"C'n I have that?" Lavus asked, leaning over to his companion at the big table, where everyone was gathered. There would be singing and dancing later, but for the moment the seventeen-turn old pipe-flute student could think of nothing more than another serving of wherry roast.

"You know I don't much care for their spices," the boy said, "all that black crud on the meat! How can you even stand it, Lavus?"

"Love it!" He said, stuffing his mouth with the browned meat. "Wish you'd eat more, you're gettin' skinny!" He poked at the slightly younger singer, who winced and shrank and laughed.

"If they'd ever serve something I'd like!"

They quieted down a bit, and finally the speakers for the night came to the front of the room. They were elevated a little on a platform, and had a podium. It was all more formal than either Lavus or his friend would want.

"We are here today in the Hall of the Musicians," the older man said, voice booming across the room - if he wasn't a stage performer than Lavus would eat his pipes! "To set into motion, the very future of the Craft Hall."

"Oh great, it's a graduation gather," Lavus' friend groaned, "I wish they'd just said so..."

"Shh," Lavus said. "We never know who it'll be!"

Very shortly, they did learn. It was a girl whose presence in the Crafthall had been noted sourly by some - but she was an expert guitarist and had a distinct, clear voice. Plus, she worked harder than nearly everyone around her. Hence: some folks didn't appreciate being shown up by a girl. Lavus wasn't one of those - he thought she would do very well indeed out in the world. She 'walked the tables' that day, graduating into a full Mastery for she'd been here long enough to earn her prior knots as well. They had probably kept her on because, in Lavus' opinion, she made other people work harder.

He congratulated her as she went by, she winked and thanked him, and toussled his friend's hair. "You keep him thinking straight," she told the boy, who was three years Lavus' younger and attended several classes with Lavus.

"I try, I try..." he groaned, "it's hard work!"

"Good!" She tittered and went on down the row. But that wasn't all, tonight.

"Before we begin with the true festivities," the Masterharper announced, when things settled a bit, "I do have to announce that there are two Search riders among us this evening. So put on a good show, and perhaps they'll let you remain where you belong..."

There was a mixture of laughter and applause, the riders must have slipped in earlier while the guitarist was playing her beautiful pieces. In fact they were hardly noticed, but stood casually enough by the banquet tables.

"Well that's one thing you've got in common with the riders, Lavus," Metlair said, "they like food as much as you!"

***

He sat back and provided a floating melody over the fiddles, with their friend slapping on small drums and several couples dancing (far more wildly than they'd ever be allowed to do in a classroom of course, with skirts flying and heels kicking up) as the rest of the Crafthall clapped along or dug into their second or third portions of dinner. The Search riders wandered through the place carefully, having enjoyed their spicy meaty meal and gotten to business.

It was clear that the Masters didn't much want too many of their students taken away by these riders. But they couldn't stop the process, all they could really do was hope that if someone was chosen, it wasn't a prized journeyman or apprentice. After a few tunes, Lavus broke from the group and went back for more drinks, he was replaced by a more fresh, younger but less practiced flutist. The beat went on, the tunes continued.

He brushed up against someone, and realized it was one of the Searchers. "Ah, hey, hello," he said, "have you found anyone yet?"

"Well, we're just here looking over the folks," the rider said, "our dragons actually have to perform a more thorough search process."

That kind of struck Lavus as odd. "But wouldn't a man know by looking, how someone stands or ... something? It is always obvious - and not just because you're wearing rider's knots or gear -" he flicked at the knot on the man's formal shirt, "that you're a rider and not a crafter. Riders stick out."

"So they do," the man said, nodding, he was still scanning the crowd as well. But then he turned his eyes on Lavus. The red-gold hair on the rider had almost at first made Lavus think he was a girl, long and luxurious it was. But he was a smashingly attractive man (making Lavus a leetle bit jealous) and more: the knots on his other shoulder...

"You're... you're a Master Harper?" Lavus gulped, "too? I mean... A rider, searcher,.... and a harper?"

"A flutist, actually," the rider said. He was possibly thirty on the outside, more likely just in his late twenties. He turned and smirked over Lavus' shoulder at someone.

"Ah, it figures they would send you here of all places, Fenstan," the old Master Harper groaned.

"F'stan, F'stan," the rider chided, and laughed. "You see, this was my old Master too," he announced to Lavus. "And I heard you play tonight. What is with him, not having his knots yet?" F'stan's suddenly comfortable stance, with one arm over the shorter Master's shoulders, betrayed a lot more about him than just his few words.

"Well, we had Miss Rayla walking the tables already, it would be too long a night for the young ones."

"Then tomorrow," F'stan said, "I'd like you to test him and ... then I'd like to take him away from you."

"ACH you wouldn't dare!" The Master groaned, garnering a number of looks in their direction. "Ach, oi, I swear to the stars, you dragon riders..." The older man puttered away, but Lavus wasn't sure what to make of it all.

Would he ... walk the tables for his full Journeyman's knots and then just... be whisked away? Like that?

yes, just like that, there was a voice in his mind... Bright, shiny. Like a brass trumpet.

