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

AN: Okay, this time I actually have a legitimate excuse. I've had the flu. And very nasty it was too. I huddled in bed for a couple of days and felt miserable. But I'm much better now, so here it is - a lovely long offering for the very final chapter of Katriel's story! Please let me know what you think, especially if you feel anything is not properly resolved; I welcome constructive criticism!

"Another one." Lena had clucked her tongue disapprovingly, feeling Kat's forehead and pinching the skin of her forearm. "Honestly, these candidates don't have the sense they were born with. Not one of them remembers to take in fluids… drink this, child." She held out a beaker of water.

"Yes." Kat hadn't been listening, leaning over Lumeth as the little dragon tore into a bowl of food, tossing lumps of meat and gristle in all directions as she gulped it down, chunks straining and distorting the soft hide of her throat. "Gently, hey there, gently, you'll choke."

But I'm soooo hungry! Lumeth swivelled one eye towards the girl for a second, and then dropped the pose in order to plunge her head back into the bowl.

"All right, I know. But take it slower, come on now. I'll help you." Kat reached down to separate two lumps of meat held together by a stringy flap of skin, and the stench of blood on her hands suddenly sent her reeling, nauseous and giddy.

"Drink it." A flabby white hand grasped her arm and the headwoman thrust the water into Kat's other hand, supporting it to her mouth. "Sip. That's good."

Kat's head cleared slightly and Lena let go of her. "Now finish it. All of it."

Are you well? The question was plaintive and querulous and accompanied by a warm head butting against her leg.

"Yes, I'm fine," Kat said hurriedly, reaching down to stroke Lumeth's head with one hand even as she tipped back the drink and handed the beaker back to the fat headwoman. She crouched down by her dragon, smiling, "See? I'm fine, see."

Lena had snorted, refilling the water. "Take this and go and choose yourself a weyr. She'll - Lumeth, is it? - Lumeth will need to sleep now she's eaten. You're to drink all of this and sit there quietly for at least half an hour before you pretty up and go down to the feast. And take it easy on the wine; you're dehydrated and you've got a mild heatstroke. You'll probably have a headache for a while."

Now, sitting in the cool dark of their new weyr, Kat could feel the faint throbbing in her head, but it couldn't even put a dent in her happiness. Lumeth was sleeping soundly beside her, and she rested a hand on her dragon's soft hide to feel the gentle rhythmic movement of the little queen's breathing.

Maybe it was Lumeth's deep slumbering that made her feel so tired. Kat leaned back against the cold rock wall and knew that she was grinning inanely, filled with an exhausted euphoria. Soon she'd go down and see everyone, but for now it was just perfect to sit where she was with her eyes half-closed, one knee drawn up to her chest and Lumeth's warm weight resting heavily against the other leg. She tipped her head back against the wall and stroked Lumeth gently; the dragon made a contented snuffling noise in her sleep and wriggled a little to settle herself down, and in the quiet darkness Kat could feel the smoky elusive sweetness of her dragon's dreams.

Kat awoke with a start when the empty ceramic beaker hit the floor and clattered away. For one half-panicked moment she didn't know where she was or what she was doing; then she placed herself by the new and yet achingly familiar sense of Lumeth's presence.

She must have passed Lena's time constraint; carefully shifting Lumeth off her leg without waking the dragonet, Kat scrambled to her feet and found herself stiff and aching. Wincing and scrunching up her face, she hobbled to the doorway and slipped out into the glowlit corridor, blinking and shading her eyes.

There she paused. She was going to the feast, that was a given; but her family was going to be there and there was no way that she could turn up in the baggy white tunic that she'd been wearing since the Hatching. She turned the other way and headed back towards the girls' dormitory instead. The blouse and skirt that Dramma had leant her were still there - probably still tossed on the bed where she'd left them.

She frowned. She'd been wearing that same outfit for more than a week and doing all kinds of messy jobs in it; besides, they were plain, simple, hard-wearing clothes; not suitable for a feast at all - not even for a weyr girl, and certainly not for a queenrider. Nor for Lord Galen's daughter; and tonight it looked as though she was Lord Galen's daughter again.

She padded onwards. Maybe she should take a look at her azure brocade again? Yes, it was soiled, but was it really so bad, or was that just part of her own self-pity when she arrived? It couldn't be worse than her other choices, could it?

She was trying to think of other options and not paying much attention to where she was going as she turned into the corridor where all the candidates had slept. If she had thought about it then she would have supposed that it would be empty now; but as she neared the doorway she heard voices.

