The women in the kitchen had prepared a feast for the celebration. Thirty-seven eggs hardened on the sands, laid and watched over by Nemoth. She and Suninth lay twined together on the sands, crooning to each other, preening with pride at their large clutch. Jessica and Kevin weren't much better inside the dining hall, toasting themselves for a fine mating flight.

Justin sat with the other weyrlings, between Lance and Drew. A slight scar on Lance's left temple was all that remained of his dramatic first flight against Thread. According to Lance, Samarth barely remembered the incident. Most of the other weyrlings around him had received scars of some sort from their duty of carrying firestone. Justin, after that first Threadfall, hadn't been asked to deliver the bags again.

He listened to the banter of the men around him, congratulating themselves and each other on their flying during Threadfall, and their quick thinking to avoid scoring from Thread. He turned to Lance, who hadn't joined in the present conversation. Lance wasn't paying attention to the conversation at all, his gaze concentrated on a far table, across the dining hall.

"Lance," Justin said to get his attention. "Is everything all right?"

Lance turned to Justin and nodded. "Fine. Why?"

Justin shrugged. "When do you think we'll be called into fighting wings?"

"Soon, I hope."

Justin answered with a smile. "Me too. What's that phrase they use? I've only ever heard Jessica say it once."

"Something about allowing us to ride with them. As if it were their privilege instead of ours."

Justin laughed.

With a smile, Lance turned away to answer a question from the boy on his right. He had just turned back to offer Justin more meat from the common plate when a hand came down heavily on his shoulder. Both men looked up to see Howard standing above them, grinning down into their upturned faces. "The Weyrleader has allowed me to ride with you," he said to Lance. He then moved on to Drew, on Lance's other side, and said the same cryptic phrase.

Though they had just talked about it not five minutes before, Justin didn't understand the significance of the phrase for several moments, until Lance and Drew both got up from the table to follow Howard back to his. As he watched them go, Justin realized that both of them had just been invited to be a part of Howard's wing. They weren't weyrlings anymore; they were riders. He turned to the others at the table, and saw that most of them were being tapped as well. Soon, he was the last one left at the table, and he watched as Janet got up from the queen's table, and made her way over to him.

She smiled as she approached, and the twinkle it brought to her eye assured him of the good news. "The Weyrleader has allowed me to ride with you," she said quietly, and turned to walk back to the table, expecting him to follow.

Late one night, after most of the Weyr had fallen asleep, Justin sat on the ledge near his dragon, thinking. His body was tired but his mind was awake, and he couldn't go to bed just yet. Ayleth had long since succumbed to the call of her tired body, though Justin wished she'd stayed awake just a little longer so she could talk to him. He had so many things to talk about, and no one that understood him as she did; no one that connected with him in any way remotely like his link with Ayleth.

He had given up on thinking for the night, and was about to turn to go to bed when he heard someone coming up the ramp to his weyr. The queen's weyrs were all closer to the ground, accessible by a series of ramps for when a dragon had clutched and was unwilling to leave her eggs, so the rider could get to and from her rooms.

He called to the figure he could only make out dimly in the dark night. "Hello?"

"Justin, it's Lance."

"Why are you still up? Don't you have Fall tomorrow?"

"Yes, but I needed to talk to you."

What Justin hadn't been able to hear in his voice was evident on Lance's face when he got close enough that Justin could see him. Something excited the other man, something that he was simply bursting to tell Justin. "What is it?"

Lance sat on the ledge next to Justin. "Samarth rose two days ago."

"Rose?"

"To mate."

Jessica hadn't told him yet about the mating flights. Unwilling to show his ignorance to the other man, Justin simply nodded.

"Aren't you going to ask me who flew her?"

Flew her? Justin decided to play along. "Who flew her?"

"Rahleth."

"That's great."

"I don't know that Chris wants to make anything formal. I'm not sure that's something they do that often in the Weyrs, like they do in the holds."

"Do you want to?"

Lance nodded.

"Couldn't hurt to tell him."

"I guess. I'm nervous. I still feel like a weyrling when I try to talk to him."

"Lance, you haven't been one for several months now."

Lance ducked his head. "I know. I just... I feel so inexperienced in this."

Justin still had little idea of what Lance was talking about, and silently agreed. "His dragon flew yours, Lance. I'm sure he doesn't think of you that way anymore."

Lance looked up at Justin and grinned. "You're probably right. I'm making something out of nothing."

Justin nodded. "Exactly."

Lance threw his arm around Justin's shoulder. "Thanks, Justin."

He returned the half-embrace and yawned widely. Lance laughed. "I think its time I left. You obviously need to rest."

Justin smiled sheepishly. "Good night."

"Good night." As Lance stood to go down the ramp, Justin turned and went into his weyr, intent on sleep.

"Black, blacker, blackest. Cold beyond..." Justin scrubbed harder, trying to remember the next line. "The coldest things?" he asked over his shoulder.

"All frozen things," was the reply.

"Cold beyond all frozen things." He scooped more sand into his hand, and attacked Ayleth's hide again. "Where is Between when there is..." He paused again. "What's the word?"

