“You’ll do fine,” Fiona assured her. She gestured toward the hearth. “First, the klah.”

Fifteen short minutes later, Bekka walked slowly out of the Kitchen Cavern, balancing a tray in her hands with exaggerated care. Fiona watched her out of the corner of her eye and then turned her attention to the recovering weyrfolk.

“It was a good flight,” Ellor declared as she bustled in to the Kitchen Cavern and nodded in thanks to Fiona. “Melirth blooded four kills before she took off, and in the instant, all the bronzes were after her.” She paused long enough to shake her head in surprise before adding, “And some browns, too.”

Fiona gave her an encouraging look, so Ellor, after pouring herself a full mug of klah, perched near the hearth and continued. “It seemed forever before the first suitor dropped out, one of the browns. Then a bronze, another bronze, and finally a brown.

“Well, I can tell you, we were all in a state,” Ellor said. “Particularly when someone shouted that H’nez’s Ginirth was closest.” She paused dramatically. “But Melirth just bugled another challenge and rose higher and flew faster.

“F’jian’s Ladirth was the next to drop out,” she said. She shook her head again. “I don’t know what the boy was thinking.” Then she smirked, saying, “Probably wasn’t thinking, was he?”

Fiona nodded in agreement.

“Ginirth dropped out a moment later, and then it was down to M’valer’s Linth, M’kury’s Burinth, and, of course, K’lior’s Rineth.”

“Rineth flew her,” Fiona said, hoping to hasten Ellor in her story, but the headwoman was not to be rushed.

“He did, but it’s how he did it that’s worth the telling,” Ellor replied, pausing once more, eyes shining brightly as she realized that she’d kept her audience still ensnared. She paused dramatically, then said: “It was M’kury’s Burinth who caught her first!”

“Really?” Fiona asked, surprised.

“Yes, and then Linth,” Ellor continued. “Rineth was a distant third.” Fiona gestured for her to speed up. “Well, Melirth—clever lass—just folded her wings and let the other two try to hold her. They couldn’t, and they had to let go or risk tearing open her belly. So, with a cry of triumph, she fell through them and prepared to soar away when—”

“Rineth caught her,” Fiona guessed.

“Exactly,” Ellor said, not pleased that the weyrwoman had guessed the climax. “Only she tried the same trick, going all limp—”

“But Rineth was strong enough for both of them,” Fiona said.

“No!” Ellor said, her voice a mixture of glee and admiration. “He was smarter than the others! He went limp with her and they plummeted together.”

“Hmm!” Fiona murmured in admiration.

“So finally, just as they were almost too low, Melirth relented and spread her wings and then—”

“They mated,” Fiona concluded.