<<Troy I want you to find Krith and Jezebel and tell them that I 
want to see their rider's in my office a.s.a.p.>> Jayleigh snapped, 
not at all happy that the two junior Queenriders' couldn't be found.

What's going on?

<Krith flew yesterday,> the Queen informed her. <Maybe her rider's 
doing the same thing you were doing all of last night.>

Jayleigh was glad no one was in her office to see the blush that 
colored her cheeks at the Queen's reminder of the night before. It 
had been wonderful, even after the two dragon's had no longer been involved.
Where, she wondered, did the tall shy young man learned 
to pleasure a woman the way he had pleased her.

Over and over!

She sighed deeply and pushed the memories to the back of her mind. 
Pleasant though they were, she still had a Warren to look after.

The first thing she needed to do was figure out *what* to do about 
Tair'n. Was there no way to earn the mans respect? The gods only 
knew how hard she was trying. Giving him more responsibility, 
trying to make him see that she respected his decisions by staying 
out of this thing with Da'ntray and letting him handle it.

But it wasn't enough! It wasn't working. Tair'n was saying and 
doing all the right things, but she could feel his contempt for her
everytime they were in the same room together. Maybe if she asked 
his opinion more often, or asked for his help with different things 
that came up from time to time. Maybe then.....

Her thoughts were interrupted  when the door to her office was 
thrown open and she looked up surprised to see the Gamma Wingleader 
march on in with the man who'd been on her mind earlier. Gerald 
didn't look to happy to be dragged there.

>"Don't you ever knock, G'ther?"  She studiously avoided Gerald's 
eyes for a moment.

>"I'm ready to retire and go fishing. And maybe swing a sword at
a few students."

>"You came barging in here just to say that? You need to wait 
until we get a replacement for Gamma Wing."

>"The waiting's over. Here he is!" With that, G'ther shoved Gerald 
in the small of his back, so that the harpist nearly fell over 
Jayleigh's desk. Inches from her face, Gerald half-smiled 
apologetically.

Her eyes met his and the memories of last night came flooding back. 
Looking into those same deep blue eyes that had looked down into 
hers as she laid beneath his powerful frame. Her glaze lowered to 
look at the lips that had given her such intense pleasure, and again
wondered when he had learned the things he did to her. 

"Well M'lady, what do you think?" She heard G'ther saying and could 
swore he was laughing, but when she turned her head to look at the 
older man, there was no smile on his face.

"Well of course I'll talk to everyone involved in making the 
decision, she replied and watched as Gerald moved away from her 
desk. "But I don't see any reason why any of the others would 
object. I'll let you both know after I talk to them."

Fine, fine," G'ther beamed. "I can hear the fishes calling out 
to me already. Maybe I can get your father, Jer'lin to go with 
me."

"I'm sure he'll enjoy that," she remarked, wishing the older man 
would leave the room, she'd seen the side long glances Gerald had 
been shooting her way and knew she'd been right about him. Maybe 
she could convince him to talk a trip up to her favorite spot up 
near the lake. After all... a Queenrider was suppost to have an 
escort when ever she left the Warren. Wasn't she?

<<Troy will you please ask Random to ask his rider if he .ah... 
they would care to escort us up to the lake later this afternoon?>>
she send to her Queen. <<If he's not busy that is.>>

G'ther was saying something about an early morning trip to a 
fishing spot he knew about. Jayleigh barely heard him, as her 
eyes were watching the tall rider's face.

She knew to the second, when Random had relayed the message from 
Viktroy, by the blush that crept over Gerald's face. She waited 
for him to look at her but was disappointed when he didn't. Maybe
she had figured wrong.

"Well I just wanted you to know what my plans were," G'ther ended 
by saying and got up to walk to the door when he noticed Gerald 
wasn't with him. "You coming Gerald?" he asked with a knowing smile 
as the younger man stood up quickly.

"Don't know what it is, but every this boy showed up at my apartment 
this morning, he's had his head in the clouds," the now ex-Wingleader 
joked wickedly as he followed the tall blond out of the door.

Poor Gerald, she thought smiling. So! He was getting it from other 
people too!! She wasn't the only one being teased for staying out 
so long after the dragon's had returned home.

A minute later the door opened and she looked up to see Gerald 
coming towards her. "Forget something?" she asked.

He didn't answer, just kept coming until he was standing next to 
her behind the desk. She was surprised when he reached down and 
gently pulled her to her feet. What he did next shocked her 
pleasantly, as his lips came down to cover hers.

As the kiss went on, she brought her hands up to grip the strong 
muscles of his arms, steadying herself when her legs threatened to 
give out. Then suddenly he ended it, and raised his head, releasing 
her. She looked up and saw him smiling.

"I just wanted to make sure I read your invitation right," he said 
and turned back towards the door. "Just have your Queen bespeak 
Random when you're ready to go."

Jayleigh had to take several deep breathes before she could 
remember where she was. And she had thought him shy?!?
******

Sometime later she was again surprised, but this time it was by 
someone *knocking* at her door.  She called out "enter' and sat 
back in her chair to see the Alpha Wingleader and W'roan walk in 
with a young man in tow.

"Warrenlady Jayleigh, I'd like you to meet Salas Taverner.  He was 
in a bad situation, so I sort of... Searched him."

