"Hey, Lizza, guess what?" I tried not to jump obviously and turned around, smiling when I saw Jaymee, who's around my age and works in the Hall kitchens.

"Umm - we're having wherry for dinner again tomorrow?" I ventured.

"No... well, actually, I'm not completely sure, but I think it's going to be herdbeast. But my news about the noon meal has to do with something other than the food."

"Okay, that's fine." Jaymee's actually a bit of a gossip, and I wasn't entirely feeling in the mood to get excited about who was friends with whom or the latest maneuvering on chore duty groups.

"You'll be excited," she sing-songed off-key, and a passing Harper journeyman shot her an offended look.

"Okay, okay," I said, turning a corner towards my dormitory - I wanted to get changed before supper, as the pharmacy lesson had been rather messy. "So what else is going on at dinner tomorrow?"

"Well, there'll be three fourth-year Healer apprentices walking the tables."

It took me a moment to place that reference - it was the Crafter tradition of promotion. If a journeyman was becoming a master, or an apprentice a journeyman, then there was a production of them walking to an empty new seat at the appropriate table. And now that I knew this much, there was an obvious answer to why Jaymee thought that it would be of particular interest to me - but I still had just enough of my bad mood left that I didn't want to jump to the conclusion and possibly fall for a joke that Jaymee was playing on me. "Okay, so is Maxx one of them?"

"Well, yes, of course, Lizza. I thought that you'd be happy to hear it."

Not much of my bad mood was left except for remorse at this point. "Yes, of course I'm happy for him, Jaymee - and thank you so much for coming to tell me." And being happy on Maxx's behalf wasn't all of the truth - his parents had said that he didn't want the two of us to become seriously involved until he'd earned his Journeyman's rank, so just what did this news mean for our relationship? Would Maxx want to set a date for an Espousal ceremony? I wanted to be with Maxx for the rest of my life, but at the same time it was a bit of a shock to think about being so close to the rest of our lives.

"You're so very welcome. Don't let on that I was the one to tell you." Jaymee beamed, made a wave, and then rushed off as quickly as she came.

#

I only just got the last table at Maxx's table in the dining hall at supper that night. We usually end up sitting with some of his friends among the fourth-year Healer apprentices, who don't seem to mind my joining their company, whereas we unintentionally created a bit more friction trying to include Maxx close to my classmates in the second-year class. But he can't really hold a seat for me if somebody else really wants to sit there, so I try to not be rushing in at the last moment.

Maxx kissed my cheek and the boy next to him on the other side, Tatran, made a comment about how nice it can be to always be around two young Healers in love. The rest of the guys laughed, and by the time the porcine pie is delivered to be sliced up and served out onto our plates, I've sensed that everybody is in a reasonably good mood, and not just a generally vague kind of 'goodness', but a slightly tense excitement. So I smiled at all of them and made my own foray into the conversation when there was an opening pause.

"I heard a bit of interesting news just a few minutes ago."

"Oh, really?" Tatran said. "Did the grapevine take that long to reach the second-years? Our classrooms have been buzzing since morning."

That deflated my gambit, and I fell silently to my slice of pie, listening to the apprentices talk about who would be picked for walking the tables. As I kept listening, it became clear to me that Jaymee had told me something that they either didn't know or didn't believe - that Maxx was going to be one of the ones to get his journeyman's knot. I tried to catch his eye, to see if he was feeling confident, to signal the good tidings to him alone, but he was paying close attention to something that Umlau, sitting opposide from Tatran, was saying about how all three new journeymen would be picked out of the apprentices who had more experience at the Hall than the two sevendays since the apprentices had been called in from Holds all across the continent. So I stroked his arm sweetly - and another of those strange moments came when our thoughts seemed to touch. I tried not to visibly jump in my chair, and Maxx wasn't exactly subtle about the way he turned around to look at me, but I could tell from the look in his eyes that he understood what Jaymee had told me and what I was hoping for, and he was smiling. All of a sudden, I couldn't wait for supper to be over.

#

"I want to stay in tonight," I told Maxx, as soon as we had left the dining hall. "Celebrate alone with you."

"Yeah, I do too," he said, bending down to kiss me. "But maybe it would be better if we don't change our plans. There'll be plenty of time to celebrate after it's official, and it would be unseemly to let anyone know ahead of time, or to let them guess that we know."

