I don't own the marvellous world of Pern, but I do like to write about it.
To clear up any confusion, this story is set 200 Turns after the Oldtimers went forward, so the dragonriders are expecting the Ninth Pass, which of course we know from canon did not happen.
Thank you to everyone who has followed and favourited my stories, and I do appreciate your reviews and responses.
3.8.195
After a bath and a shave, finding his own shaving kit in the bathing room, H'ric dressed himself and came out of the sleeping quarters. This was the Weyrwoman's quarters, he realised, but they were linked with the quarters he would use as Weyrleader.
He came out into the main rooms and looked around. There was no sign of any disturbance in here, the floor was swept, the walls and furniture cleaned, and Jiverny was standing watching him. She was at least a foot taller than him, but she was a slender, almost gaunt, figure in her green gown.
He gave her a formal bow to which she responded, indicating the food on the table.
"You should eat, Weyrleader."
"That's not confirmed, is it?" he asked doubtfully.
"Your bronze dragon mated the Queen. You are Weyrleader," she said with matter of fact calm. "Sit down."
He did so. She was at least ten years older than him, already the Weyrwoman, a remote figure when he had Impressed and grown up into the Wingleader he had been until last night.
"Galanath says he thinks there will be a Queen egg," he offered as he ate.
"Yes, so Haveneth says also. That will make four junior goldriders in the Weyr. Not too many if the Red Star is approaching."
H'ric looked up at her.
"That's - an odd way of putting it," he said. "If the Red Star is approaching - so nearly at the end of the Interval, the Red Star should be upon us all too soon."
"And Benden is the sole Weyr to overfly the entire planet," she replied.
H'ric wished she would sit down, but he was not going to suggest it to her. He was still trying to grapple with the enormity of what Galanath had done. R'tin had been Weyrleader for ten Turns, but a half Turn ago he had been killed in an accident and Teneth, maddened with grief, had taken his rider's body and gone between for all time. The entire Weyr had been waiting for Haveneth to rise again in a mating flight, and in that time Vereneth's rider C'lin, the senior Wingleader of Benden, had been acting Weyrleader.
"Four gold dragons could begin a line of dragons at other Weyrs," H'ric offered as he finished his meal and tidied his place. "There's spare capacity in each Wing to begin a new line?"
"It depends how many Turns we have before the Red Star is bracketed in the Eye Stone," Jiverny said. "Or not. Have you finished?"
"Thank you, yes. I suppose I'd better meet with the Wingleaders."
"I think you had better do so, yes. The entire Weyr is agog with the news, of course."
H'ric stood up and indicated the weyr they were in.
"I'll need to transfer from my old weyr. Jiverny - Lady - this is - not what either of us expected - but we must work together."
She nodded, her expression still cool and remote.
"I am aware of it, Weyrleader. You will not find me undermining your position, however - unexpected - it is."
"Nor will I undermine yours. Thank you. After you, Lady."
They came out of the weyr and into the Council room. The day was well advanced, H'ric realised, and the life of Benden Weyr was going on out there, weyrlings and young riders training, older dragonriders exercising, kitchen staff preparing the evening meal.
The Wingleaders, the bronze riders, whose dragons had all risen to try and mate the gold, were seated at the table in the Council room. H'ric looked around at them, trying to see what their reaction was to his totally unexpected promotion, but they were politely standing and bowing to him, and he gestured them to sit down. Someone would have to be given the leadership of R'tin's Wing, and he might need C'lin's advice on that.
"I have the day's duties of all the wings here, Weyrleader," C'lin said, extending a written list. "The weyrlings are on rest day after the - emotions - of yesterday."
"Thank you, Wingleader. Were there any injuries yesterday?"
They shook their heads. H'ric tried to remember anything about that fantastic flight and found he could not, beyond the sheer sensations of power, the uplift of air under his wings, and the cunning of the gold dragon. He shook his head and scanned the lists, and handed them back to C'lin.
"Thank you, that seems appropriate. What about feeding? Presumably the stock is scattered all across the feeding grounds?"
"We've herdsmen out there gathering them and checking them over," M'ris said. "It takes a while for them to come back to condition after a mating flight, but most of the dragons are well fed at the moment."
"What about quarterly tithes from the Lord Holders? They must be due soon?"
"Benden's is always first, and should be any time in the next four sevendays," Jiverny put in. "I understand the Lord Holder of Benden is holding a Gather as well, before he sends the tithe."
H'ric held back the cheer he would normally have uttered. He loved a Gather, and had been known to slip away from the Weyr to attend them, leaving Galanath some distance away before walking in to drink and dance and snatch a kiss from the girls. He caught the speculative glance of his Wingsecond, B'rnel, rider of brown Tweneth, and looked away, unwilling to make any commitment from his old life into this new one.
The Wingleaders were standing up and leaving, and H'ric stared at the list of duties in his hand. He looked across at Jiverny who was still seated in her place at the opposite end of the table.
"C'lin expected to be Weyrleader," he said slowly.
"Yes."
"Did you expect it?"
Jiverny shrugged as she came around the table to look at the list. She pointed to the gap where R'tin's name should be.
"Who are you going to promote to lead that wing?"
"I don't know yet. I mean, I know all the other bronze riders, whether they're Wingleaders or not, but it might be an ideal time to do a bit of moving around. Shift some of these younger riders into the more senior wings where they can get better experience."
"Experience of what?"
"Practising with firestone. We haven't done that in at least two Turns."
"The holders take a dim view of that practice. You must have conferenced with - R'tin - about it?"
H'ric nodded. "I know. But there must be uninhabited places in Pern? Even after the expansion of holders - too rapid expansion in some places - over two hundred Turns, surely we can find a place?"
"The empty Weyrs?"
H'ric glanced across at the map of the northern continent displayed on the wall, and nodded in agreement.
"I hadn't made the connection. I want to send groups out to the other Weyrs as well, in case we need to repopulate them. Riders need to see the landmarks and fix them with their dragons. And with new weyrlings after the hatching to come, some of the older ones must take their place in the wings. "
"The Lord Holders don't like dragons overflying their lands, you know."
"I do know, yes."
"Hence the furtive trips to Gathers?"
H'ric looked up sharply, and wondered if she was laughing. If so, she was not showing any outward amusement.
"In part. We can navigate by the stars to the Weyrs if need be, and no one will be disturbed. I'd better write to the Lord Holders anyway, and tell them there's been a change."
"Yes, you need to do that, and especially to Lord Holder Arun of Benden. Have you ever been to the abandoned Weyrs?"
"No. I was brought up as a fosterling here in Benden, my birth parents died in a mining accident in Crom. There happened to be a dragon rider handy, and he brought me back with him, and fostered me out."
Jiverny had been contemplating the map, but now turned and looked at him.
"I didn't know that. I assumed Mima was your natural mother. You certainly fitted in with those brawling brats of hers!"
"Thanks. I was destined to go down the mines, but the rider discovered I could speak to his dragon."
"Who was he? Why didn't he foster you himself, it's not unknown for a dragon rider to do that?"
H'ric looked at the list in his hand.
"It was R'tin," he said. "Teneth was the first dragon I ever spoke to, and I was the last person he spoke to before he went between with R'tin's body."