"I'm not going down," she heard Della say, sounding haughty but distinctly sulky. Kat drew to a halt. She'd never come to like Della, and she wasn't sure whether she wanted to interrupt.

She recognised the sound of Ola's rich drawl answering but couldn't hear what the older girl said; but she picked up Della's strident response. "Oh, come off it, Ola! Don't try and pretend it's all right. No one wants to see her strutting around, lording it over us all, and you're more bitter than anyone; that's obvious despite what you say."

Ola must have been annoyed, or maybe she moved towards the entrance; her next comment was much more audible. "Flaming right, Della, I'm bitterly disappointed, but if I was to run off and sulk in a corner over it then I would just be demonstrating exactly why I didn't Impress! I'm going to the feast; I'm going to celebrate and smile and congratulate Kat, because that, like it or not, is the right thing to do! Even if I don't feel happy for her I'm going to say I do; and it doesn't matter whether it's true or not so long as I act like it is. And you know, she'd actually get that, Della."

Listening, Kat's mouth slowly opened into a silent 'oh!' of understanding. She didn't think she'd ever heard aloof, supercilious Ola actually explain herself to anyone before; but the auburn-maned girl was right. Kat did know what she meant, because she'd heard it before. In the end, Ola ended up sounding an awful lot like - well, like a haughtier, unfriendly version of - Jasor or Fani. In the end, her behaviour also came down to an attempt to do things the right way.

The heavy hide curtain over the doorway moved and Kat realised that Ola had indeed been moving towards the entrance; the fair-haired girl backed up hurriedly around the corner as silently as she could. She didn't want Ola to know that she'd been eavesdropping. She picked her way back to the first intersection, then paused. She could hear faintly in the distance the music and roaring chatter of the feast in progress; but she still didn't have anything to wear.

"Kat." Ola came round the corner behind her; she sounded a little surprised but not suspicious, which Kat supposed was good. She turned to face the older girl, noticing how stunning Ola was looking in a deep green gown that swirled around her shapely ankles. She was sharply aware of her own attire and glad she hadn't headed down to the feast.

"Hey, Ola."

"Congratulations." Ola couldn't quite pull off the complete sincerity that she was going for, but it was a good effort. Kat was able to smile quite naturally in return; and then the expression turned to one of pure bliss as she thought of Lumeth.

"Thank you. Um - I'm - you know, I'm -" She was going to say, 'I'm sorry,' but Ola's scorching glare cut off her awkward expression. "Right. Thanks." She nodded instead. Naturally Ola wanted nothing less than to be pitied. She collected her thoughts, let her mind stray back to her dragon's peaceful slumbers to calm the blush rising up her neck, and instead said lightly, "Hey, you should go on down to the dining cavern. A'din's waiting."

Ola searched the younger girl's face, wondering if she was being mocked; Kat must have passed some test, because the beauty suddenly smiled properly, a flash of genuine happiness. "Yeah, you're right."

The two girls' eyes met for an instant, a moment of connection and mutual understanding; and then Ola walked on past.

The auburn-haired girl passed someone as she went, a shorter but no less elegant figure, and Kat's heart jumped painfully inside her chest. "Fani!" She ran the few steps between them and threw her arms around her stepmother.

"Good evening, Kat." Fani freed an arm from the package she was carrying and returned the girl's embrace, as soft and composed as ever. "It's good to see you well."

"I've missed you." Kat's voice was muffled in the shorter woman's shoulder.

"Likewise." The dark woman gently disengaged herself. "But I see that I got my goldrider in the family."

"Yeah. Yes, you did! Fani, I know why my mother couldn't come home. It's like - with Lumeth, it's like - like I was waiting my whole life for the moment when we met. Like nothing else really meant anything. Like I never loved anyone - like I never even knew what love was until today. She's -" She swallowed, shaking her head, as she tried to explain. "She's so perfect. She's so perfect." She touched Lumeth's sleeping mind quietly and felt the rush of contentment from the peacefully slumbering dragonet. Then, abruptly, she realised what she'd said and added hurriedly, "I don't mean I don't love you, Fani, it's just - she's inside my head, she's like the best part of me that I never even dreamed existed, it's completely different… of course I love you and Arrin and - hey, where is Egan?" She seized gladly on the change of subject.

"Being fussed over and generally spoilt by the Lower Cavern women." Fani regarded her stepdaughter thoughtfully. "Kat, you should explain some of this to your father. Perhaps not in those exact words -" Her dark eyes twinkled "- but I think perhaps it's him that needs to understand, not me."

