Chapter 29

S'aya hurled herself into J'enia's arms and howled.

It was as much in relief that J'enia had stood by Layanya, and that she declared that S'aya was accepted as a proper dragonrider as anything; and Lerelebith made comforting crooning noises, butting at S'aya longingly.

"Nadira said D're came to see the hatching and she's no smaller than Denth was than any Green would be smaller than a Brown," said J'enia. "They have proof that dragons didn't grow any bigger than this in the first Pass; and D're said not to worry and not to try to overfeed her. T'mon's going to pop down and see you; and if you hit it off with him, no reason you shouldn't transfer up there to help at Mountain Rescue. Mind, I think she'd be nippy at rescue in some of Keroon's narrow gorges if it comes to that – and small enough to land on the big fishing ships to bring medical aid too. Whatever you decide, we all stand by you; Nadira said to be sure and tell you that."

S'aya smiled a smile of sheer joy through her tears.

"Oh, I've never been happier or felt more wanted!" she declared "and not just by dear Lerelebith!"

J'enia gave her a hug.

"Good," she said, for we DO want you. You started out being a bit of a pain but you made good and more. And it's Layanya's bedtime long since, and Nadira has arranged for her to move in with a couple of sisters her own age and a turn younger, Shawna and Kaisa, who were rescued at the same time as our L'alla; so show a leg there, and help us move her kit. She can come back in a turn or two and stand with the lot we have then."

Moving diverted the minds of both Impressed and disappointed sisters, which was the general idea. And Layanya should have the chance to make friends her own age without any pressures to Impress.

J'enia thought that there was perhaps more to Lerelebith than an undersized green; for in the light, the little creature had a prismatic sheen that was reminiscent of the White Dragon. It was different to the gold sheen on such dragons as Mirrith and Elith of the Reaches, in having shades of all the other colours noticeable particularly blending one to another palely down Lerelebith's belly skin. However, the Green predominated and J'enia thought it would be nice if Lerelebith were not sterile and uninterested in sex as Ruth was reputed to be, so that Denth might have a mate to fly when she grew up. However that was at least a turn away and for now, keeping a somewhat volatile S'aya settled was the main priority!

oOoOo

Over-excited boys and girls went to their weyrling barracks to sleep the sleep of exhaustion, and V'sheren summoned Asreth to go to his own weyr.

J'enia met him by the big dark bulk of the Bronze dragon, Shehereth going to butt noses with Asreth.

"I could come up to your weyr," said J'enia. "Shehereth could fly up without me."

V'sheren gasped. And then he was kissing her longingly. J'enia gave a little murmur and wrapped her arms about him, pushing herself closer.

It seemed an eternity; maybe it was just a moment. The time had no meaning.

At length he lifted his mouth from hers and gazed down into her face, eyes dark and skin translucent with arousal.

"No," he said.

"Cruel one!" she gasped, "to do THAT and then say no? I – I never knew it could feel so…."

"So good? So right?"

She nodded, dumbly.

He traced a finger down his face.

"J'enia, I don't want this to be a hasty roll in the sheets," he said, harshly, "I want… I want us to discover each other. And we WERE going to leave even deciding about it until much further on in the turn!"

"You hadn't been given the go-ahead by my brother, then," she said, grinning impishly.

"Oh, you heard that, did you? he's cheeky is L'ner! And now we've kissed we can't put that toy back in the box either."

"That wasn't my fault!" protested J'enia.

"Yes it was, you're confoundedly lovely, and adorable, and eminently kissable," said V'sheren, proving the point by kissing her again, "but just because we're Weyrfolk doesn't me we do, or should, always take relations as casual. I want to weyr with you – forever. And I want to savour the learning about each other. You'll like it," he promised.

"Will I?"

"Oh, by order of the Weyrlingmaster!" he teased her. "I didn't want to be accused of taking advantage of someone under my care, but if everyone has noticed, like your brother…"

"I don't think they have; he's very perspicacious. AND he knows me. But as he IS my older brother, and has said he is in favour, then nobody could accuse you of taking advantage. V'sheren! Let's be discreet anyway, and keep it as our secret. If people HAVE noticed, they'll notice it. If they haven't, there's no need to broadcast our private business."

