So is Galanath fit or not? It's a thing all Weyrleaders must face, I suppose, that they could be supplanted on any mating flight of the senior gold.
7.7.198 - 1.8.198
H'ric looked up from swinging a scythe in the hay meadow. The fragrance of the cut grass surrounded him, and the slow rhythmic exercise had emptied his mind of all the minor frustrations of the day. Around him, a half dozen other riders were similarly employed, in these unexpected valleys they had so briefly made their own. A brown dragon was on watch on the heights, but the other dragons of the resting and mending group were either in their weyrs or exercising under the tutelage of N'rin and his new assistant Brond, the beast handler from Telgar who had been willing to join Benden as a dragon healer and handler. The lake at Telgar Weyr had been just deep enough for the dragons to exercise and strengthen themselves, and when the waters were calm and unroiled, the dragon riders also swam and exercised.
H'ric watched the brown dragon. It had seen something, its head turning slowly to survey the valley beyond this one; that one was empty, they had already gathered in its hay harvest and the drying stooks were stored at Telgar and Benden for the herdbeasts as fodder for the winter.
"Something over there?" D'rian asked. He was the nearest rider to H'ric, and now paused to wipe his face and arms. "Yes, look, he's on his way."
The brown, with his rider on his back, was swooping out of sight into the valley.
"Huh! You'll soon be able to do that as well, Weyrleader," D'rian said with a grin, and H'ric nodded in agreement. Galanath was mending well, and the big bronze declared himself fit and ready, but H'ric and the other riders had noticed a slight hesitation in his flights, an unwillingness to throw himself from his weyr ledge, something that he had always been noted for doing. Not as young as we were, H'ric thought to himself.
- I am perfectly fit but those antics are to impress, a showiness, not serious healing
- oh, and I suppose there's no one to impress out here in the wilderness?
Galanath had already expressed his opinion more than once, forcefully, on his tenure in the mountains. He complained about his weyr, he complained about the food, and he complained about the exercise regime. H'ric often wondered how much of it was put on, since Galanath's eyes seldom went to red or orange when he complained, but there was no doubt the big bronze was chafing, as all of them were.
- we were flown here but we could have been flown to Benden
- too far for a straight flight, and you certainly would have been too heavy
- a dragon carries what it thinks it can carry
H'ric watched a group of wherries explode into the air from the further valley, and decided there must have been carrion down there, or perhaps the dragon had warded the wherries from prey. The brown was now coming back to his watch post, and D'rian chuckled.
"That Freyanth, he purely hates wherries!"
"I'm not that keen on them myself, but they're useful. There must be caves in that valley for them."
D'rian glanced around the valley they were in, but there were no cave openings in the rock walls, which seemed to keep in the heat of this late summer. The heat that had caused wildfires across the lower plains had not struck up here; there were plenty of streams coming down from the snows to water the grasslands, and the hay harvest was good. No one farmed here, because the only way in or out was on dragonback.
"Beat you to the end of the row, Weyrleader!" D'rian called as he picked up his scythe, and H'ric howled in protest but matched him stroke for stroke as they worked their way across the valley end.
H'ric bespoke Jiverny at Benden in their late evening as he usually did. At first he had gone back and forth between the two Weyrs, but Sharama had put a stop to that, pointing out the two leaders could communicate easily and instantly through their dragons without risking lives going between.
- how are you, lady mine?
- fine, H'ric. Have you had any rain there? We had heavy rain today for the first time.
- nothing here, but the valleys are well watered.
- how is Galanath? He tells me he's well, and getting better.
- I think he is doing well, yes. And Dawan? Settling in?
- he's clever, H'ric, he's learning to read and write, but he can do sums lightning fast! He says it's something a trader boy picks up as he breathes. He might be young, and quite small, but he holds his own! How is your health?
- good. I fret that I'm not directing things at the Weyr, but in truth, we're in that state where we wait it out.
- the tithe came from Benden, and the one from Bitra. Lemos is still dragging his heels, but I sent a courteous message to the effect that the dragons could come and collect, if he has difficulty getting his tithe train over the passes.
- I can just see that sour little mouth of his when he received that message!
- oh, and we bought a load of fish from the coast, and it will be delivered once it's been salted down. My father sent a load of salt to us to help out with preserving.
- kind of him! Anything else? You aren't fretting, are you?
- do I sound as if I am?
- well I don't know, not really, I suppose, but there's always something to fret over, isn't there?
- and for that reason, Weyrleader, we do well not to fret until the thing arrives on our doorstep.
- I'll speak to you tomorrow, then.
- goodnight. H'ric - sleep well.
- and you, lady mine, and you.
H'ric sat back against Galanath's hide and stared out into the late afternoon. Most riders had retreated to their weyrs to follow their own pursuits before the evening meal was served. H'ric had a set of harness to check, but it lay on his lap as he thought carefully over that conversation. Worrying about the Weyr would do no good, but he was trying to discern whether Jiverny, or indeed Haveneth, had seemed at all fretted.
- Havenenth approves of the young people in the Weyr
"Does she? She has an interest in them, I suppose."
- they will match her next brood of hatchlings
"And Dawan? Does he still speak to you?"
- only occasionally if he is wakeful at night when he misses his family
"Chandra can send a message through the drums if he has anything urgent to tell his son."
- yes, I told him that and he is happy to be at the Weyr and learning of the dragons
"Good. I look forward to meeting him again
- if we ever get back to Benden and away from this place
H'ric laughed and slapped Galanath's hide as he stood up to take the harness into the sparsely furnished weyr. He too was looking forward to returning to Benden and the embrace of his lady.