“What has been happening?” F’nor exclaimed.
“Oh, F’lar’s been anticipating success,” she assured him glibly.
Mnementh, who was watching the bustle from the ledge of the queen’s weyr, sent a greeting to the travelers and the information that F’lar wished them to join him in the weyr as soon as they returned.
They found F’lar, as usual, bent over some of the oldest and least legible Record skins that he had had brought to the Council Room.
“And?” he asked, grinning a broad welcome at them.
“Green, lush, and livable,” Lessa declared, watching him intently. He knew something else, too. Well, she hoped he’d watch his words. F’nor was no fool, and this foreknowledge was dangerous.
“That is what I had so hoped to hear you say,” F’lar went on smoothly. “Come, tell me in detail what you observed and discovered. It’ll be good to fill in the blank spaces on the chart.”
Lessa let F’nor give most of the account, to which F’lar listened with sincere attention, making notes.
“On the chance that it would be practical, I started packing supplies and alerting the riders to go with you,” he told F’nor when the account was finished. “Remember, we’ve only three days in this time in which to start you back ten Turns ago. We have no moments to spare. And we must have many more .mature dragons ready to fight at Telgar in three days time. So, though ten Turns will have passed for you, three days only will elapse here. Lessa, your thought that the farm-bred might do better is well-taken. We’re lucky that our recent Search for rider candidates for the dragons Pridith will have come mainly from the crafts and farms. No problem there. And most of the thirty-two are in their early teens.”
“Thirty-two?” F’nor exclaimed. “We should have fifty. The dragonets must have some choice, even if we get the candidates used to the dragonets before they’re hatched.”
F’lar shrugged negligently. “Send back for more. You’ll have time, remember,” and F’lar chuckled as though he had started to add something and decided against it.
F’nor had no time to debate with the weyrleader, for F’lar immediately launched on other rapid instructions.
F’nor was to take his own wingriders to help train the weyrlings. They would also take the forty young dragons of Ramoth’s first clutch: Kylara with her queen Pridith, T’bor and his bronze Piyanth. N’ton’s young bronze might also be ready to fly and mate by the time Pridith was, so that gave the young queen two bronzes, at least.
“Suppose we’d found the continent barren?” F’nor asked, still puzzled by F’lar’s assurance. “What then?”
“Oh, we’d’ve sent them back to, say, the High Reaches,” F’lar replied far too glibly, but quickly went on. “I should send on other bronzes, but I’ll need everyone else here to ride burrow-search on Keroon and Nerat. They’ve already unearthed several at Nerat. Vincet, I’m told, is close to heart attack from fright.”
Lessa made a short comment on that Hold Lord.
“What of the meeting this morning?” F’nor asked, remembering.
“Never mind that now. You’ve got to start shifting between by evening, F’nor.”
Lessa gave the weyrleader a long hard look and decided she would have to find out what had happened in detail very soon.
“Sketch me some references, will you, Lessa?” F’lar asked.
There was a definite plea in his eyes as he drew clean hide and a stylus to her. He wanted no questions from her now that would alarm F’nor. She sighed and picked up the drawing tool.
She sketched quickly, with one or two details added by F’nor until she had rendered a reasonable map of the plateau they had chosen. Then, abruptly, she had trouble focusing her eyes. She felt light-headed.
“Lessa?” F’lar bent to her.
“Everything’s … moving … circling …” and she collapsed backward into his arms.
As F’lar raised her slight body into his arms, he exchanged an alarmed look with his half brother.
“I’ll call for Manora,” F’nor suggested.
“How do you feel?” the weyrleader called after his brother.