"Explain -!" Kat began, incredulously, and then remembered the sight of her father walking onto the stands at the Hatching. "Perhaps - I could. I'll - yeah, I'll try."

"Thank you." Fani smiled at her gently, using her free hand to smooth back a lock of glossy dark hair. She was wearing her wine-coloured silk dress and the glowlight slipped and glimmered around her.

Kat looked at her serene face and said impulsively, "Fani, you look so good. So happy. So beautiful."

"I am," Fani said, simply, and the light in her eyes was undeniable.

"I see that." Kat, shook her head, breathlessly, almost laughing. "I - Fani, what - I - I can't - I don't believe it."

Fani paused, considering, and then she admitted, "Nor can I, sometimes. I waited a long time, and I did think I was never going to get this. But I think it's going to be worth the wait, Kat. I think we're going to be all right."

"Yeah." Kat found the corner of her mouth curling up. "Yeah. I think so too."

Fani smiled and gestured so that Kat finally registered the bundle she was carrying, changing the subject. "I brought you some clothes. I know you left without anything, so I thought you might want these."

"Oh, Fani." Kat smiled. "Is there anything you don't think of? Thank you." She lifted the folded cloth out of her stepmother's arms. "Uh, come this way, let me put these away. Did you - I don't suppose you brought me a really nice dress?"

Kat's nap hadn't been too long, but the party was in full swing by the time she arrived back at the dining cavern with Fani. Her stepmother had tried to persuade her to wear her apricot silk, but Kat had held out for a sea blue wool gown that draped in classic folds to her ankles but flared when she walked. It was a good skirt to dance in; and Kat planned to dance a lot. She had a lot to celebrate.

Her feet were already tapping as they neared the wide double doorway. Kat stopped to flick back the hair falling loosely about her shoulders, feeling suddenly nervous, but before she had time to start wondering whether she wanted to go in at all Fani took her arm and tugged her into the doorway.

There was a natural pause in the music and Kat used it to orientate herself; the room was brightly lit and packed with people - people brightly dressed and noisy, laughing, dancing, chatting, crying, filling the room and overflowing out into the corridors in all directions, people eating and talking and bursting with joy and pride. She and Fani stepped out into the room; and, impossible as it seemed in a crowd that large, a space seemed to open up for them as everyone seemed to turn and look their way. Kat grinned, glancing at her beautiful stepmother. "You've stopped the room again."

Fani looked up at her and then smiled herself, shaking her head. "Not today, Kat. Today they're looking at you. You're - glowing." Kat blinked at her, and Fani slipped her arm free of the girl's and said calmly, "I'm going to get something to eat. Do come and join us when you're finished here."

"When -?" Kat began, questioningly, but was interrupted.

"Kat!"

"Huh?" She had half turned round when someone grabbed her from behind; she struggled instinctively, but then recognised the boy and flung her arms around his neck in return. "Jasor! I mean, wow, sorry, J'sor! Wow. Wow!" Her spirits bounced upwards; from her happy and contented state she suddenly felt an energy jolt and hugged her friend tightly. "I don't believe this! This is so great!"

"I know!" J'sor was beaming, his odd blue-and-green eyes shining. "I know, I know! We're weyrlings! We're dragonriders! You got the queen, Kat! You did it! I knew you would! I knew you deserved it!"

"Absolutely!" another familiar voice roared in her ear, and Kat squealed and let go of J'sor to fling herself into his older brother's arms.

"J'mat! Thank you so much, for everything. I can never thank you enough, really. You've been so amazing and so much fun ever since we met, I just -" She floundered for the words, so she squeezed him tightly and buried her face in his chest.

"Hey." J'mat grinned at her. His brown hair was tousled and standing up around his face, giving him an endearing, youthful look, and his face was red and flushed from the heat of the room. "You've got years to figure it out."

"Yes." Kat nodded emphatically, grinning fit to burst. The crowd had closed in again, but fighting through it came some faces she knew; Ferrin wriggled her way through to thump her enthusiastically on the back, followed by Tyrel and some of the other girls, and those of the boys that she'd begun to get to know. Even strangers were pushing through to congratulate her and introduce themselves; Kat laughed and spun round, giddy and high with euphoria. This was a moment that she never wanted to end. This time was better than anything she thought she'd ever have; she'd thought that everything good in her life was so far in the past she could barely remember it; but now she could actually believe that it was only just beginning.

"Lady Katriel."

