Disclaimer: Pern and the dragons of Pern belong to Anne McCaffrey

AN: This one is longer – it's easily the longest chapter so far – and (hopefully) better than the last, and things are beginning to move towards a conclusion. Please R&R!

Lystar and Caliath flew. The wind whipped into Lystar's face, freezing the tears on her cheeks and drawing the heat out of her. The stars above seemed very cold and hard and unforgiving.

She hunched forwards over Jarrin's form, trying to shield him from the worst of the wind. Lystar didn't know much about healing, but she realised that the harper needed to be kept as warm as possible. It was probably a bad idea to have moved him at all – but what else could she have done? In the dark, from her precarious position upon a dragon's back, Lystar couldn't even tell how bad the harper's injuries were, but when she touched his dark hair the blackness came away on her fingers with the distinctive metallic tang of blood.

She swallowed hard. She didn't know what to do now – only head for the Healer Hall as fast as Caliath could fly, and that was halfway across Pern. She wished K'beth was with her. He would know what to do.

Where are K'beth and Rosith, Cal? she asked, and then, suddenly, anxiously, added, They made it out of the cave all right? Before the bandits arrived?

The bandits did nothing for a long time except concentrate on us, Caliath told her dryly. Rosith was well away before they thought to look into the cave. She is bringing K'beth as fast as she can, but I can't give them the co-ordinates for a jump between while moving this fast and in the dark, so it will take them some while to catch us up.

Reia sipped her hot klah and glanced out at the clear evening. The air was still and warm, although not as hot as Ista's smothering tropical summer would become in a few months time. Timor was gleaming sickle-shaped in the sky above her and Belior was just heaving its round, ponderous bulk over the horizon.

'Thread tomorrow,' said R'lan, behind her.

'That's right.' Reia turned and smiled at her Weyrmate, but she had a faintly abstracted air about her.

'What is it?'

Reia waved a hand at the sky behind her. 'Isn't it time we were hearing from K'beth? You haven't spoken to the Masterharper recently, have you?'

'No. I think he's been busy.'

'As have we.'

'It's true.' R'lan grimaced. 'All the same, it's not like him to forget. I wonder if I should send a message? You're right – this is when K'beth told us that he and Jarrin were going to be packing up and coming home.'

'There's time for them yet.'

'That's true too.' R'lan balled one hand into a fist and pounded it into his other hand. 'But if something's happened… we might not hear for a long time. I don't even know where they are, do you?'

'No. But Shareth could find out easily enough, if you're worried.' Reia dropped the curtain she'd been holding back and it swung closed, shutting out the night. She walked back into the room, putting her klah down on the table and sat down beside her Weyrmate. 'What is it that's bothering you?'

The big man shrugged. 'I don't know. Not really. All kinds of little things. K'beth being out for so long and the Masterharper not being here and the thought of there being somebody in the Weyr who'd give those flamethrowers to the bandits and…'

'Just everything.'

'Uh-huh.' R'lan frowned. 'How's Lystar?'

'Recovered, but not at all happy.' Reia twisted her elegant mouth into a grimace. 'Not speaking to either of us, by what I hear from Gilda.'

R'lan sighed. 'Was I right? To stop her flying as I did?'

'I think so. She's got a point, in that I don't see what she's going to do with herself now she's well again if she doesn't fly thread – but you couldn't very well have let her carry on as she was. Your responsibility is the safety of the Weyr and the lands you protect. You had to consider that first.'

'I know. But it still seems hard on the girl.' He gave Reia a twisted smile. 'We haven't been very good parents, have we?'

'I don't know if Weyrleaders can be,' she told him honestly. 'We have to see the bigger picture. Speaking of which, we're going out at dawn to fly thread, and if you don't need any sleep, I do.' Reia downed her mug of klah in one swift, definite movement. 'We will – we must – try and organise something for Lystar. And get in touch with K'beth and with the Masterharper. But we can't do any of those things now.'

'I know.' R'lan shrugged his shoulders. 'Anything else I should know about? Anything that will affect our flying thread tomorrow?'

