A Mother of Dragons

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Kailen lay awake in the darkness. Beside her F'tan snored softly and from the adjoining weyr came the rumbling of two sleeping dragons. She searched the Weyr for dragon voices, but found only the watch dragon awake. She wished him a good morning and he reported that all was well.

She often woke up early on days when there was a thread fall. There had been a time when she looked forward to thread falls with excitement, but now that she and Leanoth were not allowed to fly with the Wing she only dreaded them. The very thought made her shudder.

She looked over at F'tan's broad shoulders, moving ever so gently in time to his breathing, and tried to imagine life without him. A tear escaped down her cheek as she reached out to trace the long score mark that ran across his back. His snoring paused at her touch, but resumed a moment later as if nothing had happened. She wrapped her arm around him, pressing her body against his, and fell back into a fitful sleep.

The thread fall was expected to begin just after the mid-day meal, so Kailen spent a nervous morning watching the preparations without actually taking part in them. Because Leanoth could not be put at any risk until her eggs hatched, the very idea of her flying a thread fall was completely out of the question. So once again the gold rider and her dragon watched from the entrance of their weyr as the wings gathered up on the rim of the crater.

Below them, in the bowl, the three other gold dragons were being outfitted with tanks of Agenothree for their riders to use in killing thread on the ground. Countless young dragon riders were preparing to carry bags of firestone to and from the fall site. The fall today was expected to be a long one, so they were in for a busy day.

All too soon the preparations were over and the Wing took to the air. Kailen watched them form up, saw H'mon raise his right arm and then felt the shock wave as hundreds of dragons passed the image of their destination from one to another. That feeling had terrified her as a child and thrilled her when she was riding up there with them, but now it just sent an icy chill through her as she watched them all disappear into the blackness of between.

She closed her eyes for a moment then turned to Leanoth, "Well, what do you want to do today, how about a trip to the feeding pens?"

I'm not hungry. I will spend the day with our eggs.

Kailen smiled, Leanoth would never admit to being worried, but she knew that her dragon wanted to fly the fall as much as she did and also resented the traditional views that kept them here while the ones they loved risked their lives. "Okay, I have a few things I can do to keep myself busy."

The gold dragon launched herself out of the weyr and spiraled down to the hatching chamber while Kailen turned back inside. She looked up at the empty sky one last time and forced herself to believe that soon it would once again be filled with dragons.

Back in her rooms, Kailen began to straighten up F'tan's things. She lifted the piles and piles of scrolls from off the table and looked with distress at its grubby stained surface. She dumped the scrolls into a trunk and marched off to the bath chamber to draw a bucket of hot water and get some scrubbing sand. An hour later the tabletop gleamed as if it had been polished.

The Weyr maintained four emergency storerooms located at equidistant points around the floor of the crater. These were stocked with medical supplies that could be used to treat injured dragons and riders as they returned from a thread fall. Kailen had taken it upon herself to clean and restock one of these rooms during each fall. Today, dressed in a crisp white apron she had made just for this purpose, she would be doing the storeroom closest to the common room entrance.

She enlisted two girls from the kitchen to help her and they began by thoroughly cleaning the room. While the girls dusted the shelves, Kailen swept the floors, being careful to sweep under and around everything. Then the three of them scrubbed everything down with hot water. When the floors were dry, Kailen stood at the center of the room and surveyed their handiwork. She put her hands on her hips and smiled, "Well done!" She gave each girl a quick hug and then said, "Now let's do the inventory."

Kailen had been surprised to find there wasn't a list of what each storeroom was supposed to contain. They had always just waited until something ran out before it was replaced from the main storeroom deep within the Weyr. She knew that from time to time things ran out during an emergency, so she had drawn up lists of the minimum supplies needed for each room. From the pocket of her apron she pulled out the scroll with the list for this storeroom and began checking the contents of each shelf.

They worked their way around the room and whenever a shortfall was discovered she would dispatch one of her helpers to fetch the needed supplies. Soon they had filled the shelves and the only things left to check were the barrels of numbweed. Each one had the remains of the white chalk marks from the last few times she had checked them. She knew from experience that even if they had not been used the levels would be lower because the numbweed dried out over time.

