“You’re with child?” H’nez asked, his eyes going round with alarm. “I mean, we just—I didn’t think—”

Jeila’s chuckles silenced him and, as he strove to recover his composure, H’nez looked around the table daring anyone to comment on his reaction. Taking pity on her mate, Jeila turned to Fiona, saying, “And how about you, Weyrwoman?”

H’nez cleared his throat hastily in alarm. Jeila leaned over to him and he bent down for another whispered conversation. When he straightened up again, Jeila was looking in Fiona’s direction with great interest.

“That must have been quite a mating flight,” the smaller weyrwoman told her.

“It was,” Fiona agreed.

“And how is T’mar?”

“When I checked on him this morning, he seemed better,” Fiona said, working to keep her worry out of her voice.

“Seemed?”

“You were there in his quarters during your mating flight,” Fiona reminded her. Jeila glanced up at H’nez, as if to check his response, before nodding in agreement.

“I didn’t pay much attention to T’mar or anyone in the room,” Jeila said. She pursed her lips as she added thoughtfully, “Except that I was surprised, at first, to see Lorana there and not you—and then I was suddenly grateful to have someone there talking me through Tolarth’s gorging.”

Fiona nodded sympathetically. Her eyes caught Jeila’s and the two shared a moment of understanding, tabling parts of the discussion for a time when they could be alone together. Again, Fiona found herself warming to this kind, perceptive person.

“Anyway, Seban said that afterward, he thought he heard T’mar murmur something,” Fiona said, returning to their original topic.

“He spoke?” M’tal asked, surprised. “What did he say?”

“‘Three times,’” Fiona answered, trying and failing to hide her blush.

“Three times?” H’nez repeated in confusion. “What does that signify?”

“I, when we were back at Igen, I decided that I needed some … instruction.” Fiona found herself blushing even redder.

“With T’mar?” Jeila asked, her eyebrows arching high. She pursed her lips tightly, even though there was a definite upward curve to them, before adding judiciously, “From all I’ve heard, he would have been an excellent instructor.”

“Anyway, as with all his lessons, I insisted that we perform the exercise three times,” Fiona finished lamely.

“I see,” H’nez said, his voice more diplomatically neutral than Fiona had thought possible. He glanced at her, asking, “So you feel that he was recalling the same reference?”

“A third mating flight will revive him?” M’tal wondered. He furrowed his brow. “Here or could it be any queen’s mating?”

“Because Minith and Caranth—” Fiona began thoughtfully only to find herself interrupted by a sudden call from Talenth. Come quickly!

“I must go,” Fiona said, rising from her chair. “Talenth wants me in T’mar’s quarters.”