'I don't think so. Er – Gilda on the warpath and half of the Lower Cavern in tears. Bessa acting a little strangely again. G'zul finally being driven to distraction by the twins –'

'Stop!' R'lan raised his hands in surrender. 'I don't think I do want to know. Why G'zul continues to attempt to manage those sharding weyrlings I simply can't imagine. I think I'd go between first.'

We would, Aneth assured him, fervently. I will keep my distance from young and silly greens at all costs.

R'lan smiled. You should be flattered. You're getting on a bit, you know.

Nonsense! Aneth roared, rearing up in the darkness outside and flapping his wings. I am the most powerful bronze in the Weyr!

Well – R'lan began, and was interrupted by Reia.

'Don't tease him, love,' she said, without a hint of reproof in her voice. 'Come on. Let's go to bed…'

The sunrise was like a great wave of gold rushing over them as they raced into the dawn. Caliath's wings, until then only dull grey shapes in the pre-dawn light, flamed into bright sapphire as he flashed into the sunlight.

Lystar barely noticed. All the dawn did for her was to throw a clearer light onto Jarrin's white, clammy face.

'Don't die on me, Jarrin,' she muttered. 'Come on.' She blinked tears out of her eyes. The harper looked like a lifeless wax doll, his head flopping backwards at an uncomfortable angle, but when she laid a tentative hand on his chest she could feel the feeble fluttering of his breathing. 'Faranth's egg, I don't know anything about healing! Oh, help – just hang in there, Jarrin, please. Shells, I'm so, so, sorry, you should never have trusted me. It's all my fault because I've been so stupid, and you don't deserve to suffer for it, not you. Oh shards, Jarrin, just don't die.' Vaguely, she became aware that she was babbling incoherently to a person who had no chance of hearing her, and she choked down on the flow of words. Cal, where are we?

Over the sea.

That's not very helpful!

I know where I am, but it is difficult to explain it so that you would understand. Lystar felt soothing reassurance wash over her from her dragon's mind. Little one, I am flying as fast as I can. Keep the harper safe and keep him warm. There is nothing else that you can do now. We are helping him as much as we can. We will not let harm come to him.

Screwing up her eyes against more tears, Lystar whispered, I already did.

No. It was not your fault, Caliath said, fiercely. It is his fault and the bandits' fault and K'beth's fault and anyone's fault but yours and you are not to be upset.

I love you, Cal, said Lystar, her throat constricting. Her dragon's illogical, blindly loyal claim threatened to bring a fresh storm of tears, and she leaned forwards to rest her head against his soft hide in grateful acknowledgement.

I know. And I love you.

They flew in silence for a few minutes, before Lystar added, I'm so scared.

When she touched Jarrin's cheek his skin was cold.

When dawn touched K'beth it found him frantic.

Rosith, it's light, now get those sharding co-ordinates off Caliath!

I'm tired, said the green, sounding slightly affronted. I am getting there as fast as I can. Are you ready?

Yes! K'beth shut his eyes to concentrate harder on the picture of sea and sun that Caliath had flashed into his dragon's mind. Go, love.

Between was cold and chilling on his skin, but K'beth was inured to its horrors. He was far more worried about what he might find when he leapt out on the far side. Only practice and discipline held the co-ordinates firm in his mind.

When they burst back into the real world K'beth was dazzled by the brightness, clinging onto Rosith's neck ridge while he blinked furiously, attempting to bring his watery eyes into focus. Temporarily he was unaware of what was happening around him, only the blue dazzle of the water, the white glare of the sun and the pale green glimmer of Rosith's hide. But nothing would make him miss Lystar's voice. 'K'beth!'

'Lystar!' He turned his head towards her startled voice instinctively, making out Caliath's bright bulk in the glare. 'Are you all right? And Caliath?'

'Yes, yes, we're fine, it's Jarrin!' she called, and now K'beth could hear the panic in her voice. 'He fell from Caliath's back! He's unconscious and I think badly hurt, but I can't tell! K'beth, I don't know what to do!'