He nodded.

"I agree, my dear. Now go to bed; you're all in. You've been running around behind those girls like a veetol fly."

She laughed a little at the simile and touched his face, and then ran obediently off, Shehereth a dark shadow against the starry sky as the dragon flew above and behind her Rider.

"And it would be better if she were experienced before Shehereth rose, anyway," murmured V'sheren, to himself, "though we've two and a half turns in had before that happens. Oh well, if she's ready, she's ready."

"Shehereth will be large but I will fly her," commented Asreth, smugly.

"Of course you will," said V'sheren. You;ll get an earful from J'enia if you don't!"

oOoOo

With most of the girls exhausted from caring for dragonets, and Layanya fitting in with girls of her own age, and getting a more extensive education from the Weyrharper than she had at home, the three girls left got left much to their own devices; which did not suit Nilis! It was bad enough that much should be made of Silaya – how could one contract someone who did not even have a proper dragon – for Impressing her ridiculous runt, let alone that she, Nilis, a Queen candidate, should be ignored!

Nilis fell back on attempting to stir trouble.

She approached L'ner and smiled at him winningly. Seducing J'enia's brother into incoherent adoration and then dropping him would pay that wretched girl back. And she could drive a wedge between those fardling acrobats too.

"Oh Brown Rider, I do SO hope that you don't find it too embarrassing that your little brother outranks you as a Bronze Rider, and of a previous clutch too," she coo'd.

L'ner stared at her.

"I'm sharding lucky to Impress at all, Hotlips, and if my brother Impressed a Bronze it was because he fardling well deserved it," he said, "and it you're making poisonous comments to me because he rebuffed you, take that as a double whammy. In fact, take it as a full house, because my brother Tas won't like you, and my brother Harri don't know what to do with women yet. If you count as a woman. You forget I've been hanging around a lot; I've heard you before. Why don't you go spawn a few grubs? You're as loathsome as they are, but at least they're useful."

Nilis was furious.

"You – you jumped up acrobat!" she screeched.

L'ner raised a cynical eyebrow.

"Hardly an insult when it's fairly accurate," he drawled. "Acrobat? Yes. A good one; second best on Pern. Jumped up? Well raised up, certainly. Can't get any higher than to Impress – ANY colour. There ain't a Queen shelled or unshelled as will pick you while there's anything else female in the Weyr, down to and including the jinny burro in the stables. Now I'm busy; if you want to insult me some more and get paid in more effective kind, perhaps you'd make an appointment. Good day!" and he turned away to attend to Korth.

Never had L'ner been happier.

It had never occurred to him to try for Impression when he had been within age; he had his family and his pride in his skill. But his skill was also valued by the Weyr; and G'narish had approached him about training weyrbabes from an early age to give them the advantage of supple agility; and suggested that the new Brown Rider's input into formation flying might be valuable too, from his own experience of learning routines with carefully crafted timings.

"I could see the possibility of splitting a wing into two and having them cross and re-cross when Thread is dense, the way you tumble across a square one and then the other," said G'narish. "It would require split second timing but those crossing would also be covering each other. And even if it were not feasible against Thread, it would make a good display; the commons like us to put on a display from time to time, as it reassures them to see displays of skill. True, it has less to do with fighting Thread, than giving them a thrill, but those who support us deserve a thrill as reward for their support – and as encouragement for future support."

L'ner nodded.

"Yes, it's not enough for dragons to DO, they must also be SEEN to do. Like most people would rather place their faith in dragons than in grubs," he grinned suddenly "I would myself – even before I Impressed Korth! Weyrleader, could someone let my parents and grandfather know?"

G'narish nodded.

"Certainly – I was planning to send V'sheren to look for them when it was too hot for weyrling exercises. I guess they're still in Lemos at the moment?"

"They'll be at the Woodcrafter Hall for the Summer Gather there," said L'ner.

"Ah, even better, to know where to go," G'narish approved. "I'd suggest you went yourself with your news; but I think you'd better not sit astride for a while yet!"

