Dragonheart

you are coming.

Does he have any idea — no, wait, I’ll ask him myself.

Fiona hurried along to the Kitchen Cavern. T’mar, seated at the raised Weyrleader’s table in the back of the room, nodded to her as she entered. J’keran and J’gerd were seated with him.

“We were just discussing our trip,” T’mar informed her as she sat at the table.

“And?”

T’mar shook his head. “We’ve no idea why it was so exhausting for us.”

The dragons are fine,  Talenth volunteered.

“Well, you’d been out riding before, hadn’t you?” Fiona said. “Perhaps going from the intense heat to the extreme cold and then back again — ”

T’mar interrupted her with a shake of his head. “I’ve made journeys like that before without this ill effect.”

Fiona sighed, at a loss for ideas. It was almost as if whatever had affected her and T’mar and some of the other weyrlings a while back had affected those who went to the Wastes even more. Sudden inspiration caused her to gasp, but she shook her head when T’mar narrowed his eyes at her expectantly. Instead, she cut her eyes to the two older weyrlings.

“J’gerd, J’keran, for now if there are no more problems, I’d like you to get the older weyrlings ready to receive the traders,” T’mar told them. After they had left, he turned to Fiona. “Well?”

“It’s just that you and I have been talking for a while now about the dangers of being in the same time twice,” Fiona began slowly. “What if that happened this time?”

T’mar frowned.

“When was the last time you went to the Snowy Wastes?” she persisted.

T’mar shrugged. “I think the last time was in the winter when we practiced recognition points.”

“And when  do you think you went to the Snowy Wastes today?” T’mar frowned. “It was — ”

“Was it now, in this  Turn, or then,  ten Turns in the future?”

T’mar’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened as his certainty gave way to confused possibility.

“And wouldn’t that mean that you and the weyrlings had gone between  times twice today?” Fiona continued, triumphantly. “And that you were double or triple-timing yourself ten Turns in the future?” She paused to let her point sink home. “And wouldn’t that  cause you to be extremely tired and dizzy?”

“Yes,” T’mar agreed slowly, “that seems reasonable.” He frowned. “But I only  know recognition points in the future!”

“Is that a problem?”

“It is when it comes to drilling the weyrlings — your weyrlings — as they get older,” T’mar said bitterly. “If it caused this much trouble with the older weyrlings, imagine what it would do with those going between  for the first time.”

“The second time,” Fiona corrected absently. “They’ve gone between  once already.”

T’mar glowered at her.

“So how hard is it to learn the recognition points for this time?” she asked.

“It’s not so much that as unlearning  the old points,” T’mar replied. “And we’ve no way to know when  we are.”

“How will we get back to Fort Weyr at the right time?”

“I hadn’t really thought of it,” T’mar admitted. “I had only thought to come back when we left; I don’t know how we’d come back three days later.”

“I’m sure we’ll think of something,” Fiona said. “For the time being, though, I think we should concentrate on our current problems.” She grinned at him. “Like how best to make use of your ice!”

“You sound like you have some suggestions,” T’mar returned with a grin of his own.

“I do,” Fiona agreed, raising her hand high and beckoning to Terin. “And I’m sure Terin will have more.”

Azeez and Mother Karina greeted the wingleader and Weyrwoman effusively as T’mar and Fiona ushered them into the Kitchen Cavern.

“We have news!” Azeez cried as soon as he saw them.

“And we brought supplies,” Mother Karina added.

“We have some news of our own,” T’mar told them. “But first, come sit with us.”

“You must be tired after your journey,” Fiona added solicitously as she gestured to the high table. She smiled at T’mar as she continued, “We’ve had a chance to explore our surroundings and prepare some refreshments.”

“And something to trade, I imagine,” Azeez said as he carefully seated Mother Karina and then himself.

“Klah ?” Fiona asked, offering the pitcher.

“It’s too hot for klah, ” Mother Karina replied.

“Tea, then?” Fiona offered, picking up another pitcher. “We’ve made a nice infusion of herbs and some of the orange rinds you left us. It’s quite refreshing.”

“What’s in the third pitcher?” Mother Karina asked, eyeing it suspiciously.

Fiona poured herself some of the klah  before responding. “In this heat, I have to agree that warm klah  is not too pleasant,” she began, reaching for the third pitcher. “But iced klah — ” and she poured two lumps of ice into her mug “ — is entirely different.”

She raised the mug and passed it to Mother Karina. “Perhaps you’d agree?”

“Ice?” Karina repeated, eyeing the bobbing lumps in the mug. “It’s the middle of summer — where did you get ice?”

“Perhaps you’d care for a new treat, made with sweet cane and orange peel,” Terin suggested, bringing forth a covered dish and ceremoniously displaying a bowl full of crushed ice sprinkled with the orange flavoring. “It’s quite tangy.”

“You have this much ice, that you can make sweets with it?” Azeez asked in surprise.

“You should try the ice,” Fiona said, spooning out a portion into a bowl and putting it in front of him.

“Most of our ice we use to keep our injured riders cool,” T’mar added. “A large block properly placed can cool a whole room.”

“A block of ice?” Karina repeated. “For cooling?”

“I imagine you could use it in your caravans,” Fiona said. “We could probably arrange a trade — ”

“Weyrwoman, you most certainly could,” Azeez agreed, dubiously lifting a spoon of the shaved ice to his mouth. He chewed it slowly, carefully, his expression growing ever more enraptured. “This is marvelous.”

“So you think we could trade with it?” T’mar prompted.

“Of course,” Karina agreed. She took a sip of the iced klah.  “This is good!”

“How many kilos can you get for us?” Azeez asked.

“Can you deliver it where we ask?” Karina added, glancing sharply at the other trader.

“Obviously quantity and delivery will have to be discussed,” Fiona said with an airy wave of her hand. “But for now, perhaps you would like to tell us of your journey?”

Dinner that evening was an ebullient affair with weyrlings and those older riders able to walk mixing together with the traders, each group finding the other alien and fascinating.

“It is good to see dragonriders in this Weyr again,” Azeez said as he leaned back from the table, replete with Terin’s best cooking.

“Not that traders were ever invited to dine at this Weyr,” Karina added darkly.

“Times change,” T’mar said, not doubting that D’gan would never have considered issuing such an invitation when he’d been Weyrleader at Igen.

“Yes, they do,” Azeez agreed.

“We have news,” Karina said, glancing to Azeez.

“It is not all good,” Azeez warned. “We have spoken with our traders and they agree to try your plan of transporting special goods by dragon.” He paused, eyeing T’mar before continuing. “We have also spoken with some