'Calm down!' Can you get a little closer, sweetheart? K'beth asked silently. I don't think I can carry on a soothing conversation if I have to shout everything I say.

Yes, said Rosith, shortly. K'beth didn't have time to wonder why his dragon sounded annoyed, because as they drew closer he could see Lystar's pale, terrified face and see the body that she was holding limply in her arms. He swallowed, and turned his eyes away from his friend's inanimate form back to the bluerider's face.

'You're doing the right thing, Lystar,' he said, soothingly, as soon as he got close enough. 'We just have to get him to the Healer Hall. But why haven't you gone between already?'

He saw Lystar flinch and realised his mistake. 'Oh, shards.' He hesitated, glancing down at the sea below them. 'Er… d'you think that you can pass him across while Rosith and Caliath are flying?'

'I don't think that we can take him between,' Lystar said, hoarsely. 'The cold… and it's hard to breathe between.' K'beth saw her bite her lip nervously, and rest a hand gently on Jarrin's chest. 'He's having enough trouble breathing already…'

K'beth shuddered. 'Shards and shells. I guess you're right. We fly straight, then.'

'Yeah.'

K'beth looked at her sharply. 'What is it?'

Lystar's pale face was bleak and despairing. She spoke so quietly that K'beth had to strain to hear her across the rushing wind of their passage. 'It was my fault.'

'What?'

'It… I…' Lystar swallowed, her throat thickening so that the words were hard to force out. 'I told him it was safe. But I couldn't see… he didn't know I couldn't tell… he didn't know about my eye!'

'Your eye?'

Lystar snapped her head round to face him, her wide eyes flowing with tears. 'I didn't say that!'

K'beth frowned. 'I can't help if I don't know. Tell me.'

Lystar went, if possible, even whiter than she had been. K'beth watched her closely, wishing he understood her fear. He didn't even know if it was so very terrible – Lystar had been so long with no one except Caliath to confide in that her fears could have been nurtured and grown out of proportion in secret. He looked up at her with concern filling his eyes.

'I…' Lystar's voice sounded rusty and hoarse. 'I… it's an old thing. A long time ago. I had an accident. Nobody ever knew. I…' She screwed her face up, and K'beth knew she was on the point of revealing a deeply held secret. 'I… I hurt my eye,' she said, all in a rush. 'I'm blind in one eye. I can't see anything on my left side. That's why I got threadscored. That's why I didn't see the archer and Jarrin fell. He didn't know it wasn't safe to trust me!'

K'beth swallowed, horrified. What a thing to hide, let alone for years, a disability like that! 'Why didn't you tell someone?'

'Dragonriders must fly,' Lystar whispered, so that he barely heard the words. 'I had to fly. They would have taken me off our wing if they'd known, and Cal and I had to fly thread. We had to – I had to – prove…

'Prove what?' K'beth asked, quietly.

'That I'm not just Lystar fool.'

Lystar and Caliath flew. They had fallen silent after she'd made her confession to K'beth, and Lystar was glad of it. She still shivered when she thought that her old secret was out – yet in a way she would have been glad to discuss it and her past further. It would take her mind off the awful present. Lystar couldn't bear to look at Jarrin's still, pale face anymore, but she kept his form cradled against her chest, trying to share her warmth with him. After all he'd done – after what he'd risked for – well, for Pern – for her to let him down…

Caliath was flying as straight and sure as an arrow still, but Lystar could feel the dull, poisonous ache in the dragon's muscles that was the sign of his weariness. She reached out mentally to Caliath to try to sooth that pain away and felt him respond with a fresh surge of energy. She would not – she could not – give in while she was Jarrin's only chance.

It was as if they were all alone in the world, two dragons and two riders chasing through an empty sky on a fruitless quest. Lystar shivered. No, not fruitless. Jarrin was still breathing. He would survive. They would arrive in time. She had to believe that.

She was glad K'beth was with her. She turned round to tell him so, and almost screamed.

K'beth heard Lystar gasp, and looked up through the haze of weariness. 'Lystar, what is it? What's wrong? Can I –?'

