Dust swirled as a light wind fanned it, then settled again. Fiona could almost imagine the dust as the result of invisible dragons and riders preparing for a Fall. She smiled to herself. She wondered what F’dan would say about the mating flight and where she had chosen to flee. Then, with a pang of regret, she realized that she would never be able to ask him.

So many ghosts!

She felt Talenth reach out worriedly in her direction, a tendril of comfort in the morning heat, and allowed herself to lean against it, almost as though it were something physical and she could caress herself with it.

Talenth ruffled her wings, offering, Maybe we would be cooler in our weyr.

It’s not our weyr anymore, Fiona reminded her sadly. Who might have occupied it in the seven Turns since their departure? Had any queen dragons been sent back with the injured of the other Weyrs?

Why would they send queen dragons? Talenth asked, picking up Fiona’s unvoiced thought.

Why, indeed? Fiona mused, trying to keep her thoughts more quiet, more to herself. It wasn’t as though there were any injured queens and, as far as she knew, only a handful were as young as Talenth. Fewer now, with the loss of Lorana’s Arith.

But even if all the queens were mature and ready to mate, would the Weyrs be able to recover the losses caused by the sickness? Was that why she had been led back in time here by the mysterious queen rider?

I need to check the Records, Fiona told Talenth. The queen rumbled in annoyance, making it clear that if they weren’t going to their old weyr, then she’d just as soon stay where she was, but Fiona reinforced her request, making it an order, and Talenth irritably unfurled her wings and extended her foreleg for Fiona to climb.

Melirth was rising, Fiona thought to herself in the deepest part of her mind. The bronzes—all of them—would be chasing her. The bronze riders would have only one thought: to catch the queen. Their emotions would be strong, their thoughts concentrated on the passions that emanated from their beasts—

Talenth bugled loudly and Fiona shook herself. It seemed that even when she tried hard to keep her emotions to herself, her dragon could sense them. And, she realized with a mixture of dread and elation, she was feeling her dragon’s arousal. She took a deep, calming breath as she forced images of T’mar, H’nez, K’lior, M’kury and, most of all, Kindan from her mind.

Our time will come, Fiona promised Talenth fiercely.

The sound her queen made in response had no irritation in it at all.