Pulling a piece of chalk from her apron pocket and lifting the lid off the first barrel, she stuck one arm down into the barrel until her fingers just touched the gummy liquid within. Then she made a new mark on the outside using her arm as a gauge.

When she got to the third barrel, her arm went more than halfway in. As she was leaning over the barrel something caught her attention and she sniffed at the contents. As expected it smelled pungent and awful, but there was something else that wasn't quite right. She put away her chalk and leaned over the barrel dipping her pinky finger into the gelatinous numbweed. After counting to thirty she pulled out her hand and wiped the numbweed off on her apron.

She pressed down on the fingernail of her little finger until it turned white then let go. She started counting, but before she had reached five her nail was pink again. "This numbweed has gone bad," she said to her helpers, "Go find someone to help you bring up a new barrel from the storeroom." Then she took out her chalk, put a big 'X' on the bad barrel and continued measuring those remaining.

By the time two weyrmen appeared with the new barrel on a cart, Kailen had dragged the bad barrel out into the middle of the storeroom. Despite their protests, she helped the men roll and push the new barrel into position and load the bad one back on the cart. After patting each man on the back and thanking them she said, "Be sure that gets emptied out and scrubbed really well before it's reused and don't let what's inside there be used for anything."

As they left, each man looked in wonder at the petite Weyrwoman, "How do you think she moved that barrel all on her own?" asked one. "I don't know, but remind me never to hand wrestle with her," said the other with a grin.

Once they were gone, Kailen broke the seal on the new barrel and stuck her little finger into its contents. Almost immediately she felt her finger tingle, but she held it in for a full count of thirty. When she pressed on her fingernail it turned white and stayed that way well past a count of sixty. She closed up the barrel and put a chalk mark close to the top.

She was just about to send her two helpers back to the kitchens when the watch dragon called to her.

Incoming with injuries. Two dragons, riders are okay.

She ran to the door then turned back to the girls, "Start filling buckets with numbweed, then bring them outside." She turned and ran out into the bowl and looked up, two brown dragons were spiraling down into the crater, and one seemed to be favoring his right wing. Mentally she told them both to land as close to the common room as they could. Kailen knew nothing about tending to injured dragons, but she knew who did and she started rounding them up.

By the time the injured dragons were on the ground she had collected a small army of weyrfolk to aid them. She ran around, doggedly directing the delivery of numbweed buckets and other medical supplies, consoling the riders and comforting the dragons. In short order the two brown dragons, who were not that seriously injured, had been tended to.

The one with the injured wing was sent to his weyr while the other insisted on returning to the fall. Although she couldn't understand why, both dragon and rider looked to Kailen to give her consent. After consulting with the Weyr's healer she reluctantly let them go. She watched them fly off and disappear between with a lump in her throat.

She was directing the cleanup of the mess they had made outside the common room when the weyrling master ran up to her with worry written all over his face. "Lady Kailen, we have a problem. This fall has been extremely heavy and we are starting to run low on bags filled with firestone."

Kailen started to protest his calling her 'Lady', but the full import of what he was saying sank in first. The only way to get the firestone to the dragons at the fall was in bags that could be strapped to the younger dragons and transferred in mid-air to their older counterparts. The bags couldn't be very large and heavy so there had to be a lot of them. If they ran out, the dragons at the fall would soon have to stop burning the thread, which meant more of the vile stuff would reach the surface putting the gold riders at risk.

"Go back to the firestone pit and begin gathering every bag you can find. Don't take any of the young riders off supply duty yet. I'll bring help."

The weyrling master ran off and Kailen flew into action again. She asked everybody who was working to clean up the emergency site to wait for her as she ran into the kitchens. There she asked the head cook to take everything off the hearths, leave one girl to tend the fires and then assemble everyone else outside the common room entrance. Then she set about contacting every dragon left in the Weyr to have their riders gather up anyone they could find to meet her at the firestone pit.

As she ran up to the weyrling master he called out, "We have plenty of bags milady, but unless we pull in some riders we won't have a chance of filling enough of them in time."

"Don't worry, I've brought some friends..."

