The weyrleaders could see these incidents increasing as Thread-generated fears receded. It was a morale decay as insidious as a wasting disease in Weyr and Hold. The alternative which Lessa’s appeal offered was. better than a slow decline in their own time. Of Benden, only the Weyrleader himself was privy to these meetings. Because Beaden was the only Weyr in Lessa’s time, it must remain ignorant, and intact, until her time. Nor could any mention be made of Lessa’s presence, for that, too, was unknown in her Turn.
She insisted that they call in the Masterharper because her Records said he had been called. But when he asked her to tell him the Question Song, she smiled and demurred.
“You’ll write it, or your successor will, when the Weyrs are found to be abandoned,” she told him. “But it must be your doing, not my repeating.”
“A difficult assignment to know one must write a song that four hundred Turns later gives a valuable clue.”
“Only be sure,” she cautioned him, “that it is a Teaching tune. It must not be forgotten, for it poses questions that I have to answer.”
As he started to chuckle, she realized she had already given him a pointer.
The discussions how to go so far safely with no sustained sense deprivations grew heated. There were more constructive notions, however impractical, on how to find reference points along the way. The five Weyrs had not been ahead in time, and Lessa, in her one gigantic backward leap, had not stopped for intermediate time marks.
“You did say that a between times jump of ten years caused no hardship?” T’ton asked of Lessa as all the weyrleaders and the Masterharper met to discuss this impasse.
“None. It takes … oh, twice as long as a between places jump.”
“It is the four hundred Turn leap that left you imbalanced. Hmmm. Maybe twenty or twenty-five Turn segments would be safe enough.”
That suggestion found merit until Ista’s cautious leader, D’ram, spoke up.
“I don’t mean to be a Hold-hider, but there is one possibility we haven’t mentioned. How do we know we made the jump between to Lessa’s time? Going between is a chancy business. Men go missing often. And Lessa barely made it here alive.”
“A good point, D’ram,” Tton concurred briskly, “but I feel there is more to prove that we do-did-will-go forward. The clues, for one thingthey were aimed at Lessa.
The very emergency that left five Weyrs empty sent her back to appeal for our help” “Agreed, agreed,” D’ram interrupted earnestly, “but what I mean is can you be sure we reached Lessa’s time? It hadn’t happened yet. Do we know it can?”
T’ton was not the only one who searched his mind for an answer to that. All of a sudden he slammed both hands, palms down, on the table.
“By the Egg, it’s die slow, doing nothing, or die quick, trying. I’ve had a surfeit of the quiet life we dragonmen must lead after the Red Star passes till we go between in old age. I confess I’m almost sorry to see the Red Star dwindle farther from us in the evening sky. I say, grab the risk with both hands and shake it till it’s gone. We’re dragonmen, aren’t we, bred to figh’ the Threads? Let’s go hunting … four hundred Turns ahead!”
Lessa’s drawn face relaxed. She had recognized the validity of D’ram’s alternate possibility, and it had touched off bitter fear in her heart. To risk herself was her own responsibility, but to risk these hundreds of men. and dragons, the Weyrfolk who would accompany their men … ?
T’ton’s ringing words for once and all dispensed with that consideration.
“And I believe,” the Masterharper’s exultant voice cut through the answering shouts of agreement, “I have your reference points.” A smile of surprised wonder illuminated his face. “Twenty Turns or twenty hundred, you have a guide!
And T’ton said it. As tha Red Star dwindles in the evening sky…”
Later, as they plotted the orbit of the Red Star, they found how easy that solution actually was and chuckled that their ancient foe should be their guide. Atop Fort Weyr, as on all the Weyrs, were great stones. They were so placed that at certain times of the year they marked the approach and retreat of the Red Star, as it orbited in its erratic two hundred Turn-long course around their sun.