The fair, boyish face addressing her was so far out of context that it took Kat a minute to place him; in the end it was his Harper blue attire that gave her the clue. "Tercel! What are you doing here?"

The Harper journeyman grinned. "I came up with the Masterharper and Lord Galen. They wanted extra players for the Hatching feast, and gitar's my speciality, so I, uh, suggested I might be useful…"

Katriel snorted with laughter. "Then I'm glad I gave you something worth coming to see! It's good to see you, Tercel. How are you? How's - you know, things? Back at Lemos?"

"Good. They're good." Tercel touched her arm. "Believe it or not, Lady Katriel - I actually think that maybe this was what was needed."

"Call me Kat," she said. He'd earned it, in a way; she'd never been anything but unfriendly to the young harper, and he'd never for a minute stopped trying to help. "Thanks, Tercel. I - you know, I hope we meet again."

"We will," he promised, solemnly. "Hey, uh, Lady Ka - Kat. Um. I th - we thought, uh, since it's your party really, being the new queenrider and all - uh, just wait here a minute."

Intrigued, Kat watched as he picked his way across the room and slid himself in between the harpers, bending down to speak into the leader's ear. J'sor picked at her sleeve. "Who's that, Kat?"

"Tercel. Uh, he's the harper at Lemos, he's -"

She forgot the rest of what she was going to say. The harpers had been taking a quick break, wiping sweaty faces and gulping drinks, but at the leader's signal they picked up their instruments again, readying themselves. Then, at his nod, they played three distinctive chords. Three chords that modulated into an intricate rippling introduction that Kat knew as well as the dusty, empty tunnels of the hold where she was born. Her mouth dropped open.

Other couples were moving off the dance floor, congregating around the edges of the room or heading for the tables laden with steaming savoury food, muttering in surprise at the appearance of a tune they didn't know. Kat found the space clearing rapidly, leaving her at the centre of the dance floor as the long opening for the Lemos Gather Dance played.

At her shoulder J'mat grinned. "I know this one now," he remarked, loud enough for some of the other couples to hear. "Want to dance, Kat?"

"Not on your life, brownrider!" The confident, cheerful voice came from across the room. Kat clapped her hands with delight and spun around, grinning, to face Arrin. Her handsome, charismatic uncle was striding across the room to join them. Behind him she could see the high table; the Weyrleaders were seated there with the Masterharper and some other dignitaries, but the face she picked out of the crowd was her father's - he wasn't smiling, and his expression seemed rigid, but he was there.

"May I?" Arrin reached her side and bowed deeply, a courtly play that made Kat giggle.

"Certainly." She timed her curtsey with the music so that as she rose she reached out her hands to him and he swung her into the first turn. Then they were away; the rhythm of the tune was relentless and insistent and Kat's feet were on fire, spinning in to meet Arrin's gently guiding hands and flying outwards again, her skirt and hair floating around her. She glimpsed J'mat's face, startled and suspicious, and remembered that he didn't know Arrin; had no idea that this golden-skinned, lion-like stranger was her father's brother. She giggled again, but the steps were too intricate; she wobbled and Arrin caught and steadied her, flashing his engaging smile. "Steady, Kat! That wouldn't pass at Lemos."

The steps took them apart briefly and it was a couple of seconds before he caught her again with both hands on her waist and she was able to retort. "We aren't at Lemos. Although it looks like you have been."

"Yep." Arrin lifted one of her hands and guided her into a fast spin as he talked. "After the Gather, I went back to Grey Cliffs… well, I set out. But - I don't know, something Fani said. I guess I've grown up since I left. I - she made me think it was time to set things right. Not forever," he clarified, hurriedly. "Egan can have Lemos, I've got the seas now, Kat. It's so free - and so fierce - Kat, you've no idea - well, I suppose you will. You're going to learn to fly, and it's like how I imagine that to be. I couldn't give it up now. But - yeah, I'm back for a little while."

"I'm glad," Kat told him. She couldn't hug him as they whirled around the dance floor, but she hoped the heartfelt tone in her voice would convey the message. "Arrin - you made everything all right. I - I'm so thankful. I'm so happy."

"I don't think I did," Arrin said, slowly, as their feet dodged through the knotty backwards cross steps. Kat did a half spin and leant back against her beloved uncle and they repeated the pattern. "I - think it was already done. When I arrived. Kat, when I arrived, he and Fani were sitting in his study. Not discussing household management or anything. Just sitting there together."

