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'They're not now.*' K'vin asked sharply.
'Of course not,' and Zulaya dismissed his anxiety on that
and then grinned up at him. 'T'red's biding his time. He knows
he'd better.'
K'vin sighed and checked off another matter discussed with
Zulaya.
'Let's see - a tenth-month Hatching, so by this fourth
month, the greens won't be flying yet.'
'Oh, now, I'd say Morath might. If she keeps growing at
the same rate, her wings'11 be strong enough to test by late
spring. But we don't need to include the latest Hatching in
our calculations, K'vin,' she said, and leaned towards him and
the lists he was compiling. 'They've got all the site-recognition
training to do, the long-range flights to build wing-muscle. If
we don't need to force their training, let's not. We've got fifty
years to use them...'
'Have we?' and K'vin tossed his pencil to the table, leaning
back and sighing.
Zulaya reached a hand across to tap his arm reassuringly.
'Don't fret so, Kev,' she said. 'That can't change events. I
think that the group we're going to have trouble with is not
the babies but the elderlies. Those old riders're going to insist
on being assigned to fighting wings, you know.'
K'vin closed his eyes, shaking his head as if he could
somehow lose that problem.
'I know, I know,' he said, all too aware that he couldn't
avoid making a decision there. 'They'll be more of a liability
than the youngsters ever would - trying to show off that
they've lost nothing to their age.'
'Well, the dragons won't have,' she said and then, she too
sighed. 'But we can't baby them; that's not fair. And the
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dragons' reflexes are as fast as ever. They'll protect their
riders...'
'But who'll protect the rest of the wing from slow reflexes?
You know how close Z'ran and T'lel came to disaster
yesterday morning?'
'They were showing off,' said Zulaya. 'Meranath chewed
out the two browns as if they were weyrlings.'
'We won't have time for that during a Fall... ' K'vin rubbed
the ache in the back of his neck. 'I've called a safety-strap
check for the entire Weyr.'
'Kev,' she said gently, 'we had one last week. Don't you
remember?'
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'We can't have enough,' he snapped back at her and then
shot her a look of apology.
'It's the waiting that's getting to you,' Zulaya said with a
rueful smile. 'To all of us.'
K'vin gave a snort. 'So do we pray that Thread falls early?'
'I wouldn't wish that on us, but we could legitimately go
south on an excursion...'
'NOT,' he objected emphatically, 'another AIVAS expedi-
tion.'
'No, no,' and she laughed at his vehemence, 'but we could
check on the Tubberman grubs: see how much further they
have penetrated. We should do so soon now anyhow, since
we're supposed to check on their spread. A trip away, out of
this cold, would lift spirits. After the excitement of Turn's
End, First Month is always a let-down. Who knows? We might
even find some of those spare parts Kalvi's always whingeing
about?'
'Spare parts?' K'vin asked.
'Yes, ones lost in the second Crossing storm.'
'Now that's a real lost cause,' said K'vin.
'Whether it is or not, it provides a training exercise in the
sun, away from here and all of that,' and she pointed at
the disorder of lists and reports on the table.
'Where would we go?' K'vin sat more upright in his chair,
examining the possibility.
'Well, we should check the original site at Calusa,' and she
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retrieved the relevant chart from the storage cabinet and
brought it to the table. K'vin hastily cleared a space. 'Then
look along the Kahrainian coast where the Armada had a
long stop for repairs.'
'That's all been gone over so often...'
'And not much retrieved. Anyway, it's not so much what
we find but more that we went for a look,' Zulaya said with
a droll grin.
'The entire Weyr?'
'Well, the fighting wings, certainly. Leave the training ones
here, give them responsibility... and see how they like it.'
'J'dar had better be in charge,' K'vin said, glancing to see
if she agreed.
She shrugged. 'J'dar or O'ney.'
'No, J'dar.'
Oddly enough, she gave him a pleased smile. He hadn't
expected that, since she had specifically named O'ney, one of
the oldest bronze riders. He tried to defer to her judgment
whenever possible, but he'd noticed that O'ney tended to be
unnecessarily officious.
'Now, this is as far as grubs had migrated on last winter's
check,' she said, running her finger along Rubicon River.
'How're the grubs supposed to get across that?' K'vin asked,
tapping the contour lines for the steep cliffs which lined the
river, gradually tapering down above the Sea of Azov.
'The Agric guys say they'll either go around or be carried
across the river as larvi in the digestive tracts of wherries and
some of those sport animals that were let loose. They have
been breeding, you know.'
Zulaya was teasing now, since she knew very well that
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Charanth had had to rescue him from a very large, hungry
orange-and-black-striped feline. Charanth had been highly
insulted because the creature had actually then attacked him,
a bronze dragon! The incident had been a levelling one for
both rider and dragon.
'Oh, and don't I know it! I'll not be caught that way twice.'
'It grew a mighty fine hide,' she said, her eyes dancing with
challenge.
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'Catch your own, Zu. Now, let's see . . . should we check
and see if any of the other Weyrs want to come? Make this
a joint exercise?'
'Why?' she countered with a shrug. 'The whole idea is to
get our wings away for a bit for something besides Fall
readiness. Meranath,' and she turned to her queen, who was
lounging indolently on her couch, her head turned in their
direction and her eyes open, 'would you be good enough to
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