“Ketan should stay here, continue working for a cure,” Tullea persisted.
“Tullea,” B’nik said reasonably, “if Ketan goes with the weyrlings and injured dragons, he’ll have Turns to work on a cure and we’ll have fit dragons to fight the next Fall.”
B’nik did not point out that, as he was sending only the weyrlings and injured dragons, Ketan would have no sick dragons to work with. But that had been B’nik’s plan-to let Ketan recover from his loss, helping healthy young dragons grow to maturity.
“You do what you want,” Tullea told him after a long moment sulking in silence. “You’re Weyrleader.”
“Yes,” B’nik declared firmly, “I am.”
“Where are you going?” she called as he strode out of their quarters.
“To let Ketan know my decision,” B’nik replied, turning back in the doorway. “We’ve got a lot to arrange and little time.”
“I thought you said they’d be gone three whole Turns,” Tullea retorted.
“They will,” B’nik agreed. “But we’ll only have two days.”
Kindan found Lorana in the Supply Caverns, supervising the movement of medical supplies assigned for the injured dragons who were designated to go back in time with Ketan. He waited until he could catch her alone and said quietly, “How do we know we aren’t sending sick dragons back in time?”
“We don’t,” Lorana admitted, grimacing. “Ketan and I have screened all of the dragons carefully and not one of them has any signs of the sickness, but…”
“So could we have brought the sickness back in time and infected the Weyrs?” Kindan asked pointedly.
Lorana creased her brow thoughtfully. She shook her head. “It had to start somewhere, so I don’t think it came back from now to then,” she decided in the end. “Besides, it’s not so much a question of where it came from as it is how to cure it.”
Kindan shrugged, acknowledging her point.
“How are the miners doing?” she asked, waiting for a group of sweaty weyrlings to haul their burdens past them.
“They’re doing well,” Kindan replied. “Dalor tells me that he thinks the same thing happened on the upper passage as on the lower. If he’s right and it’s just a rockslide, they won’t have more than a spear-length of rock to remove.”
“So another day or two?”
“Yes, about that,” Kindan agreed.
“That will be just about when Ketan and the weyrlings return.”
“Right in time for the Fall over Nerat,” Kindan agreed.
A weyrling approached Lorana, wiping sweat out of his eye and giving her a questioning, if hopeful, look. Lorana smiled at him. “No, that’s the last of it, J’nor.”
She gestured for him to rejoin the Weyrlingmaster and then jerked her head at Kindan, inviting him to follow her out of the Supply Caverns and up into the Bowl.
The part of the Bowl nearest the Supply Cavern was busy but organized. P’gul, the Weyrlingmaster, had taken charge, delegating some work to Ketan and the more able of the injured dragonriders. He, B’nik, and M’tal were conferring together.
“Now,” B’nik was saying to P’gul as Lorana and Kindan approached, “You’ll take care to return precisely in two days’ time just before dusk.”
“That’s cutting things tight, isn’t it?” P’gul asked.
“It can’t be helped,” B’nik replied. “I don’t want you or any of the others coming back too soon-I’d hate for you to meet yourself coming or going, and the weyrlings-”
“Won’t be weyrlings when we get back,” P’gul observed.
“That’s true,” B’nik replied. “And I’m sure they’ll be well-trained in all the recognition points. But just as I expect them to be trained, I expect them not to be trained in timing-or else one of them will try it on their own before they’re ready.”
“There is that,” P’gul admitted.
“Good man!” B’nik replied, smiling and clapping the dour Weyrlingmaster on the back. “It’ll be three Turns for you, but only two days for us.”
P’gul nodded. “I just wish that we knew more of what to expect when we go back in time.”
“Rineth reports that it doesn’t bother the dragons at all,” Lorana said, inserting herself into the conversation with an apologetic look at B’nik. “But the riders are all confused and get very irritable.”
M’tal nodded, then stopped, looking thoughtful.
“Is there something you want to add, M’tal?” B’nik asked.
“Hmm?” M’tal roused himself, then shook his head. “No, no, just an odd thought that crossed my mind.”
For a moment B’nik considered whether to press M’tal for details, but then he decided against it. He turned back to P’gul.
“Well, I envy you the peace and relaxation you’ll have with those weyrlings,” he said to the older dragonrider, eliciting a humorous snort from all around.
“I’ll try to remember that, Weyrleader, when I’m relaxing in the warmth of the Igen sands,” P’gul replied, with a faint smile. He waved to the group, then mounted his brown dragon and signalled to the rest of the weyrlings and injured dragons.
“Good flying!” B’nik shouted to everyone.
His words were drowned out as wave after wave of dragons took to the air and circled up to the Star Stones.
When all the dragons were properly aligned, P’gul gave a signal-
“Lorana, don’t try to follow them,” M’tal said urgently as he saw her close her eyes.
- and the dragons winked between.
Lorana opened her eyes and looked at M’tal.
“I don’t know if your mind wouldn’t get lost between times,” he explained.
Kindan looked from M’tal to Lorana and grabbed her hand tightly in his. Lorana squeezed his hand in reply.
“This is utterly untraditional!” D’gan declared in outrage to his wingleaders as they met at Telgar’s Council Room. “I cannot believe that an ex-dragonrider would have the nerve to address herself to my dragon and not me.”
“What did she say?” D’nal asked.
“Kaloth tells me that she said that Fort Weyr has successfully sent their injured dragons and riders back in time, along with their weyrlings, to the abandoned Igen Weyr,” D’gan replied with a sniff.
“Really?” L’rat exclaimed, his eyes going wide. “That explains the fires we saw Turns back-do you remember, V’gin?”
The Weyr healer nodded reminiscently. “We thought perhaps they were traders or something using the Weyr.”
“And why wasn’t this reported to me?” D’gan asked archly.
“I’m sure it was,” L’rat said. “But it would have been just about the time of the Plague, if memory serves. I’m sure we all had other things to worry about.”
“They went back in time,” V’gin said quickly, “to what purpose?”
“Why, to heal, of course,” D’gan responded, as though it should have been obvious to all of them.
“But they could have healed just as easily here,” L’rat remarked, frowning.
“But they timed it,” D’gan snapped. “So that they were gone only days in our time while they spent Turns.”
“So their weyrlings grew up and their injured recovered,” V’gin surmised, nodding at the neat solution. “That’s very clever.” He looked at the Weyrleader. “Did you say K’lior at Fort had the idea?”
D’nal shot him a sharp look. Everyone knew that D’gan had no time for Fort’s Weyrleader, nor any other Weyrleader, for that matter.
“So what else did this Lorana say, D’gan?” L’rat asked quickly, hoping to avert another of the Weyrleader’s outbursts.