"I have to say, I'm disappointed," Father said, taking another bite out of his pie. "Everybody raves about Fort Hold bubbly berry pies, and so I try a couple every time I'm down this way, but I never find anything worth running home about." He turned to Maxx. "What do you think, journeyman? Should I start selling small berry pies every day back at the Klah Lounge?"

Maxx looked up from staring at his plate with a dreamy smile. "What, sir?" Somebody at the table giggled before he caught himself. "Yes, sir, actually, I think that would be a great idea, and from my experience, you could definitely improve on these - the tart filling that you like, for instance, and your secret crust recipe. The one thing is, the Klah lounge doesn't tend to serve anything really hot out of the oven, and that's the particular appeal of bubbly pies."

"Yeah, I know that you've never been a big fan of that experience, Father, but maybe you should give it a try," I chimed in.

"Well, thanks for your helpful opinions," Father shot back, rolling his eyes slightly. "Couple of brilliant Healer kids think that they can tell me how to bake a pie..."

There was more laughter around the table, and then Master Whitman half-stood. "Speaking of which, Journeyman Maxx, have you met Master Amiger from South Boll?"

"Umm, no." Maxx got up too. "Should we bring Lizza along for the introductions?"

Whitman considered this. "No, not this time - he gets irritable sometimes at having to give his honor too many times in a row - and to junior apprentices. She'll have her opportunity another time." Whitman smiled apologetically at me. "You don't mind me stealing Maxx away from you for a few minutes, do you?"

"No, that's alright," I said, reaching out to grab Maxx's hand for just a second. "It's a big Gather, after all. Come back when you feel good and ready."

"Hmm, speaking of, I think I'll check to see if anybody has more news from the caravan," Mari's mother said, bustling off in another direction.

"So, Aless," my mother started after a moment of silence around the table. We never got to hear what she was about to ask, though, because something happened that took the entire Gather off guard.

I didn't see where the bronze dragon came from - probably it dropped off the Fort fire-heights and glided down. But we all heard him land on the roof of the Harper Hall quadrangle, looking a bit incongrously small against the length of the building. I thought I could make out the figure of a rider jumping down from the dragon's neck, and stepping up to the edge of the roof. But there was no mistaking the cry across the Gather meadow.

"Apprentice Lizza!"

I hesitated only a moment before getting up. Mother grabbed for my arm. "Lizza, what's this about?"

"I... I don't know," I said. "But if a rider calls for me, I must answer, mustn't I?" That was true enough, even if what was guiding my choice was more fear than duty. I didn't want to find out what D'Peerce would do or say next, if I kept him waiting.

"I'm coming too," Aless said, falling into step next to me as I left the table and headed back to the Hall. "What about Maxx?"

"I don't want him anywhere near a rider," I whispered back. "Good timing for me that D'Peerce waited until he left with Whitman."

"He'll have heard," Aless said. "What if he comes after us?"

"I... I don't know," I muttered, looking around - and believe it or not, a possible answer to that problem showed up - Mari, hurrying towards us from the gather crowd.

"Lizza, what's going on? Is that a rider calling for you?"

"I think that it's D'Peerce," I said. "Don't know what he wants, but I think that I need to confront him alone - as in, without Maxx. Can you just make sure that he doesn't come after me? He and Master Whitman were going to talk to some other Healer."

"I - I'll try," Mari said. "It's a pretty big Gather..."

"Aless," I said, turning to him. "You can help her."

"I could," Aless said. "But do you know the way up to the roof from inside the Harper Hall quadrangle wing?"

"No," I admitted, and thought about that. If Aless was able and willing to explain that route, he'd just have started saying it, and getting to the roof myself on my own power ould be important in establishing myself as not being D'Peerce's inferior. Plus, that would be a way of staying ahead of Maxx even if Mari didn't manage to intercept him. "Okay, let's go."

#

I didn't really pay attention to the corridors and stairs that Aless led me through once we were back inside the Hall gates. The last steps were narrow, and emerged from a little triangular frame on top of the roof.