The dragon's mind. Apparently yes, he was going to be awarded his knots, and leave.

That happened, the very next night. Lavus put effort into his practice, therefore, in the morning. And it didn't go unnoticed by his friend Metlair.

"So... who am I going to pester now?" Metlair asked. "I mean... wow. You're going to a Weyr."

"Yeah, I guess I am..." Lavus said, kind of half-sad and half-thrilled. "I mean... I think he said which one, but I don't even remember. See, you're going to be missed, Met. I can't think straight for myself most of the time. I'll miss you."

"What kinda dragon do you think you're going to ride?" Metlair asked, unfazed by the young man's admissions. Well, Lavus thought so until, "and of course you'll miss me, but I bet you'll miss that blasted spiced wherry more!"

***

Everything went without a hitch, really. Lavus' talent for playing was strong enough that the Masters knew he'd do well outside - and under the continued tutelage of F'stan, they realized that he was going to be challenged not only as a rider if he Impressed, but as a player - the pair of them could certainly play!

Lavus didn't have the talent for carving or creation that F'stan did, but he promised to learn, for his Masters. He really wanted to have a little more time to say good-byes, but like many Journeymen, that would have to come later if he swung back by the Crafthall again. Someday. "By the time I visit, you'd better be on your own way," he told Metlair.

They would head to Dragonhope Weyr first - but that would not be his last destination. "We've got word that there is an interesting clutch at Isla Weyr, a night-blue female has laid a clutch with a blue male..."

Now that sounded interesting! "A blue female?" Lavus asked, "since when?"

"Oh, since the clutch is in the future, but ssshhh," F'stan said, "we're not supposed to mention that. We've got a good number of Islaian dragons at Dragonhope, there's two of them there -" he pointed out a brown and a green, "I expect you might ... you may come home on a different colored dragon if you're lucky."

"You've a bronze," Lavus reminded the flutist. "I mean, that's... that's amazing."

"I think so," F'stan laughed. "There is something about dragon riders - we do stand out."

So to Isla they would go, after some training and testing. Lavus would hardly need to do much physical training, he somehow managed to be one of the burlier and stronger men in the Weyr already - he'd have to get used to wearing the more or less standard rider's gear, and he'd have to get used to how cold it was... But at least Isla was in a tropical setting, or warm so he'd been told, it would be more like the vacation before heading back to work... And he realized with a start that he did still have work: he was a Journeyman - and he had people to entertain!

The day of the hatching was misty and raining, but Lavus didn't care. There was a thrill in the air when he heard the trumpeting of the dragons, hatching! Hatching!

He'd have to compose something, in fact it was all but impossible for him not to compose, he already had a harmony in mind when the first eggs began to hatch. He didn't think the night-colored blue would be his, and he knew that for a fact when a brown broke shell and rapidly made his way right to him!

Don't leave! Not without me! The dragon bespoke, his mind as clear as a bell.

"Oh I wasn't leaving just yet, Amudoth," he chuckled. Now what was his name... L'vus! The music in his head chimed in with the hunger of his hatchling, and they headed off to the feeding tables. It would be a great feast - now there was something to sing about!

As they grew, Amudoth and L'vus along with the other two weyrlings from Dragonhope were brought back to their home Weyr. Better training, and more intense learning. It was clear that Amudoth was going to be big, though not a challenge to the bronzes he was clearly of a solid rank. Though he was of a lot of use as a Harper, L'vus was also in need as a fighting rider. And he lived up to it with gusto.

They made mistakes, as riders often did. Their first foray with a practice wing led them to the infirmary with a collision between he and another brown dragon. But the Weyrling master pointed out - these things teach, they happen for a reason. And it didn't happen again. Plus, of course, L'vus was then able to write more music about it! While he wasn't precisely 'proud' to have landed himself in the weyr's infirm ward with a broken wrist and twisted shoulder, plus Amudoth getting his first batch of stitches from the accidental holes the other dragon put in his wingsail, L'vus gave a unique perspective on the experience. One which no Harper otherwise would have been able to give. Sure they'd hear stories... But they were nothing like actually being there.

When they were called upon for real Threadfall - it wasn't here and now. It was oddly enough in the future, where the other rider who'd Impressed at Isla with them, N'zul, lived. It was still Dragonhope, but it was when the skies were almost literally blackened with ash from the massive Pass.

It was there they sustained real Thread injuries, both rider and dragon. But it was also there that they got their commendations to Wing Third, which would follow them 'back' in time. Ever proud now, L'vus and the other few Harpers would be more serious about their songs - they knew the risks, the pain, the heartbreak and the elation of a job well done.

Finally, once they'd come back home having helped save their own Weyr by doubling up their own appearances as their younger selves... Something which even Weyrleader S'xon said was incredibly dangerous, the instrumentalists and singers got together and created a unique ballad which only this Weyr would ever understand fully.

It even impressed Kira, who was never one to praise Harpers much.