I know the canon stories say dragon memories are short, but I needed to step out of that a little way for the story. All else is the preserve of Ann McCaffrey's wonderful world of Pern.

15.11.195

H'ric leaned back against Galanath's side, his legs dangling over the side of the ledge of their weyr. He was watching the life of the Weyr going on around him, and enjoying a quiet moment of intense mental communion with his dragon.

- she is very tetchy now

- So she would be, so close to hatching. It's a worrying time for all mothers.

- dragon mothers are not like human mothers, carrying a live child, a thing I do not understand

- I'm not sure I do, either, pet

- pet? This is a word humans use to each other, not a Weyrleader to his dragon

- I don't object to Mima calling me pet. There she goes now, bustling off to tend to someone else

- are you jealous?

- no, I don't think so. I had parents, real parents, but Mima is very special to me, as R'tin was.

- none of us knew Teneth was going to do that, go away like that, none of us can remember it happening before

- I've searched the records of deaths in the Weyr, and not found any reference to it. I've written it down as part of our history

- those nasty animal skins? I prefer to eat my animals with the skin on, warm from the chase

- gruesome beast. I wish there was some other more permanent way of remembering important facts

- we remember them

- yes, I suppose you do. How far back to the memories of the dragons of Benden go?

There was mental silence for so long that H'ric twisted round to view his dragon with concern, seeing his eyelids lowered as if he was indeed searching all the memories of the dragons around him.

- Vereneth remembers his Weyrlingmaster's dragon Dirith, and the stories he told, but that is not very far in the past

- no, but C'lin doesn't speak about his Weyrlingmaster at all. He's twenty Turns older than me

- Pradeth recalls a very old brown dragon called Stimith who saw something very strange at Fort, where he was posted as a watch dragon

- a watch dragon?

- Pradeth says Stimith's rider was there as a punishment, but he learned a lot of new songs from the harpers, and kissed a great many girls

- what did he see? I must think about watch dragons during the Pass.

- he saw lights in the Weyr, but when he flew to look, they were gone, but he said the ashes of the fires were still warm

- outlaws? Holdless?

- Stimith's rider reported it, and the Lord Holder sent a troop of men to look, but all they found were old records hidden in a side room

H'ric sat up abruptly.

- records? What happened to the records?

- they went to the Harper Hall, where all the records are kept

H'ric banged his fist on the stone in frustration.

- and the Masterharper of Pern wants his journeyman back from here.

- I like the songs Yorus makes for us, and about us, but he says the Masterharper would not like him to write them down and send them to other places

- well, he can sing them here all he likes, because he writes such tuneful songs, everyone can join in the chorus after only one hearing

- she wakes and calls me

H'ric blinked back to focus and stood up and away as Galanath turned his head to nuzzle at him, and then was gone into the Hatching Ground where Haveneth had taken up residence until Hatching, which must be imminent now.

"So the Masterharper of Pern keeps secrets, does he?" H'ric asked aloud. "We'll see about that."

H'ric made his way across to the lower caverns where he was reasonably sure he would find Yorus, perhaps with Sharama the journeyman Healer who was living with them for a season whilst he trained up a team to cope with Thread injuries and the day to day injuries that might occur around such huge beasts as dragons. H'ric followed the sound of a gitar and found the two men together with a group of youngsters, teaching them their letters and numbers.

"Yorus."

"Weyrleader. How can I help you?"

H'ric looked around the room in pleased surprise, seeing the walls freshly plastered and painted with lifelike representations not only of dragons in their colours, and the strangely formed watch-whers, but other beasts common on Pern, runners, herd beasts, even the birds and fishes of the cold coastal waters. The youngsters were seated at desks he remembered from his own brief time in the teaching rooms.

All the youngsters were standing respectfully, and H'ric gestured them to sit as he walked around, glancing at their work, before asking if the two journeymen would join him. Yorus signalled an older boy to take over supervision, and the three men came out into the corridor.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise you'd taken over classes," H'ric said. "It can wait until after classes - "

"It will do Vindra good to supervise," Yorus said with a smile. "He's capable enough to do so."