D'Peerce and his dragon - what was his name? - turned to face me. "My duty to you, Wingleader D'Peerce," I said as confidently as I could. "But this has to stop, now."

The rider's face turned into a snarling mess. "Really? And just what would 'this' be, milady Apprentice?"

"Your attentions to me, Wingleader." I said. "I respect your calling, but would not wish you to..." My attempt to find an assertive yet diplomatic way to make my point failed me at that point.

"Do you believe, as your mother does, that my motivations are those of passionate desire?" D'Peerce drawled.

"No. I believe what you told me, that you are looking for dangerous strangers on Pern, and you think that one of them saved my life," I said. "But I can't help you find any such people." That was true enough. I simply couldn't bring myself to do that.

"Indeed? And who is your friend, Lady Apprentice?"

"My name is Aless, and I'm an apprentice harper here," Aless said.

"Yes, but you haven't always been here, have you, Apprentice Aless?" D'Peerce asked. "When I first came to Ruatha, you would have been there, though I didn't get a good look at you that day."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Because I paid attention to all the Ruathans who were candidates to the Hatching."

"You arranged for us all to be Searched," I accused him. "The dragons didn't say that they wanted me as a candidate - it was the riders who were making the decisions that day."

"We used the opportunity that we had to investigate the young people of Ruatha," D'Peerce agreed casually, as if this didn't profane the honor of the Weyr, and the hatching traditions of the dragons themselves.

"So - if the two of us go down those stairs and ignore you at the Gather," Aless said, pointing at the door, "what's the next opportunity that you're going to take to investigate us?"

"You're not going to go down those stairs," D'Peerce told him.

"No?" Aless headed back, and I followed him, not seeing any better course than following this bluff - to find out just what D'Peerce's next move would be.

When we found out, I wished I didn't know.

The bronze dragon came at us first, knocking me aside with a wingstroke and pinning Aless flat to the roof on his stomach with a single foreclaw - not hurting him, as far as I could tell, but restraining him so that he couldn't possibly slip away. I tried to rush forward, not even sure what I could do to help, but felt strong arms seizing me from behind, and knew that they were D'Peerce's. I struggled a little but found myself just as impotent as Aless. "What... what are you..." I managed to mutter as he spun me around and pushed me forward.

"I'm sorry to have to do this to you, Lizza," D'Peerce growled. "If you had confessed about your friend, I would have spared you the pain. But there's no other way to show people the truth."

"The... the pain?" What I was seeing now was blurry at first, and I tried to blinke the tears away from my irritated eyes. Then I realized that I was looking down over the edge of the building towards the Gather square, and that more people had come to watch, not getting too close.

I couldn't tell if they could see Spakinth pinning Aless with his talon, but they were obviously staring at a dragonrider about to throw an apprentice girl off the roof.

"Just - just what is me falling down there supposed to show anybody?"

"Nothing, by itself. But when I bring your friend Aless down to you, and he uses his dark powers to heal you, like he did before, then everybody will know what he is."

Oh, no... I thought, as I realized the entire half-shelled plan. Of course, if Maxx actually did get to me in time, he certainly would use his powers to help me, no matter if D'Peerce was right there and watching, runing his own life in the process. If he didn't... then I would be dead.

My mind raced as I tried to think myself a way out of this mess. I couldn't overpower D'Peerce. I couldn't slip away from him. More than anything else, I knew that I could never hope to reason with him - he was convinced that he was right, even down to the detail about Aless being the stranger, and had closed off his mind to anything else.

I was completely out of decent cards to play.

There was a piteous sound off to the side and behind us, and I turned around, wanting to say something reassuring to Aless so that he could bear up with a little more dignity. But Aless was staring stoically back at us. It was the bronze dragon who appeared to be in distress.

"I know, I know, Spakinth," D'Peerce said out loud, which seemed odd for a rider. Maybe he was so crazy that he'd forgotten that he didn't need to talk to his own dragon out loud. "I didn't tell you much about this part, because I knew it would upset you - but it's the only way to catch the foul little Thread-boy."

