Xhinna appeared at Fiona’s table for a moment, then drifted off. Fiona next noticed her seated with Tevora and then at a table with Vikka, talking animatedly.

H’nez caught Fiona’s eyes as she scanned the crowd and nodded toward her emphatically.

Ginirth asks if you would say some words to the weyrfolk, Talenth told her.

Fiona nodded toward H’nez and rose to her feet, tapping the side of her mug with a spoon. To add to her effort, Talenth bugled from outside.

The huge room was instantly silent.

“For those of you whom I haven’t yet met,” Fiona began, “I am Fiona, formerly of Fort Weyr.” She paused for a moment, scanning the new faces in front of her. “Tonight we will grieve those lost.” She paused again to let the weyrfolk digest her words. She caught H’nez’s eyes, then F’jian’s and T’mar’s and all the other dragonriders as she continued. “Tomorrow, Telgar Weyr begins anew. In three days’ time, Thread falls over lower Telgar and Telgar Weyr will fight Thread once more.”

The dragonriders all rose and cheered.

Fiona waited for them to finish, then continued, “My Talenth has more than three Turns and she’ll mate soon.” She found herself blushing as she added, “Soon we’ll have eggs on the Hatching Grounds and we shall start seeking out Candidates, with first choice going to those here.” Her eyes fell on Xhinna and Terin. Terin grinned in response; Xhinna’s expression was unreadable.

Fiona glanced at H’nez, feeling that her words had failed to sway the mood of the weyrfolk.

H’nez took the hint and rose. “I am H’nez, rider of bronze Ginirth,” he said, “and the senior rider here. If you have any questions regarding the weyrs and their dispositions, you may bring them to either me or the Weyrwoman.”

H’nez scanned the quiet room expectantly and sat down again a moment later, with a stony expression.

“This is a hard day for us,” Norik spoke up from his place at the high table, addressing Fiona.

“There is time to grieve,” Fiona said, glancing around at the somber faces of the weyrfolk. Fiona sought out Terin and pointed a hand toward her. “Among those you may not have met yet,” she said, “is Terin who was headwoman with me at Igen.”

“Igen?” a voice called out.

“You were at Igen?”

“We went back ten Turns in time with our injured dragons and riders,” Fiona explained.

“I’d heard a rumor,” someone muttered.

“Many of us remember Igen,” Norik told Fiona. “And those who don’t are curious.”

“By the First Egg, it was hot!” Terin exclaimed from her place near F’jian.

A general chuckle ran around the room. “It always is!”

“And the sandstorms were amazing,” F’jian added, his remark echoed by several of the younger riders.

“You were at Igen, too, bronze rider?” a voice called out.