Fiona grinned and she nodded in agreement. “Next, I’ll send you back in time to Igen: It needs a good cleaning.”

M’tal, who seemed torn between rising to Fiona’s defense and jumping in on Shaneese’s side, choked on his klah. Fiona gestured to him. “This is M’tal. He’s been to Igen, so he knows how dirty it is.”

“My lord,” Shaneese said, inclining her head, her manner sobering abruptly, her next words directed equally to M’tal and Fiona, “I hope you’ll forgive my banter. You brought news we never expected to hear.”

“And wouldn’t have, if it were not for D’gan,” M’tal said, raising his mug in a half-salute to the late Weyrleader.

“How is that?” Fiona and Shaneese asked, nearly in unison. Fiona cocked her head firmly toward a vacant chair, ordering the headwoman to be seated. Shaneese glanced around the Dining Cavern and, deciding that nothing needed her immediate attention, complied with her Weyrwoman’s demand.

“It’s a sad story,” M’tal said with a shake of his head, “and I don’t know if we’ll ever hear the full of it.”

“Perhaps I should get Norik?” Shaneese suggested to Fiona. The Weyrwoman frowned, then relayed the request to Talenth.

He comes, her queen replied drowsily, in a tone that made Fiona resolve not to disturb her again.

“I’ve asked for him,” Fiona said.

“And your dragon scolded you for waking her,” M’tal said. “My Gaminth did the same with me, the day he got the injection.”

Oddly, Fiona found his words a relief. Gaminth seemed completely healthy.

“Anyway,” M’tal said, “as I understand it from Kindan, Lorana needed a word to open the door to the Teaching Rooms.”

“The Ancient Rooms at Benden?” Fiona asked.

The bronze rider nodded, but Shaneese looked perplexed. “We’ve heard nothing of this here,” she said.

“When the illness first started affecting dragons, we started examining the Records,” M’tal said.

“I think Lina did that,” Shaneese said in the late Weyrwoman’s defense.

“We found nothing and so Lorana decided that we should check the Records at Fort Weyr.”

Shaneese nodded. “It’s the oldest—most likely to have ancient Records.”

“The only reference found was to Ancient Rooms at Benden Weyr,” M’tal continued. Shaneese raised her eyebrows in surprise and M’tal nodded in agreement. “We all thought it odd but discovered a section of corridor off the Hatching Grounds—an Ancient corridor—that was blocked by a rockslide.

“We got help from miners to dig the fall out and found a room, but it was the wrong room.”

“Wrong room?”

“We didn’t know it at first,” M’tal said, his eyes going bleak with sadness, “and by then Lorana’s Arith had caught the illness.” He took a deep breath before he continued. “We found four glass vials, each filled with different colored powders.