Disclaimer: Pern and the Dragons of Pern belong to Anne McCaffrey

AN: So my exams are FINALLY over, and I can get back to stuff I enjoy! I'm very happy, so this is going to be a celebratory chapter… actually that's a lie, this was always going to be a celebratory chapter because of where we've got to in the story, but whatever. It's kind of nice anyway. And please review - constructive criticism welcomed!

'None at all?' Marti asked, turning her startled gaze away from the supply drop she was supervising and onto Melly. 'Really?' A smile spread slowly across her face.

'None,' Melly assured her, and stifled a yawn. A colossal splash sounded behind them, and the two girls were showered with water; Marti jumped back to face the lake and Amerenth beside them stretched up her sinuous golden neck, hissing in protest at the carelessness of the blue dragon making the drop. His rider raised a hand in apology as he soared away; already Ista dragons were swarming out into the water to retrieve the barrel.

'That's almost the last of this lot,' Marti said. 'I think there's two more water barrels to come in. And it has helped, hasn't it - no new cases today! You're a genius, Melly.'

The little dark candidate shrugged. 'It was quite obvious once the pattern of infection was clear. All the early cases centred around the cascade, and the mass infection didn't begin until after the storm, which overflowed the cascade and must have swept the infection down into the Weyr's other water supplies. Even the lake, maybe.'

Marti looked at her curiously. 'You didn't worry at all? It's been almost a sevenday since you stopped us drinking the water, and it looked for a bit as though there was no difference. Weren't you scared you'd got it wrong and it was all for no reason?'

Melly frowned. 'No, why? The facts were absolutely clear.'

Marti laughed and shook her head. 'That's not what I meant. But I can see you didn't. Be careful there! Clear the water!' Her last comment was addressed to a young green dragon who had been left behind in the centre of the lake by the group who had swum out to collect the previous barrel. 'The last thing we need is for some silly green to have her back broken by a falling barrel.' Amerenth, dear one, could you insist that no more than two or three dragons go out each time? I know they only want to help, but they're just getting in each other's way.

I will make them behave, said Amerenth, turning her head to fix the group of dragons at the waters edge with her glittering stare. Do you like Meliana yet?

I can see you do, Marti said, smiling. I don't dislike her, Amerenth, but I don't understand her. She seems to have no nerves! I can see what Jarrin meant.

About what?

He said he feels bad because she's doing all these great things for us; shards, she's saved the Weyr! But he can't like her; she's too cold.

The final barrel splashed into the water, and Marti raised a hand in thanks and smiled at J'sor where he and Gedenth circled gently above. Benden's Weyrleaders had fallen into the habit of making the final drop themselves, either J'sor and Gedenth or Katriel and Lumeth. Now Marti said silently, Thank him, dear one. And I think that you should tell him that there's no new cases of the sickness this morning; he'd probably like to hear that, and I know he'll let the right people know.

I'll tell him, but Gedenth is talking to Shareth, so his rider probably already knows.

And how's Aneth?

Panicking, said Amerenth, and Melly heard the hint of dryness in her queen's voice. This is why Gedenth has gone to Shareth for news.

And how - wait, there's someone much better to ask right here. 'Melly, how's R'lan?'

'Fine.' The little candidate glanced involuntarily back towards the Weyr bowl and the Weyrleaders' weyr, but said reassuringly. 'I think the clean water is helping those people who already have the sickness too. Those who are really sick, well, they're still… but a lot of the new cases and the less serious have picked up recently. We've got seventeen people who've made a complete recovery in the last five days, and nearly thirty more who are starting to look as though hope might be justified. R'lan only got sick recently, and although I admit it might be a bit early to say for sure, I think he's going to pull through it absolutely fine. I don't think he's going to be nearly as ill as Reia was.'

'That's good news.' Marti ran a hand through her short thick hair and smiled. 'That's great news. And we're sure we know how it spread; there won't be any new cases now!'

'One or two,' Melly corrected. 'Incubation varies depending on the initial health and fitness of the person… and there might still be some people with symptoms who haven't let us know.'

'But basically…' Marti drifted off. 'Melly, this is important. If some people were to come to the Weyr now - if they absolutely drank only the barrelled water - could it be done?'

Melly raised an eyebrow. 'No,' she said firmly. 'It'd probably be fine, but we need to finish the quarantine properly. I don't know how long the Healer Hall would advise, but I think we'd want three or four sevendays after the last reported case.'

