Chapter 1
When Carlinna had washed her face and made herself presentable again she found she felt far from the despondent girl who had cried so bitterly on her bunk!
In fact, she felt excited and happy.
"Oh Geriana, I think you're right!" she said "If I don't Impress this time, I shall take a whole turn to become a better artist before I even try again!"
"I think you'd be wise in that" said Geriana. "It will make you a happier, more contented person once you have learned to succeed; and that will make you more likely to Impress, you know!"
Carlinna nodded; it did make a lot of sense! Really, she was seeing sense a lot more clearly now, once the fog of self-delusion had been stripped from her by Master Agatta and by Geriana too. She knew that even of Golden Queenriders not all had been of the highest calibre – High Reaches Weyr had its own example in Kylara. She shuddered; Kylara lived within the lower caverns, occasionally brought out into the air when the dragons were mostly away fighting Thread, as the sight of dragons now made the Bereft woman collapse into near catatonia. Her vacant stare frightened many a weyrling into a determination to be careful with his own dragon! And Carlinna knew that the reason for inadequate Weyrwomen often came from an insufficient choice presented to a Golden Queen egg; or a candidate favoured by the senior Bronze Riders because they fancied her! It was one reason High Reaches accorded more respect to female Green Riders and counted them in a more senior capacity than the colour of their Dragon would usually cause them to occupy; because it had been the outspoken opinion of a large number of High Reaches Riders that their female Green Riders were, many of them, more suited to Queens than some of the Queenriders around. That most of them also settled cheerfully to administrative secondary jobs and troubleshooting with non weyrfolk meant that they shouldered the responsibilities often taken by junior Queenriders too. Which left the Queenriders the tough jobs but relieved them of a lot of the minor worries.
And there was no shortage of candidates this time; the Green dragon hatchlings would have the pick of boys, women and girls alike. Many people believed that the choices were made as early as the first viewing of the eggs; though the capacity for those of less than excellent demeanour to change seemed to affect the hatchlings too. As T'lana put it, 'they remember into the future'.
It seemed strange; and Carlinna wondered if she was now intending to do her best if a dragonet would have remembered that she was going to do so; and yet she half hoped that she would not Impress, to be an even better person for another, future hatchling!
oOoOo
Geriana linked her arm with her new friend's, and drew her across the Bowl to the eating cavern where a feast was being held in Master Artist Agatta's honour. Agatta had been invited by L'rilly to give an honest critique of the work of several artistically inclined at the Weyr, ostensibly to advise who should treat their art as a hobby and who should be trained; but in reality because of a pact L'rilly had made with Carlinna to try to stop the girl's foolish feud with Geriana.
And Geriana had been acclaimed by the Master; and was to be given papers of competence by Agatta to be permitted to call herself Journeyman; and the Master wanted to meet her! Carlinna had received some harsh and some less harsh and certainly truthful criticism and Geriana had been generous enough to come to comfort her rather than going to spend more time with an acclaimed Master.
At the door of the cavern, Carlinna started to disengage her arm; but Geriana held tight.
"Oh no you don't!" she said "You shall meet Agatta too and I'll ask her if she'll help me start re-training you!"
"But…..it's your moment!" protested Carlinna.
"Our moment" said Geriana, reflecting that there was a basic decency to a girl who would give the limelight to a former rival once she realised her own behaviour had been unreasonable. "I need the Master who will give me release papers to meet the other senior apprentices – you and B'kas. I know he's a colourman more than an artist, but he's competent enough when he puts his mind to drawing. He makes a good job of turning plants into stylised patterns for woodcuts on cloth, you know; he's more oriented in the decorative arts than representative. He draws designs for H'llon to carve too; for H'llon's a great woodworker and has a feel for free carving, but when it comes to designing the lids of decorative boxes he has the imagination of a brick."
Carlinna giggled.
"He does good plain stuff very well though" she said "And his tiny dragons to show formations are exquisite."
"Yes; he can copy anything, scale-perfect" said Geriana "Those dragons aren't just in proportion for their colour, each one is an individual dragon, in proper proportion for itself. He's just not great at making up patterns."
"I guess it takes all sorts" said Carlinna. "Oooh" as she realised they had reached the table where Agatta sat next to L'rilly.
The Queenrider gave both girls a friendly smile.
"Ah, Master Agatta – Geriana here is your mystery artist, and with her is Carlinna whose portrait of Camnath showed you how much talent she really has despite being mucked about with by her idiot family."