The weyrling master looked on in astonishment as dozens of woman and children rushed into the firestone pit. Kailen quickly formed them into three lines that passed rock out to be loaded into the bags. Kailen personally joined one of the lines and at her urging the women started singing some of the more cadenced teaching songs to help set the pace. Before long bags were being filled at a remarkable rate.

Long before anyone had a chance to get tired they had loaded all the bags. Kailen insisted on thanking everyone individually before letting them get back to their other chores. The weyrling master watched in admiration as she took special effort to kneel down and hug each child, being sure to wipe their hands clean with her own apron.

Kailen and her crew finished cleaning up the courtyard before she wandered into the kitchens to make sure that the evening meal hadn't been ruined. She was afraid that she had seriously overstepped her bounds, but on the contrary, the head cook thanked her for letting her people help out. Kailen wound up getting an impromptu cooking lesson from the older woman and was still tending a small pot of stew that she hoped to serve F'tan when word came from the watch dragon that the first wings were returning from the fall.

As each wing returned, she would call out their names and report on injuries. She was happy to see so many relieved faces around the kitchen. This news usually had to wait until the riders themselves began to wander into the common room. Kailen's own broad smile was all anyone needed in order to know that F'tan's First Wing had returned safe and sound.

She was just putting the finishing touches on a tray of food for F'tan when the brown dragon with the injured wing called to her. She ran out of the kitchen, but was back again shortly after discovering that the dragon's rider had just wanted to thank her. However, when she got back to the kitchen the tray she had prepared for F'tan was nowhere to be found. The head cook, wearing an anxious frown, apologized and said that one of the girls had taken the tray out to the Wingsecond when they were not sure if Kailen would be returning. Kailen sighed and hoped F'tan was enjoying it.

F'tan stared suspiciously at the tray of food in front of him. While others around him were dining on meat rolls and steamed roots, he had been presented with stew and a strange stew at that. The vegetables were all cut in different sizes and shapes and the color of the broth was off. He dipped up a spoonful and sniffed at it experimentally. It smelled fair enough so he slipped it into his mouth fully prepared to spit it right out again. A smile spread across his face as he licked his lips, "Spicy, just the way I like it. Good thing Kailen isn't here, she hates spicy food."

Sheala entered the dining hall after the gold wing had returned and worked her way across the room. She spotted F'tan sitting by himself gulping down stew with a big smile on his face and his cheeks oddly discolored. She wondered where Kailen had wandered off to, but put that aside when her stomach rumbled loudly. She ate more quickly than usual and once more looked around for the young gold rider.

She spotted F'tan again, standing with a group of brown riders and lecturing them on some kind of maneuver, his hands diving at one another in demonstration. She scanned the whole room, but could not find Kailen anywhere. A bit worried, she asked Leanoth.

Sheala wants to know where you are, she heard Leanoth say to Kailen. Another moment passed and the dragon responded, She's in the kitchen. Do you need her?

"No Leanoth. Thank you." She could understand if Kailen had helped out in the kitchens to pass the time until the wings returned, but the meal had already been served and the kitchen girls would be taking their break now. Sheala stood up with a worried look still on her face. She walked to the kitchen entrance but stopped before going in. Instead she poked her head through the doorway.

Kailen was sitting on a stool at the end of one of the long preparation tables. A semi-circle of kitchen workers sat on the floor in front of her, ranging in ages from young girls to older women. On Kailen's lap sat a little girl no more than five turns old. They all had a look of rapt attention focused on Kailen whose own face showed the glazed look of a dragonrider in communication with her dragon.

Sheala opened her own mind and quickly focused in of the brown dragon that had been injured during the fall. He was describing to Kailen the intricate maneuver his wing had used against a particularly nasty sheet fall that afternoon. The maneuver involved splitting the wing into two parts and then diving along both sides of the fall line at the same time. It was a dangerous maneuver because the dragons would be flaming directly at one another through the thread, but it doubled the amount of fire that could be brought to bear on it.

She listened as Kailen expertly translated the complicated description into terms that even the children could understand. The kitchen staff ooh'd and ahh'd at all the right places, they were clearly enjoying this glimpse into the life of the dragonriders they served.

When Kailen finished her story, the little girl in her lap whispered something to her. Kailen bent over and in a low voice said something that Sheala could not hear. The little girl shrieked and then began giggling madly. All the other girls began laughing too. Sheala looked at the smile on Kailen's face and felt her own heart melting.

