Dragonheart

by Todd J. McCaffrey

  “Why not ride a watch-wher beside her?” Veclan mused.

  Fiona shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “I still do not understand what the Weyr gets from all this.”

  “Honor more than anything,” Fiona replied without thinking. She gestured toward Telgar Weyr. “I have heard too many stories about the Weyrleader there. Honor has been lost by him; it is up to the rest of the Weyrs to rebuild it.”

  “No gold for you?” Veclan wondered, eyeing Fiona shrewdly.

  “I have a gold!” Fiona exclaimed hotly. “And not all the metal of Pern is worth one instant with her.” She started to move around him. “I’ve wasted enough time away from her.”

  “Very well,” Veclan called to her back. “Go back to your Weyr, Weyrwoman. You’ll need more than one dragon to bring all our gear anyway.”

  Fiona slowed and stopped, not believing her ears. Hopefully, she turned back to look into the Mastersmith’s eyes. “You mean you will help us?”

  Veclan nodded, smiling.

  “Why?” Fiona asked in surprise. “What changed your mind?”

  “The way you spoke of your dragon,” Veclan told her. He shook his head admiringly as he added, “I wanted to believe you when you spoke of honor, but it was when you spoke of your gold that I realized you were telling the truth.”

  “Of course she is,” Zenor exclaimed from behind him. “She’s the Weyrwoman of Igen Weyr!”

  “She’s certainly a Weyrwoman,” Veclan agreed with a firm nod toward Fiona. “And she’s the first Weyrwoman I’ve ever met who’s willing to trade.”

  When Fiona returned to the Weyr hours later, the first thing she did was hug her beautiful Talenth. Then, even though her every nerve was still humming from the emotions of the day, she carefully searched every speck of her dragon’s hide for any slightest imperfection and oiled it thoroughly. She had never until that moment appreciated how much enjoyment she got from such a simple task.

  You are the most beautiful, marvelous, amazing dragon on all Pern! she declared stoutly.

  I know, Talenth replied, without any trace of arrogance.

  “I have one more journey today, and then I’m not going anywhere,” Fiona promised as the last rays of the sun were cut off by the high stone walls of the Weyr Bowl.

  It would be good to have you watch my flying, Talenth admitted.

  I’ve missed that, Fiona agreed. I’m sure you’re getting quite good at it.

  I was thinking that perhaps we could start flying just before dark, Talenth suggested hopefully.

  “I’ll want to check with T’mar,” Fiona said aloud. “I wouldn’t want you to strain yourself.”

  Talenth’s eyes whirled a contented green. If you make this journey, will we get better food?

  What, you don’t like sheep? Fiona teased.

  All the older dragons talk about cattle, Talenth told her wistfully. They say that I’m big enough to eat one on my own.

  Oh, I don’t know about that! Fiona cocked her head to one side as she examined Talenth’s head critically. You’d want to chew, that’s for certain!

  I always chew, Talenth declared, sounding hurt.

  Love, you only chew when I make you, Fiona reminded her, smiling broadly.

  And you always remind me, so I always chew!

  Fiona shook her head, willing to let her beautiful queen have the last word on the subject.

  She turned her head as she heard a noise outside and recognized Nuella and her small watch-wher.

  We’ve got company, Fiona told Talenth. Nuella is here with her little Nuellask.

  Little? Talenth repeated in confusion. Did we meet them before?

  Fiona tried to find a way to explain that they’d met the older Nuellask in the future. Dragons had poor enough memory without adding the confusion of time travel.

  We met them when they were older, she explained at last.

  Older, so bigger, Talenth mused. Smaller now?

  Yes, because she’s younger, Fiona agreed.

  Am I older than her now?

  Yes, you are, Fiona replied. She’s just hatched, so be gentle.

  Talenth arched her neck and blew a wisp of air from her nostrils to the small watch-wher.

  She hears me! the gold dragon exclaimed joyfully. Yes, I’m a dragon, a queen like you. No, you’re not a dragon, you’re a watch-wher. A moment later she told Fiona, She wants to know what is the difference between a dragon and a watch-wher.

