When Terin was at the Wherhold, Fiona would spend time with Mother Karina and other traders

interested in cooking, developing new recipes and perfecting old ones, all the while learning and engaging

in the joys of gustatory arts.

But it was T’mar who engaged her attention the most. Since the fight between F’jian and J’gerd, the

older bronze rider had treated her differently. Worse, his treatment of her seemed to change and morph

almost daily. He would be obsequious one day, disdainful the next, reclusive, fearful, garrulous.

Almost in response, Talenth grew more willful and demanding. She insisted upon being ridden every

day and often she would inveigle Fiona to take her for long flights or jumps between to far-off

destinations. Her attitude toward the Weyr’s remaining browns and bronzes alternated between

standoffish and coquettish almost as frequently as T’mar’s moods changed. Through it all, she was still

respectful and adoring of her rider, but Fiona began to find herself fearing that she might wake one

morning to a dragon inflamed with the mad bloodlust of a mating queen.

The brown and bronze riders all treated her differently, as did the blue and green riders. She could find

none among the latter with whom she could bond as she had with F’dan—she missed him dearly—even

if they were easier for her to be around than the sometimes overly sensitive bronzes and browns.

Of all of the riders, J’gerd’s behavior toward her had changed the most. At first he had been fearful of

her, but then he had sought her out, at first to apologize and later to confide. It had been his heartfelt

loneliness—a loneliness with which Fiona found herself keenly sympathetic—that had decided Fiona to

encourage the riders to spend more time mingling with the traders and the wherholders.

T’mar had been reluctant to permit the change until he discovered that it was not his decision to make.

Fiona had been careful to limit the meetings so that no long-term relationships could form, only to have to

be painfully broken when the dragonriders were forced to return to their time, but they had still left plenty

of opportunity for dancing, singing, and an occasional heartfelt romance to blossom.

Resigned to her will, T’mar had enthusiastically joined in with the festivities, and Fiona was reasonably

certain that there was at least one holder lass who would devoutly regret his leaving.

“We’ll need to start clearing the unused weyrs,” Fiona said to T’mar at their morning meeting. “The

older riders will return in the next fortnight.”

T’mar nodded. “I’ve spent some time with J’keran and F’jian discussing how we’ll drill when they

arrive.” He paused before adding in correction, “And it’s thirteen days, actually.”

“We shouldn’t linger here,” Fiona cautioned him, accepting his correction with an irritated look.