Help me, Spakinth! I thought. I know that your friend D'Peerce isn't acting like himself. It's not his fault, but you'll both regret it for the rest of your lives if he goes through with this. He's got it all wrong - Aless is not a thread-man or a stranger from the skies or anything, he's as human as I am. He won't be able to heal me if D'Peerce throws me off the roof. Please, you've got to do something.

Spakinth moved, letting Aless go, and hurried over towards us. "Wait a second, you don't have to..." D'Peerce muttered, and then concentrated on trying to push me off the roof before his dragon arrived. This time, I struggled like a wild animal, putting every scrap of strength that I could into staying on the roof.

And I did. I was so focused on staying on that I only had a brief impression of Spakinth sweeping D'Peerce over the edge. I think that he was trying to carefully hold his rider on his foreleg, but I can't really be sure of that.

I heard a soft 'pop' from down below as I backed further away and scrambled over to where Aless lay. "Are - are you alright?" I asked.

"Y-yes, but listen."

I listened, and heard a new sound just starting - very faint and far away, carried on the wind. Very high-pitched notes, like the shortest and thinnest pipes that Harpers play - incredibly beautiful and sad. "What - what does it mean?" I asked.

"It means that the dragons are mourning one of their own."

"Oh." Regret for poor Spakinth warred inside of me with a shameful kind of relief.

By the time I helped Aless to his feet and we made our way back to the stairs, Journeywoman Karalinn was heading up the other way. "Lizza - it's Aless, right? What happened? Are you both okay?"

"We're - shaken, but not harmed, I think," Aless said. "And I kinda want to put off talking about it for as long as possible - which may not be long, I think."

"Yes," I agreed. "What happened to the rider and the dragon, Karalinn?"

"They're not still up there?"

Oh, right. If she'd been hurrying through the hall to get up to the stairs, Karalinn wouldn't have seen any of the final climax. My interest in conversation with her dropped to a new low. "No, they're... they're definitely not."

#

We ended up in one of the upstairs rooms just above the dining hall, where the Harper Craftmasters lived and worked. Headwoman Andraia made up hot klah and then mulled wine, (the wine dosed with just a bit of fellis, not enough to really make me sleepy but to help me relax.) Maxx was brought in, and my parents, and the Masterhealer and Masterharper. I told them a slightly edited version of the scene with D'Peerce - basically censoring anything that would point towards the existence of the strangers being more than a crazy delusion, and explaining my prompt attendance to his summons as just a sign of respect for a Bronze rider.

"What - what happened to them, after Spakinth went over the side of the building?" I finally asked. "I don't think that he was attacking D'Peerce, just wanted to help me, and seperate us."

"I think I'd agree with that," Father said. "The riders was clinging to his dragon's front leg, but appeared to be in no particular danger from the talons. And - and Spakinth was flapping his wings, but seemed to realize that he didn't have enough vertical clearance to take flight safely."

"Oh no," I muttered. "Did they crash into the Gather?"

"As far as I know, a dragon will never crash-land, Lizza," the Masterharper said. "The instinct to avoid danger by going 'between' is too strong."

"So they jumped 'between'?" I asked, not getting it. "But if they're safe in the Weyr, then why did the other dragons..."

"They're not safe," Masterhealer Wheeler said. "That instinct can be deadly if it's not used correctly. The dragon needs to have a firm mental picture of where he's going 'between' to in the moment he disappears - or she, in the case of a female dragon. If a dragon jumps between in a panic, without having a safe place to go..."

"They're stuck in 'between'?" I whispered, horrified again. I remembered the cold of between on dragonback, and the darkness, and the numbness so bad it hardly even felt like I had a body. For a few seconds, long enough to repeat a few words of a rhyme, it was bad enough, but to know that you'd never get back out to the world of light...

"Not anymore, really," Wheeler whispered. "They're just - gone. I... I've heard of a few times when another dragon - a queen, particularly - would jump into 'between' to try to save another lost dragon. Sometimes that works - but more often the second dragon is lost too."