L'ner nodded reluctantly.

"J'enia could go," he said, cheerfully, "give V'sheren a day out with her."

G'narish shot him a look.

"Ah, I was right," said the Weyrleader, "well, it's good for a Queenrider to have a stable Weyrmate before her Queen matures, better for Weyr stability and for her own comfort."

"Something for everyone then," grinned L'ner.

oOoOo

J'enia jumped off Asreth almost in front of Journeyman Elissa, who glanced at her new knots.

"Now I KNOW you never made it to the High Reaches, young Queenrider, where did you end up?" she grinned.

"Igen, Journeyman," said J'enia, eagerly, "and two of my brothers Impressed too, AND my cousin!"

"Well! Congratulations! Your family seem to have dug some young ones out of the woodwork to carry on the tradition – heard your eldest brother had a nasty fall, I'm so sorry!"

J'enia grinned.

"Oh he's not – not now! He only went and Impressed at this last hatching!" she said.

"Well, dragons know best; and things have a way of working out the way they are meant to be," said Elissa, "and it DOES run in families!"

J'enia was greeted rapturously by her family when she found them.

"Anything wrong?" Fordel demanded, glaring from under his bushy brows.

"Quite the opposite!" said J'enia, and told them succinctly how L'ner had come to Impress.

Fordel nodded.

"The boy did the right thing coming forward for the small egg," he said. "I'm proud of him; you tell him that! Proud of all of you! and to Impress a Brown – well well, and him three and twenty turns old!"

"He's still adaptable inside his own mind," said V'sheren, "it's why we have a cut-off point. Women HAVE to adapt to change throughout their lives, to marriage, children and so on. But most young men are set in their ways by the time they are twenty or so, and we have an arbitrary cut off point of the twentieth birthing day anniversary based on Pass after Pass of experience.

Fordel nodded.

"Yes, I see that," he said, "I'd say all itinerants were more adaptable, you know."

V'sheren shrugged.

"It may well be so; D're of High Reaches was out of age and he was a trader. It was really, though, that L'ner had made up his mind to accept the fate life threw at him with the accident, and do whatever he could do accordingly whilst still being as good as he could be. And then, too, making the decision to put dragonkind before himself was a big decision to take. We're all proud of him too, Master Fordel."

"Well, well!" Fordel was immensely pleased; and had to dash a hand across his eyed. "Hot here, today," he said, "my eyeballs are sweating."

V'sheren took his wrist in a cousinly grip.

"I howled my eyes out," he said. "Riders always do, at every hatching – even without special friends or kin being involved. We remember our own Impression."

"Aye, and more intense than what I felt with little Pirouette," said Fordel, much moved. "You take it slow with that granddaughter of mine, young man!" he added fiercely. "She doesn't need to get too serious too quickly!"

"So I keep telling her," said V'sheren, "but I'm only her Weyrlingmaster and a Bronze Rider, so what do I know?"

Fordel laughed.

"Come to think of it, her grandmother was as bad. Had me in a barn before I could protest!" he said, "aye and her no older than J'enia is. I suppose she'll make up her own mind, and you won't stand a chance!"

"I'd already come to that conclusion, sir!" grinned V'sheren. "I'll take as good care of her as I can; but I can't promise to keep her from harm. She's a dragonrider; and dragonriders fight Thread."

"They do. And I'd think less of you, lad, if you tried to trammel her," said Fordel. "Well, I have to be rude, we promised a second performance; and you give all my young rogues my love, y'hear?"

"I will, sir," said V'sheren, "and if you should come down to us early to overwinter we'll be happy to see you. Which is more than I can say of SOME of the relations of our weyrlings!" he added.

oOoOo

J'enia thought that no family on Pern could be so happy and so lucky as hers; the freedom to travel for the acrobats among them, and the love of wonderful dragons of those who had Impressed!

And herself the luckiest and happiest of all; with the promise of V'sheren's love and the contentment of having a weyrmate, and the scary but exciting prospect of dragonlust one day to consolidate their love"

Life was perfect.

finis