The time intervals between each chapter will begin to stretch out now, because there's a lot of time to cover before reaching the supposed end of the Interval, and unless you want a book of roughly 200k words, I will just touch on the important action.

2.2.196

- Panath rises

H'ric straightened from his work and stared at his dragon

"Panath? Er - which dragon - "

- they will do well together

"Did you know she would rise today? Hence the urgent need for me, and only me, to come and supervise all this?"

His arm wave took in the firestone mines and the youths competently bagging and weighing the stuff. H'ric had come to negotiate a price with the miners, although he privately wondered what he would do if they refused to deal; dragons were the only customers for firestone, and he needed to increase the stocks held at each empty Weyr under the plans he and the Wingleaders had put in place.

- Cirith rises

H'ric looked thoughtfully at his bronze; if Galanath had been at Benden, he would have been unable to help himself from rising, and perhaps spoiling the chances of Cirith to mate with the junior Queen and start a new line of dragons.

"Is everything all right, Weyrleader? The quality of the firestone?"

H'ric snapped back into focus on the miner.

"It's fine, thank you, Crosin. You found a new seam, they tell me?"

"Yes, but there's no telling, of course, how far it will twist into the mountains. We put the whers in there at night to check the tunnels for snakes and falls and suchlike."

"You find them useful for that?"

"Nothing better! Oh, I know they ain't dragons, but Sisilisk has bonded with Pentil over there, and she's had two or three clutches of eggs already. There's always a market at Holds for a watch-wher."

"And wild ones?"

Crosin shrugged. "There are wild bands, no doubt about that, because my predecessor wasn't so careful of the golds and greens, letting them go into the wild to hatch their eggs. But at a very young age, I'd guess a lot of them would fall prey to wherries, dratted creatures that they are."

"But useful in the way of hide and feather?"

Crosin grinned at him. "Always something on the bright side, isn't there, Weyrleader? Shall we go and see about the quality of this latest batch of firestone?"

H'ric agreed to that, sending a thought to Galanath to keep him in touch with the Weyr and the mating flight. He fretted that the weyrlings would be affected by the very adult emotions swirling around them, but there were procedures for that eventuality.

"Try this fruit wine, would you, Weyrleader? This far north, we have to grow the crops under glass, but we manage to make a decent drop, I think."

H'ric took a glass and sipped, and agreed it was a drinkable wine.

"Under glass, you say?"

"Aye. There's a bit of land not given over to mining, and we grow cereals and quick crop greens on that, and just this season we've put up a glasshouse against the south facing slopes." He shrugged as he looked out onto the desolate scene of mining, dirty, treeless, devoid of anything of beauty. "It helps, for the men to go and do a bit of gardening. Keeps them sane, as you might say."

H'ric forebore to ask him if any of his miners were criminals or slaves. It was not his business how the Lord Holders and Holders disposed of their unwanted thieves, or what they did if they rounded up any recalcitrant Holdless.

H'ric ate his evening meal at the mines, speaking to the miners, assuring them the dragons would always Search for suitable candidates all over the planet. After he had seen the first of the wagons beginning to wend their way to the Weyr, halfway across the continent, H'ric and Galanath rose into the sky preparing to return to Benden, six hours ahead of them, secure in the knowledge that the mating flight was over, and all emotions would be calm. Galanath had timed it to arrive at High Reaches in the middle of the morning, and came into Benden as the first distinct stars showed in the winter sky.

They landed on their ledge and H'ric began taking the harness off his dragon.

"M'dor and Cirith were successful," Jiverny said from behind him. H'ric paused and then turned around, seeing the Weyrwoman carried an open glowbasket which lit her face with an eerie glow.

"I'm glad of that," he said, speaking carefully, because there had been an edge to Jiverny's voice.

"It was a close run thing, L'rens and Siccith nearly won."

H'ric frowned at her.

"Would that have been a disaster?"

"It depends on what you have planned for the junior queen."

H'ric hitched the harness over his shoulder and followed Jiverny into his weyr.

"We discussed this," H'ric said as he slid the harness onto a bench for checking later, and began to strip off his flying gear. "We planned to allow them to get used to Telgar Weyr with a wing that will be effective against Thread. Are you fretting over Haveneth sharing the sands with a junior gold?"

The Hatching grounds have been cleaned out," Jiverny replied. "You know that, and I don't think any of the queens will clash with their hatchings."

H'ric watched Jiverny moving around the weyr with small jerky movements, picking things up, putting them down. He walked across and took her in his arms.

"What's the matter, lady mine?" he murmured. "Are you angry because Galanath insisted we should be away from the Weyr? He's a clever piece, that dragon of mine, but I hadn't realised it would upset you so much."

"I missed you," she said unexpectedly. "I was busy with the gold candidates, and we were all linked in a way with Panath as she rose - I missed you."

H'ric kissed her cheek.

"I'm sorry, I should have arranged for you to come, we could have flown straight somewhere far enough away -"

Jiverny gave an uncertain laugh.

"Listen to me, behaving like a green rider on heat!"

There was only one sensible answer to that, and, being careful of her heavily pregnant body, H'ric made it.