[Day 2, Morning after the Hatching]

[Gransol ap Chevane]

"Come on, Solly, wake up."

<My rider!  Please, wake up.>

"Daddy!  Daddeeeee!"

He blinked and found himself looking up into several pairs of eyes.  The
unmatched of his brother's, his daughter's grey eyes, Tannet's daughters'
baby blues, Talitha's darker blue, and a set of pale spring green eyes,
framed in a scaly green face.

Sylan.

It all rushed back to him and he felt himself growing dizzy again.  Tannet
produced a wet cloth from somewhere and started mopping his face.  "Come
on, breathe slowly.  Don't hyperventilate.  Solly... calm down." 

"How... how can I calm down when I'm... *joined* to a..."

"Pretty dragon," Larisel provided.

"Trey, would you like me to take the children, so you and Gransol can
talk?" a woman's voice asked from somewhere behind him.

Tannet looked up and smiled.  "Thanks, Miri.  I appreciate it."

"Come on, girls.  Let's go, so Sylan and her rider can get to know each
other better."

He watched the twin toddlers and his own daughter leave with the
dark-haired woman who cared for many of the warren's youngsters while
their parents worked, then was brought back to the present by the slither
of a warm tongue on his hand.

<My rider?  Talk to me, please.>

"Oh, gods..."

"Solly, calm down," Tannet said.  "The mating flights are but two or three
times a year."

"You don't understand..."

"We do understand," Talitha said.  "It's come as a shock to you, but--"

"No!  You don't understand.  Everyone knows now.  Everyone knows."

"Knows what, Solly?" Tannet asked.

Gransol covered his face with his hands.  "That I like men... that I want
men...  I did all the right things.  I married.  I had children.  I pushed
it down till I thought no one would guess.  But now... everyone knows the
terrible sin of my heart."

Silence stretched in the cavern where the three humans and one hatchling
sat all alone.  What answer was there to his admission?

Despair... pain... rejection...  He looked up at the little green
dragonet.  Her entire body drooped with dejection.

"Solly, you have to take care of her, or she'll die," Tannet said, after
recovering from the shock of his revelation.  "I know this is hard for
you, but it's hard for her, too.  And you're her chosen rider.  There is
no other."

He sat up and looked glumly at the dragonet.  "I suppose I might as well.
Now that the secret's out, there's no use hiding it anymore."

Gransol didn't see the look of worry pass between his brother and Talitha
as he stood and began helping the dragonet out of the cavern.

******

[Trey]

He'd spent the day helping the newly joined adjust to their dragons, only
interrupted by the horror of the attack on Tina.

Now he sat across from Solly at the dinner table in the Dining Hall.  His
brother was quiet, beaten, and Trey didn't know how to help him.  What
could he possibly do?  The Lady Graniel had pounded the wrongness and
unnaturalness of same-sex relations into her son so hard, Trey saw no way
to rescue his brother from the conflict of those beliefs against his own
nature.

"How's that woman, Tina?" Solly asked quietly.

"No major physical damage," Trey answered.  "Who can tell about
emotional."

Solly nodded.  Trey half expected some comment about how the seductively-
clad rider had been asking for it, but his brother didn't seem up to his
usual Landbound retorts today.

"Solly..."

"No, don't.  I don't need to hear any dragonrider prattle about how it's
all right."

Trey fell silent.  Then said, urgently, "The Lady Graniel lied to you
about a lot of things, Solly. She lied about me, about my mother, about
warren society.  She was a morally bankrupt woman."  Solly flinched, but
Trey went on.  "You can't trust her morality.  You have to think for
yourself.  You have to understand what's in your heart."

Solly shook his head.  "You ask me to reject the ethics of the entire
Landbound society."

Trey snorted.  "The potter who bought me from Graniel had plenty of men
offer to buy me off him, and I can guarantee you, brother mine, it wasn't
for my dumplings recipe.  The society looks moral on the outside, till you
start looking at what they do to and with their slaves."

Solly frowned.  "Yes.  We all fall short of our goals, but that doesn't
mean we give up on them."

"Even when it causes you such self-loathing, even though you've done
nothing?"

Gransol stood then.  "I don't think I want to discuss this.  Good night,
Tannet."

******

[C'tain]

It was nighttime before they got Minourith back to Marrid.  She was alive,
but there wasn't much else to say for her.  Behrse's body had been laid in
the cool morgue room underneath the Medical Center.  C'tain knelt by
Minourith and gently stroked her side, trying to offer some comfort.

"C'tain?"

He looked up to see Sina step out of the Med Center.  "Hey, sis."

She knelt in front of him, taking in the condition of his clothes.  "I
didn't get to see you earlier.  Are you okay?"