"Doesn't pay off," the Masterharper muttered under his breath.

"So, what happens to us next?" Aless asked after a long moment.

"That's largely up to you," Wheeler said. "You're physically fit to go back to the Gather, but I'm not sure if you want that. And - and one thing that you'll probably need to fit into your schedule is speaking with other riders."

"Yes," the Masterharper said. "D'Nan will probably come himself, to find out what happened to D'Peerce and Spakinth."

"I'm inclined to give D'Nan a piece of my mind," Mother muttered, tapping her foot angrily.

"I know," I told her. "But just be careful that you don't cast a mortal slight on his honor or call him a liar." Mother stared at me, and then chuckled weakly.

"I think that we may need to plan carefully for just what we tell the good Weyrleader," Father said. "And who says it - perhaps we could sound Lord Holder Brooks out, see how he feels about this 'stranger' nonsense. And the craft masters currently in your halls."

"Just what did you have in mind, Master Parker?" Wheeler asked him.

#

The Weyrleader of Fort didn't show up at the Harper Hall by himself either. We were waiting in the Master's meeting room, and gasped a little as I saw all the riders file in. Then I remembered to get to my feet as a sign of respect. There were two other Weyrleaders, three Wingleaders from Fort, and Moreta. Then the other side proceeded in and took their seats - the Masterhealer, Masterharper, seven other craft masters, (including my father and Whitman,) and one Lord Holder.

"I only came here to hear Apprentice Lizza's testimony regarding the passing of Wingleader D'Peerce," D'Nan started. "It appears that there may be other business to settle, but I would like to start there."

I cleared my throat. "Do - do I need to start with D'Peerce's visit to Ruatha Hold, five seven-days back, the day of the fight in the Klah Lounge? That was the day that I met him."

"No," D'Nan said. "I don't think that that's important."

"Wait a second." Moreta leaned forward and gave her weyrmate a look. "I think that I'd like to know more about this."

I had to fight not to show a smile. D'Nan might regret the fact that Moreta was here. Probably it hadn't been his idea in the first place - since a rider and a wingleader was dead, she wanted to be here to hear the reasons why. Well... I wasn't going to tell her the whole truth, but probably more of it than D'Nan wanted her to hear.

"I haven't heard about this either," Lord Brooks said.

"Well, the fight wasn't anything important," I said. "Two customers had an argument over a debt of marks, and started to settle it with an impromptu knife duel. I was knocked down and had some sauce spilled over my tunic. But somehow D'Peerce got the idea that one of the men was sure that he'd stabbed me. He came to our quarters are Ruatha, and asked me if anybody strange had come up to me while I was lying on the floor, told us a story about a metal egg landing in the mountains years ago. And - and he asked me to remove my tunic, so that he could check my skin for a glowing handprint. Mother didn't like that, and she respectfully asked him to leave."

"So it's the thread-men again, is it?" Moreta sighed. "D'Nan, I thought we agreed that dragonmen should not waste their time on such stories - not when actual thread is going to be falling in less than two Turns."

D'Nan managed to avoid responding to the Weyrwoman. "And so, since you chose to begin with it, I suppose that D'Peerce's interest in a stranger who might have healed you has something to do with what happened to him today?"

"He - he was trying to prove that the stranger was me!" Aless burst out. "He told Spakinth to trap me with his claw, and he was about to throw Lizza off the Harper Hall roof. Said that he would let me down to heal her, to save her life... but I knew that I couldn't. He even said that he'd been watching me, watching us, when we were up at Fort Weyr for the hatching, and..."

"This is my son, Weyrleader," Master Whitman said. "A third-year apprentice with the Harpers. He was witness to what happened today."

"Just how is it that the two apprentices ended up on the roof with D'Peerce and Spakinth?" Moreta asked.

"He - he called for us," I said. "I knew that the Wingleader was here around the Hall - I noticed him at the dinner yesterday when Maxx walked the tables to become Journeyman, and at the Hold last evening. Spakinth landed on the roof during the gather and called for me, so I came to him. And Aless came as well because he knew the way up to the roof, as I did not."

