Hi Queen of the Jungle, Thanks for the review, did you mean to disable private messaging? Sometimes you get logistical hiccups like two riders with similar names - people just have to be careful! [the dragons know which is which]. As for Shoritty, leaving the r in helps it to be less scatological

Chapter 8

Geiona quickly got to meet the two other female candidates to date; Carlinna, one of the weyr artists, recently made journeyman; and Aderina. Carlinna had been told off by T'lana to look after Aderina, and had heard the weyrbred girl's story from her. As Carlinna had said,

"Posing and posturing is all some girls have, I suppose. I guess T'rin would have some clever and utterly coarse way of putting it; so let's not ask him. It might make us laugh at them too much and it's unkind to mock the afflicted."

Aderina had laughed.

Geiona took in the artist journeyman knots on one girl and the alpine star and healer apprentice knots on the other – Aderina had elected to learn healing and had proved a natural at abseiling, something that had gained her friends amongst the Impressed – and realised that these girls were no decorative ninnies. Aderina's alpine star was very new but it still counted; she had managed to perform some acrobatics to hang head down in a narrow gorge to get face and hands near a frightened child who had fallen when chasing an errant caprine. EverCliff Hold was grateful and insisted that the brave acrobatics of the rescuer had been instrumental in preventing the little girl from panicking.

Geiona was impressed.

"I've no craft" she said defensively "I've been caring for my father until he died."

"That's a craft of itself" said Carlinna; and at murmurs of sympathy, Geiona dashed away tears.

"He killed himself slowly with drink, but he was my father and I loved him" she said defiantly.

"Then you're LUCKY" said Aderina fiercely "My father wouldn't even have recognised me if he came face to face with me – there! So high and mighty as being a Blue Rider, Benden style, can't see the child of a lower cavern wench. And here even BRONZE Riders pass time of day with any kiddie that wants attention. You loved him – you remember the good times before he got bad!"

Geiona was much struck by this and reached out to embrace Aderina.

"THANK you" she said "I – I've always made excuses for him; been a bit ashamed of him as well as loving him; but he never EVER suggested I work as a loving wench to buy him drink" she grinned "I used to steal it instead."

If Aderina and Carlinna were a little shocked they managed not to show it; Carlinna was used to tales of the plights of the Holdless where theft was often the only way to eat; and Aderina had made mistakes enough to learn to be tolerant towards the less conventional behaviour of others.

"Stealing drink or marks?" asked Carlinna, with unfeigned interest.

Geiona grinned.

"Both. Drink for him if I could; and food for me. I used to pose as assistant Headwoman of a Hold and order loads of stuff, then tell them the steward would pay presently. And then I would just pick up what I could carry away while they went to wait for the marks that never came. So they got most of it back of course; but if you ask for half a dozen bottle you get funny looks. You ask for half a dozen crates of bottle and it's all kiss-my-hand my lady" she laughed.

"Enterprising" said Carlinna "You must tell that to the logicators; we solve crimes – real crimes, not petty theft – and we collect strange quirks of human nature to help us do so."

"The big lie always works" grinned Geiona "Tell me about the logicators."

Once enrolled in the logicators, Geiona became accepted entirely by the Weyr; and found herself co-opted to work with Voll, visiting Holdless caverns until the clutch should be laid.

oOoOo

Once Miririth clutched, candidates started coming in, in earnest. There were only twenty four eggs, a lower number than Mirrith's usual average, but there had been two recent clutches.

"With four healthy adult Queens they can afford not to have to lay as many each" said Pilgra.

"Need to keep laying though" commented T'lana "I've run assessment of H'llon's calculations; and he's right. He's taken them to Master Starsmith Wansor."

H'llon had feared a long Pass might follow the Long Interval; and had run his own orbital mechanics calculations learned from Wansor, calculating that the change in trajectory may have been caused by the pull of a large and not easily discovered body well out in the system.

It was not to be a Long Pass; but what he had discovered was almost as bad.

The Pass would end after fifty turns of Threadfall, but H'llon had projected his calculations further. After a respite of three turns, the path of the Red Star would bring it within distance for a second Pass. H'llon predicted Fall would be considerably lighter in the second fifty year Pass, or rather, each Threadfall would last less long and might see less density of Thread for the greater distance between Pern and its red nemesis. Thread would however still fall.

T'lana had checked his results and insisted he take them to Wansor too, before telling T'bor; and then their own Weyrleader could break it to F'lar if Wansor agreed.

Wansor promptly went looking for the unseen body that had been responsible for other perturbations H'llon had used to undertake his calculations and postulated a near stellar mass in the outer system. A distant object would not cause such drastic alteration of the course of the Red Star very often but could account for a previous Long Interval; and too for various factors like Thread falling out of pattern as it had done, baffling F'lar when he tried to use old Threadfall charts. Wansor soberly, and reluctantly, endorsed H'llon's calculations.

oOoOo

When F'lar looked over the calculations and diagrams H'llon had thoughtfully drawn he buried his face in his hands.

