Kindan, who knew full well that most dragonriders were, of necessity, more muscled than he, took Kiyary’s mocking in the well-intentioned manner it was delivered. “It’s all that hard work with my guitar,” he said, grinning.
“And those drums up on the heights don’t hurt either,” Kiyary responded, giving him a more thorough appraisal than when she’d been teasing him. “Come to think of it, maybe Tullea has a point.”
Kindan snorted and headed off with a backward wave over his shoulder. In his room, he pulled out a fresh shirt and hastily donned it. He paused, as he was tucking it in his pants, to look over the map of the Weyr he’d drawn in chalk on a slate board. He’d marked the map with X’s to show where they’d searched already. He pursed his lips sourly; he couldn’t see an unmarked spot.
He spun around at a noise from the doorway behind him. It was B’nik. Kindan lifted up the map and showed it to the Weyrleader.
“I can’t think of anywhere else to look,” he said.
B’nik entered the room and peered closely at the map. “Perhaps the Records at Fort were wrong,” he said after a long moment.
Kindan shook his head. “If they are, then we have no hope.”
“I can’t see what could be so special in those rooms,” B’nik said. “Nor why they were built here at Benden.”
“Fort would have made more sense,” Kindan agreed abstractedly. Something in the Weyrleader’s comment nagged at the edge of his consciousness.
“I came to tell you that K’tan says the new riding harnesses have arrived,” B’nik said, obviously not at all clear why the information was important to the harper.
“They have?” Kindan answered excitedly, looking toward the door. He caught B’nik’s questioning look and explained, “Salina had me order Lorana’s riding brightware a while back, and now there’s leather to attach it to.”
B’nik smiled. “I can see how that’d cheer her up,” he agreed. “What sort of design did you get?”
Kindan searched around in a drawer and pulled out a small sack. He opened it, searched for a moment, then pulled out one of the smaller pieces of brightware and handed it to B’nik.
“Silver, is it?” B’nik asked as he took the proffered piece and examined it. It was a small circular piece, meant to be attached over one of the standard steel buckles on the riding leathers. That way, as the leathers and metalwork wore out, it could be removed and placed on a replacement riding harness.
“I can make out the Benden Weyr symbol, but what sort of symbol is this?” B’nik asked, pointing at one of the images. “That’s a healer mark! And-there’s an animal beside it.”
“Salina made me order them soon after Lorana Impressed,” Kindan said. “So I used what I’d learned about Lorana. Apparently, that’s about the same as the mark she used for her fire-lizard’s harness.”
“She had fire-lizards?” B’nik asked, looking up from the silver brightwork.
“Two,” Kindan told him. “They were lost at sea in a storm.”
B’nik digested this information with discomfort. “Her fire-lizards weren’t sick, were they?”
“I believe they were,” Kindan responded. “She doesn’t talk about them much.”
B’nik acknowledged Kindan’s reply with a grunt, absently fingering the brightwork with his thumb. With a start, he pulled himself out of his musings and handed the silver circle back to Kindan.
“I’m sure she’ll be pleased at the thought,” he said. “Why don’t you get the leathers for her and present the whole array?”
“Thank you,” Kindan said. “I’ll do that.”
“When you’re done, come find me and we’ll talk some more,” B’nik told him as he turned to leave.
“Very well, Weyrleader,” Kindan said. “Where will you be?”
“Practicing,” B’nik called back over his shoulder. “You might ask Lorana if Arith would talk to Caranth when you need me.”
“Thank you, I will.”
Does this mean we’ll ride together soon? Arith asked excitedly as Kindan and K’tan helped Lorana put on the flying gear.
“She wants to know when I’ll ride her,” Lorana said out loud.
“It will be many months yet,” K’tan said with a shake of his head. “Arith’s bigger than all the other hatchlings of her clutch-she’s the queen so you’d expect her to be-but she’s still got a lot of growth before she’s ready to carry even your light weight.”
Arith made a plaintive sound and Lorana laughed. “Never you mind. First you need to get used to wearing the riding gear,” she said out loud.
“Indeed she does,” K’tan agreed emphatically. “In fact, if she gets used to it soon enough she might try flying with it some.”
Could I? Arith asked wistfully. Now? I could go eat.
“She wants to eat with it on,” Lorana told the others.
“The riding harness will need to be oiled first,” K’tan said, shaking his head again. “It would be better, young queen, if you waited until you’d had the harness on for a day or two, so we know that we’ve got it adjusted right.”
Arith blew a dejected sigh through her nose, which turned into an open-mouthed cough.
Sorry.
Kindan and K’tan exchanged concerned looks.
“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Kindan said.
“No,” Lorana responded emphatically. Beside her, Arith made a similar noise, though quieter, for fear of exacerbating her cough. “And I love the brightwork, Kindan. It’s very well done.”
“A friend of mine,” Kindan told her.
“Well, please thank her for me.”
“Him,” Kindan corrected with a grin. “But I’ll pass the thanks on.”
“How’s the search going?” she asked, feeling awkward and wanting to change the topic. Seeing the worried looks exchanged by the other two, she regretted the question instantly. “Not well?”
“No,” Kindan said. “I can’t think of anywhere else to look.”
“That’s because you’re not weyrbred,” K’tan said, clapping the harper on the back. “Why don’t we talk about it while we check on the injured?”
“Arith, I’d like to go with them. Will you stay here?” Lorana asked her dragon out loud, so that the others could hear. “Should we take your harness off so you can lie down?”
No, the queen replied, shaking her headed so firmly that her body swayed in counterpoint. And I won’t get it dirty, I promise.
Lorana laughed and hugged Arith’s neck. Let me know if it itches, or if you need me.
Of course.
I won’t be long, Lorana promised.
Take your time, Arith replied, I’ll call you if I need you.
Lorana turned to Kindan and K’tan. “I’ll come with you.”
Lorana appeared distracted while the three of them checked on the injured dragons. Several times K’tan had to repeat a question or a request to her before she responded. Kindan noticed that she kept looking around the Weyr, particularly whenever a dragon sneezed or coughed.
Their work took them through the morning and still they’d only checked on half of the ninety-two injured dragons.
“I think we should group all the sick dragons,” Kindan said as they walked to the next weyr.
“We’ve been over this,” K’tan said. “How would you do it?”
“Just together, at least,” Kindan said. “Probably on the lowest level.”
“Why not a high field?” Lorana asked. “It would be colder up there-it might prevent the spread of the sickness.”