"Naught."

"When there is naught to life but fragile dragon's wings." He ended in a rush, hurling out the phrase he always remembered.

He laughed when a shower of water droplets descended over him and turned to offer the same in return. "Thanks, Joseph."

Joseph turned from scrubbing Narith's hide, an obviously exaggerated innocent expression on his face. "What?" he asked, wide eyed.

"Nothing," Justin replied, reaching over the water separating them to poke Joseph's naked belly. "Why did you want me to learn that anyway?"

"It's a teaching song. I'm surprised no one's made you learn it before now, but everyone should know the teaching songs, so I took it upon myself to teach you."

"Father didn't often allow the harpers to come. When he did, they wouldn't stay too long. He always ran them off."

Don't be sad, Ayleth said to him, as Joseph laid a hand on his bare shoulder.

"I'm sorry." Justin apologized to both.

"Nothing to be sorry for, not your fault."

"No, but I want to forget him, forget that I ever lived anywhere but here."

Joseph moved through the waist deep water of the lake to take Justin into his arms. "You can't run from your past. It makes you who you are."

Justin sighed into Joseph's shoulder as he wrapped his arms around the other man. It was a discussion they'd had before, and it always ended the same way. "How many more times are you going to say that?"

Joseph laughed and tightened his arms. "As many times as it takes you to believe."

I'm not clean yet.

Justin laughed and turned to kiss the wet skin on Joseph's neck. "Ayleth says she isn't clean yet."

"Narith's telling me the same thing. We should stop neglecting our dragons."

"Wretched riders that we are."

Both laughed and turned to finish scrubbing at the wet hide with sand. The task had seemed daunting at the start, as there was so much hide to clean, but he was almost finished.

I'm done. I want to go swim now.

All right. Go rinse.

Justin stepped back as Ayleth moved into the deeper water of the lake. He watched as she disappeared beneath the calm surface, disturbing it's placid waters with large, dragon- sized ripples. Moments later, Joseph sent Narith out to swim with her. The two riders went to sit on the shore as their dragons played in the water's depths.

Joseph sat first and pulled Justin down to sit between his legs. He tugged the younger man back until Justin's back was flush against his chest, and wrapped damp arms around Justin's torso. "What's bothering you?" he said into Justin's ear.

Justin picked at Joseph's pant leg with one hand. "Lance said that Samarth rose in the mating flight, and that Rahleth flew her. I know what that means. Then he talked about formal ties with Chris, and he lost me. I don't know anything about the mating flight, but I know that Ayleth will rise soon, and I won't know what to do!"

Joseph hugged the man tighter against his chest, and spoke softly into his ear. "We didn't want to tell you too soon. You had so many other things to adjust to; we didn't want to add to it. But you're right; it's past time you knew. You know about the mechanics of dragon's mating, right?"

"Yes, Jessica told me a little about that."

"And I suspect she stopped and said there was somewhere you had to be, didn't she?"

Justin nodded.

"When Ayleth gets hungry, does she tell you?"

"Sometimes, but most of the time I know."

"How do you know?"

"I can feel her hunger pains."

"It's really that simple. When she rises, you're going to feel everything she does. You're going to want to feel the same thing for yourself. When Lance says that Rahleth flew Samarth, he's also saying that he and Chris mated as well."

"Is that what he meant by formal ties?"

"Yes. Sometimes green and gold riders choose to close their mating flights, sticking with just one rider. Some choose to open every flight. It really all depends on the rider."

"So I can close her flight?"

Joseph bowed his head into the back of Justin's neck. "I'm sorry, Justin. John won't let you. But we can bring in a stand in. A girl, I mean, so you don't have to share in… the act with the bronze rider."

Justin stiffened in Joseph's arms. "No, please. I don't mind. I want to… with you. I want Narith to fly her."

Joseph hugged Justin even closer, and kissed the back of his neck. "I do too, so much. If it means anything, John does too. But he can't close her flight. She's too important right now. He can't risk alienating anyone."

Justin covered Joseph's hands with his own, squeezing tightly as he slowly relaxed in the circle of Joseph's arms. "Then you and Narith will just have to fly better than the rest."

"We could do it for you," Joseph whispered in his ear.

The first Thread free day of the Pass dawned bright and sunny. A Gather was planned at Ruatha Hold, and the dragon riders of Fort Weyr were eager to attend. Justin oiled Ayleth carefully, making her golden hide shine in the warm sunlight. He wanted her to look her best for the Gather. He knew they both would be on display for the holders to stare at and whisper about.

After Ayleth was ready, Justin pulled his Gather clothes from the trunk at the foot of his bed. Honora had presented him with the outfit earlier that week.

"Need a fitting outfit for the Gather," she'd said, handing him a cloth-wrapped package.

He'd opened it to find a dark brown tunic, finely stitched with gold and red threads crossing in a complicated pattern down the front and back of the garment. He hugged the woman as he thanked her for the gift, and she told him firmly to go put it in the trunk, "lest it get mussed." But she smiled as she did so, and took the sting out of her words.