  “Talenth is talking to Nuellask,” Fiona said to Nuella, who had stood silently during the exchange. “Nuellask wants to know what is the difference between a dragon and a watch-wher.”

  Nuella smiled, her eyes glowing with an obvious love for her new mate. “What are you going to tell her?”

  Talenth, Fiona said, tell her that watch-whers like the night and dragons like the day.

  I don’t mind the night, Talenth said with an air of protest.

  I know, Fiona replied indulgently. But you spend more time sleeping at night than you do during the day. Nuellask spends more time awake at night than during the day.

  Oh, Talenth responded, sounding mollified. A moment later, she said, I told her. She paused in thought for moment before continuing, I don’t know if she understood.

  That’s all right, Fiona looked at the small ugly creature and felt a sense of wonder that such a beast was related to the dragons. She carefully tamped down her feelings to keep Talenth from picking up on them and alarming the baby watch-wher. Do you like her?

  She’s nice, Talenth told her. Can she sleep with me?

  She’s likely to twitch, Fiona cautioned, thinking that watch-whers were probably enough like newborn dragonets that sleeping would be her principle occupation.

  “Talenth wants to know if Nuellask can sleep with her,” she told Nuella.

  Nuella laughed. “Youngsters are the same whether two legs or four, always wanting to play together or sleep together.” She caressed the baby watch-wher’s head affectionately before adding, “We’ll see how she feels when we get back.”

  Fiona nodded. “Are you ready to go?”

  “I think the sooner the better,” Nuella replied, gesturing toward Nuellask. “You never know when she’ll fall asleep.”

  Talenth, tell T’mar that we’re ready to go, Fiona told her dragon.

  He knows, Talenth replied a moment later. They come.

  Fiona heard the rustle of dragon’s wings and saw Zirenth land nimbly. The sound alerted Zenor who rushed over from the next weyr.

  “All set?” he asked, glancing from Nuella to Fiona. He gestured at the watch-wher. “Are we bringing her?”

  “Of course,” Nuella told him. “She’s still small enough that I can just about hold her in my arms.”

  “Another sevenday and she’ll be too big,” Fiona said with a laugh.

  “I’ve got a bucket of scraps,” Zenor said, wagging the bucket hanging from his hand, “just in case she gets hungry.”

  “Can Zirenth handle four and a watch-wher?” Fiona asked T’mar.

  “Certainly,” he said. He couldn’t hide the pride in his voice.

  In a few minutes they were all settled, Nuellask nestled comfortably between Zenor and Nuella, Fiona behind her, and T’mar in the rear, Fiona’s crutches once again strapped below him. T’mar had quickly constructed a harness of spare rope with which to hold the watch-wher securely and had been scrupulous in ensuring that all the humans were properly strapped.

  “Precious cargo,” he murmured to Fiona before signaling Zirenth to rise.

  Between was a refreshing break from the dying heat of the Igen day, quickly replaced by the cool night air of the wherhold.

  “Nuellask liked it,” T’mar reported to Nuella. “She asked if we could do it again soon.”

  “Soon,” Nuella promised the small watch-wher. “Right now we’re going to meet some new friends.”

  “Should I come or wait here?” T’mar asked Fiona as he set her on her crutches.

  “Come,�
�� Fiona said. “I’m not sure I can get around all that well in the dark.”

  The baby queen watch-wher let out a sudden squawk that reverberated in the night air and startled them all.

  “Zirenth says that she felt others,” T’mar reported.

  “Good girl, Nuellask!” Zenor said. “You let them all know who’s the queen!”

  Nuellask chirped in pleased acknowledgment.

  “Well, we don’t have to worry about making ourselves known,” Fiona murmured to T’mar as they moved forward. Zenor guided Nuella, who herself was guiding Nuellask, while T’mar hovered close by Fiona’s side.

  “That’s a pleasant sound,” a voice called from the darkness in front of them. Fiona recognized Arella’s voice.

  “Why are you on crutches, girl?” Jaythen growled from a place so close to them that Fiona stumbled in surprise. “Did you trip?”

  “A dog bit me,” Fiona replied testily.

  “I’ll bet the dog died of shame right after,” Jaythen replied with a raspy laugh.