Kat half-broke her step again as she stared up at him in disbelief. "No. She didn't say anything! He must - he must have made the change, Arrin. How? Why?" She shook her head. "Why now? After all these years… I didn't even think he could."

Arrin glanced over her head, then grinned, deeply mischievous, and said, "Ask him yourself."

"What's that supposed -?" Kat's question was broken off as her uncle spun her energetically into the final turn and her feet automatically moved into the whirling crossover steps for the change of partners before she even wondered whether there would be someone waiting to catch her. There must be, she supposed, or Arrin wouldn't have sent her off. J'mat probably -

The arms she landed in belonged to someone a good deal taller than J'mat. And where J'mat was a good dancer but inexperienced with the complex measures, this person's feet moved into the first steps as easily as hers did; but he wasn't letting go properly, spinning into the dance with the right looseness and sense of rhythm. Instead he seemed stiff and out of place.

Kat dared to look upwards. "Father."

"Katriel."

His greeting was as formal as ever, but Kat sensed a new hesitancy about him. For the first time she could ever remember, she realised, Galen had no idea what to say to her. 'He doesn't know how I feel,' she realised, wonderingly. 'He doesn't know if I hate him. He never did; but now - he cares.'

Cautiously, watching for his reaction, she smiled at him. And slowly, looking as though it was still an unaccustomed motion, her father's mouth stretched into the answering expression.

Feeling oddly tearful and yet greatly daring, Kat said, "Father - what happened?"

Galen stiffened up immediately, his feet stilling, and Kat cringed. It looked as though he still wasn't ready to answer personal questions - if indeed he ever would be. But then, to her astonishment, Galen said, harshly, as though he was dragging the words out of a deep pit, "I think I focused so hard on what I had lost that I forgot to consider what I might find. Until Fani reminded me."

Fani. Kat looked over at her stepmother, and found her father doing the same; and just for an instant he looked unlike she'd ever seen him; surprised and tender, and even afraid. "I think - he's falling in love again,' she thought, astonished. 'And she - maybe she has been all along.'

"I think - we need to talk," was what she said. "About - lots of things. But - about my mother, mostly."

He looked down at her sharply, his eyes flashing; and then again he paused. "Yes," he admitted. "But this is neither the time nor the place."

"Right." Kat could feel her cheeks aching again with the size of her grin, even as her eyes glittered and threatened to spill. "Right, that's - wait." She suddenly remembered. "Father, actually - there is something that can't wait."

He didn't seem to invite a question, but he didn't try to stop her either, so Kat tensed up her shoulders and asked carefully, "Father, about the bronzerider. I'den. About when he died…"

She trailed off, unable to frame the question. How could she? How could she ever ask if he was a murderer?

And Galen surprised her yet again, because his shoulders relaxed; just the tiniest fraction, but his voice was perfectly natural when he said, "He fell. I was supposed to meet him. When I got there, he was lying at the bottom of the cliff. His dragon had gone. He was dead. I wasn't even there."

And Kat did start to cry, her eyes overflowing and her shoulders shaking as she sobbed. Her father watched her, awkward and disapproving, and she laughed and swiped an arm across her eyes. "Here. We have to dance. We'll get stepped on." She listened for a second to pick up the rhythm and then took a couple of small steps to slip herself back into the ancient patterns of the Gather Dance. Galen hesitated a couple of beats more and then followed her.

And he was stiff and awkward and unpractised, and they still had talking and explaining to do. And Kat had years of training to do, and a desperate need to make friends and for a tact and diplomacy that she'd never experienced. But right here and now, Lumeth sleeping in her mind and Fani and Arrin, J'mat and J'sor and Tercel and Ola and the weyr watching, Kat danced with her father, and she knew that there was nothing she couldn't overcome.

And it wasn't her imagination that as he spun her into his chest, Galen murmured, "Congratulations, Katriel. Queenrider."

AN: So... that's signing off from me for a while. I just started university this week, and I want to do a whole lot of clubs and activities associated with that, so I don't know how much time I'm going to have for a bit. I'll still be around, reading and reviewing, and I'll be writing, but I won't post unless I get completed work, since I don't want to leave you hanging the way I did with this. So (shameless plug) - if you want to read more of my work and you haven't already, please do look up my older stories featuring some of the same characters, and let me know what you think!

And finally, last but possibly most important to me, thank you so much to all of you who have taken the time to read this story and let me know what you think. Without wishing to be too gushing, it's hearing that feedback that makes it possible for me to go on even when I'm terminally stuck and uninspired. You know who you are. Thank you.