She backed out of the doorway and leaned against the wall. "I told her to mingle with the weyrfolk," she said to herself, "not to adopt them!" She smiled and pushed herself off the wall. Her little 'girl' was growing up fast.

Eventually Kailen realized that one by one her audience was deserting her and were now carrying in trays filled with stacks of dirty plates and mugs. The little girl on her lap had been fast asleep with her head snuggled up against Kailen's breast for quite some time. As soon as Kailen went to stand up, the girl's mother appeared to relieve Kailen of her burden. Something deep inside her wanted desperately to hold onto the child, but common sense told her to turn her over to her mother.

When Kailen stepped out into the common room she was shocked to find it nearly empty. There was no sign of F'tan or Sheala and only a few small groups of dragonriders were scattered throughout the room. She spied a plate of left over meat rolls and only then realized that she had not yet eaten herself. She grabbed one of the pastries and headed for the exit. As she passed them, the dragonriders greeted her warmly and she saluted them with the quickly disappearing meat roll.

Outside the common room she looked at the long staircase that led up to the gold weyrs and sighed. Suddenly her legs felt very tired and her back ached a bit. Her gaze fell to the passageway that led into the hatching chamber and she headed there instead. She was in luck, Leanoth was still there watching over the eggs. Kailen noted that in the process of turning the eggs that day Leanoth had once again rearranged them. Her dragon fancied seemingly random patterns that probably only made sense to dragons, because once Kailen had suggested lining them all up in neat rows and the gold dragon had actually been insulted.

But tonight she ignored the egg pattern and just asked Leanoth for a ride up to their weyr. Her dragon was more than willing to oblige and followed her outside. Soon they were spiraling up towards the entrance of their home, but Leanoth passed it by and continued to climb until they were in the open air above the crater. Kailen informed the watch dragon that they were running away from home and it answered back that they really should try and make it back for breakfast.

Leanoth refused to perform the back flips that Kailen so desperately wanted because her rider was not wearing a harness or safety straps, but a high speed low level run through the deep winding gorges that surrounded the Weyr was agreeable. Kailen stretched out prone along Leanoth's back and griped the dragon's spine ridges firmly between her legs as the gold dragon accelerated across the treetops. Kailen stretched her arms out as they raced down the twisty little valleys until one ended abruptly in a shear cliff wall.

Leanoth expertly climbed up the cliff face at an angle just shallow enough to keep Kailen from losing her grip and exploded into the open air above the mountaintops. Kailen felt the icy wind tear at her face, though it stung to the point of being painful, it also made her feel alive again. Soon her toes and fingers began to get numb from the cold and the image of home jumped into their minds. Suddenly they were plunged into a place blacker and colder then they had just come from. Kailen counted out the eight icy breaths and just as suddenly they were in the warm air above the Weyr again. They descended into the crater and landed at the entrance of their weyr.

"Thank you."

Anytime.

They were the only words the pair had spoken to one another since leaving the hatching chamber.

Kailen tiptoed past the slumbering form of Jarlath towards the dim light coming from her rooms. There she found F'tan sitting with his feet propped up on the table reading a wing roster. He still had his boots on.

"One of the worst falls this turn and only two minor injuries. Not bad if I do say so myself," he smirked at her as she quietly took off her apron. She looked at all the stains that it had acquired during the day and wondered how many she would be able to wash out before she needed it again next fall.

She walked over to where F'tan sat, lifted his boots off the table and unceremoniously dropped them on the floor, "Hey, what's the..." Before he could finish she jumped in his lap and folded her arms around his neck, "So," he asked, "what did you do today?"

She stared affectionately into his eyes and said, "Nothing really, I just spent the day waiting for you to come home."

o o o

F'tan was certain that he had never been this bored in his life. When H'mon had made him Wingsecond, he had gladly accepted the additional responsibilities of managing the Weyr as a thread fighting force. He could sit for hours with charts and maps and wing rosters and never be bored like this. But when he had become Kailen's weyrmate he had acquired a whole new role in the management of the Weyr as a community. In the past few months he had come to know people and parts of the Weyr he had not even thought existed.