"I was speaking to Galanath," H'ric said as they came into the dining area and Sharama called for klah to be brought. "He was trying to remember the oldest dragon memories in the Weyr."

"Do the dragons speak to each other?" Sharama asked in surprise, and then flushed as the other two looked at him. "I didn't realise they did, but of course it's obvious. Sorry."

"Galanath said that a brown called Stimith was sent to Fort Hold - I think it must be at least two generations ago now, perhaps longer. Some old records were found at Fort Weyr and taken to the Harper Hall. Yorus, the Masterharper is supposed to keep every record, I know that, but do I have the right to ask to see those records?"

Yorus frowned at him.

"I suppose you do, Weyrleader, if they came from the abandoned Weyr. Do you think they held information about the disappearance? Or about Thread?"

"Either would be welcome," H'ric said grimly. "I hope you're training those youngsters well, both of you, because I think we'll all be spending the next several Turns copying out the old Records of this Weyr! It's simply a disgrace, the way they've been allowed to decay."

Sharama nodded his agreement.

"Strangely, older Records seem to be better preserved, and I've seen some at Healer Hall that seem to have been marked on a bendable glass fabric. I can't describe it any better than that, I'm afraid, and there certainly isn't very much of it in the Hall. It holds the oldest and deepest Records of all, but the Masterhealer is convinced a lot of it has been lost to time."

"That wouldn't surprise me," H'ric replied with a defeated sigh. "I do sometimes wonder at our predecessors. I know Pass and Interval follow each other, and the one disrupts the other and puts the world and progress on hold, but you'd have thought we would have been further advanced by now?"

Sharama looked around the room before he replied to that. A serving drudge had brought the flagon of freshly brewed klah and three mugs, and some sweet rolls baked with dried fruit, and now Sharama leaned across the table.

"There's talk in the Craft Halls that the Lord Holders don't want any more advances or progress," he said softly. "They don't want their drudges educated, they don't want their minor cot holders learning any more about this world than what lies in their fields and their tithes. The Healers want to advance their knowledge of remedies, but the Lord Holders won't have anything done that hasn't been done in the past."

"I think the present Masterharper has that way of thinking as well," Yorus said unhappily. "I don't want to speak ill of him, but he was a most unexpected choice, so it's said, and there were murmurs of bribery to get him elected. He certainly won't sanction any new music, or new ways of expressing music. He wants me back at the Hall, you know, Weyrleader."

"I do know, and he isn't getting you back. If I have to lie and say you've Impressed, I will do so. I need you here, Yorus, because you understand dragons and their riders. And the children like you."

Yorus smiled in embarrassment, but Sharama endorsed H'ric opinion.

"You need a strong harper to be able to play and sing the duty songs, and keep everyone aware of the history of our world," he said. "What d'you want to do, Weyrleader?"

"I'm going to visit both Halls, and Fort," H'ric replied. "We're very close to Hatching, and once I know the numbers of eggs, I can send out on Search, and that will be my opportunity."

"How many eggs d'you think there'll be? Does the queen know?"

"I don't know," H'ric replied. "The Weyrwoman seems to think it'll be a large clutch, but I don't know how many that would be. Anywhere between ten and thirty, in the records. Fewer at the depths of the Interval, of course, but the clutch numbers have been rising in the last ten Turns, as if in anticipation of fighting Thread."

"And you can't tell the colour of the dragons?"

"No. We aim to put at least three Candidates to each egg, and hope the choice will be sufficient for the young dragons. If there's a gold egg, the Weyrwoman will take responsibility for training up the Candidates for that dragon."

"There are four junior queens in the Weyr at present?"

"Yes, and two of them are mature enough to be mating and clutching."

Sharama nodded, making a note on the tablet he always carried. H'ric approved of that and decided he could do with carrying such a thing to jot down his thoughts. He leaned across and refilled the mugs and they finished the rolls and the drink before H'ric left to go to the Hatching Grounds to check on Haveneth's health and mental wellbeing.