Carlinna opened her mouth to excuse her family and their extravagant and uncritical praise; and shut it again.
Agatta regarded her thoughtfully.
"Tell me about it?" she said when the girls were seated.
"My parents thought me talented – they meant well" said Carlinna defensively, flushing. "They never gave me anything but praise however; and by the time I was apprenticed I – I was convinced I was the best."
"Unfortunate for you" said Agatta gravely. "Could not your master break you of it?"
Carlinna flushed again.
"He tried….. I – I was too stroppy. After a couple of times trying to correct me and – and me getting in a strop, he shrugged and told me to suit yourself."
Agatta's finely chiselled eyebrows rose.
"A couple of times?"
"He tried for nearly a sevenday" said Carlinna.
"Only a sevenday before he gave up?" there was scorn in Master Agatta's tone "He sounds a singularly useless master if he could only manage to teach easy apprentices. He did not leave you to stew and see for yourself how others progressed and then try again?"
Carlinna shook her head.
"He was quite sarcastic at times…..he'd give a lesson and say things like 'I suppose the great artist girl knows that and won't be joining the rest of us' and so I was essentially excluded from some lessons for that."
Agatta frowned.
"He sounds – one hesitates to so criticise a master but he does sound singularly inept. What is his name?"
"Fomitty" said Carlinna.
"Ah" said Agatta. "He turns out adequate journeymen; and those who are prepared to learn more can become quite good. But he's not the best teacher on Pern, though he's a perfectly competent artist in his own right. Oh, not to Geriana's standard" she waved her hand at the Weyrartist "But competent. You've not missed much not taking on his techniques; you'll learn more by far from her."
This was another revelation to Carlinna; that her former master was not considered by Agatta to be as good as Geriana! And she was right too; for there was a liveliness to Geriana's work that Fomitty's always lacked.
Agatta turned to Geriana.
"I am right that you'll be training her?"
"Yes Master if you truly think me competent. I was hoping you'd get us both started; I never trained anyone before."
Agatta grinned.
"Well if I may enjoy painting dragons with you, I'll do my best. I rarely take apprentices; I don't feel myself a great teacher because I have to fight against impatience. But I said I'd work with the boy Sessel, and I'll work with you girls too. If you WANT to impart knowledge I should think you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. You've a good blank canvas with her if she wants to unlearn."
"I do" said Carlinna.
There was no mistaking the sincerity in her voice.
"Then I'll help" said Agatta "And if I may I'd like to return in a turn or so with a few other masters to see if we confirm you, Geriana, as a master. I'd do so now, but I think you should have time to adjust as a journeyman first."
"Wh-why th-thank you!" it was Geriana's turn to flush and stutter!
"You have a rare talent that is all inborn; to nurture that in any way is a privilege" said Agatta "And no thanks are necessary."
oOoOo
The boy Sessel was a quiet, introverted boy, homesick for his seahold home. As he was also an orphan and none of the other residents of the Hold from which he came could find their way to foster a skinny and delicate child – one of them had put it ;who might as well have been a girl' – who was not as likely to survive to pay back their care by becoming a good fisherman, the lad had no place to go.
Sessel had come on Search purely because it was somewhere to go. Dragons were well enough; and if he Impresses he could go to the sea whenever he wanted once his dragon could go Between. But he was a lonely little boy, teased by many of his fellows for his preoccupation with trying to capture pictures of the sea in whatever medium he could improvise. Geriana had given him some paper and let him use up the pigments she mixed to paint colour on her visualisations; which being predominantly blues and green for scenery had pleased him well enough.
And now he was to be a proper apprentice to Geriana, his future assured whether he Impressed of not! And the need to draw would be nurtured and considered an asset, not sneered at! And he had even had some praise from the great Master too! There was not a happier boy in the Weyr at that moment than Sessel!
oOoOo
Neither Carlinna nor Sessel Impressed at the hatching; and though Carlinna was bitterly disappointed, Geriana's blunt reminder that it gave her more time to work on her art was somehow comforting. She had improved already out of all recognition, just by following Agatta's advice to learn to see rather than looking for what she knew was there.
Carlinna was starting to really enjoy her art rather than having to work furiously at it – and in fact the ability to admit that her childhood pleasure had become a chore was another thing that helped her move forward, and rediscover the joy in drawing!
It was true, however, that sometimes one must suffer for one's art.
Geriana was on friendly terms with all the female Green Riders, and a significant number of the male Green Riders too, notably those from the clutch that had Impressed the turn before; and wanted to immortalise their first mating flight for them in sketches.