"Oh, phoo for unseemly," I muttered. "Do we even have plans for tonight?"

"Yeah, don't you remember? Aless invited us both to come over and play Dragon Poker with the Harper boys." He shrugged.

"Right." I stopped to consider this retrieved piece of information again. I'd changed into a nice tunic before dinner, so that would definitely do for spending the evening over in the Harper Hall apprentice dormitories. Maxx looked a bit less presentable, and I couldn't immediately remember what class he had last thing in the afternoon. "Do you want to stop in at your dorm room first?"

He peered down at his forest green shirt and trousers. "Yeah, that'd be good." So I led the way towards his quarters - but going the back way through the Hall, instead of using the more-travelled wide corridors.

"So - do you think that your parents would allow us to declare a pact as soon as you've walked the tables?" I asked him wistfully.

"I certainly intend to ask them soon," Maxx replied after a moment, with a fond smile. "There's a Fort gather the day after tomorrow; partly to give family an opportunity to come here and celebrate their new young journeymen. Mother and Father are already planning to come - they didn't say, but I think that they had hopes for my promotion so soon." He sighed happily. "Journeymen who have promised themselves to be espoused can ask to room together with their beloveds. Not alone together - we'd have to share the room with another couple, most likely, until the actual espousal. But..."

"Yeah," I said. I knew all the same rules as Maxx did by this point, but loved to hear him dream out loud. "At least we wouldn't have to kiss goodnight and stay apart until morning."

"When we get that far," Maxx agreed, and then his head jerked slightly down in my direction. "What about your parents, Lizza? They'd need to approve of the pact, too. Will they be here for the gather?"

"Oh." I hadn't thought about that, and since I hadn't remembered about the gather this seven-day before Maxx mentioned, I doubted that there had been anything about it in my last letter from Mother. Still... "If she's found out about it, or will, then Mother will find a way to come. Father - probably not, unless he's gotten organized well enough in advance to set up a stall.

Maxx chuckled. "Always the salesman, making decisions in terms of marks?"

I felt my pace falter, because I didn't really like thinking of Father in those terms, but there was some truth to it. The prices in the Klah lounge weren't high, but he did good business nearly every day... and come to think of it, I wasn't sure how high his expenses were. Did he have to pay Lord Jerood a rental for using the space? Or for the fact that many of his workers, like Mari and my mother, were considered contributing citizens of Ruath Hold, and thus entitled to room and board without having to pay for it in their own marks?

Still, whatever my Father's outgoing marks, it suddenly hit me that he was in all likelihood quite a rich man in those terms. What was he saving up for? I had a sudden mental picture of him buying me a small Hold on my nineteenth birthing-day - well, or presenting it to me, along with the marks that it would take to take Hold. (You can't buy a Hold, or any land on Pern, for marks - Harper Evans told me that once. You can pay the old Holder to let you move in, you can pay him to leave if he wants to take the marks for that, but you still have to demonstrate that you can hold for yourself.)

I got about that far before realizing that Maxx was looking a bit concerned at the way that I'd just gone off into my own little Pern. "Umm... I think that Father is just happiest when he's baking," I said, which wasn't the whole truth, but at least it got me back to the conversation that we'd left behind.

Maxx smiled and led the way on to his room, which wasn't far.

#

When we got close to the third-year Harper apprentice dormitory, Maxx and I could hear voices engaged in argument. Passing through the doorway revealed Aless standing toe to toe with two bigger apprentices, near the circular table where the cards and snack cakes were sitting askew. On the other side of the table stood - it was the singer girl who I'd seen back up in Plateau, sevendays back, before we went up to the Weyr. I couldn't place her name just at that moment, but had seen her around every now and then since coming to Healer Hall, as she was studying with the Harpers when she wasn't off performing at different Holds.

But I hadn't expected to see her here tonight, and she looked upset. Not that Aless or the other harper boys were the picture of calm, but they were more just angry than - than humiliated and hurt, for all that the light-haired boy had a big bruise coming purple already under one of his eyes.

"What's going on here?" Maxx asked, with as much authority as he could muster.

The bruised boy spoke first. "He struck me, Maxx." He pointed at Aless. "Harpers of any rank are strictly forbidden to fight among themselves, and I did nothing to provoke him."

"Not directly, perhaps," Aless said dryly. "What you were doing to Tessa was doubtlessly provocative, and as neither you nor your friend seemed interested in respecting her or her refusals, I felt that I was within my rights to take the young lady's part."