He nodded.  "Most of the blood is Behrse's."

"Your cheek," she said, touching it gently.

He flinched away from the touch.  "Behrse... got somewhat hysterical..."

"Come inside and let me clean it out."

******

She was just finishing the last stitch on his cheek when he looked up to
see Koda standing there.  Tears were running down her face.

"Bit..."

"You left before I could explain," she said.

"I didn't leave," he answered.  "I'd just gone out with Behrse to cool
off."

"But... the note..."

"What note?"

"The one on your table," she answered.

"Oh.  I forgot about that.  Surely, you didn't think...  I didn't take any
of my things...  And D'tass..."

"I didn't know what to think, even after we found out D'tass was still
here..."

He slipped off the examining table to go to her, but his knees buckled.
Sina grabbed him.  "Hey, I think you need to lie down.  You lost a lot of
blood through that wound.  And I'll bet you didn't eat today."

He thought briefly, then shook his head.  He and D'tass had rushed to the
hatching without breakfast.  He and Behrse had left immediately after.
Then he'd spent most of the day after her death walking back to the
warren... and then returning to get Minourith.

Sina helped him back to the examining and had him lay back.  "Stay there,
I'll go get you something to eat."

She left and he was left alone in the room with Koda.  He closed his eyes,
trying to wipe away the memory of Behrse's dying face.  "She died, Bit.  I
tried to stop her, but she just..." he made a stabbing motion and then
covered his face.  "...And all I could do was hold her while she died."

******

[Day 3]

[Ranon]

<My rider...>

He sat up and met Colchis's eyes.  <You're awake.>

<I think I'm okay...>

Ranon sighed with relief and hugged the dragon's snout.  <I can hear you
again.  Oh, thank the gods.>

******

He headed to Carie's apartment, ready to share the good news, taking the
steps to her apartment two at a time.

"DAMNIT!" he heard her yell as he raised his hand to knock.  Then there
was the sound of glass shattering.

Panicked, he yelled inside.  "Carie?"

She walked slowly out into her entryway, blood dripping from her right
hand.  She smiled weakly. 

"Hello, Ranon.  I was just heading to the Medical Center, care to join
me?" 

<Colchis, can you fly?> he asked, as he grabbed her to steady her.

<I don't think so.>

"Where's Fiera?"

"She's coming..."

Just then, a wind whipped at them as the queen landed.  Ranon led her over
to her dragon and helped her up, then joined her.

"Med Center, Fiera," he said.

******

"You going to be okay?" he asked her as they landed back at her apartment
after her visit to the Med Center and slid off Fiera's neck.

She nodded.  "It's just so...  Everything's going to hell and I'm left in
charge of it all."

"Hey," he said, cupping her chin and lifting her face to meet his eyes.
Tears threatened to brim over any minute now.  "You're not alone.  There
are plenty of people willing to help."

"But it's all up to me to decide..."  The tears suddenly won the battle.

Ranon wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.  Almost
automatically, he kissed her cheek gently.  She pulled back at the touch
and studied his face.

"Sorry," he said.  "I know.  I'm a rogue and you're a queenrider... the
acting warrenlady, even.  But I just..."

Her eyes softened and then she slipped her arms around his neck and pulled
his head down till their lips met.

******

[Day 4]

He awoke to kisses and opened his eyes to her face framed in the gold of
her hair.

"Good morning," he said, smiling.

"Good morning.  I wanted to tell you I have to go and do warrenlady stuff,
but you're free to stay here and sleep for a while longer."

"Oh.  Thanks.  You going to be okay?"

She nodded.  "I think so, now.  Thanks."

"The pleasure was all mine."  She arched her eyebrows at him and he
chuckled.  "Okay, maybe not *all* mine..."

******

[Trey]

He watched the trainees leave the green and considered them with a worried
frown.  First, there was Gransol.  He was just going through the motions
with Sylan.  The little green's colour was dulled and she was listless.
He could do a lot of things, but he couldn't make Solly love his dragon.

"Gods, what do I do?" he wondered to himself.

Then there was Breeze's news that some silver dragon was staying in Arri's
apartment.  Was she back?  And why had she left in the first place?  And
was she, as the dragon claimed, contagious?

He turned and headed for the warrenlady's office, where Carie was still
occupied in a meeting with Touth looking at the map of his scouting
expedition to find the old unfinished warren.

He'd tell her about Arri being back and see if she had any ideas for
handling Gransol.

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  Tr'etram and Koroth
  Gransol ap Chevane and Sylan
  Ranon and Colchis
  C'tain 

---

 Lynette R. F. Cowper <lcowper@indy.net>, INWO Line Editor