"How did you avoid getting thrown off the roof, apprentice?" one of the Wingleaders snapped, and several of the other riders glared at him.

"I... after D'Peerce threatened to hurt me, Spakinth started to make distressed sounds. Sort of rumbly squeaks and low whines. So I - I spoke to him, I pleaded with him to not help D'Peerce carry out his plan. He - he let Aless go, and D'Peerce and I struggled. Spakinth sort of carried his rider over the edge of the building, and that's all I saw."

"I saw the bronze dragon attempt to take flight, but he did not have clearance, and went between at the last possible moment," Wheeler said. "A few seconds later, we could hear the keening of the dragons of the Weyr."

"I see," Moreta said. "Then, it appears that D'Peerce fell prey to an insidious obsession that took over his better judgement and that led to his death, and the downfall of a blameless dragon. Unless any here would claim that he had the right of it, and that this boy, Apprentice Aless of the Harper Hall, is a monster who must be found out and put to the fire?"

Again, I had to avoid smiling, for this was a no-win choice for D'Nan and the other riders. If they backed down, they were admitting that chasing any strangers was folly. If they pressed the case, they'd have to prove that Aless wasn't an ordinary human, which he very much was.

"No," D'Nan said, smiling around the room. "I do still believe in being vigilant against other threats from above than thread, but D'Peerce's fate serves as a warning of the dangers of carrying vigilance too far."

"And we can all agree that watching my daughter's life to see if mysterious strangers with healing powers are somehow connected to her would be carrying vigilance too far?" Father asked him.

"Yes, certainly," D'Nan said. "Is there anything else that anybody here would like clarified, before we leave? I'm sure that all of you want to get back to the festivities outside, and we riders have our own gathering up in the Weyr to attend tonight?"

"The thoughts of all in Hold and Hall go with you all," the Masterharper vowed. "When a dragon passes between forever, it is not only dragonkind and the riders who mourn. There is precious little joy out in the Gather square tonight, I'm sure, and I shall personally lead the host in songs of sorrow - and of noble duty."

"Thank you, Harper," Moreta muttered.

"Yes, we all regret Spakinth's passing," Lord Brooks said. "If it isn't indelicate to raise the point - how are the weyrlings from the last Hatching faring?"

"Well enough, my lord," D'Nan said.

"It will be many weeks before they can practice flight," Moreta added.

"And - was it this D'Peerce's wing that led Search at Ruatha before the Hatching?" Brooks pressed. "I only ask, as we noticed how many youths of Ruatha..."

"D'Peerce's wing was one of two to conduct search at Ruatha," D'Nan agreed. "I stood by the results of that search, but perhaps he had other reasons than the dragon's choice - another of his hunts for strangers. Wingleader R'Wit and his Wingseconds will be questioned to see if they had anything to do with that indiscretion. In any event, though not as many of your youths were searched, more impressed than the Ruathan contingent. I do not feel that you have much right to complain of ill treatment."

"Yes," Moreta agreed. "The only ones hurt by D'Peerce's connivance are the Ruathan children like Lizza and Aless, who were taken to the Weyr and had their hopes raised to no use, and the Weyr staff who had to attend to all of them. The dragons know who their mates are."

Lord Brooks nodded without volunteering anything else, and the room emptied, until it was just myself, Aless, and our fathers. "It occurs to me that I could ask you about Maxx and Izabella," Whitman whispered.

"I think it's best if you don't know the answers," I muttered back, and Master Whitman nodded back.

#

So, that's all for this journal, I think. Father has agreed to take it back to Ruatha and keep it safe, unopened. Better that I not give any of my fellows here at the Hall a chance to read my personal thoughts. D'Nan and the dragonriders are going to back off, I believe, but they won't stop looking. And I'm starting to worry about Mechall, up in the weyr with Guerinth and all of those thread-man-hunters.

Hopefully Maxx can help me forget to worry.