'But the Hatching will be any day now! It's those candidates, Melly. We can't go and Search, I see that, we haven't got time anyway, but we could ask the other Weyrs if there're any candidates or children of the right age who'd risk this sickness in order to stand. We couldn't have asked them a sevenday ago, but now… with the likelihood being that they won't catch it…'

Melly bit her lip. 'I don't like it.'

'How many candidates are well enough to stand? If the Hatching is tomorrow?'

Melly thought rapidly through the young people - her contempories, she realized with faint surprise. It was several sevendays since she'd felt as if she was their age. 'Three of the girls, counting me, but twelve of the Lower Caverns women agreed to stand. And I think twenty-three boys… maybe twenty-five, if Telen and Ril can stand… they'd have to go back to the infirmary straight afterwards, but I think they'd be all right. And then Jarrin was going to stand as well, wasn't he?'

'Well, fifteen is enough choice for the new queen, but we don't even know if the dragonet'll consider the older women. What if it's not just the practical consideration of needing young and fit people to fight that's why we've never let older people stand before? And the other eggs; it's useless. You're offering Lystar a maximum of twenty-six male candidates - and we're talking about thirty-six dragonets! It can't be done.'

'Well, each day the Hatching doesn't happen I can give you more. There's forty-nine candidates that I think'll recover, eventually.' Melly paused, and then asked carefully. 'Is it so terrible to have unImpressed dragonets?'

Marti gaped at her, then collected herself, shaking her head. 'You're not a dragonrider,' she said tightly.

Melly blinked. She knew that she wasn't - or she hadn't been - popular around the Weyr, but she'd never heard the junior Weyrwoman say anything so nearly rude before. 'I know they suicide…'

Marti nodded. 'It's the most terrible thing I've ever seen. And I've only seen it happen with one dragonet, once. But this - we'd be condemning ten or more! The Weyr would never recover.'

'Even now?' Melly asked her. 'I know I sound callous to you, Marti - and you're right, I'm not a dragonrider, and maybe that means I see more clearly - but how many dragons have died in the past four sevendays? Is the Weyr really going to notice a few more that badly?'

'Yes!' Marti stared at her, and then said, 'Anyway, you haven't thought about this. We need those dragonets, all of them. We've got to bring the Weyr back up to strength, and do it as soon as possible. And more than that, I think these dragonets are going to be a symbol to the Weyr, Melly. We've turned the corner; terrible things have happened here, so many people are dead, but it's almost over now. We need this Hatching to be a happy event. We just can't let a quarter of the dragonets die!'

Melly looked steadily at the young Weyrwoman. 'All right,' she said, quietly. 'You win. Take precautions, but you can bring them in.'

'This is amazing,' Lystar breathed. She stood with Melly, Marti and Reia at the edge of the Weyr bowl, watching a stream of riders angling down towards them. She could see that each dragon was carrying two, or even three or four riders. 'We're going to be all right. We're really going to be all right!'

Collecting herself, the Weyrlingmaster hurried forwards to welcome the new candidates, who were gathering into an uncertain huddle. Melly watched Lystar chatting with and reassuring the little group for a minute, then her attention was caught away as a huge bronze dragon glided down into the Weyr bowl, followed immediately by an even larger gold.

Her eyebrows creased together as the two riders - even Melly realised that they must be the Weyrleaders at one of the other Weyrs - swung themselves athletically down from their dragons and strode across the bowl towards the little group. Melly bit her lip. She'd said that the quarantine still held, and no one should enter or leave Ista Weyr unnecessarily. She shot an accusing glance at Marti.

The little dark queenrider met her eyes blankly and shrugged. 'Nothing to do with me,' she muttered. 'V'kon's a law unto himself.'

Melly looked back at the dark, sardonic man approaching. She knew the name - V'kon of High Reaches, which meant that the tall willowy blonde following him must be Weyrwoman Narissa - but she didn't really know anything about the Weyrleader.

Reia stepped elegantly forwards as the High Reaches Weyrleaders approached. 'Narissa, V'kon, a pleasure, but I feel that you may have been slightly misinformed… it's lovely to see you, but I'm afraid we're still in quarantine.'

Melly smiled to herself. She'd barely met Reia, but she was impressed already by the unflappable Weyrwoman.

V'kon made Ista's Weyrwoman an elegant bow. 'We'll risk it,' he drawled.

