(I own nothing in this story except my own characters. Pern and everything else belongs to Anne McCaffrey)

There are people shouting by the storerooms, Lysith spoke, waking her rider.

Kayta jumped and sat up, looking around in confusion before she recognized where she was. She had fallen asleep in the Records room again, for the third night in a row. She groaned as she stood. The storerooms couldn't have flooded again - the tides haven't been high enough for that to happen.

No, no flooding, but lots of shouting. Lysith had moved so she could look in one of the windows with her eye. It was swirling red in agitation. Calaranth says there are men trying to steal from us.

Men? Stealing? She hurried to pull on her sandals and ended up stubbing her toe on one of the chairs.

They have caught them. They are bringing them to the meeting room so there is no need to rush. Lysith continued.

Kayta winced, sucking in air while her toe started to throb. Just a little late there, love.

I am sorry, Calaranth is being slow and did not tell me what happened until after it happened. The queen dragon crooned, Are you okay?

I'm fine. Already the pain was fading. The shouting, however, was getting louder. Kayta walked over to doorway that opened onto the weyrbowl. Both moons were out allowing her to see several of the bronze and brown riders walking a trio of men towards her. The men quickly shut up as soon as Lysith turned her head to study them. Kayta had to smother a laugh, even though Lysith was the smallest queen she knew of she still made a fairly impressive sight in the moonlight.

Kayta turned back into the room and shuttered the glows before heading back outside. The meeting room was actually carved into the cliff side a short distance away. She followed them there and was able to slip in behind them before anyone noticed. She found M'rocav and tugged on his sleeve to get his attention, "What's going on?"

The bronzerider jumped at her touch, "Holders were raiding the storerooms. We caught them and now Z'char will deal with them." He looked at her. "You should get out of here. Z'char won't be happy when he notices you here."

Kayta snorted, she could see the Weyrleader at the front of the room listening to his wingseconds as glowered at the holders. "When is Z'char ever happy with me?"

The queenrider slipped past M'rocav and did a circuit around the room rather than passing near the captives. It allowed her to get a good look at Z'char and gave her a chance to judge his mood before she announced her presence. She guessed that they had just dragged him out of bed by the state of his clothes. She couldn't help but notice that he was skinnier than then the last time she had saw him nearly a month ago. Also, his hair, bleached blonde by the sun, looked like it needed to be washed and trimmed.

She decided to take a chance and took her seat at the head of the table that dominated the middle of the meeting room. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Z'char scowl at her, but he didn't say anything and quickly turned back to the matter at hand.

"They came in from the one of the other islands by boat - we found it down on the beach towards the rocks that mark the end of the Weyrbowl. I don't know how they made it through the reefs in it." One of the wingseconds hissed.

"Sheer sharding luck. It was a cat boat. Barely even big enough to cary them, let alone the supplies they were trying to steal." A brownrider offered. "Stupid holders."

"What were they trying to take?" Kayta finally spoke up.

Z'char gave her a black look. "This is not your problem."

"It involves the storerooms, which are my problem." She quirked an eyebrow, refusing to back down. He finally looked away and Kayta turned to the brownrider again. "What were they trying to take?"

"Mostly grains; rice, wheat..."

"Things that are rightfully ours!" One of the captives interrupted by yelling. "We tithe fairly, as we're supposed to, and yet you just keep taking more!"

"Oh you tithe alright," Z'char snorted. "You tithe by giving us the worst you have!"

"It's all we have! At least you dragonriders can fly elsewhere and get supplies, instead you continue to harass us and take more than your fair share! Are we to be left with nothing?"

"After this, then yes! We cannot afford to keep around a hold that cannot support itself!"

The captive's eyes blazed with anger, "Then why do we have a Weyr that never does anything?"

The room exploded into shouting and Kayta could hear dragons roaring outside. She tried to demand silence but couldn't be heard above the noise, and Z'char was too caught up in his own yelling match with the captives to care. She caught M'rocav's eye and sent him a pleading look.

