Possibly she was irritated because it wasn’t just Orest that was accepting Ari without question—it was most of the others in the wing, and Nofret and Marit and Kaleth.

You’d think that if Kaleth has no issues. . . .

Well, perhaps she was feeling neglected.

Certainly, ever since they’d come here, it had been nothing but nonstop work for everyone. And Aket-ten was another of those who was not at all used to doing her own work.

“When the storm comes and shuts us all in, do you want to try and teach me to play hounds and hares again?” he asked.

She turned around, looking rather surprised. “Yes!” she said. “I would! It’ll probably be too dark for mending.”

“It will be very dark,” was all Kiron could say. “I only went through one midnight kamiseen in Tia and the ones in the desert proper are supposed to be a lot worse. I think most people are planning on going all the way down to the river cave for as long as the storm lasts.”

“But we can’t take the dragons down there,” Aket-ten observed. “It will be too cold for them.”

He nodded. “We’ll move them in there—the winter quarters.” He pointed at the end building of their court, which might have been a stable, or something of the sort. They’d decided that would be the winter “cave” once things got too cold. Heklatis had not yet worked out how the Ghed priests transferred heat into the Tian dragon pens, although he was certain that between them, he and Ari could puzzle the magic out. At least the dragons would actually fit into this building, and it could probably be heated conventionally.

“I don’t want to leave Re-eth-ke,” she replied after a moment.

“I don’t think any of us plan on leaving our dragons,” he said truthfully. “They’ll probably be all right, but you never know. So it won’t be as comfortable as being down by the river, and we might have our hands full if they get restive or frightened.”

“I can think of too many bad things that could happen if we leave them alone,” she told him.

At just that moment, the rest of the wing started to straggle in. Pe-atep and scarlet-and-sand Deoth were the first of the lot, with Deoth looking more nervous than usual. “I think he senses something,” Pe-atep called in his booming voice as Deoth landed on the sand, and immediately went to a sheltered corner. Kiron nodded; having been a keeper of hunting cats, even lions, before becoming a Jouster, tall Pe-atep was perhaps the most sensitive of any of them to his dragon’s moods except, perhaps, the former falcon trainer Kalen.