"Oh, no," I muttered. Journeyman Evans' warnings about what kind of treatment I could expect if I went to the Hall as a harper apprentice, (and a pretty girl,) came back to me. I hadn't realized that other young ladies would be in the same kind of danger. But Aless was definitely the kind of guy who wouldn't stand for such things - and possibly get himself into more trouble with his instinctive reaction.

I walked around the table towards Tessa. "Are - are you okay? Do you need to go to a Healer's office, or..."

"I'm fine," she muttered, blushing. "I don't want to claim injury over this."

"Well, I'm claiming injury," the bruised boy insisted, again pointing at Aless as if any of us had doubts over who he felt had hurt him.

"Please, take his part," I muttered to Tessa, quietly that the boys would probably not hear the details of my words. "As he took yours. Fair's fair." If Tess refused to take Aless' part against the boy who had been molesting her, then Aless could be in a lot of trouble for attacking another apprentice.

Tess looked over at Aless and sighed. "Calfin, call it quits. Nobody wants this whole thing to get more attention."

Colfin looked at her and considered what she wasn't saying. If he pursued his claim against Aless, would Tessa come forward? As Tessa had implied, she didn't want to have to go on the record against him, and he didn't want that kind of trouble either.

"Okay, okay, it's quits. Just a couple boys rasslin' around, and Aless got in a lucky elbow," he finally muttered, and managed a cocky smile. "So come on, let's all quit foolin' and deal out the cards."

"Umm - I'm not so sure that I'm in the mood for Dragon Poker all of a sudden," I said.

Colfin's friend shot me a hard stare. "Come on, don't be like that. If it's quits, then we're all friends, and nobody should have a problem sitting down and playing cards together. Or do you really want us to believe that you're too good for Dragon Poker with my friend and me?"

I looked over at Maxx, and he shrugged. I wasn't wild about the thought of being friends with Colfin, but I didn't really want to generate more bad feeling and possibly upset the deal that would keep Aless out of trouble with his teachers. "Okay, then, come on." I went back around the table and caught Aless' arm and Max's in one hand each. I really wanted to have them next to me now.

It wasn't long before Colfin's friend, Leighder, had dealt out five cards for each of us, I organized my hand and couldn't remember for the life of me if a weyrleader and a journeyman made two of a kind or not. And of course, that's the kind of thing that you can't ask without giving away what you've got. When I played with my parents and Mari and her mother, somebody always left a bit of hide on the table with all of the ranks on them. There was no reminder here.

And of course, I was the second to bet. Aless started with a thirty-second mark - the lowest possible bet, same as ante. "Just give me a moment." In the weyr suit, the weyrwoman was high, and the weyrleader second. In the crafter suit, the master was high, and...

"Hey, we came here to play, not just sit and think to ourselves, Lizza," Colfin chortled. "See the bet, or pass."

"Or raise it," Leighder added,.snickering. "If you've got the marks for it."

"I'll see," I said, having finished my thinking and confirmed that I did indeed have a good pair to draw to. I slipped a thirty-second mark into the center of the table.

Maxx folded, and Tessa saw the bet as well, so it was a thirty-second mark to Colfin. "Raise," he said, putting an eighth mark into the center of the table.

"Wait a second," I said. "You can only raise by the amount bet so far. You can't bet more than a sixteenth - one thirty-second to match, and one to raise."

"Nuh-uh," Leighder put in, grinning. "There's three thirty-seconds bet so far." He pointed at Aless, me, and Tessa in turn. "So he can raise to match all of them, plus seeing the bet. That makes an eighth."

I looked around, to see if anybody would object to this. It would change the game and how quickly a pot could become high-stakes based on a low starting bet. Maxx seemed uncertain, but Tessa and Aless were nodding their heads slowly. It seemed that this was how dragon poker was bet among harpers, and we were on the harper side of the hall now. (I didn't even know if healers played cards on their side of the hall.)

I was obsessing over the contents of my pile of marks more than the cards through the rest of the hand. I saw Colfin's bet, which was enough to get me to the draw, and I didn't get any help for my pair. Tessa opened up with a quarter-mark bet after the draw, and Colfin re-raised, so I folded my hand. Tessa ended up winning the hand with a trio of fours.