But today was a new low. The morning had been spent in lengthy and tedious negotiations with representatives of the Breeders Guild over the coming year's tithe of feed animals. They had all agreed right away on the number of animals needed, but for hours on end they had poured over list after list of the various breeds that were to be given to the Weyr. He found it difficult to stay awake while they debated this when he knew full well that the dragons only cared if the beasts were fat and tasty when they ate them.

Now the negotiations were over and for the last hour he and H'mon had been sitting with the representatives and listening to them drone on and on about their wheelings and dealings. Their current tormentor was a mountain hold owner who specialized in runner beasts. F'tan had yet to figure out what a breeder of runner beasts was doing at a summit on feed animals.

"... I then had the good fortune to trade them for the entire stock of a small holding that adjoins my own. In the deal I acquired several more breading mares, a fine stud and six strong geldings..."

F'tan's mind began to wander. He had grown up on such a small holding, until his disinterest in breeding and fascination with dragons had drawn him into a search for new riders. His father had raised sturdy little runner beasts suitable for draft work and they had always had geldings for sale or trade. He remembered with amusement the summer when his father had shown him the process whereby yearlings became geldings. He smiled at the memory. It really was a funny story that he probably should tell Kailen some...

"F'tan?" said H'mon with concern, "Are you all right man? You've turned as white as a ghost."

"I... I need some air..." F'tan jumped up and stumbled from the room.

"Well, I'm sorry about that." H'mon said to the runner breeder, "I don't know what's come over the lad. Perhaps something he ate this morning. My apologies."

The hold owner just grinned, "Quite all right, you get used to that reaction when you raise geldings."

"Really?" responded H'mon, "F'tan would know more about that I guess. He was raised on a holding, but me I was raised right here at the Weyr. I'm afraid I don't know the first thing about runner beasts. Just what is a gelding anyway?"

Ten minutes later the two dragonriders were sitting out on the lip of the weyr. Each had his head bent between his knees.

"Okay, it's settled then." said H'mon sitting up, "I won't mention a word of this to Kailen if..."

"...I don't say anything to Sheala," finished F'tan. "Agreed."

H'mon stood up and extended his hand to the younger rider, "Okay, let's get back in there and see if these farmers have any more stories that can make a dragonrider puke."

o o o

"Well you never asked so I didn't think it was something you would really want to hear about." Kailen was kneeling on their bed massaging the knotted muscles in F'tan's neck. "I really don't remember much, the Master Healer gave me a sleeping draft and it was all over when I woke up. Why is this bothering you all of a sudden?"

"It's not bothering me," he lied, "It's never bothered me, but... I just wanted to know why? How could you let them do that to you?" F'tan knew this was indeed bothering him more than it bothered Kailen, but he had not been able to get it out of his head. He and H'mon had avoided the runner beast breeder after returning to the meeting, but it seems the same procedure was common to herd beast breeding and in the frightening way these things happen, they had been regaled again and again with gelding stories all afternoon.

"I didn't just let them do it to me," Kailen sighed, "It was about a turn after the impression and Leanoth was getting big enough that we were about to start flying together. I was still having a lot of problems relating to people, what few friends I had before the impression were avoiding me, and everyone stared at me during meals... do you have any idea what it's like to walk into that huge room full of conversation and laughter and have it all just stop because of you?"

F'tan remembered those times and felt a pang of guilt. He had certainly been among those that couldn't understand how a boy had been selected to be the rider of a new queen. He definitely hadn't known what she was going through in order to make herself more acceptable to the Weyr.

"I was taking the herbs the whole time. Some days Sheala practically had to shove them down my throat, but I did take them every day. They just weren't doing everything the healer's had expected, so the Master Healer came up from Fort one day and told me that I should consider taking the next step. It's not like it was a surprise or anything, she had explained it all to me the day after the impression. So I said yes and she just... did it."

She felt F'tan wince through his neck muscles. "By then I had decided that I liked the way the herbs made me feel more comfortable with myself and I was desperate to do anything that might help people accept me as Leanoth's rider. After it was done I started to see some real changes in myself. My skin got softer and my hair started growing faster... among other things...

