“No one is asking you to leave!” Fiona declared with an angry look toward H’nez. Suddenly she recalled the stories of H’nez’s long-ago feud with a different harper, a feud that had led to the death and the decline of Fort’s Weyrwoman. Would he, she wondered fleetingly, never stop bickering with harpers?

Apparently H’nez must have guessed some of her thinking for he told Norik contritely, “My apologies, harper. Tempers are short, hearts chaffed.”

“D’gan never would have apologized,” Norik said, obliquely accepting H’nez’s offering. He glanced at Fiona and said in an apparent decision, “Perhaps I could accompany you?”

Fiona started to reply but Norik continued, with a gesture toward Seban, “I believe that Seban and Bekka should accompany us, as we’ve identified several gaps in our medicinal stores.”

Seban smiled at the Weyrwoman. “That is, if your Talenth is up to four.”

Are you up for a journey with four on your back? Fiona asked her dragon who she discovered was trundling back toward her weyr, obediently following Bekka. Fiona got the distinct impression that Talenth found the tiny girl amusing.

Are we taking Bekka? Talenth asked. Fiona was surprised but not shocked to hear such a direct reference to another person. What shocked her was Talenth’s ready agreement, how eager she was to fly; Fiona had expected the queen to want to rest, not to risk exacerbating her cough. For a moment, Fiona felt torn between her need to protect her queen and her desire to enjoy the time they could together. She sensed the deep wistfulness in Talenth’s underlying emotions and knew there was only one answer:

Of course!

“Your little one weighs nothing,” Norik observed twenty minutes later as he hefted Bekka up toward Seban.

“If you can get her to eat, perhaps she’ll get heavier,” Seban answered easily, settling Bekka and reaching a hand down for the harper. Norik took it and flexed his legs to hop up from his position on the top of Talenth’s foreleg and climb up to the gold dragon’s neck. Fiona followed quickly, her enthusiasm for her beautiful, marvelous, huge dragon undimmed by her fear for her health.

Talenth made a pleased noise as she rose to her full height, took a few quick steps forward to gain momentum and leaped on her back legs into the air.

Fiona let out a shout of pure glee as Talenth climbed as strongly as ever toward the watch heights, circled the Star Stones, returned the watch dragon’s greeting, and took them smoothly between to the distant Crom Hold.

“D’gan was a difficult man,” Norik said as they circled above the watch heights of Crom Hold scant moments later. “He used Lord Fenner harshly and provided no aid when the Plague struck.”

“He supported Fenner’s son, Fenril, didn’t he?” Fiona asked.