  “An arrow,” Fiona told him. “But he wasn’t dead until after Talenth spoke.”

  “Your dragon killed a dog?” Jaythen asked incredulously.

  “No,” Fiona said. “She startled him enough that the bowman could get a proper aim.”

  “And the girl bonded?” Arella asked. “Is that her?”

  “I’m Nuella.”

  “I’d heard you were blind,” Jaythen said, surprised.

  “I am,” Nuella said. “But in the dark everyone is blind, except the watch-whers.”

  “You’re the one who rode a green between?” Jaythen demanded.

  “Yes,” Nuella replied, adding, “Are you always this demanding of your guests?”

  “Don’t get many guests,” Jaythen replied.

  “I can see why,” Zenor murmured.

  “We came to discuss the move,” Fiona said.

  “You did it? It’s settled?” Arella asked.

  “We’ve found a good site, and the Mastersmith has agreed to send some crafters,” Zenor said.

  “Mastersmith?” Jaythen repeated. “What does he have to do with the wherhold?”

  “Not with the wherhold,” Zenor corrected. “With the gold we’ll be mining there.”

  “Gold?” Jaythen repeated, and there was no mistaking the surprise in his voice. “There’s gold there?”

  “There is,” Zenor replied. “We came to talk about how soon you can move there.”

  “How many are there?” Nuella asked, turning her head in search of faint sounds. “I hear the children and one man. Are there others?”

  “She’s good,” Arella declared approvingly. “There’s only four adults: me, Jaythen here, Jifar, and Serella.”

  “Silstra and Terregar will join us from the Smith Hall,” Zenor said. “They have one youngster, and we’ve Nuella’s sister, Larissa.”

  “We’ve five children,” Jaythen said. “We lost three to the Plague.”

  “Would have lost more if Kindan hadn’t sent the dragonriders,” Arella added.

  “Kindan was my best friend growing up,” Zenor said. “He gave his watch-wher to Nuella.”

  “So you’re a miner, then,” Jaythen commented. “No watchwher of your own?”

  “I’ve enough to do keeping her out of trouble,” Zenor said, jerking a thumb toward Nuella, who elbowed him goodnaturedly in response.

  Jaythen laughed. “I’ll bet you do.”

  “Come in,” Arella said, “and we’ll talk plans.”

  Fiona smiled to herself, convinced that the wherfolk would follow Nuella’s lead and accept Zenor’s aid.

  “I think things wouldn’t have gone so well if we hadn’t brought the watch-wher,” T’mar said much later as he helped Fiona negotiate the ramp up to her weyr. Talenth raised her head wearily but still asked, Can the watch-wher sleep with me?

  She’s already asleep, Fiona told her apologetically. And I think she wants to sleep with her mate. She saw the glow of her queen’s eyes and added, How about I sleep with you tonight instead?

  Will you?

  “You can leave me here, wingleader,” Fiona told T’mar as she curled herself up against Talenth, “we girls are spending the night together.”

  “I’ll get you a blanket,” T’mar offered.

  “If you see Terin, please tell her she’s welcome to join us.” Fiona pulled off her jacket and bundled it under her neck, idly wondering if she was treating the Weyrwoman’s garb inappropriately. She shook her head at herself and nestled more tightly against the fur lining; she was too weary to let decorum concern her.

  She was already asleep by the time T’mar returned, carrying a sleeping Terin in his arms, a pair of blankets draped over his shoulders. He smiled down at the young Weyrwoman and arranged the drowsy headwoman next to her before covering both with blankets, which he carefully tucked in around them.

  He stood then, examining his work and nodding in satisfaction. As he looked at the two girls who had done so much in such a short time, his eyes softened, then lingered for a moment on Fiona. Truly a Weyrwoman, he thought.

  He stepped back quietly and turned off the glows that Terin had left lit for their return.

  SEVENTEEN

  Thread burn,

  Thread score,

  Rider heal,

  Dragon soar.

  Igen Weyr, Late Evening, AL 498.9.8

  “That’s the last of it,” K’rall reported as he and his wing of convalescents dispersed in the last of the evening light.