"And I didn't feel so weird all the time. Afterwards Leanoth and I really started to connect with one another. Before it had been like there was a veil between us, but then it parted and we became closer. By the time we finished flight training we were like one person in the air and it's been that way ever since. Do you know that we rarely talk to one another when we're flying?" F'tan shook his head, "It's true, I already know what she's going to say before she can say it and the same goes for me. That only began after."

"So all in all it has been a generally positive thing for me," she felt the last knot melt away under her thumbs and gave F'tan a hug around the neck. Then she slipped off the bed to stand in front of him. "Besides," she said as she lifted his right hand and laid it gently on her breast, "if I still had them, we might never have gotten to know one another and Jarlath might never have caught Leanoth." She waited until a smile of recognition crossed his face before adding, "Wanna wrestle?"

o o o

"I just don't see why I need a new dress," Kailen stood in the center of her room balanced precariously on a stool, "couldn't I just wear my favorite tunic?"

Muirna stood up from pinning the hem of the white linen gown Kailen was trying on. After brushing a few stray strands of blond hair off her face, she planted her hands on her hips and gave Kailen a stern look, "I will not have you showing up for the impression in that ratty old thing. Just look at it," she nodded towards the old dress hanging on a nearby peg. It still showed some of the grass stains from what Kailen liked to call her 'first date' with F'tan. "You should have turned that into rags ages ago." Kailen smiled, her friend still hadn't figured out that Kailen was teasing her.

Muirna had been brought to the Weyr by the Search riders at the time of Leanoth's impression. Then Muirna had been a chubby little fair-haired girl with a sweet disposition and no interest at all in becoming a dragonrider. Leanoth had practically chased the girl out of the hatching chamber in her rush to get to Kailen, so it had been a great surprise several seven-days later when she wandered into Leanoth's weyr carrying a tray of food. In spite of her terrifying experience at the impression, Muirna had chosen to stay on at the Weyr and had quickly fit in.

Since then she had grown out of her baby fat to become a beautiful slender young woman and had been one of Kailen's few friends and supporters. She was still afraid of Leanoth and although Kailen had tried many times to get her used to being close to dragons, she feared that her friend would never quite recover from that first traumatic encounter. Muirna hadn't even attended the last impression, much less present herself as a candidate.

Her skill as a seamstress had come to light around the time Kailen and Leanoth had begun flying and since then she had been in constant demand by the ladies of the Weyr. Kailen considered herself fortunate to have Muirna making a dress for her. She just hoped that her friend hadn't spent too much time on it. "Well, at least the grass stains give that dress some color," she chided her friend, "this thing looks like an oversized candidate's robe."

"I told you, that is just the underdress," Muirna walked over to the table where a large bundle still sat unwrapped. She untied the bundle and took something out, careful not to let Kailen see what it was until she had unfolded it, "This is your dress..."

Then with a flourish she turned around holding up a pale blue gown with a laced bodice. The bodice had been embellished with dragons embroidered in gold thread and small jewels for eyes, which twinkled in the light of the glow baskets. It was the most beautiful thing Kailen had ever seen and she said so.

Getting Kailen into the dress was a wrestling match to rival the one she had had with F'tan. "I said, breath in," Muirna pleaded in exasperation as she tried to finish tying the laces.

"It's too tight," whined Kailen, "what's the point in wearing a thing like this if I can't breathe?"

Muirna tied off the laces, "You'll see in a moment, now bend over and... um... well, here, I'll show you." She reached under the bodice and pulled Kailen's breasts up into place. "Now stand back up," When Kailen was upright and blushing the color of a sunset, Muirna grabbed the underdress through the long slit in the front of the gown and yanked down on it. "There! That is why you wear it this tight."

Kailen gazed down at the mountains that bulged out of the bodice and the deep inviting valley that lay between them. "Whoa... F'tan is going to faint when he sees this!"

"I defy anyone to call you a boy while you're wearing that dress!" declared Muirna with great satisfaction.

"B-But I'll never be able to put this thing on by myself," said Kailen sadly.

"No problem," Muirna said cheerily, "I'll stop by before the impression and help you. Maybe I can do something with that mop of hair too."

"Oh Muirna, I can't ask you to do that. I want you to have a good seat."