Over the next few hands, I managed to relax and enjoy the evening. I still didn't really like Colfin or Leighder, but I didn't want to let them ruin the game.

The evening was wearing on, and I picked up a collection of single low cards, not even grouped closely enough to make four to a straight. Maxx passed, and I impatiently did the same, stifling the urge to fold before anybody else had bet. If everybody passed, I'd get my ante back at least.

"So, I can't open the bet on anything more than a thirty-second, right?" Tessa said. She and Aless had switched chairs after taking a break, and I hadn't wanted to raise an objection to the agreement they made.

Colfin shrugged. "I don't have a problem with that. Dealer's prerogative?"

"No," Aless interrupted before Leighder could chime in. "We have to vote on changing the betting rules before the deal. Sorry, Tessa."

"Okay." Tessa shrugged and put a thirty-second mark in. Aless folded.

"Meddler," Colfin muttered, and shot a nasty look at Aless, as if he shouldn't have spoken up about the betting if he wasn't going to see at the lowest possible bet anyway. Colfin bet a sixteenth, and Leighder bet up to an eighth. Tessa thought about it for a long time, took out her thirty-second and replaces it with a quarter mark - the biggest bet that we'd seen in the game so far, and we hadn't even had the draw yet.

Colfin saw the bet without hesitation, and Leighder considered for a few seconds before seeing as well. Tessa stood pat, and Leighder dealt one hand to Colfin, and two to himself.

Then the betting was fast and furious again. It was only a few rounds before Tess had five marks in the pot, which was most of her available funds. Colfin saw. Leighder hesitated. "I... I hadn't really expected to..."

"Do you have the marks to see the bet, or not?" Colfin asked. "Here with you, at the table?"

"Well, yes."

"Then you have to bet them or fold," Colfin said. "No side pots until you're absolutely tapped out and all-in."

"Okay." Leighder matched the bet. "Showdown, my dear."

Tessa turned over her card - three fives, and a warder and a weyrling, which made another pair - a full Hold. A really good hand, and Tessa had been dealt it straight off, since she'd stayed pat at the draw. No wonder she'd wanted to bet it up.

"I'm so sorry," Colfin said, with a grin that didn't look sorry at all. He laid down the six, seven, eight, nine, and ten of hammers - a flush straight. That bet everything but a higher one, including full holds.

"Quite a hand," Leighder said regretfully, showing his hand, with three large dragon cards - all aces. Also a fairly good hand, but not a match for either of the others. Colfin must have drawn one card to finish his flush straight, and Leighder had tried drawing two cards to the trio, hoping for a pair, or a wild harper, which could have given him four aces.

"Okay, I guess that's enough for the evening," Aless muttered. "Congratulations on your big win, Colfin, and sorry for your losses, Tessa, Leighder."

"I hope that you didn't risk too much," I said to Tessa.

"No, that's alright. It's just marks, and nobody's life depended on them." But she shot a bleak look at Colfin, and also Leighder, before she left. Leighder appeared to be in high spirits himself - maybe he hoped that his friend would spend some of the winnings on something that he could enjoy as well.

Aless told everybody that he'd clean up, and Maxx hurried me away back to the healer dormitories. "I don't like either of those harper boys," I muttered once we were out of immediate range. "I'm not sure if they're really Aless' friends, but..."

"No, I don't think they are anymore, at least," Maxx said. "He'd never forgive somebody for forcing a girl - any more than I do. But we'll need to bide our time, and there's other things to focus on in the meantime."

I remembered the good news of just a few hours before, and smiled. "Can you come inside for a few minutes?"

Maxx considered. "Only if your roommates aren't in, I think."

"Ahh, yes. All right."

Unfortunately, both of the other girls were in my shared dormitory room, so Maxx just kissed me goodbye outside and poked his head to say hello and goodnight to the others. I found myself wondering if they'd have to find a new third girl for the room, if I was able to move out and share a foursome for two pacted couples with Maxx.

#

Breakfast and morning classes seemed to pass by in a happy rush, and not to crawl by as I waited for the big noon meal and the ceremony of walking the tables. When I got into the dining hall, I saw that Maxx was at a different table from usual with the fourth-year apprentices, and there were no free seats too close to him, so I picked a seat closer to the Master's table, figuring that at least I could get a good view of him walking over to the other side of the hall. And then I spotted an unfamiliar figure sitting at the Master's table.

