Unsurprisingly, Amanda threw a fit, first accusing Elsbeth of being jealous of her, then the other queenriders of hating her, and finally tearfully begging not to be sent to Fort. This was why Elsbeth had her meet her up in her windowless office, rather than the floor of the Bowl. When Amanda stopped wailing and reduced down to silent sobbing Elsbeth explained the problem with Paevth, and how for the sake of any future daughters of Zilth, she was being transferred to Benden Weyr. Amanda was still teary eyed when she left, but Flatreth reported Zilth hadn't even roused from a post meal slumber, which Elsbeth took as a sign that Amanda once again was more dramatics than actually unhappy with the news. Next was to speak to Heidi, and while she didn't relish this meeting any more than her meeting with Amanda, she at least didn't have to worry about the waterworks.
Heidi Graf was sitting with the rest of the newest riders as they were being taught about oiling their dragonets. Elsbeth caught her eye and indicated she wanted to speak to her with a tilt of her head. Heidi excused herself and joined Elspeth under the arch of the entrance.
"Heidi, we're a little concerned about Paevth." She started, understating her worry. Heidi had been a last minute addition, and Elsbeth hadn't had the opportunity to get to know her well.
"It's her gait, isn't it?" Heidi stated calmly.
"It's related to that, yes. Donald explained about the blockages those dragonets with that gait had?" Elsbeth asked. Heidi nodded, then added quietly, "There's more though, isn't there?"
"Yes, I'm sorry. We need to take an X-ray to verify, but we believe the same flaw will lead to egg binding." Heidi blanched, and little Paevth turned around, staring at them.
"Calm down, we have a solution." Elsbeth said quickly, as the little gold clumsily moved over to her rider. Heidi took a deep breath, and nodded, gathering her queen in her arms.
"Firestone will render her sterile. She will be more like a giant green, but believe me, we won't let her die." Elsbeth explained. Looking relieved Heidi nodded again, then asked, looking understandably puzzled, "Can queens flame?"
"Not to my understanding, but that's okay. You can still fight with a flamethrower." Elsbeth smiled. "It's not as glamorous as fighting in the upper Flight, but we're kept busy catching what makes it through the Wings."
Daoud called Elsbeth into the medical bay, the x-rays hanging on an illuminated light board. To better explain the situation he had hung three different x-rays; that of a normal gold, that of an afflicted green, and Paevth's.
"As you can see, the opening in Paevth's ischium is much smaller than it should be. In fact, you might consider telling Heidi that she needs to feed Paevth less and more often, at least until she's catching prey on her own." He explained.
"Are we sure firestone will cause sterility?" Elsbeth asked, grimacing at the x-rays. "I don't think we could handle another dragonless rider."
"I checked Kitti Pings notes and ran a DNA test, Paevth has the sterility gene." Daoud reassured her.
Looking back, Elsbeth honestly couldn't remember when Heidi and Paevth fell off her radar. After all, once they were flighted and trained in the fine art of betweening they showed up to every Fall and participated in every drill with the Queen Wing, but they simply didn't mingle with the other queenriders. Elsbeth, prior to being Searched, had actually toyed with psychiatry, and found the developing sub-societies within the Weyr fascinating to watch. While not quite forming cliques, the dragonriders had fallen into one of three groups. Queenriders and female greenriders made one group, often supporting each other in all those life experiences, birth, heartbreak, the joy and loneliness that comes from being a dragonrider. Bronzeriders, brownriders and male blueriders comprised of a second group, the oft joked about machismo of the Weyr, and like the females, they helped each other deal with their victories and their losses. The third group was significantly smaller, made up of cross gendered Impressions. This group's dynamic was a little different than the other two, much more mentor-mentored than the other two groups, with tight, almost familial bonds. Perhaps that's why Elsbeth found Heidi sitting with that group at dinner. It wasn't like the dragonriders didn't mingle - many of the male greenriders sat and chatted with their dragon's weyrmates, the gold- and greenriders mixed and flirted with the bronze-, brown- and blueriders. And the female blueriders would shoot the breeze with anyone, so it wasn't a something Elsbeth had noticed her first few years, but she had started paying more attention after the death of a well liked male greenrider.
But when Zachariah Chen, the rider whose brown had flown Paevth asked for Elsbeth help to plan a small birthday party for Heidi, she realized with a start that Heidi had been at the Weyr for almost four years.
For the next couple of days Elsbeth watched from a distance, noting how Heidi interacted with the other dragonriders. She thought she was being discreet, until Heidi marched up to her before Fall and asked point blank if she was in some sort of trouble, citing the Weyrwoman's surveillance.
"What-? No! Of course not. I just wondered why I didn't seem to see you much at meals." Elsbeth protested. Heidi eyed her distrustfully.
"This isn't about Paevth rising a twice already this year, is it?" She asked bluntly. It was true that the second time Paevth rose, only four months after her first mating flight, several greenriders had complained to Elsbeth about Heidi 'poaching' lovers, but she had looked into the complaints at the time and had decided there was no truth in them.
"I swear, Heidi, you're not in trouble. I just noticed you never seem to join the other queenriders at meals, and I was wondering why." She explained, tightening her riding straps around Flatreth's neck.
"I don't feel welcome." Heidi replied defensively. "Paevth's never going to clutch, and the other queenriders don't like that Paevth rises so often."
"I... I'm sorry, I had no idea." Elsbeth replied, stunned by the admission. Flatreth, is this true?
Gaudith and Xursanth and Poteth say their riders are bothered by that, yes.
Elsbeth mentally groaned, that was half of the Queen Wing.
"I'll do what I can, Heidi." She assured her.
Heidi shook her head. "Don't bother. I'm just keeping my distance until they know they can trust me."
Daoud frowned, scrolling down through the database.
"Jess, where's Paevth's record?" He asked over the monitor of his new assistant. Jessica Gar, interning under him for the next few months, looked up from her terminal.
"She's in there, under 'P'."
"I don't see her." Daoud squinted at the screen. Jessica got up and walked over to him, peering at the screen.
"Here's your problem, you're in the Queen databank. Paevth's in the Green bank. Look." Reaching over him she quickly brought up the Green registry.
"But Paevth isn't a green, she's a Queen." Daoud now frowned at his assistant. "You shouldn't file her in with the greens just because she isn't breeding."
"What are you talking about?" Jessica gave him a baffled look. "She's clearly a green. I mean look." She clicked open the DNA profile. "The genes for sterility and pyrobreathing are here and here. She has to be a green."
Story updates listed in story description.
If you notice any glaring mistakes, grammatical or timeline from Anne's works, please let me know.