'K'beth –' he thought he heard her say, faintly, but it sounded as though she was a long way away. He shook his head, trying to clear his ears. Now he was concentrating he was aware of a faint buzzing that seemed to surround his head.

'Lystar, what's wrong?'

'You, K'beth, you're –'

'I can't hear you!' Rosith, love, we have to get closer again. I think we're dropping behind Caliath.

We are, said Rosith, faintly. I'm not sure… I do not think I can close the gap…

Rosith! Sharp alarm lanced through K'beth's exhaustion and jerked him back into full awareness. Now he could see what Lystar was trying to tell him. Rosith's glowing hide had faded to the colour of old parchment.

'You've got to take Rosith back to the Weyr.' Now that he was fully awake, K'beth could hear Lystar clearly. 'She's not as strong as Cal – she needs to rest!'

'I won't leave you, Lystar!' K'beth's reaction was instinctive, but then faltered as he looked back at his pale dragon. Her flying was becoming noticeably jerky as she tried to keep up with the larger blue's pace.

'You have to! You'll kill Rosith!' Lystar looked afraid; but then she'd looked afraid ever since she'd arrived. He'd wanted to do something about it. He still wanted it, and looking at Lystar's pale, frightened face made him more determined than ever to stay with her and help her.

You can do it, love, can't you? he asked anxiously, though deep in his heart he knew the answer.

Yes, Rosith lied. She made a huge effort and pumped her wings a couple of times to draw level again with Caliath. K'beth could feel the effort it took her screaming through all his own muscles. For you. I can make it all the way.

Her determination to do what he wanted her to made far more impact on K'beth than an argument would have done. His heart twisted. Lystar was right. As the green dragon was willing to go on for him, so he had to be willing to turn back for her sake. To save Rosith, half of his heart, he had to jump between to the Weyr. And that meant leaving Lystar…

He looked up again, and met the girl's eyes, vivid and dark in her strained, white face. 'Lystar…'

'It's all right, K'beth, I'll be fine.' Lystar managed to dredge up a twisted smile. 'You were going to have to let me manage alone at some point.'

'Not this soon! I –'

'I know. But you have to go, K'beth. Rosith needs you.'

'Yes.' Rosith, ready to jump to the Weyr?

Yes, said the green dragon, faintly.

K'beth looked up again at Lystar. She was looking back at him with eyes that seemed far older than her years, and he saw with a painful ache that there seemed already to be a barrier of distance between them, as if she was rushing away into a place where he couldn't follow her, where he couldn't help her. Impulsively, K'beth raised himself up on shaky knees, flinging out a hand in a desperate attempt to reach her. 'Lystar, it wasn't your fault! You can't blame yourself for what the bandits did!' He took a deep breath. 'Lystar, I –'

Rosith slipped between.

'– love you.' K'beth whispered to the freezing emptiness.

Lystar and Caliath flew onwards. With K'beth and Rosith gone, the whole world seemed very empty – and very large. Lystar could feel her dragon's tiredness creeping up on her through their mental link, urging her to give in, and to relax her grip.

She bit her lip. She dared not. Neither she nor Caliath could afford to relax for as much as a second. If they did so, themselves and Jarrin would all be spiralling towards a watery grave.

Lystar shut her eyes, and set her mind on forcing both herself and Caliath to continue. Her wrists, hands and knees ached from clinging onto Caliath's back without the support of riding straps and keeping Jarrin securely on the blue dragon's back. She could feel in her shoulders and back Caliath's tremendous strain. She knew, if she cared to think about it, that no dragon had ever attempted a task comparable to the magnitude of what they had set themselves. To save Jarrin they would have to fly half-way round Pern at the sort of speed that faster than most dragons could sustain throughout a threadfall. No, no one had done it before. Why bother, with the convenience of between?

But we can do it, Lystar thought, through gritted teeth. It's the one thing everyone says about us. We may not be especially fast or agile, but by the First Egg, Cal and I are tough. We can keep going. We will.

