agreed with a broad grin.

“In fact,” Tajen inserted smoothly into the conversation, “we were wondering if perhaps it wouldn’t be a good idea for all of Melirth’s latest hatchlings to practice gliding.”

Cisca beckoned to K’lior and quickly brought him in on the conversation. He frowned thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded, glancing at Tajen. “Would it help them fly faster?”

“I doubt it,” Tajen responded. “But it certainly would make the transition easier. Their muscles would be more toned.”

“I suppose,” Cisca said carefully, glancing at K’lior for confirmation, “that if they drilled no more than once a day, it wouldn’t be too great an inconvenience.”

“And you could watch all the pretty youngsters,” K’lior teased her.

“K’lior!” Cisca growled back warningly. “They’re far too young for me, you know that!” She cast a sidelong glance at Fiona, “Though maybe for our junior Weyrwoman . . .”

Fiona blushed furiously, shaking her head in denial. Cisca’s eyes danced as she enjoyed Fiona’s discomfort, but then she took pity on the youngster and turned back to Tajen, asking, “Have you discussed this with T’mar?”

Tajen shook his head.

T’mar, who was seated farther down the table, looked up at the mention of his name. “Weyrwoman?”

With a nod, Cisca invited him to move closer. Once he was seated again, she explained Tajen’s suggestion.

“I’m not sure that it wouldn’t  actually reduce their training time,” T’mar said finally. “We don’t know how much time is spent getting their muscles honed.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be Turns,” Tajen said.

“No, but maybe months.”

“Even a month might be all the difference we need,” K’lior said with a tone of urgency.

“Tomorrow, Thread falls at High Reaches and Igen,” T’mar observed.

“Ista is down to forty-six fighting dragons,” Cisca said. At the startled looks of the others, she added, “B’nik of Benden has promised to support them.”

“Which is why we must have all the fighting strength we can get,” K’lior said. He glanced at T’mar and Tajen. “If the older weyrlings had to — ”

“They would die,” Tajen declared flatly. “They haven’t even started flaming yet!”

“I think we will have to teach them soon,” K’lior said heavily, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes against the anguish he felt.

“Even with that,” T’mar declared, glancing at Tajen for confirmation, “they’d need at least three months before they’d survive more than an hour against Thread.”

“If that,” Tajen agreed sadly. “If we had the queen’s wing . . .” Tajen put in bitterly.

“We’ve got a queen,” Cisca said.

“We can’t risk Melirth,” K’lior said immediately.

“If we do it properly, we won’t risk  anyone,” Cisca replied. She glanced at Fiona, cocking her head questioningly.

“How much firestone could Melirth carry?” Fiona asked the Weyrwoman.

“More than a bronze,” Tajen replied, glancing at T’mar, who considered the statement and then nodded reluctantly.

“She would still have to supply the firestone,” K’lior objected, “and she couldn’t do it any faster than another dragon.”

“She could if she trailed the firestone at different levels,” Fiona said. The others looked at her. “What if she trailed firestone at say, two, four, and six dragonlengths beneath her?”

“On both sides,” Tajen added. “That’d be six dragons at once.”

“And she can carry at least twice as much firestone as the weyrlings,” Fiona guessed, glancing to the Weyrwoman for confirmation.

“Perhaps even three times as much,” Cisca allowed, glancing toward K’lior with a concerned, measuring look.

“If anything happened to her — ” K’lior began, then broke off, seeing another objection. “You’re forgetting, all