A rider wearing fresh leathers and the shoulder knots of a bronze rider and wingleader. And not just any wingleader.

It was D'Peerce!

What was he doing here? I hadn't seen him since leaving the Weyr, and counted myself quite lucky for that. Any other rider being her I could pass of as a coincidence, but the one who had told me that he was hunting for mysterious strangers and knew that I could find one?

Dinner seemed to take forever to crawl by, but I wasn't paying attention to much other than D'Peerce, and though he wasn't making it obvious to anybody else, I could tell that he was watching me too. After the cheese balls and the thick slices of roast with tubers and greens and bread pudding and gravy, Masterhealer Wheeler stood up, and suddenly the entire hall fell silent. He started to speak, and I tried to concentrate on what he was saying, but couldn't manage to make the sentences add up into words. I hated D'Peerce for coming here and ruining this moment. I wanted to be so happy for Maxx, but what I felt for him in that moment was fear.

I almost stood up and cheered the first name that Wheeler called, but realized that it wasn't Maxx, and people might find it a bit strange if I showed that much enthusiasm for a boy from South Benden. Maybe Jaymee had bad information, or something had changed. What if Maxx's name wasn't called?

Why was D'Peerce here? He had to be following me, and it wouldn't take much asking for him to find out that Maxx had also come from Ruatha, and that the two of us were closer than friends. Would that be enough to make him suspect Maxx?

"Walk, Journeyman Maxx! Walk, Journeyman Maxx!" Maxx was up, and he was walking, and a crazy thought occured to me. D'Peerce had to think that I was hiding the identity of the mysterious stranger from him - so would making it clear that I wasn't hiding Maxx from him be enough to throw suspicion away from him? I could only try it. So just as Maxx was passing by, I jumped out of my chair, whooping like a maniac, throwing my arms around him and kissing him hard on the lips. He kind of tried to mumble a surprised protest past me, but didn't push me away. I drowned into his arms for a long moment before suddenly realizing what I had done. I withdrew just a bit, nervously, and realized that absolutely everybody in the Hall was looking at us now - including all the Masters.

"Yes, I think I understand how excited you are about your friend's new rank, Apprentice Lizza," Wheeler said. "But that sort of congratulations... well, to say the least, it's not appropriate for this venue." Several apprentices near me snickered, and so I sat down as quickly as I could and let Maxx finish his walk over to the apprentice tables. I realized belatedly that Journeywoman Karalinn was escorting Maxx to his new place - well, that was nice. I knew that I didn't have to worry about Karalinn - she was Maxx's friend and mentor, nothing more.

But I was sure that I hadn't seen the last of D'Peerce.

#

It was both relieving and anti-climactic to go back to afternoon classes after the big noon ceremony. There was the ordinary excitement of it being rest day tomorow, (and a Fort Hold gather day, on top of that,) and added to that, people talking about the three apprentices who'd walked the tables, speculating wildly about if this would trickle down into any early openings in the third-year class. By an hour into the session, Master Twanes couldn't keep us in character for our role-playing clinical practice, which is normally fun - some of us pretend to be patients coming to see the healer, and the point of the exercise is to diagnose the true problem based on the symptoms given and prescribe the appropriate treatment.

Niklos came up to me after we were finally let out of class. "So, are you throwing a party for Journeyman Maxx tonight?"

I was thrown by the question for a moment, and then felt foolish. Maxx and I had been so wrapped up in pretending that we hadn't heard the news before dinner, and wondering if it was actually true, that we hadn't really talked about anything like this, but of course Maxx deserved a celebration with his friends who were still apprentices, and I'd have started to plan it already - if I hadn't been unnerved by D'Peerce's showing up at the Hall for the table-walking ceremony. I was also a little preoccupied all afternoon with whether the rider had left or if he was still skulking around the Hall somewhere.

"Okay, yeah, we should definitely have a celebration for Maxx, but..." I was starting to say that it should just be a small gathering of friends, but suddenly that reminded me of the small gathering that we'd had over in the Harper third-year dormitory last night, and I really didn't want to do anything that would remind Maxx or myself of that. So... "We shouldn't split up the parties, actually - I know that Maxx is friends with lots of the other apprentices..." I racked my brain to think of the other two apprentices who had walked the table. To my surprise, I found one of them. "Peffer and..."