  That wing, in the last three sevendays, had grown to thirty-one as more than two dozen riders and dragons had recovered from their injuries. There were only sixteen of the original forty-seven lightly injured dragonpairs remaining, and Fiona hoped to see at least half of them returning to duty in the next sevenday. That would still leave the thirty severely injured, who would need at least another four months to heal.

  “Good,” she said, gesturing toward the Kitchen Cavern and the Weyrleader’s table. Terin and T’mar were already seated. They had finished eating before K’rall’s return and were engaged in what had become a routine meeting to handle the planning of the next day’s events. As she sat down and Terin pushed a pitcher of iced klah toward her, she added, “We’ve enough ice to trade when Azeez arrives in the morning, and enough to provide the wherhold.”

  “We’ve two rooms full of ice, we should have enough,” Terin added, shaking her head. “Any more and the whole place will freeze.”

  “Don’t say that,” K’rall said holding up a cautioning hand, “or you’ll have every rider in the Weyr demanding his own cooler.”

  “Not if they want to eat, they won’t,” Terin said with a frown, turning toward the large cookpot simmering on the hearth.

  “Has Zenor had much luck mining?” K’rall asked T’mar. K’rall had led the group that had flown the Smithcrafters and their gear to the newly established wherhold.

  “They’ve been too busy settling in,” T’mar replied. “I doubt they’ll be able to start serious exploration for another month or more.”

  “In the meantime, we’ve more mouths to feed than we’ve food,” Terin said grimly.

  “I thought that holder Kedarill had pledged a herd to the wherhold,” K’rall said.

  T’mar shook his head. “Kedarill was willing to let them herd as many head of cattle as they could find,” he explained. “Finding is the problem.”

  At Fiona’s urging, Zenor had taken the lead in negotiating the establishment of the new wherhold with the holder of Plains Hold. Kedarill had greeted the proposal enthusiastically, and his enthusiasm had redoubled with Zenor’s revelation of gold and the Mastersmith’s support. Kedarill was certain, and T’mar agreed, that Ospenar, Keroon’s Lord Holder, would fully concur with his minor holder’s decision, especially after M’tal, the Weyrleader of Benden Weyr, had made an enthusiastic tour of the new wherhold.

  The new wherhold was on land that looked to Benden Weyr under the new boundaries established a
fter Igen was abandoned, and so M’tal’s approval made Ospenar’s acceptance all but foreordained.

  In involving Benden’s Weyrleader, Fiona, Nuella, and T’mar had been careful not to mention the Igen dragons, while at the same time providing a plausible explanation for the future appearance of any dragon at the wherhold—that they were from Benden Weyr.

  “We’ve loaned them some from our herd in the meantime,” Fiona said, sighing deeply at the memory of the twenty head of cattle that had been hauled off by dragon to the fresh pens at the wherhold.

  “I thought your plan would keep us from this,” K’rall said, glaring at T’mar.

  “We’ve enough for the next sevenday,” Fiona said in T’mar’s defense. “By then the wherhold should have found their own cattle, and maybe some gold with which to repay us.”

  “We could cut back,” Terin suggested.

  “It’s not the riders, it’s the dragons,” T’mar reminded her with a reluctant shake of his head. “If it weren’t for the dragons, we would have enough cattle to supply us easily.”

  “A Weyr’s not much use without dragons,” Fiona muttered, wondering if perhaps her earlier castigating thoughts of the old Igen Weyrfolk were perhaps premature. She savored a mouthful of klah, hoping it would keep her awake.

  “It’d be different if we had a proper tithe,” K’rall assured her.

  “But then we’d be a proper Weyr with four times as many dragons,” Fiona replied. She made a face and concluded, “So I’m not sure if we’d be any better off.”

  “Do you think that the holds could support the Weyr in a fair tithe?” T’mar asked K’rall speculatively.

  The older dragonrider pursed his lips tightly. “No, I think that as they are they wouldn’t support a full Weyr.” He nodded toward Fiona as he added, “But if the Weyr were to trade, perhaps then.”

  “So what if we were to scour the area for any more wild herdbeasts?” Fiona asked, sipping some more klah.

  “I don’t know if that would work,” T’mar said.

  “Maybe not if we looked just here, but what about across Pern?” K’rall suggested.