"SILENCE!!" He bellowed, then smiled apologetically when everyone turned to stare at him.

"Thank you, M'rocav," Kayta sighed in relief. She looked at the holder standing across from her, "Now as far as I know the Weyr has always been fair to your hold. I have records showing that we only take what is owed to us under the tithing agreement. Nothing more, nothing less."

"That's not true. We've had three different groups of riders turn up at hold this month to demand more, and if we..."

"Liars!" Z'char stood, almost knocking over his chair.

"Z'char, really." Kayta pulled herself up to her full height in her chair and glared at the Weyrleader until he sat back down. She glanced back over at the holder and gave him a little nod, "Please continue."

"Well," The holder licked his lips. "We have been giving the Weyr their fair share, but riders keep coming back and asking for more. If we try to turn them away we're threatened or our girls are taken from us."

Kayta went cold. So that explained where the extra food was coming from! "The Weyr has been stealing extra supplies from the holds then."

The holder nodded. "We aren't the only ones. We're just the ones who decided to do something about it."

"I'm sure you're familiar with the saying that 'two wrongs hardly make a right'?"

"We weren't thinking, Weyrwoman." Another thinner and older holder spoke up. "Well we did, but we weren't thinking right. It's not like we could go to the other holds for help. East hold barely has anything left either, and North Hold is too far away."

"Our people are starving." A third piped up.

"Our people are starving," Z'char mimicked the holder, making his voice sound whiny and pathetic. "That doesn't change things. You have been caught stealing from the Weyr and will be dealt with accordingly."

The bronzerider gave a flick of his hand and the men were dragged out of the room. The rest of the riders filtered out after them to head for the lower caverns and spread the news. Soon it was only M'rocav and the two Weyrleaders.

Kayta looked at Z'char, "So you'll just exile them then."

The bronzerider gave a short laugh, "No. I was actually thinking about just dropping them between. If I exiled them to another Island I would have to give them supplies, and they aren't worth the supplies. M'rocav why don't you go find out what hold they were from. Perhaps we should make an example."

"M'rocav, don't." Kayta held up a hand as if to stop him and narrowed her eyes at Z'char. "What do you mean an example?"

"Well, they spilled some grain during the scuffle. I'm sure we'll find more foodstuffs that were ruined once morning comes." Z'char's voice was calm and controlled now. "It's only fair that their hold replaces what they damaged."

Kayta was disgusted. "You heard what they said about there not being enough supplies..."

"It is our right as dragonriders to take what we want for protecting these fools." Z'char's voice was calm and controlled now.

"...If you take anymore they will starve to death!"

"I fail to see how that is a bad thing. If there is less of them, there will be more for us." He stood to leave the room and Kayta got up to follow him.

"And what will happen when there is no one left? Who will tend the fields then? You're insane..."

Z'char whirled and grabbed her arms, shoving her up hard against the rock wall. "You go too far Weyrwoman."

"I go too far?" Kayta gasped in pain. "This Weyr is just as dependent on the holders for our food as the holders are dependent on us for their safety. If you continue with this madness..."

"You have no right to question me when you're no better than one of them." He squeezed her arms tighter until her eyes began to water. Outside Lysith bellowed in outrage and then a little blue blur appeared and went straight for the bronzerider's face.

Z'char snarled and released his grip on Kayta so he could take a swipe at Dolp. The firelizard managed to go between just before he was hit and reappeared above Kayta, chittering angerly, his eyes flashing a vibrant orange. Before Z'char could make another grab at the blue though, M'rocav grabbed his arm from behind and swung him around so that the bronzerider stood between the Weyrleader and Kayta. The two men glared at each other before Z'char held up his hands in defeat and left the room.

M'rocav waited until he was sure Z'char was gone before kneeling next to Kayta. He brushed a piece of hair out of her face, "Are you okay?"