"And Twits," Niklos said, chuckling a little. "Okay, well - we should probably go talk to the fourth-year apprentice healers, and see what they already have in mind in terms of party night."

"Yeah, come on," I said. "Let's go."

We found a few friends of Twits first, and they were planning to take him over to Fort Hold and have a party for him there, but also liked the idea of including Maxx and Peffer and their friends too.

"Do you think that we can all go to Fort without any of the Masters or senior Journeymen stopping the whole deal?" Niklos asked.

"I don't think that they'll raise any problem tonight," one of the fourth-years said - I couldn't remember his name, but knew that he'd actually been studying at the Healer Hall since he was first apprenticed. "Special occasion and all that."

"Is there anything that I can do to help?" I asked, and thought of something. "There's a craft-trained Journeyman Baker in the Fort Hold lower caverns, isn't there?"

"Yes, I think so," Niklos said. "Do you want to get some treats for us?"

"Yeah, I can do that," I said. I'd heard Father refer to Journeman... Journeyman Willem, that was the name. I'd know what to ask for, and maybe dropping my Father's name would get us a little bit further. "I've got some marks still after Dragon Poker last night... can anyone else help with the funding?"

The fourth-years traded a look, and one of them dug into a pocket and passed me three half-marks and a few quarters and eighths. "You'd better get my mark's worth for this."

"Count on it," I said. I'd be spending at least that many of my own marks too, for Maxx's sake, and that should be enough.

#

The party was amazing. Somebody managed to get permission for us to use a small banquet hall on the second level of Fort Hold for free - as the Hold's gift for the new Journeymen healers. And apprentices bought beer and little finger meats and that was all it really took to keep the celebration going.

"I can't believe that you put all this together for me," Maxx muttered when he first saw me, as if somebody had told me that I'd arranged everything without any help from the other apprentices.

"Well, we all wanted to do something special for you Journeymen," I teased him. "Do you want a brew?"

"Oh, no." A flash of panic came over his face, and I remembered that even though the kids had been offered beer and wine up at the Hatching feast, Maxx, Izabella, and Mechell had all avoided it. Was there something about strangers that alcohol affected them differently? If so, I should bury that thought very deeply except for the notion that Maxx didn't want to drink. We couldn't let the riders know that beer was their perfect weapon for finding the strangers with.

So, Maxx quickly excused himself and went off to find some water or fruit juice to drink, and I found myself staring in the direction of the door. And after a minute of that, a figure in riding leathers passed by. D'Peerce! Again? Even though he didn't slow down or glance in the direction of the banquet hall, I shook slightly with panic. How had he found out that we were in Fort Hold tonight? How close was the hunter circling?

"What's wrong?" Maxx muttered as he came close to me. I realized that he might have been too distracted at dinner to even notice D'Peerce.

I leaned in close to him, and he bent down slightly so that I could whisper in his ear, as if it were an endearment. "D'Peerce is here - the rider who came to Ruatha the day that you - helped me. He was at the Harper Hall for dinner, and he was just passing by in the hallway outside."

"Ahh." Max ran a few fingers through my hair and made a soothing, hssh sound. "It'll be okay. We'll be okay, no matter what."

I wasn't sure that I believed that, but it was nice of him to try to reassure me.

#

Half a wing of dragons landed in the meadow past the gather square in the morning, and I hid myself away in my room and kept reading the skins on the approach to diagnosis. I was starting to wonder about poking my head out and going to look for Maxx, wondering if he wanted to scrounge dinner in the Hall or go down to gather, when Terrica poked her head in. "Oh, Lizza, you're in here after all."

"Well, yes, why? Is somebody looking for me?"

"Half a dozen people, if you're talking about the errand girls like me," she confessed with a giggle. "All of whom volunteered to track you down on behalf of your parents."

"They're here?" I said, sitting up so quickly that the hides slid off my bed, and Terrica caught them. "Wait a second, when did..." And then the truth hit me. "Did they ride to Fort on dragon-back?"

"Yes," Terrica answered. "I'm not sure how many dragons went to Ruatha earlier this morning, but your new Journeyman's parents came with them, and at least three others." I quickly checked my Gather outfit, offered Terrica a smile and a wave, and rushed out of the room, heading towards the main hall and the quadrangle doors.

It took a while, and asking a few other apprentices, before I actually found my parents, sitting in one of the empty lesson rooms on ground level. Mother shouted out my name as I stepped inside and got up to wrap her arms around me. "It's so good to see you again, my girl, my not-so-little Lizza. How are you doing in your classes?"