"That's all we need" he groaned "Not only can we not destroy Thread at source, it's going to last longer than ever we thought. Will we all go insane like T'kul and T'ron?"

"No" said T'bor "At least, Master Robinton might to hear a sentence like that put together. You and I will probably be long dead by the time of the next Interval; but if we train our successors to be as flexible and adaptable as we are, they won't be caught, like our least favourite Oldtimers, with their trousers down and their wits and manhood left Between".

F'lar grinned.

"Coarse" he said. "And that's not the way Master Robinton – or Sebell – would have put it either I wager!"

T'bor shrugged.

"Maybe not; you must blame our Harperweyr for a way with words and a direct way of putting things" he said cheerfully "Robinton would appreciate the simile. And at least we can be prepared for this; and it WILL be lighter. It'll give the later Riders more time to adapt to doing things other than fighting Thread."

"I thought High Reaches already did" said F'lar dryly.

"We have blackdust, crackdust all winter; which gives us more leisure than Weyrs with less cranky weather. Most Falls, anyhow. So we do rescue work instead; and as well in summer, but it's the winter and spring we're needed most. Oh were you meaning the logicators? Well most Riders most places have hobbies. One of the rewards for danger is a higher general level of leisure than most Holderfolk."

"Keep talking fast, T'bor, keep talking fast" chuckled F'lar. "Your people put in a lot of time doing good things when other folk would prefer to just relax."

T'bor shrugged.

"A change is as good as a rest. I've never noticed the logicators failing to learn their patterns or be out of step practising. Walk-throughs. Actually I would say they are the ones with the most acute perceptions of infinitesimal faults, and the best memories for learning new formations."

"Interesting" said F'lar. "Yes, those who play chess or dragon poker often pick things up quicker, whether it's the kind of mind that chooses such things or whether such hobbies sharben the acuities I couldn't begin to guess. I don't think we should release this information as yet however" he tapped H'llon's document "But the Harpers must know."

T'bor nodded.

"Wait until Raid, Sifer, Sangel and – I have to include him, T'lana's opinion despite – Groghe have joined their ancestors" he said "I sent T'rin to talk to Masterharper Sebell, T'rin couldn't do the calculations but he can follow a lot of it."

F'lar nodded.

"Good, Master Sebell will see anyone he feels has a need to know, is discreet and can handle being told. Like Jaxom. I'll let the other Weyrs know."

T'bor gave a rather wintry smile.

"What will you wager R'mart snorts, calls it nonsense and says what do you expect from cranks and cripples but crackdust and scaremongering?"

F'lar gave him a very straight look.

"I hope you and R'mart have never quarrelled in public?" he asked.

"We never quarrel at all, Benden: we make it our business to avoid each other assiduously. He DOES write snide letters occasionally; and he DOES permit his Riders to comment to the commons about us. WE don't care; we think it enhances our reputation rather than otherwise."

F'lar pulled a face.

"Well just carry one avoiding him" he advised. "It'll be hard though; we need a Weyrleaders' meeting."

"I'll sit as far away as I can from the old fool without being opposite him" shrugged T'bor "Waste it being Fanna that died; we'd have missed Bedella less. She mucks with R'mart's head almost as much as Kylara mucked with mine."

"That's a matter of opinion best not expressed of course" warned F'lar.

"Of course, Benden" said T'bor with a nod.

"As to R'mart's comments, " went on F'lar, "I'd not take you up on that for I'd lose. Which is why I'm going to get the calculations presented by Wansor. I hope it won't offent the sensibilities of your overly clever woodcrafter?"

"Not in the least. H'llon hates politics but he does understand the NEED for them" grinned T'bor. "He's a modest lad; being acclaimed for the calculations is not what he's after. It's warning the Weyrs and later the commons that he's interested in. He came up with using a natural Weyr we found in the East as a spare Weyr, to relieve any Weyr that needs aid through tiredness or injury."

"To serve all Weyrs?" F'lar asked quickly "That might work…. No Weyrleader likes to call in others and some have more false pride over that than others. If the Weyr is there to boost numbers anyway…. When we have the meeting, I'll prepare the ground by proposing a need for reinforcements and you put forward this Weyr you found."

T'bor nodded.

"We thought to send Queenrider Z'ira there when her Queen is grown; and H'llon is her weyrmate" he said. "He's steady and would make an excellent Weyrleader."

"How many Queens do you have?" asked F'lar.

"Four adult, three juvenile" said T'bor, promptly "But one juvenile is a sport, no larger than a Green her age so she doesn't really count I suppose."

"It's still a lot" said F'lar.

"Dragons are supposed to breed more towards the beginning of a Pass; but they are influenced by the belief structure of their Riders and senior Bronzes. Nemorth had Jora in her head and R'gul in her ear. OUR Queens have been listening to H'llon worrying about a long Pass this turn since. And now he's done the calculations after making all the observations, it's likely our numbers will continue to grow. I aim for a full Weyr of five to six hundred dragons like the records tell us about; and if you believe the calculations and so does Lessa, Ramoth will do so too."

