Dragonheart

“Doesn’t she have to be flying?” Fiona asked the rider in front of her worriedly.

“Talenth, jump!” the rider said in response. At the same time, the queen they were riding leapt into the air. Fiona only had a moment’s glimpse of Talenth jumping after them, and then she was engulfed in the greater darkness of between.

Talenth!  Fiona called frantically.

I am here,  Talenth assured her calmly. We are fine.

It will be longer than normal, we are going back in time,  Fiona heard the rider say.

Don’t you need to go to Igen  now first?

I’ve already been there,  the rider replied, her voice certain.

Who was this person? Fiona wondered. Who rode a gold and could bring them back in time?

A growing sense of wonder overcame her as she considered the most obvious answer: Could this be Fiona herself, come back from the future?

TWELVE

A sea of sand,

Harsh clime for man.

Mountains rise high,

Igen Weyr is nigh.

Igen Weyr, Morning, AL 498.7.2

The cold, black nothing of between  was suddenly replaced by heat and a bright sun.

Whee!  Talenth cried delightedly. Look how high I am!

Fiona glanced over and saw that Talenth was indeed nearly twice as high as she’d ever been before. Careful! Just glide down.

Okay,  Talenth said, sounding disappointed. Nevertheless, the young queen glided carefully down into the strange Bowl beneath them.

“This is Igen Weyr,” the strange rider called.

“It’s awfully warm,” Fiona said. “I thought it would be cold and windy, even here.”

“We are slightly more than ten Turns back in time,” the rider replied with a hint of humor in her voice. “I thought you’d prefer to start with warmer weather. This is the second day of the seventh month of the four hundred and ninety-eighth Turn since Landing.”

The gold touched down and the rider turned to Fiona, the bright morning sun rising behind her casting her face in shadow. “Get down.”

Fiona obeyed reflexively and was surprised to see the rider and dragon leap skyward as soon as she’d found her feet. In an instant they were gone, between.

There’s no one here,  Talenth declared, peering around the sandswept Weyr.

Fiona wheeled slowly around on her heel, scanning the Bowl and the weyrs carved into its walls.

Where were T’mar, the injured riders, and the older weyrlings?

Fiona felt a moment of panic as she wondered if she’d somehow been betrayed, misled by an unknown rider and purposely abandoned here with a dragon too young to fly. She spotted a canvas-covered mound not too far away and walked over to it.

As she approached, she realized it had been recently erected. She lifted up a flap and saw crates and barrels — supplies of some sort.

So at least she doesn’t mean me to starve, Fiona thought hopefully.

She turned around, scanning the abandoned Weyr. The air was hot and getting hotter, smelling of sand and roasted dust. Overhead the sun was intense even though only still rising, already beating down unyieldingly.

The floor and sides of the Bowl were of a different stone than she had expected, accustomed to the stark whiteness of Fort Weyr . This Weyr was carved into orange rock. Fiona knelt and picked up some loose earth in her hand; it was sandy, fine, and dusty, unlike the packed ground of Fort’s Bowl.

Aside from the canvas mound of supplies, the Weyr had a forlorn, abandoned feel to it.

Fiona turned around again slowly, scanning for the queen’s quarters, searching for the entrance to the Hatching Grounds, the location of the Kitchen Cavern, the weyrling barracks — and suddenly the Weyr was alive to her, she felt the stone in her blood, felt the warm welcome of the hot sun and the fine sand.

This could be home.

A sudden rustle above her caused Fiona to crane her neck upward. A clutch of dragons burst forth from between,  with the gold in the lead. Fiona saw F’jian mounted on his bronze Ladirth, looking both terrified and thrilled at the same time as his dragon glided down quickly to the ground.

Talenth, watch out!  Fiona called, fearful lest one of the inexperienced riders or dragons come crashing down on her. Talenth scurried to the side of the Bowl and Fiona scampered after her a moment later.

“Did you see us?” F’jian shouted as soon as his Ladirth came to a halt. “We flew!”

“We only glided,” J’nos corrected him as he slid down Pilenth’s foreleg onto the ground. He stood beside his brown, patting him loudly, a broad grin splitting his face from ear to ear. “But we went between !”

“If we hadn’t seen you do it, we wouldn’t have dared to try,” F’jian said to Fiona in awe.

“Where is everyone else?” J’nos asked, peering expectantly around the Weyr.

“I wonder,” Fiona mused, “if she could bring you back, could she bring back the more severely injured riders and dragons too?”

The other weyrlings gathered around them, all wondering the same thing.

“We should ask the queen rider,” Fiona said, gesturing to the far side of the Bowl where the huge gold dragon had alighted.

“Who is she, anyway?” F’jian asked.

“And we won’t get in trouble, will we?” J’nos wondered anxiously. “After all, she’s a queen rider.”

“Let’s ask her,” F’jian said. Fiona nodded in agreement and found herself leading the others toward the Weyrwoman and her queen dragon.

“Hello!” she shouted, feeling alarmed as she sensed that dragon and rider were preparing to go between  once more. “Can you bring back the other injured dragons and riders?”

“For that I’ll need help,” the woman returned.

“I don’t think that we could give you any help,” Fiona began reluctantly, gesturing to the dragonets. “They’re too small; it’s a wonder they managed to get here at all.”

“Oh, it’s no wonder,” the gold rider replied in amused tones. “And I’m sure you’ll be able to help with what needs doing.”

Before Fiona could respond, the queen dragon leapt into the air, beat its wings once, and disappeared between.

It seemed only a moment later that she reappeared and the air was full of dragons — gold, bronze, brown, blue, green — all guiding or aiding injured dragons and riders to settle upon the warm sands of Igen Bowl.

Fiona felt dizzy and swayed where she stood, even as one of the queen riders laughed and waved merrily in her direction.

“Are you all right?” J’nos asked, grabbing her and propping her upright.

“I think it’s just the heat,” Fiona replied, looking around for the gold rider who had first brought her here. “We