In the morning T’mar woke to see her young, freckled face grinning up at him. He arched an eyebrow questioningly and she chuckled. “There are always things to live for!”

T’mar frowned, perplexed, until the young Weyrwoman proceeded to demonstrate.

At breakfast, Fiona noted the weary, wary look on H’nez’s face, saw the way that Jeila cautiously caressed his hand, and guessed that the other weyrwoman had herself demonstrated to her mate one of the fruits of life. Jeila caught her look and gave her a half-smile in response, confirming Fiona’s suspicion. The dark-skinned weyrwoman’s smile flared briefly across her face as the two shared a quiet flash of understanding. Fiona reached a hand across to Jeila, who grabbed it and clenched it firmly before releasing it. Men might fly the Falls, Fiona thought, but it was the women who kept the Weyrs whole.

Kindan and Lorana approached and sat beside her. Fiona gave the harper a quick glance, saw his troubled look, and raised an eyebrow inquiringly.

“Benden lost six,” Kindan told her softly, his expression grim.

“Six dead, seven mauled, three injured,” Lorana said in a quiet voice, a shiver of pain running down her body.

“And?” Fiona prompted, aware that that older woman had more news to impart.

“Ciaday’s Sadenth clutched,” Lorana said. Ciaday was the younger weyrwoman at High Reaches.

“Twenty-one or twenty-two?” Jeila asked, guessing that Lorana was distressed over the paltry number of eggs.

“Twenty-two.”

“One queen egg,” Kindan added, his tone upbeat.

“So that’s good news,” Fiona said brightly. Lorana glowered in her direction. Fiona knew that the older woman was convinced otherwise. “We’ll have weyrlings soon and that always cheers a Weyr. We’ll have them everywhere on Pern.”

“Weyrlings aren’t fighting dragons,” H’nez said. He jerked as Jeila pinched him under the table, but he was not to be deterred. “It takes three Turns to make a fighting dragon.”

“Two, if need be,” T’mar said, dropping his tray onto the table beside Fiona and glancing over in the older bronze rider’s direction in greeting. “I’m sure we’ll hold off as long as we can, but I imagine they’ll be fighting before we would like.”

“Lorana has news from Benden,” Fiona told the Weyrleader and then groaned inwardly as he winced in anticipation. “They lost six and ten injured.”

T’mar’s expression cleared; this wasn’t the news he’d feared.

“They don’t fly again for a while,” Kindan said.

“Nor do we,” Fiona said. “The rest will do us good and we’ll have two more ready to fly again before the month’s end.”

“But only three and a half Wings,” H’nez remarked sourly. He glanced over to T’mar. “And we’ll have to time it again, almost certainly.”

“We’ll be well-tested,” T’mar said, not disagreeing with the grim bronze rider.

“We can’t keep taking these losses.”