troubling her but the moment he did, he peered directly into her eyes and asked her quietly, “Are you in

love with him?”

“Kindan?” Fiona asked in response. “Or T’mar?”

“Or both?”

“A Lady Holder doesn’t—” Fiona responded instantly, her face set in a frown.

“A Weyrwoman can, ” Zenor told her kindly.

“But he has Lorana!” Fiona objected.

“And you would never come between him and the one he loves,” Zenor observed respectfully. “But

you don’t have to tear your heart apart to save his, no more than you have to avoid kissing T’mar.”

“Why would I want to kiss T’mar?” Fiona had asked, suddenly feeling very tired and very confused.

“I wouldn’t know,” Zenor admitted with a slight shake of his head. He rubbed the back of his neck

wearily. “Perhaps I was seeing things where they weren’t.” He gestured to Terin. “I think we should get

her to a proper bed before she gets a crick in her neck.”

Fiona turned to gaze down at her friend, stroking her dark hair fondly. “She is such a good one.”

“She is at that,” Zenor agreed, rising as he extended an arm toward Fiona. With some effort, she

found her feet and helped Terin to hers, and somehow they found their bed and slipped into it.

It was no surprise to Fiona to find that she had slept in her clothes, nor that Terin’s breath was foul.

She suspected hers was just as bad and turned her head away to spare the young headwoman from it.

They returned to the Weyr much later than Fiona had expected, both somewhat relieved and

somewhat subdued by their night’s festivities, seen off by a weary Zenor and a warm and wakeful Nuella.

“Don’t forget that you have a home here,” Nuella said, hugging each of them in turn.

“Next time, we’ll let you change the baby,” Zenor added with a grin.

“Deal,” Terin replied, rubbing her temples wearily, “as long as you don’t serve us any wine.”

“You might think now that you’ll never drink again,” Zenor warned her. “But I suspect you’ll be

wrong.”

“Oh,” Terin replied, “I might drink again. Just never that much.”

Now, as Talenth was challenged by the watch dragon, Fiona felt a sense of relief to be back at Igen.

Her questions and worries were not all resolved, but she felt certain that they would not overwhelm her.

T’mar greeted them with a mixture of relief and concern: glad to have them back but worried about

their demeanor. “I take it you were not served Benden white.”

“How did you guess?” Terin wondered.

“You wouldn’t have such awful hangovers this late in the day,” T’mar replied with a humorous snort.

“Silstra was told that she wasn’t serving the Weyrwoman,” Terin replied, glancing over to Fiona with a

grin.