It took all of K'beth and Rosith's willpower to heave themselves out of between in their exhausted condition. Even then K'beth thought they'd done something wrong. His heart skipped a beat as he saw that yet again they were flying over the sea, this time trailing nearer and nearer to the waves as Rosith's strength waned.

Then he saw the island, just a little beyond them, and the Weyr. Come on, sweetheart, he muttered. Rosith, it's right there. You brought us back. You're the bravest, cleverest green in the whole Weyr. No, on the whole of Pern. You just have to get us there, love.

I can do it, Rosith gasped out.

You beautiful, said K'beth, with feeling, as the green dragon managed to pull them slowly round and heave them back up towards the top of the Weyr's crater. He saw from the corner of his eye a flicker of movement as a blue dragon lifted off from the Weyr rim, but paid no attention to it. His own vision was fuzzy, and his tensed muscles were shaking violently. He blinked hard to try and clear his head and give Rosith all the help he could with his own force of will, but he had very little thought left that wasn't slipping into haziness.

Then he loosened up all of a sudden, voicing a sigh of relief that wasn't connected with the relaxing of his own muscles. Rosith had suddenly gone limp in the air; but they weren't falling. A dragon was lifting them doggedly upwards, slowly but surely heaving Rosith's inert form over the rim of the Weyr.

Still there, love?

I love Caliath, said Rosith, faintly but fervently.

Caliath?! The shock was almost enough to jolt K'beth awake. How can Caliath be –? Then it clicked. Of course; Lystar and Caliath hadn't yet jumped back through time to meet him. The events that had led to Lystar stumbling into his cave, half dead of cold and misery, had barely begun.

The dragons spiralled down into the Weyr bowl rather faster than K'beth would have liked. Sweetheart? he asked, and valiantly Rosith began to pump her wings, helping Caliath to slow their descent.

K'beth felt the jerk as Caliath slipped away from underneath them and Rosith was suddenly bearing their full weight again. It was too much; they jolted downwards and slammed into the baked earth. Rosith! Are you all right? he asked, desperately, but never heard the green dragon's answer. He was flung off by the impact of their landing and found himself caught by a slim, strong figure.

K'beth looked up into the worried brown eyes of the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with and managed to grin. 'I'm shardin' glad to see you, Lystar.'

Lystar and Caliath flew onwards. Lystar barely registered the bright line of surf and white beaches in the distance that grew closer and closer until Caliath shot above the land and flew on over a patchwork pattern of fields and houses. Both she and her dragon felt the winds suddenly buoy them up as they reached warmer air above the solid ground; but that was all the notice that either of them paid to the scenery.

Lystar was lying down now, flat along Caliath's neck, holding Jarrin's body close alongside hers in a grotesque embrace. With her face flat against her dragon's warm, soft skin she could hear the heartbeat thundering through his body, deep below the surface, and it felt as though it reverberated through her own frame as well. She knew she was linked into Caliath's mind closer than she'd ever been before. Her muscles were strained and taut, screaming with the pain of Caliath's effort, and it was her stubborn will that drove the dragon on, keeping his wings flapping even through the pain and fatigue that filled and clouded the dragon's mind.

This is the kind of link they say you get in a mating flight, she thought vaguely in the blue dragon's direction, and then the thought whirled away and was lost. She didn't have room in her head to inspect it in more detail; there was really nothing left but the exhaustion and the determination. Lystar and Caliath couldn't tell whose mind originated which emotion. They swayed precariously between the two; first knowing that they could not possibly continue, and then knowing that they must. But even while they debated internally Caliath's wings continued to pump up and down, and Lystar held Jarrin tightly.

Mustn't sleep, K'beth thought, firmly, pulling himself out of the thick, soft darkness that wanted to close around his mind and swallow him up.

Why not? Rosith, asleep herself, half woke up as he spoke to her.

I… I don't remember, he said uncertainly. Go to sleep, precious one. I can work this out. You need your rest.