"I'm keeping up alright," I admitted. "There hasn't been too much blood to worry about so far."

"I'm so proud of you for your placements, still," Father said, with a big smile, offering his hand for me to shake. I did, and he used my arm to pull me down toward a third chair. "My girl, in with the upper second year apprentices after a sevenday with Whitman. Sorry, it was two sevendays before you got to the Hall, wasn't it?"

"Nearly," I admitted with a smile. "My classmates have been great about it, actually - I work hard in every class, and I guess they respect me for it. But I think some of the middle and lower second-years are jealous. There've been a few mean tricks. Nothing that I can't deal with."

"That's good," Mother said, taking her chair again. "So, you're being treated well? I mean, we talked about how they treated girls here, when you were making your choice to qualify with Whitman. Maxx is protecting you?"

I thought about that. "Actually, I'm not sure if Maxx has had to." I felt a flash of perverse disappointment that I hadn't had to deal with any harassment since I got to the Halls at all, as if that undermined my femininity. Most of the male apprentices had treated me as 'just one of the guys', and those who'd paid me any compliments or flirted had done so in a very polite and cautious way. But there was probably an 'honor among men' thing going on because they knew that Maxx and I were together - and Maxx's love and passion was all the validation I really needed, wasn't it? "He's probably helped a little just because the word's spread that I'm spoken for - and everybody's been very respectful to me in that respect. Some of the girls aren't so lucky - Aless is friends with a soloist singer, I think, and - and one of the other Harper apprentices tried to force himself on her before our card game "

I hadn't meant to tell my parents anything about the game with Tessa, but it just all sort of came pouring out of me, from that first moment where Maxx and I showed up and Aless and Colfin had been on the point of a no strikes barred fight.

"I - I know that Aless might get in trouble, because he was the one who punched Colfin," I said, trying to keep from sobbing as I relived that moment in my mind. "But Tessa... I don't really know her at all, but I have sympathy for her, and Colfin's just got it in for her..."

Suddenly something connected. "The last hand of the night! Everything worked out too perfectly - Leighder and Colfin were in on it together, cheating with a cold deck, and they targeted Tessa. The rest of us were dealt garbage, to take us out of the betting before the draw. Leighder dealt, and he was setting Colfin up, both of them raising the limits to get Tess at her limit before she could get suspicious."

"Well, there'd be precious little chance of proving that now, without a second deck of cards," Father said. "But you might well be right. Don't play poker with either of them again."

"I won't, Father," I said. "But about Tessa..."

"A girl apprentice should not have to endure such treatment to learn a craft," Father said. "Especially not one gifted with the voice to be a soloist. But we cannot be hasty and indiscrete about attempting to better her situation. I hope that you would not object if I attempted to fathom the correct person at the Harper Hall to bring Aless' secret to?"

I took a breath. "Yes, I trust you, Father. And I know that Aless will, too - but I must tell him that you know."

"Of course," Mother said. "So, once you've composed yourself, should we proceed on to the Gather? Maxx and his parents have gone ahead, I think, though he wanted to wait on you."

"Yes, in a few minutes," I said. "Who else has come from Ruatha? What about Mari and Izabella?"

"I - Izabella wanted to come and see Aless," Father said. "But she's taking out her first pleasure cruise today."

"Oh, good for her." I smiled, finding it hard to believe that so much had happened back in Ruatha over the past two sevendays.

"And Mari is still hoping to reach Fort Hold today, or tonight," Mother said. "The caravan has run into a few difficulties out from the Sea Hold. Amana is here, to see you as much as anybody else, and Master Whitman and his spouse of course."

"Right." I nodded, spent a few minutes trying to figure out when Mari's caravan had last been by the Healer Hall, then shrugged it off. "So - one more question before we go, and it's a big one."

Father nodded, and I waited, letting the tension build. "Does this have something to do with Maxx's new rank?" Mother asked.

"Yes," I admitted, mock-scowling at her for blowing the big surprise. "You didn't ever say anything very specific about a timeline, just that we could talk about Maxx and I making a formal pact once - well, 'once either of us makes journeyman' was the phrasing at least once, though I don't think anybody doubted that he'd be recognized at that rank first, considering his head start of apprenticeship with Master Whitman. But anyway, he's a journeyman now, and we're talking."