"Ramoth won't permit more then two junior Queens unfortunately" said F'lar, dryly.

"MMmmm" said T'bor, who secretly thought Lessa's opinion of other Weyrwomen might colour the ideas of her Queen more than any natural prejudice on Ramoth's part.

A meeting was agreed upon, which had been the main idea and T'bor withdrew satisfied.

oOoOo

Naturally, the other Weyrleaders were not happy to hear this news! T'bor however had already chatted informally to G'narish of Igen – with whom he had struck up a close friendship since one of Igen's Riders had met Lady Petrilla in the Holdless cavern – and with N'ton. N'ton was a little in awe of the older Weyrleader and would have secretly liked to have led his Weyr to be as radical as High Reaches; but dared not antagonise his own older Riders. N'ton had however attended the ideas exchange, and had at least a passing knowledge of mathematics, and enough understanding to realise that Bronze Rider H'llon left him far behind.

"Does it make your head ache, T'bor?" he asked.

T'bor grinned.

"Like drinking a crate of half sour Tillek red from a bad year when you surface the next morning!" he confessed. N'ton laughed sympathetically.

"Well I suppose that so long as there are people who do understand, that's all that matters" he said.

"Oh yes; and they work out Threadfall charts accurate to the minute too" said T'bor mournfully reflecting that he could never manage to come close to that skill. "It saves us a bit though; we go Between to one hundred heartbeats before Fall starts in our territory, using the sun or moons for accurate timing. And they work that out too."

"Clever" said N'ton "And your redheaded Weyrwoman who does all the mathematics also talks to dragons, doesn't she, which must make the visualisations easier?" he tried not to sound envious.

"Yes, it's very useful" said T'bor, equally trying not to sound smug and succeeding no better than the younger Weyrleader.

They exchanged a look; and grinned suddenly at each other!

oOoOo

The meeting involved a lot of shouting. R'mart, even with Wansor's say so, did not want to accept such a thing; D'ram, now representing Southern, was dismayed and G'dened was shocked. The younger Weyrleader had hoped to see the end of the Pass and a long retirement.

"We need to make the best of it" said G'narish practically. "There's a lot in society that's really quite broken; having an extra Pass gives us the opportunity to interfere more while the Commons still need us and can't conveniently forget their debt to dragonkind again."

"We can't interfere with autonomy!" said N'ton, shocked.

"Oh get real, N'ton" said G'narish "It needs subtlety. Those of us with good Lords Holders have less problems; and at least we can talk to them about the things that are wrong. You have Groghe; who's opinionated but at least a fardling good Holder who doesn't see Holdlessness as the only punishment for people who are awkward to deal with. And Jaxom, who's a Rider himself and a forward thinking youth. And Sangel will die sooner rather than later."

"Hear hear" said T'bor "We're lucky in the Reaches: all our Lords have enough between the ears to do their jobs well. And we don't have to worry about people like Nessel of Crom….."

"T'bor!" F'lar snapped. He could do without T'bor needling R'mart.

"Or as G'narish mentioned, Sangel for that matter" N'ton inserted the comment smoothly of the less easy Lord Beholden to Fort Weyr. "I dislike interfering. It's also forbidden."

"Quite" said F'lar with half a glance at G'narish.

"Not if you're invited to voice opinion" said G'narish, brightly.

"Weyr, Craft and Hold must act together in pursuit of that which is a threat to all Pern" said T'bor sententiously, mimicking H'llon at his most didactic.

"Absolutely!" said G'narish.

"I agree" said G'dened. "Autonomy is all very well, but when problems extend beyond borders there must be a broader policy."

N'ton just nodded; that made sense.

"And personal relations forged between Masters, Lords and Weyrleaders are all very well," said T'bor, "but we should get the Harpers to draft extensions to the Charter to deal with the likes of Thella and Fax. I hate to say this, but the Ancients were really rather naïve; they expected most people to WANT to do their duty and stay at home and out of trouble."

"It's never been done before" said R'mart.

"Nor had coming four hundred turns through time" said F'lar "But you and the others had the courage to rise to that challenge."

He almost choked as T'bor asked Orth to relay via Mnementh that F'lar was as cunning as a sack full of tunnel snakes.

R'mart insisted on taking a copy of the orbital calculations of course.

"As if he could understand it any better than we do" muttered T'bor to N'ton "Or encourage any of his people to learn enough to do so!"

"And he'll doubtless claim that because HE can't understand it that it proves nothing" sighed N'ton. "Well, if Telgar's caught hopping, we'll just have to cover."

"He'll be gone as Weyrleader long since" said T'bor "If not dead. I'm not bothered; once Bedella goes it'll be different."

"Unless her successor is as bad" said N'ton, dryly. "Time alone will show."

T'bor nodded.

It was all in the future. There was plenty of time to prepare.

With six hundred dragons High Reaches could, if necessary, cover Crom or Telgat as well as its own territory, especially with shorter Falls.

HE had no doubt that H'llon was correct!