'We understand that there's not much danger any more,' Narissa's light voice was barely audible. 'Have you heard from the Masterhealer? We gather that your idea about the plague being in the water has produced startling results in Keroon.'

'Benden and Igen have been rather over-enthusiastically making clean water deliveries to Holds all over the place,' V'kon said lazily. 'L'mek decided to help out, given that J'sor and Katriel were already supplying you here. Really I don't know why we even pretend to have autonomous Weyrs any more.'

'Absolutely,' agreed a strong voice from behind the High Reaches Weyrleader. 'And of course you weren't yourself flying thread in eastern Nerat yesterday… my duty, Reia.'

'T'gin, welcome,' Reia said, laughing. 'Earla, my dear. Are we to expect all the others as well?'

Melly, standing back from the Weyrleaders' conversation, had seen the second pair of huge metallic dragons make their landing in the Weyr bowl, and she could see a third pair waiting above for the Fort Weyrleaders' dragons to lift themselves away and up onto the rim of the Weyr bowl. But there were dragons lining the rim in all directions; dragons of all colours and sizes. Melly turned her head in astonishment. Where had they come from? Even if the dragons who had dropped off the new candidates had stayed behind, they couldn't even nearly account for the sheer number of beasts now perched up at the top of the Weyr.

She recognised the next pair of dragons as soon as they came down to land; J'sor and Katriel waved cheerfully as they leapt to the ground and crossed the bowl. 'Reia!' called the fair-haired Benden Weyrwoman. 'How are you?'

'Much better,' Reia told her, embracing Katriel. 'Almost completely normal again. I can't thank you enough for all your help, Kat, J'sor.'

At that point Melly was distracted. She was half-expecting by then another great golden queen and her bronze escort; but behind the massive pair a full wing of dragons burst into existence - and then another - and another…

Melly's mouth dropped open in shock. It looked as though a whole Weyr of dragons had arrived in the skies above Ista. The rim of the Weyr was getting crowded by this time, and some of the new dragons couldn't find a place to stand among the jostling crowd; smaller dragons were scattering slightly down from the very top of the bowl, finding perches on ledges and rough outcrops of the cliff faces. She blinked. Had all the Weyrleaders brought their entire complement of dragons? Were all the dragons of Pern here?

'That's L'mek and Polla,' Marti muttered beside her. The Igen candidates were already beginning to climb down into the bowl and join the little group around Lystar. 'That's all we'll get. I shouldn't think that anyone will come from Telgar.'

Melly ran her eyes over the bunch of candidates. 'About thirty. That's still not a lot, is it?'

'No, but it's enough.' Marti smiled with relief. 'Even if the Hatching is tomorrow, we have enough…'

'Good afternoon,' Reia greeted the Igen Weyrleaders.

L'mek brushed the formalities aside. 'How is R'lan?' he enquired anxiously. 'And you? It's really over, Reia?'

'Largely,' Reia told him, calmly. 'R'lan is as well as can be expected. We believe he will make a full recovery.'

'Well, that's a relief.' L'mek subsided, and Igen's dark, laughing Weyrwoman took the opportunity to take Reia's hand, rolling her eyes at her weyrmate. L'mek caught her eye and grinned, then looked around. 'Where's M'fer?'

V'kon raised his eyebrows. 'Surely, my dear L'mek, you don't expect M'fer to show his face here before the quarantine is officially over?'

'He's up there,' said Narissa, serenely, as if she hadn't heard her weyrmate's comment. The dreamy blonde woman pointed upwards and everyone followed her finger to see the final Weyr of dragons explode out of between and fill Ista's deep blue sky with a mass of colour. The dragons of Ista had begun to realise that something was going on, too. About half of the cliff side weyrs now had wedge-shaped heads peering enquiringly out of them. Many dragons were dropping out of their weyrs and landing in the bowl, craning their necks upwards to watch their cousins round the top of the cliffs. Melly could see that many of them bore riders. They looked a motley crew, pale and ragged, and some dragons were alone, or didn't leave their weyrs, because their rider was too sick to come out. But where possible, walking, staggering, supporting each other, Ista Weyr was gathering too.

They could hear M'fer's querulous voice before the Telgar Weyrleader reached them. 'I really don't see why we had to come,' he complained. 'I know the Masterhealer didn't recommend breaking Ista's quarantine for another three sevendays. I think it was most irresponsible of you and the others to insist, Wren.'