Accordingly she found a spot atop the seven spindles to which Morvith, Dreth or Baynath would take her when the rising of one of her friends' dragons was imminent; and she took hasty sketches. Up there she could see for miles and in the clear air had a fairly good view of a lot of each flight.
Unfortunately, B'lan's Leviath was a bigger and stronger Green than most; and she and Brown Chereth went further than most Greens.
Geriana leaned outward to get a better view; went too far; and slid tumbling down the steep sides of the Weyr. Had she fallen towards the Bowl she would undoubtedly have been killed; falling outside she was extremely fortunate to fetch up before long on a ledge with no broken bones and nothing but some nasty contusion and a very bad gash all the way down her left arm.
Geriana had sworn pungently, nipping the lips of the wound to minimise the bleeding and put a tourniquet on it with her handkerchief which she also used to smudge charcoal, bandaged the wound roughly with a strip torn from her tunic, and sent her firelizards to get ropes and some aid.
Back in the Bowl, B'kas had insisted on her seeing Calla, who put stitches into and dressed the gash properly and Geriana later swore that the tongue lashing the Weyrhealer gave her for being as heedless as any weyrling hurt more than the wound.
She could not, however, go Between until it healed; and that took several sevendays. Geriana got on with colour work as well as devoting herself to her apprentices; it was a good opportunity to catch up on those little jobs she had been putting off, after all!
oOoOo
Geriana was no innocent; and she recognised straight away why her monthly bleeding had stopped, without her frequent trips Between!
She assembled her boys.
"One of you's probably a father" she said bluntly. "Does it bother you?"
S'net and S'negen stared: then grinned.
"We act as one – does it bother you who it might be?" asked S'net.
"Not one whit" said Geriana. "B'kas, how are you about it?"
"Well I can't have their babies" said B'kas "but if you will, I'd love to be an extra mother to him or her."
"Whether you raise baby yourself or foster, we stand by you" said S'negen.
Geriana grinned.
She loved her boys so much!
"I thought we might call a boy Kassen" she said "for all of you; or a girl Gesenka for all of us."
"They sound really nice" said S'negen. "It's hard to fit part of you into a boy without sounding like he's Benden bred: and sweet of you to have all of us in his name." He gave her a fond look; it would be easy for B'kas to feel left out of this! But by putting his name into a potential baby, it drew him in too, and S'negen loved Geriana the more for her tender love for gentle B'kas!
S'net and S'negen were both walking around looking, as Carlinna laughingly told them, as if they had just Impressed again; and B'kas looked as proud as if he was egg-heavy! This strange little love group worked because of their closeness and total disregard for convention; and though B'kas could not have babies himself for the brothers who were both his and Geriana's lovers it was the next best thing to share his beloved Geri's child!
Carlinna had despised the love group at first; but now she was closer to Geriana she could see how very much they all loved each other, and she came to respect the tenderness between them!
oOoOo
With more time on her hands for considering things, Geriana invited Carlinna to join her and her weyrmates to discuss a matter concerning artists.
"You recall we went to the new Hold in Crom?" said Geriana.
"Only too well" shuddered B'kas "Aesthetic horror!"
"I've been thinking about young Boral" said Geri "You know: Niran's apprentice."
"She catches the pregnant fix-it thing from T'lana" joked S'negen.
Geri threw one of her brushes at him and went on,
"We know that Niran gets rid of apprentices if they look like they're going to get better than him, rather than give them release papers" she said firmly, reminding them of the artist notorious for his trick-laden decorative rather than competent style. "And we also know that he beats on the kid. Right?"
"So Journeyman Kellahan said; and we've no reason to doubt his word" said B'kas.
"So why don't you boys collect Boral on pretext of Search and he can train here?" said Geri. "Like T'arla's cousin Meeri is at the Harperweyr in the same way. And if Boral never Impresses still an asset to the Weyr."
"I like" said S'net.
"He's underage" said S'negen.
Geriana cast up her eyes.
"Get him alone and ask him if he'd like a less violent apprenticeship; and if he says yes, tell him to lie about his age!" she said, patiently.
"Yes Weyrartist!" S'negen jumped to attention.
"Fool" said Geri, fondly.
"I should think we can track him down well enough" said B'kas "We'll visit Lady Varilka first and tell her of our happy pending event to explain why you've not come; I'm sure SHE'LL know."
"I wouldn't bet marks against that possibility" said Geri "Give her my best!"