Jayleigh's eyebrows shot up.  "I see.  It's good to meet you, Salas.  
What kind of work do you do?"

"I can cook, bake and do a bit of butchering and gardening-- my da 
always said you should be able to do a meal from start to finish.  
Brewing, laundry work, cleaning..."  The young man shrugged.

"Hmmm...  Okay.  Why don't you go to the kitchens and tell Realee 
to try you there as staff.  W'roan can show you where and Realee or 
one of her staff can get you set as far as apartments go and such."

He nodded. "Thank you, Lady Jayleigh. I really appreciate it."

They watched the young man walk out, then Tair'n turned to Jayleigh. 
"I know what you're going to say, but I am the Alpha Wingleader, and 
he was being knocked about something fierce by his father and uncle 
because of a little... incident a couple years back with a traveling crafter
with a penchant for young men. I just couldn't stand to see 
him suffer."

"Well of course not!! "Jayleigh agreed emphatically. She had seen 
something in the boy that she knew Tair'n couldn't. This boy 
definitely had a dragon affinity.  "As it is, you did the right 
thing bring him here under those conditions. But what has being 
the Alpha Wingleader have to do with anything? I would hope any 
of the rider's here would help the same way. By the way, you were 
right! you know? He had the aura, I can see it around him."

She saw the look of surprise that came across Tair'n's face before 
he could hide it, and secretly cheered inside. Finally she'd 
managed to do something right where he was concerned, but she 
didn't press it. 

"So tell me," she smiled. "Did you happen to find 
Lord Gossimor's  ghost while you were there?"

"No..." he smiled sheepishly back at her for a second and then his 
smile was gone. "We did find signs that something had been there." 
He explained what they had uncovered. "So W'roan and I will be 
going back there later tonight to see if we're right."

"Sounds like a good plan," Jayleigh said.

"I'll let you know," he said and rose up from the chair. "If I've 
your leave Warrenlady."

So she thought, nodding her head as she watched him leave. We're 
back to that again. Damn!!! For a brief moment there she had felt 
them connect. What happened to change it? 

<<Troy love, have you found Krith or Jezebel yet?>> she asked with 
a sigh. 

<They have both returned and are on their rider's are on their way 
to your office.> the Queen returned. 

Several minutes went by before there was a knock at the door and 
the two women in question walked in looking somewhat apologetic. 
It didn't stop her anger one bit.

"May I remind the two of you that as Queen rider's you are not to 
leave this Warren without letting someone know where you are 
going? " she said in a low voice barely containing her anger. 
"If anything were to happen to them... to yourselves..."

"Jayleigh we're sorry..." Maeve started to say and then Rezsia 
spoke up where she left off. 

"We just had a few things to discuss with each other, and we felt 
we needed to do it away from here."

"Regardless, of your reasons why, did either of you stop to think 
about what I might be going through when I got back and found a note telling
me about wraiths attacking and then could find no one here 
to tell me what in the hell was going on?" she stood up from behind 
her desk, planted both hands on top of the desk and stared at them. 

"Didn't you think I just *might* be a little worried about wraiths attacking
so close to the Warren? Or concerned that any of our 
rider's might have been injured."

"Tair'n was here, you could have asked..."

"It wasn't Tair'n's job to keep me informed," she snapped, cutting 
the girl off. "I'm suppost to be able to rely on the two of you 
to look after things for me when I have to be away from here."

Maeve looked miserable, and it was then that Jayleigh remembered 
Troy telling her that the younger girl's Queen had also risen to 
mate yesterday. It must have been before she had arrived back at 
the Warren herself.

"Jayleigh, if you want to blame someone then blame me," Rezsia was 
saying. "I'm the one who should have been here waiting for you to 
return... What with Krith rising.."

"You're right. You should have been," she looked over at Maeve who 
had her head bowed. "I'd forgotten that Viktroy had told me Krith 
had also risen." She wondered if it had been a good experience 
for her. She hadn't yet found out *who's*  dragon had won her's.

<<Troy do you know who won Krith?>> she sent the question to her 
dragon so as not to embarrasses the girl.

<Sprarroe> came the reply, and Jayleigh smiled knowing how the 
girl felt about her brother. And how he felt for her.. but then 
there was Rezsia to consider. She too had feelings for Ja'ks. This 
couldn't be easy on the two girls friendship. Nor for Ja'ks as far 
as that went.

"Next time PLEASE!! Think about what you're doing. Write out a 
report on the incident so I'll have a better idea of what's going 
on." she cautioned. "I need to know that I can depend on you both 
to help me around here. I don't think I've made any mistakes 
thinking you were both able too. So don't let something like this 
happen again."

Both girls knew they'd been dismissed and got up to leave.
-----------------------------------------------------------
nrpg: (Tag: Sarah or Amy;) go ahead get mad.....

Lyn: I'll get to Tair'n tomorrow...GOOD post...I'll have to give 
it some thought tonight :)I didn't want to rush through it just 
to add it to this one.

Mike: I'll also get to Jayleigh's meeting with Zert in my next post. 
She'll be asking to see him in the late afternoon. Just before 
dinner time.

******Submitted by: ******
Barbara (a.k.a.

Warrenlady Jayleigh &  Viktroy
          Daere Warren