Telgar's Weyrwoman, a young and fierce-looking redhead, rounded on the Weyrleader, but T'gin of Fort intervened. 'We're here to pay tribute to Ista Weyr, M'fer!' he called across the bowl, his strong clear voice reaching the huddle of candidates as well as the ragged crowd of Ista riders. Melly could see now that a lot of the Lower Cavern women had joined the riders, so that there were figures on foot among the great humped shapes of dragons; the whole Weyr was here, all but the sick and the few woman who couldn't leave the infirmary.

'We're here because they are!' Fort's Weyrleader continued, speaking to the whole crowd; all the dragonriders of Pern. 'Because they have suffered and died, but they have held fast, and the plague has spread no further. And now it is over!'

His last words seemed to ring into a sudden silence. Over! thought Melly, breathlessly. Yes, it is… or it's getting that way, anyway. It's over… She smiled slowly, wonderingly, and looked round at the faces. She could see the same incredulous relief dawning over all the Istans. It's over! No more worrying, no more fear. Plenty of sorrow, still; but a chance for hope, as well. A chance for a new beginning. It's over…

Up on the rim of the Weyr a dragon roared. Melly looked up and for a minute saw T'gin's huge deep-chested bronze rearing up on his hind legs and bellowing his appreciation, before the dragons either side of him took up the cry and it rippled around the Weyr until they seemed at the centre of a storm of noise.

Close by them, Melly heard another dragon take up the cry. She frowned, looking round, and saw Caliath rearing up onto his haunches. Lystar was standing beside her dragon, her fists clenched, and gazing into the sky, her eyes streaming with tears. And the other Ista dragons were following the big blue's lead, so that inside the colossal noise of the dragons' roar Melly could hear the little knot of sound that Ista made; and not just the dragons. She could hear voices, and amongst the deafening noise she could pick out the sharp staccato of applause. It's over… it's over… the idea swept through the Weyr and Ista cheered and cried and screamed.

She heard a sharp piercing whistle cut through the roaring and turned to look for its source. K'beth was standing on Rosith's back, clapping with the rest, and Jarrin was beside him; the Harper had his fingers in the corners of his mouth, and it was him who was whistling, shrill and clear above the deep cry of the dragons. But the two men weren't gazing up into the sky like the others; they were looking over towards the little group of all the Weyrleaders, and K'beth looked as though he was shouting something. Melly strained to listen, but there was no point at all in trying to understand one voice in all that clamour.

Around Rosith's slim emerald shape, other people were turning to look at K'beth and Jarrin; and then swinging round to face in the same direction, still screaming and cheering. Melly frowned again; what was it they were…?

Marti touched her shoulder and then to Melly's astonishment hugged the younger girl. The junior queenrider was crying too, with happiness and relief and sorrow. 'You're amazing, Melly!' she screamed over the colossal noise around them. 'You did it! You did it! Go on!' She released the little candidate from her hug and pushed her out away from the little group of Weyrleaders so that she stumbled a few steps forwards and stood alone. And then she caught what the Istans were calling: 'Meliana! Meliana!'

And for a second, astonished and delighted and awed and inexplicably choked up and blinded with tears, Melly stood alone in the centre of the bowl at Ista Weyr, and all the dragons of Pern roared for her.

Then all descended into chaos; Melly felt a racing person thud into her, and K'beth grabbed her, preventing her from falling over, and kissed her. Jarrin cannoned into them a second afterwards, and then Lystar, who shoved the two men aside to throw her arms around Melly, sobbing. Melly felt another person crash into the group, and people that she didn't even know were hugging and kissing her, thumping her on the back until her shoulder blades felt sore. Melly, private and undemonstrative, felt somewhat uncomfortable; but she knew that she belonged here now, and always would do.

And roaring in her ears was the colossal noise of dragon roars, and glowing on her cheek the warm place where K'beth had kissed her.

Lystar had broken away from the noisy, tangled huddle of Ista riders to run over and embrace her mother - crying harder than ever, she couldn't even begin to sort out her emotions - so she was free of the emotions and confusion of the crowd and lifted her head, frowning, as the noise of the dragons began to change. The triumphant roaring was changing; modulating into a deep humming vibration that shivered through the air until Lystar could feel the rock under her feet shaking with the intensity of the note.

She knew what it was almost instantly, and instinctively she swiped a hand across her eyes and set out running across the bowl. Cal, get Shareth to help you find some blues and greens to help! 'Candidates! With me!'