Mother and Father exchanged a look. "Yes, we are. I'm happy that you like Maxx so much, and that the two of you are starting to make plans for your lives. But - but you still haven't really known him for that long, and..." She trailed off awkwardly at this point.

But Father looked at me cannily. "Are the two of you really in a hurry to be spouses, or is it just the status of being a pacted couple that concerns you for the time being?"

I had to think about that for a long moment. "I... at the heart of it, I want to be a little closer to Maxx, to have an opportunity to get to know him a little more. I - I guess I had unrealistic expectations about coming to Healer Hall - though I'm certainly happier to be here than if we were seperated by all the distance between Fort and Ruatha. But - there's so many apprentices all over the place here, and so much going on, that it seems like we - well, we spend a fair amount of time together, but almost always in big groups. We don't have a place to be ourselves, you know?"

"I have a sense of what this is building up into," Mother muttered.

"Maybe you're right. Maxx said that journeymen who have a pacted partner can live together - not in a room by themselves, that's reserved for spouses, but with just two other people, usually another pacted couple. In a lot of ways I think that that's probably the best thing for Maxx and I right now - we'd be able to spend more time together, but still wouldn't have too much privacy - we'd have to trade off for it I suppose, one couple staying out for an evening if the other wanted to be able to stay in alone."

"Right," Mother agreed. "Well, I don't think that your Father or I have a problem with that as far as it goes. But we don't think that you're ready to become Maxx's spouse, or a parent, anytime soon. So, in those evenings when you've got the room all to yourselves..."

"I - I feel the need to be with Maxx, in every way," I agreed. "Including the ones that traditionally lead to making babies. But we both realize that we're not ready for that yet - Maxx feels more concerned about not wanting to get me pregnant than I do, I think, and that's saying something." Of course, my parents couldn't know that some of the reasons for Maxx's concerns were... well, 'strange.' "I'd like to have children eventually, but not until I've finished many more years of study, and maybe had a chance to work for a year or two as a journeywoman Healer. So we'll definitely take any precaution necessary towards that end."

"Including taking a short ride on a dragon, if that's necessary?" Mother asked.

I jumped a little, because every reference to dragons has me jumpy lately, (was D'Peerce still lurking around the Hall?) and because I couldn't immediately see the reference. "What - what do you mean by that?"

"Oh..." Mother suddenly looked flustered. "I - I thought that I'd told you about that in our 'you're becoming a woman now' chat. Umm, well, you see - travelling 'between' places on dragon-back, it isn't very good for unborn children really. A lot of women riders have trouble having children, because they get used to going Between anywhere they need to go, and if they take that trip once, before they even realize that they're going to have a baby... then they won't, at least, not that baby."

"Oh." I thought about that. "And - and do girls who aren't riders, who find out that they're pregnant, and feel that they're not ready for a child, do they actually do that to get rid of the problem?"

"Some - some do, yes."

"But those are living souls!"

"I know." Mother wrapped an arm around my shoulders and patted my hand. "But - but I wouldn't presume to judge any woman who made that choice. Her right to make a choice about her body, her life - it's at least as important as the fact of such a small baby getting a chance to come to Pern or not. I can't imagine that any woman makes such a choice lightly - and such a woman, perhaps it's better if her babies aren't among us after all."

I shuddered. "Well, I'll bear that in mind, but I hope I don't have to rely on such a remedy."

"Neither I, baby girl."

"Can - can we go to the gather now?"

"In a few minutes." Mother passed me a small square of cloth, and I realized that I'd been crying again and dabbed at my eyes.

"We'll talk to Maxx's family," Father said. "See if we can convince them to agree to a nice long pact."

"Thank you. Thank you very much." Before I could talk myself out of it, I was out of my chair and threw my arms around my dad.

"It's my pleasure. But - but one other thing, Lizza."

"Yes?" I turned my face up towards him.

Father gave Mother a long look, and then he smiled down at me. "I think that we'll ask that you wait a little while before formalizing the pact - three sevendays, perhaps? And that you and Maxx arrange to come back to Ruatha for that? We can have a little ceremony, and a private Gather to celebrate our two families beginning to come together, and invite relatives from around the West."

I thought about it. "Yeah, I'd like that, and I think that Maxx will appreciate it."

And so we headed out of the Hall to go find my love and his parents at the Gather.