Rosith grumbled inaudibly. He couldn't hear her with his real ears, he realised. They couldn't be in their weyr. Of course – no one would have been able to lift Rosith up there. Rosith didn't answer him again, but he could feel a touch of shame crossing their emotional link. He reached out to connect more closely with Rosith's mind and realised that she felt guilty that he'd had to leave Lystar for her sake. She knew it was making him worried and blamed herself; but he couldn't blame her at all. He would never blame his elegant green love for anything.

You were a heroine today, Rosith, he said, softly. I've never been so proud of you. Caliath is a lot bigger and stronger than you, and it was very brave of you to keep going as long as you did.

Again, Rosith didn't answer, her mind drifting around the boundaries of sleep. But K'beth felt her mood lighten, and felt free to turn his thoughts back onto his own problem, dragging his mind free and disassociating it as far as possible from his weary dragon. Academically, he knew it was Rosith's exhaustion and not his own that clouded his mind, but that made no difference to the crawling speed of his thoughts. Why couldn't he sleep? What must he do first?

His recent memories were blurred through hazy vision and a tired mind. He remembered lying in a guest room – yes, that was where he must be, and Rosith was outside somewhere, beyond the range of his physical ears – with Gilda fussing over him, and the Healer up from the Hold to check him over, but he hadn't been hurt of course, only Jarrin had been injured…

Jarrin – Lystar. Lystar! She rang a bell in his mind. She was something to do with why he couldn't sleep yet.

Where was Lystar? She was a world away, heading for the Healer Hall with Jarrin. But he'd seen her, hadn't he? Yes, he could vaguely remember those worried brown eyes. He'd seen her here because in this time Lystar was also here at the Weyr. She and Caliath hadn't jumped back in time yet.

K'beth opened his eyes, staring into the darkness of the guest room, trying to force his brain to work. He had to try and talk to Lystar. If there was any way that he could help to ease the misery that he was about to plunge herself into, he knew he would do anything.

Flying was all that Lystar knew. She was barely aware when Caliath stiffened his wings and dropped into a long glide, floating down towards the earth. But when he jolted to rest on the hard ground among the buildings of the Healer Hall, Lystar did notice. She fell off his back, Jarrin's dead weight lurching into her and throwing her off balance.

When she smacked onto the ground, a healer who had been waiting politely for her to descend realised that something was wrong. Before Lystar had really woken up and begun thinking properly she was being lifted by gentle hands who set her on her feet and steadied her until she could stand upright alone. Jarrin was lifted out of her grasp and carried away into a building, and blinking furiously to clear her vision, Lystar reached out after him instinctively.

'Gently now,' said a voice beside her left ear. 'He'll be looked after.'

'He'll be all right?' Lystar asked anxiously, turning to bring the owner of the reassuring voice out of her blind spot.

'Can't tell. Wait until the Masterhealer has examined him. I should say he'll have a fighting chance.'

'Oh, thank you!' Lystar shook her head clear of the fog for a little and inspected the slim, fair man standing beside her – a senior journeyman of the Healercraft by his shoulder knots. 'Thank you,' she said again. 'He's a harper – Jarrin. The Masterharper will want to know…'

The healer smiled, one corner of his mouth crooking up. 'I'll send a message once we know what's likely to happen. Now what about you? You don't look injured to me, but you and your dragon are exhausted. You need to rest.'

'No,' said Lystar, instinctively. 'I'll wait… I have to know…'

The healer frowned. 'You really –' He stopped when he say Lystar's strained, pleading expression.

'Please. I – it was my fault!' She swallowed, and repeated. 'I have to know.'

'All right. But sit down!' The healer put a hand under her elbow to support her, and Lystar leant on it gratefully, realising that her knees were shaking.

'You haven't got any klah, have you? I could really use…'

The fair man laughed. 'I bet you could. I'll get you some. You sit down!'

'Oh, no, I can get –'

'No, I'll do it.' The healer released her gently, leaving her standing on her own fragile legs. He smiled at her again, and strode across the courtyard, detouring around Caliath's bulk to disappear into a building.

Left alone, Lystar hobbled across to where the blue dragon had lain down in the centre of the courtyard, wings and head extended and stretched out around him. Are you all right, Cal?

