Moreta left Leri’s weyr, her fingers finding the stretched length in the strap. She recoiled it. In a subdued mood, Moreta dutifully inspected her own harness, which she had oiled after the last Fall and hung neatly on its pegs.
/ did not like to wake you but when Holth asked, I did. “And you did exactly as you should.” Holth is a great queen. Oriith’s eyes whirled brightly. “And Leri is marvelous.” Moreta went to her queen, who lowered her head to accept her rider’s caresses. “This will be the last Fall you fly for a while!” she added, assessing the bulge in Oriith’s belly. / will fly tomorrow. I can fly in need as well. “Don’t you fret about my riding Malth that short hop!” I don’t. I do wish you to know that I can always fly you. “There could be no need so great to take you from your eggs, my love.” Moreta stroked the bulges appreciatively. “A good clutch, I think.”
/ know. A degree of smug satisfaction tinged her tone. “I’d best get down to the Lower Cavern.” Moreta pulled her shoulders back, bracing against the stresses. Then she reminded herself that weyrfolk were hardy, not only in body but in mind. Each
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Fall they faced the knowledge that some among them would suffer injury, possibly death. They endured the certainty with fortitude and courage. Why should an additional transient hazard dismay them? Why should something unseen appear more dangerous than the visible Thread that scored?
Sh’gall’s apprehension was insidiously affecting her. There was even no surety that contact would result in illness. K’lon and Berchar? Well, that could be dismissed as misfortuneK’lon so often visited A’murry at Igen. At that, she was more likely to take ill than Sh’gall, after succoring that runnerbeast.
Moreta took Leri’s strap then, with a backward look at Oriith, who was composing herself as comfortably as she could, she left the weyr. The fog appeared to be thinning. It eddied about her more freely, and she could make out the full flight of stairs although the Lower Caverns remained invisible until she was more than halfway across the Bowl.
When Moreta arrived, the Lower Cavern was already well populated. Most of the Weyr was about, in fact. Judging by the clutter of dishes and cups on the tables, a hearty meal had been consumed. Women and weyrlings moved among the diners with klah pitchers, but not many wineskins were in evidence. The other queen riders Lidora, Haura, and Kamianawere at the raised table to one side of the dining area, their weyrmates seated with them.
Moreta’s presence was noted, and conversations subsided briefly. She located T’ral, who was busy at his leather-mending, then made her way across the cavern, nodding and smiling to riders and weyrfolk, feeling more at ease as she began to appreciate the receptive mood of the assembled.
“Leri’s neck strap needs a mend, T’ral.”
“We can’t be losing her!” the brown rider said, taking the strap and putting it on top of other work.
“Did we mishear the drums, Moreta?” one of the younger brown riders asked in a voice suddenly too loud and brash.
“Depends on the strength of your morning headache,” she said with a laugh, which drew a scatter of echoes.
“Klah or wine?” Haura asked Moreta as she stepped up on the dais.
“Wine,” Moreta said firmly, a choice that was greeted appreciatively by those nearby.
“It’s her legs that wobble,” someone suggested.
“The dancing was good at Ruatha, wasn’t it?” She took a sip of the wine and then looked out over the faces turned toward her. “Who doesn’t know what the drums have been relaying?”
“Whoever slept through them heard the news from Nesso at the breakfast hearth,” someone remarked from the center of the diners. Nesso brandished her ladle in that direction.
“Then you all know as much as I do. An epidemic’s loose on Pem, caused by that unusual beast the seamen rescued in the Current between Igen and Ista island. Runnerbeasts are affected but Master Talpan says that watchwhers, wherries, and dragons don’t contract the disease. Master Capiam hasn’t a name for it yet but if the disease originated from the Southern Continent, the odds are it’ll be mentioned in the Records”