Muirna laughed, "Don't worry I won't need a seat at all." When Kailen frowned, she added, "Because I'll be standing out on the sand, silly. I've decided to try again."

"Really?" Kailen's face lit up, "Oh Muirna, how wonderful!"

o o o

Kailen awoke early that morning with a sense that something was about to happen. She walked sleepily into Leanoth's weyr only to find it empty. Her eyes glazed over and then a huge smile broke across her face. Seconds later she was sitting on F'tan's chest shouting, "Wake up! The eggs are hatching today!"

F'tan had not been amused, especially when he discovered that Leanoth expected them to hatch that afternoon and not right that second. Still, Kailen's mood was jubilant as she threw herself into the preparations. The weyrling master was advised to keep all the candidates within the Weyr and prepare them to assemble at any time. The kitchen staff was asked to prepare a late afternoon meal for the arriving guests. Riders were dispatched to all the other Weyrs, the Guild halls and the larger Holds under their protection. She organized a large crew of weyrlings to sweep the entire bowl floor clean. By the mid-day meal the Weyr was abuzz with activity.

Muirna had approached Kailen in the dinning hall and told her that the alterations to her dress were completed and they agreed to meet in Kailen's chambers after Muirna finished her kitchen chores. "Remember," Kailen reminded her friend, "today you are a rider candidate first and a dressmaker second!"

Kailen now sat in her room relaxing with a cup of klah and waiting for Muirna to show up with the dress. Mentally she checked off all the preparations and everything was either done or underway. Guests had already begun to trickle in so she pondered how best to occupy herself until it was time for the impression. She had just decided that a long hot bath would be just the thing when she heard movement out in the weyr.

"Muirna? Is that you?"

When there was no answer, she went to investigate. Standing just inside the weyr entrance was Muirna holding a large bundle in her arms. Kailen gasped when she saw her friend's face however, the girl's eyes were red and tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Muirna, what's wrong?" Kailen cried out as she ran to her friend, "Why are you crying?"

Muirna looked up and sobbed, "Oh Kailen, it's just awful! The things they were saying! It's just too awful!"

"Did someone say something to upset you?" Kailen was at a loss, everyone in the Weyr loved Muirna, "Who was it?"

"Those... those people... in the dinning hall."

"The guests?" Kailen sounded surprised. Why would the guests, most of whom were high raking members of their Guild or Weyr, say something that would upset Muirna?

"I overheard them. I wasn't eavesdropping, they were saying all those things right out in the open. Terrible things! Things about Leanoth... and F'tan... and... y-you!"

Kailen was staggered by a sudden wave of dread. In all the excitement that morning it had slipped her mind that most of the guests would be people that had either not seen her since the last impression or who had never even met her before. She had forgotten that many of them were the same people that had raised such a controversy when she had impressed Leanoth. With a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach she realized that soon she would have to face these people as the representative of her Weyr and the rider of the Queen dragon.

She tried to rationalize the situation, "Muirna, it can't be that bad. Surely not everyone would be saying such things when they're our guests. Maybe you just overheard one or two rude people..." but the look on her friend's face told her otherwise.

"No Kailen," Muirna said shaking her head, "I heard a lot of them saying those things."

Kailen's mind worked furiously, what could she do about this? Surely Sheala would know, but Kailen was hesitant to approach the Weyrwoman with something like this unless she had all the facts herself. She needed to know exactly what these people were saying. She needed to hear it for herself just to believe it was true!

She put on a false smile for Muirna's sake, "Everything's going to be all right Muirna. I'll go down and check this out and then tell Sheala, she'll know what to do."

"You can't go down there Kailen! You don't know the kinds of awful things they are saying about you!"

"That's exactly why I must go down there." She gave Muirna a little hug and took the bundle from her arms. "Go to your room and wait for the call to assembly. I don't want you going near the common room again today. Just stay within sight of any dragonrider and I'll be sure to call for you if I need you. Okay?"

The girl nodded and reluctantly walked away. Kailen returned to her room and set the bundle down on the table. "If I just walk across the bowl and march in the entrance, everyone will shut right up," she said to herself, "I need to find a way to get in there and not attract a lot of attention." She spotted her old grass stained tunic that was still hanging on a peg and an idea came to her.

o o o

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