I ache all over. I am going to sleep here. I don't care what they want this courtyard for. Caliath's voice was faint.

You do that. Lystar looked at her tough, gallant dragon tenderly. You deserve your rest.

Moving slowly, so as not to disturb her dragon or knock any of her own smarting bruises from where she had tumbled from Caliath's back, Lystar sat down on the floor and leant against the blue. The sun shone brightly on her face, and down here there was no harsh wind to snatch the heat from her body and whisk it away behind. Warmed by the sun, finally at rest, Lystar closed her eyes for a second.

Jarrin was waiting in her head. He looked at her with his sad, lopsided smile, half-turning away into the night outside. That was the only time I ever saw him, Lystar thought, incredulously. And for a couple of minutes, before I… before I let him fall. Feels like longer than that. And I know he and K'beth are friends – I've seen how much he cares in K'beth's eyes when he talks about Jarrin – but I've never seen them together. And I might not. And it will be all my fault…

K'beth didn't know how much later he was jerked from half-sleep by the slight rustle as the heavy curtain at the door of his room was drawn aside. Despite his resolve to speak to Lystar, he'd found that he lacked to energy to actually climb from the bed and go in search of her. He'd barely managed to hang onto consciousness this far. He turned his head to see who was entering.

The slight figure in the doorway was a mere silhouette, outlined by the light of the passage way outside, but it was a silhouette that K'beth couldn't fail to recognise. He gave a faint sigh of relief. 'Lystar,' he said, quietly.

'Yes? Is there something you need?' He could tell that she was startled that he was awake. 'You should be sleeping…' She sounded worried, and it went straight to his heart that even among the troubles he knew that she was already having she'd spared the time to come and check up on him. But that was Lystar all over. She always had the time for people.

'I couldn't sleep until I'd seen you. You're so strong, Lystar… you can't see that, can you? And straight and true as an arrow.'

'What?' Lystar dropped the hanging that she was holding, and the room was plunged into darkness. She swore quietly, and then he heard a distinct wobble in her voice as she said, 'K'beth, I hardly know you! What are you talking about?'

He frowned. It was hard to think through the fog in his brain, that insisted he should be asleep, far away like Rosith, flying through his dreams. But he needed to talk to Lystar. He needed to help her. 'No, you don't know me yet, Lystar, but I know you,' he said, slowly. 'That's the first thing you have to remember. Different people know different things at different times. Keep track of it.'

'K'beth, what's going on?' Lystar asked out of the blackness. 'Stop it! You're worrying me.' He heard the quavering note in her voice, and almost stopped. But however scared and confused she was now, he knew that she would be heading into things that would be worse. And – because from his point of view it had already happened – he could do nothing to stop it. But surely he could help her – somehow? K'beth made a supreme effort and heaved himself up onto one elbow so that he was facing her through the dark.

At that moment Lystar must have found the covered glowbasket, because the room suddenly filled with a flaring white light, and K'beth blinked desperately, his vision exploding in coloured spots.

'Just remember, Lystar!' he said, shakily. 'You must keep track. That's the first thing. And you must remember how strong you are and how tough. You can do anything if you put your mind to it, you and Caliath. Anything!'

Lystar looked white and scared, and he remembered that even at this time she was bearing a burden of disability, a secret that she had told nobody. And burning in the light of the revelations of her older self, K'beth knew that she was thinking herself alone and worthless.

'You're not nobody,' he said, sternly. 'That's the last thing, Lystar. Never think like that. Remember that you are special. You and Caliath can do things other people would never even dream of. No one found out about your eye, did they?'

Lystar gasped. 'How did you – '

K'beth wasn't listening. His elbow gave out and he dropped back down onto the bed, his hair flopping across his eyes. K'beth lacked the energy to brush it aside. Of their own volition, his eyes sank closed. His mind was filling up with a fuzzy pink haze, and he knew that not even for Lystar was he going to be able to stay awake much longer. Had he helped at all? Would his words comfort her? He had to believe that they would.