He brought the shirt over his head, and smoothed the fine material across his wide shoulders, making sure there were no wrinkles in the fabric.

Are you ready yet?

Justin laughed at his dragon's impatience as he walked to her position on the rock ledge of their weyr. "You'd think we were late!"

We could be.

"We've time, Ayleth, but I won't make you wait any longer. Let's go!"

He climbed onto her neck, and she launched herself aloft, bellowing excitedly to the watchdragon as they passed. He returned the call just as Justin gave the order Between.

Justin had never been to a Gather before, he'd only watched from the outside. He sent Ayleth to sun with the other dragons as he wandered through the tents. Every crafthall was represented by the brightly colored tents boasting colorful fabrics, bits of glass, and artwork.

He ran into Lance in front of the Tanner's booth. The man tending the booth remembered Lance from his days in the Tannercrafthall and the two exchanged greetings and news as Justin approached.

Lance spotted him as he drew nearer, and stopped the conversation to make introductions. The tanner's eyes widened when he realized the importance of the person he was speaking to. "Pleased to meet you, sir."

The reaction confused Justin, who was unused to the common reaction to his status. "Please don't call me sir. I'm younger than you by many Turns."

The tanner smiled politely and nodded. "I expect you'll be off to look around then."

Lance shrugged and looked to Justin, who nodded excitedly. "Yes, I think so."

As Justin and Lance were about to walk off, the tanner called Justin back. "A gift," he said. "From the Mastertanner."

He held out a belt, beaded and stitched with a fine metal buckle on the end. Justin turned the belt over in his hands, and saw the stamp of the Mastertanner himself on the backside. "Thank you," he said breathily, in awe of the gift.

"Try it on then, Justin," Lance said.

Justin looked to the tanner, who waved off the silent inquiry. "It's yours now. Wear it with pride."

Justin grinned and thanked the man again before buckling the belt around his trim waist. It fit perfectly, falling just at the top of his hips over the tunic he wore. "Perfect," he said.

"Come on then. Let's go look around." Lance pulled Justin away from the tanner's tent. He led Justin through the tents lined on the field, introducing him to those he knew and making new friends with those he didn't.

Narith back winged gracefully and landed on the far edge of the field in which the Gather was spread.

Ayleth is already here, he said to Joseph as the rider dropped to the ground.

Go and join her then, Joseph replied as he set off into the crowd to find Justin.

He noticed, as he passed, that bystanders no longer glared at him as walked by. Children stood at the edge of the crowd, staring at the group of recumbent dragons, led their by parents hoping to apologize for the years of verbal abuse.

The attitude toward the Weyrs and the riders had changed considerably since Thread had come again to Pern. The dragon riders, once again the only defense against Thread, were again held in high esteem, praised and thanked wherever they went.

He found Justin by the Harper Hall's booth, inspecting the instruments displayed.

"You play anything?" he said quietly into Justin's ear. The shiver that ran down the man's back at his words delighted Joseph.

"No." Justin turned to face him. "Do you?"

"Used to."

"Used to?" a gravelly voice said, with some indignance.

"Excuse me?" Joseph asked, squinting into the darker recesses of the tent.

"Joseph."

"Donnie!" Joseph stepped forward and caught the emerging figure in an embrace.

Donnie clapped Joseph's back and pulled away from the younger man. "Have you so pushed your past behind you?" he asked, glaring at Joseph's smiling face.

"No, of course not. Just haven't had time to keep it up, really."

"I would guess not." Donnie glared pointedly at Joseph. "Are you going to introduce me?"

"Oh! I'm sorry. This is Justin, the rider of Ayleth. Justin, this is Donnie, of the Harper Hall."

Justin clasped hands with Donnie in greeting.

"Ayleth, hey?" Donnie asked, squinting at Justin. "So you'd be the boy with the gold dragon?"

Justin nodded.

A smile crossed the old man's face for the first time. The change wrought to his features was remarkable. "I taught Joseph before he was Searched."

Justin turned to Joseph. "You were at the Harper Hall?"

Joseph nodded.

"Is that why you insist that I know all the teaching songs?"

"One of them. You should know them anyway." Joseph looked toward the Hold doors. "We should go to the upper levels now, Justin. The holders will want to meet you. Nice seeing you, Donnie."

Donnie waved them both off, and retreated to the back of the tent again. Joseph put a hand to the small of Justin's back as he steered the younger man through the maze of tents.

"I had Lance with me earlier," Justin said. "I can't remember where I lost him."

"He knows what he's doing."

"He's been to a Gather before, so yes, I'm sure he does."

Joseph pulled Justin to a stop. "You've never been to a Gather?"

Justin shook his head.

"You've missed so much," Joseph said quietly. "Lance took you around earlier, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"So you've seen most of the booths by now. We'll go up to where the Lord Holders mill around. Pretend to be dignified for a bit."

Justin laughed at Joseph's expression and nodded, following him away from the milling crowds.

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for Archie

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