Kayta nodded, frowning when it only made the room spin. She let the bronzerider pull her to her feet and leaned heavily against him for a moment. “I've been better.”

“I'll send Dolp after Derana...”

“Send him for Berjoui instead, please. She's gentler.” Kayta could hear Lysith bellowing outside the meeting room and scratching at the rock in an attempt to get to her rider. Please stop that, you'll hurt yourself!

How dare he touch you! He hurt you!

He's gone! I'm fine! Kayta followed M'rocav to the table that dominated the center of the room and settled into her seat. She watched silently as he sent Dolp off on his errand.

I'll tear him apart!

Lysith!! Kayta was shocked by the queen's vehemence. No! He's gone! He won't trouble me again!

But he hurt you!

I'm fine. A sudden wave of nausea hit her and the queenrider bowed her head, resting it on the table, I'll be fine. Berjoui is on her way.

She is here. Kayta lifted her head a little and watched as N'bel led a slighter women into the room. Berjoui paused to set a bag on the table then pulled Kayta's face to the light, frowning a bit as she studied the Weyrwoman's eyes.

"That was quick," M'rocav nodded a greeting to the weyrlingmaster.

"Lysith bespoke Harnarth and asked us to come. What happened?"

"Holders were found stealing from the storerooms. I figured you would have known since the noise was loud enough that it woke up the whole Weyr."

"We were... out."N'bel looked at Berjoui. The woman looked up and and blushed, letting go of Kayta's head. "Is that how she got hurt? Did one of them..."

"No, Z'char did." Kayta spoke, wondering what exactly her dragon had interrupted.

Nothing that they can't do later. I wasn't going to let just any healer touch you. Kayta smothered a laugh. It was well known that the woman had had her eye on N'bel since before she was a candidate with Kayta even though the bronzerider was old enough to be their father.

"I'd heard that he was getting violent," Berjoui offered tentatively. "One of the boys was sent to take him food the other day and came back with a black eye for spilling his wine."

Kayta was shocked. "And no one said anything?"

"Why? What good would it do? He's the Weyrleader." Berjoui shrugged, she pulled a jar of numbweed out of her bag and motioned for Kayta to roll up her sleeves.

N'bel frowned and nodded at Kayta, "Why did he attack you?"

"She stood up for the holders." M'rocav explained.

"Are you mad? They broke our rules and need to be punished." N'bel exploded.

The queenrider flinched, she had never seen him this mad before. "He was going to drop them between! How is that a fare punishment for men who were only hungry?"

"It's not," He agreed, "but better that it's them than us."

Kayta gasped as Berjoui prodded one of the bruises tentatively. The healer nodded to herself, "They'll be purple for awhile, but at least he didn't do any lasting damage. No heavy lifting, okay?"

"When do I do any heavy lifting?"

"I've seen some of those hides you've been studying," The woman snorted. "That's the other thing: I think he rattled your brain a bit. You'll need to take it easy for a few days and let yourself recover. No late nights in the records room, okay?"

N'bel gave Kayta such a quizzical look that she felt the need to explain, "I was trying to figure out where the extra supplies were coming from."

"And?"

"Z'char was taking more from the holders, on top of what they normally tithe..."

"...Which is why they came here and tried to steal some of our food." N'bel finished for her as he put two and two together.

"Yes." Kayta buried her head in her hands, as the room started to spin again. "That stops tomorrow. We only take what we need from the holders. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't know what to do about those two men though. We can't let Z'char take them between."

"If we go against Z'char there will be trouble. More than just what happened tonight." M'rocav rubbed at his temples. He kept glancing towards the corridor that the Weyrleader had disappeared down as if he expected him to show up again.

"If we let him do that though, the holders will give us trouble."

"But you're dragonriders." Berjoui interrupted. "What holder in his right mind would go up against a rider and his dragon?"

"Press a man hard enough and you never know what they might do." N'bel gave her a small smile.