'Are you all right?' Lystar's voice sounded scared and close.

He must reassure her, somehow, but try as he would K'beth couldn't force his eyes open. 'Yes,' he breathed. 'Just so tired… Remember, Lystar. You must remember.'

And he let himself slide away into darkness.

Lystar was woken by a touch on her arm, and jolted up into daylight completely disoriented. 'What?'

The healer smiled down at her. 'Here.' He passed down a steaming mug of klah, which Lystar took gratefully.

'You're a lifesaver.' She managed a tired grin. 'What time is it?'

'Nearly the eleventh hour.'

'What?!' Lystar sat bolt upright, slopping klah down herself, and her muscles complained. 'Shards!' More carefully, she climbed to her feet, trying not to strain already stiff and aching muscles. It proved an impossible task, and she had to bite her lip against the pain shooting through her shoulders and back. 'How can it be the eleventh hour? It can't possibly be more than about the eighth…'

'You've been asleep for a long time.' The healer thoughtfully retrieved her mug and helped her scramble to her feet before passing it back to her.

'And Jarrin? You –' Lystar broke off. The journeyman healer was smiling at her broadly. 'He's going to be all right? He really is, isn't he?'

The fair man nodded. 'Yes. He took a nasty head injury, but he woke up a while ago in full possession of his senses. He's not out of danger yet – but if they wake up and they seem sensible that usually means they'll make it.' He added, more seriously, 'You saved his life, you know. I don't know where you came from, but it must have been a long journey. He was freezing cold when he got here. If you'd taken longer over it, there's every chance he wouldn't have recovered from that.'

'I saved his life?' Lystar asked, incredulously. 'But it was my fault!'

'He would have died if not for you,' said the healer, firmly.

In another part of Pern, where the sun was beginning its descent towards the ocean, a blue dragon circled. His worried rider looked up and noticed the position of the sun. They exchanged a few comments; and then the blue dragon and his light, slim rider vanished.

Lystar suddenly felt light and hopeful. She drew a deep breath, and smiled up at the journeyman. 'Thank you. That's good to know.' Cal, are you awake? We're heading back to the Weyr.

I can't fly there straight, Caliath said flatly. Not in this state.

Lystar laughed. She felt ridiculously happy, as if a great oppression had been removed. She felt as though she would never be scared again. She knew that she and Caliath could achieve anything that they set out to do. You won't have to. We're going between.

Oh, you are over your fussing, are you? That's good.

She laughed again. I love you, Cal. Now heave yourself up so we can go.

As Caliath began to delicately climb to his feet, shaking out his wings carefully, she turned back to the fair-haired healer. 'Cal and I are going back to the Weyr, if Jarrin's really all right.'

He looked faintly puzzled. 'Don't you want to see him?'

Lystar laughed, shaking her tangled hair back from her face, and passed the half-full mug of klah back to him. 'I've got the rest of our lives to do that. I'll be back. I'll get to know him properly, one of these days. I'll see him and K'beth together and we can all talk to each other at once! But for now, I'm going home.'

Caliath extended a foreleg for her, and Lystar planted a foot on it and leapt lightly up to sit astride her dragon's neck ridge. It didn't matter that she had no saddle or riding straps. Not any more.

She smiled down at the healer, who was looking up at her, his hair gleaming like a halo in the sun. 'Thank you. I don't even know your name.'

He grinned. 'I'm Nathen, lady.'

'And I'm Lystar, Caliath's rider, but not lady. Goodbye, Nathen. Thank you. Convey my regards to the Masterhealer.'

'I will. Fair winds on your journey!' He stepped back, and Caliath pumped his massive wings to lift them laboriously from the ground.

You could have arranged for a drop to take off from, with me in this state, he grumbled.

Lystar grinned again, and let him feel her amusement flowing down their link. The wind ruffled her hair as Caliath pulled away from the ground, and she closed her eyes, calling up a clear picture of the Weyr she loved so much.

That would leave you with nothing to complain about, dear one, she told the blue dragon. Now let's go home.