Dragonheart

should go thank her.”

But before they’d gone half a dragonlength, a gold dragon leapt into the air and was gone, between.  Fiona heard the loud rush of many wings, and suddenly the weyr was empty of all save the weyrlings and the injured dragonpairs from Fort Weyr .

“Where’d they go?” J’nos cried.

“Who was she?” F’jian demanded.

Fiona shook her head. “I don’t know.”

The others took this news in slowly, muttering amongst themselves.

“You don’t think it’s a trick or something, do you?” F’jian asked after a while.

“We’re here — she did what she said she would,” Fiona said. “Besides, she rode a queen.”

The woman had never claimed to be a Weyrwoman — but she must have been one. Who else but a Weyrwoman could ride a queen?

“What are we going to do?” J’nos asked, looking around with growing alarm.

“You  are going to go over to the weyrling barracks and start cleaning them,” Fiona told him sternly. “The Weyrwoman said that this is Turn four ninety-eight, so this Weyr has been abandoned for nearly seven Turns — you’d best watch for tunnel snakes.”

“Tunnel snakes!” J’nos blanched. “I don’t know how to handle tunnel snakes!”

“If you find any, let me know,” Fiona told him. When the brown rider’s eyes bugged out, she explained, “I used to hunt them back at my father’s Hold.”

Fiona was surprised and pleased by the hushed exclamations of the other weyrlings as this news spread.

She turned to F’jian. “Get some others to help stow what’s under that canvas in the Kitchen Cavern. Send in a detail first to be sure there are no tunnel snakes there, either.”

F’jian nodded and started calling out names, while moving toward the canvas-covered mound.

“And send another group to see to the older riders and dragons; we’ll need to get them out of the heat.”

Fiona wondered if hot, dusty Igen Weyr might have other dangers than tunnel snakes. She dismissed the worry, telling herself that the weyrlings would report anything out of the ordinary.

They had been working for about a quarter of an hour when the air above them was once again filled with dragons. Fiona glanced up and waved, her face splitting into a huge grin — part from relief and part in reaction to the evident astonishment of the riders flying above.

T’mar had arrived.

Talenth, tell Ladirth and Polenth that we need everyone out here to help with the injured riders.

I told them; they’re coming,  Talenth replied promptly.

Fiona made a face as she berated herself for not already detailing a crew to clean out weyrs for the injured riders.

F’jian joined her, glancing up as the injured dragons and riders made hasty landings. “Most of the supplies are medicines and bandages,” he told her.

“No food?” Fiona asked, frowning.

F’jian pursed his lips and shook his head. “Some klah  bark, some herbals, but nothing to eat.”

Fiona frowned in turn, then dismissed the worry. “Get the weyrlings to help these injured riders. Put them in the weyrling barracks for the moment — just to get them out of the sun.”

A shadow passed low overhead and Zirenth landed nearby. “What are you doing here?” T’mar shouted.

“When did you leave?” T’mar demanded, leaping down beside Terin, who had just returned, breathless, with a flask of water.

“Late at night after you left,” Fiona said. She had been too eager when the mysterious queen rider had made her amazing offer to consider how T’mar would react, and once she’d arrived at Igen, she’d been too busy organizing the weyrlings to think about it anymore.

“F’jian and the other weyrlings are here, too,” she told him, partly to give T’mar all the news at once and partly in hopes that he might be distracted by the information.

“How did you get here?” he repeated, reaching out to grab Fiona’s shoulders with both arms, as if to assure himself that she was real.

“The Weyrwoman brought us,” Fiona said.

“What  Weyrwoman?” T’mar demanded. “Not Cisca?”

Fiona shook her head.

“Then who?”

“I don’t know,” Fiona told him honestly. “She never gave me her name.”

T’mar frowned, looking deep into Fiona’s eyes. “It wasn’t you, was it?” was it?”

“From the future?” Fiona asked.

“No, you on your own!” T’mar exclaimed. “How could anyone know to come from the future?”

Fiona’s temper rose. “Anyone  from the future would know! If it’s been done, then they’d know, wouldn’t they?”

“And they brought you here, conveniently, before we arrived,” T’mar said, his tone simmering near the boil.

“And they got us some supplies,” Fiona said, gesturing to the remains of the mound that the weyrlings had mostly stored.

“Supplies?” T’mar repeated, brows creased in a frown.

“Mostly medicine and bandages,” Fiona said. “The weyrlings will be storing it in the Living Cavern once J’nos has finished checking for tunnel snakes.”

“Tunnel snakes?”

Fiona’s lips turned up in a quick grin as she confided, “I don’t think he’ll find any, but I told him to keep an eye out for them. “

“This Weyr’s been abandoned so long, there probably are  tunnel snakes,” T’mar said in a tone that indicated he hadn’t considered the possibility himself.

“Well, there probably aren’t any in the Living Cavern; we would have heard J’nos’s shriek by now,” Fiona said. Seeing T’mar’s thoughtful look, she pressed on. “And I’ve got another party clearing the weyrling barracks. We’re putting the injured dragons and riders in there until we can clear out some weyrs.”

“Weyrwoman Fiona, what are you doing here?” someone called in surprise from the gathering throng of dismounting riders. Fiona recognized J’keran, one of the older weyrlings.

“Same as you,” she told him with a grin. “Are you ready to start cleaning?”

“Cleaning?”

“Unless you were planning on sleeping out here in the Bowl,” T’mar said.

“Get over to the weyrling barracks,” Fiona said. “F’jian’s got some of the younger weyrlings working there already, but I’m sure they’ll benefit from the oversight of more mature riders.”

“I’m on it!” J’keran said, looking relieved at the notion of ordering around the younger weyrlings.

“I’ll be by to check that everyone’s working,” Fiona warned him. She turned to Terin, saying, “Terin, I want you to take stock of the supplies, then see how they’re coming with the weyrling barracks.” Terin nodded. “As soon as you’re done with that, find F’jian and get a crew to clear out the Hatching Grounds — there really might be tunnel snakes there, so have everyone be careful and send in some of the smaller greens.”

“Send in the greens,” Terin repeated to herself, then nodded and trotted off to the Living Cavern to start her chores.

“Hatching Grounds?”

“I was thinking that for the time being it would be quicker to clear than individual weyrs,” Fiona said.

“Good thought.”

“And I don’t know about you, but I didn’t bring any bedding,” Fiona continued. From the look on T’mar’s face, it was obvious that the wingleader hadn’t thought of it either. Fiona hid her surprise, asking, “Did you bring any food?”