Chapter 1
It was exciting to be part of a new craft! H'llon, twenty-one turns old, one-time acting-Master Woodcrafter, was now THE Printmaster with his own hall a-building, extending out from the Weyr!
H'llon had the grand total of two Journeymen in his craft to date. First was Tahnee, a fosterling of H'llon's one-time apprentice, now Journeyman Elissa; Tahnee had helped Elissa to refine her original invention of printing with individual words to encompass the idea of making single letters! Elissa preferred to stay with her first love in the craft, turning; and moreover chose her husband, Masterturner Gerney, over devoting herself to the new innovation. Tahnee, however, was very keen. The other Journeyman was a trained Smithcrafter Journeyman named Saralsi, who was skilled at fine metal casting, since the printcraft hall was to use metal letters now, not wood, for greater durability.
Equally keen was senior apprentice Ipominea. She was too young, at just twelve turns, to make up to being Journeyman, but she was a steady and level-headed girl, happy to experiment with new things.
Journeyman Woodcrafter Telfer, another former apprentice of H'llon's, had returned to the Weyr as Weyrwoodcrafter; he would take on the responsibility of training H'llon's woodcraft apprentices, and H'llon was delighted with the choice. Essentially, the Bronze Rider was Telfer's foster father, and it meant that good relations would be maintained between Woodhall, and Printhall, which would be good. H'llon could think of a few Journeymen Woodcrafters who might resent the founding of a new craft and the rapid promotion from Journeyman to overall Master of a man as young as himself, and his own brother was one of those woodcrafters. Master Bendarek however knew his people; and had chosen too the only Journeyman bar Elissa who really knew the Weyr and would know how to fit in from the very first. And he knew H'llon's own foibles and knew too that H'llon would have no qualms about handing over his workshop and equipment to Telfer.
Meanwhile, the first big job for the Printhall – before it was even built, let alone inaugurated – came from the Woodcrafter Hall. Master Bendarek wanted a foolproof way to verify the bona fides of Journeymen. H'llon suggested a special recipe of paper, incorporating real gold threads in it, watermarked with a pattern made in the form in which each sheet was moulded. With a formulaic certification printed, the name of the Journeyman was to be filled in by hand and for absolute verification, the thumbprints of the three Masters required to ratify promotion as well as their signatures and the Journeyman's signature to show his acceptance of Craft strictures and secrets.
Master Bendarek had asked H'llon to produce him enough certificates to give one to every woodcrafter Journeyman on Pern. It was not as yet a very large craft; and the print run would only be in dozens, but it was still a large job for an improperly formed craft!
H'llon discussed the job with his two journeymen and the idea that this concept might well spread.
"A suggestion, Master?" said Saralsi.
"Suggest away" said H'llon.
"If I make a frame to set this certificate in, I suggest we cast enough words and letters to make the whole thing, and store it set up to re-use. We'll have plenty of room in the new crafthall to do that with frequently required documents – or those which require but small alteration, such as dates" said the one-time Smithcrafter.
"Excellent idea. And if we have it so we can alter the craft as required, it will be possible to use the same format for other crafts if they like the idea – each with their own different watermarked paper" approved H'llon "And if the forms for the special watermarks are stored in the same place they can be locked away to preclude any felonious use of them, for when we become large enough that it becomes possible to have those who harbour larcenous intent acting covertly to the detriment of the Hall."
Tahnee giggled.
"Master, you've been listening to Ipominea with all those long words" she said.
"Oh Ipominea and her sister aren't the only ones to like words" said H'llon equably. "After all, it's by way of being our craft now as much as it is for the Harpers!"
oOoOo
As it happened, several other crafts DID think it a good idea; though to H'llon's profound relief, none of the others wanted copies for all current Journeymen; most other crafts were too large to make that practical! H'llon had orders from the Smithcrafters, Minercrafters, Healers, Harpers – together with a request for lots of the printed staves that had been Tahnee's idea – the Weavercrafters and the Farmcrafters. The Beastcrafters were reported to have called it a lot of nonsense; the Bakercraft were rather a loose affiliation, as were the Artists. Moreover, it was tradition for a Master artist certifying those they considered worthy with a rapid sketch of the journeyman in question, the style of the Master quite as identifiable to other artists as his signature. The Buildercraft were of the opinion that printing was a passing fad that would never catch on, and the Traders, whose journeymen were, in a way, the most vulnerable, were considering it. The Glasscrafters were late in replying, for which they apologised, but had taken a consensus and wanted to cover all their Journeymen, and were therefore working out how many would be needed and asked if the Printmaster minded waiting until they had numbers.
The Printmaster was thoroughly relieved to wait, and Tahnee re-wrote the letter he had intended sending thanking them for the delay, so that what was actually sent sounded accommodating and helpful rather than thankful.
"You can't let people think they can be dilatory on a general basis," said she, firmly, "Let them think that you do them a favour. That way they will be less likely to take advantage and be slow another time, when it might actually cause problems."
H'llon laughed ruefully.
"I should always leave dealing with people to womenfolk; it makes life easier." He said.
"Quite right too, Bronze Rider," laughed Tahnee.
"Well, it's handy having a delay," said Saralsi, "and a permanent delay for the Beastcrafters no doubt because they can't cope with fingerprints on anything as they'd want to use their hooves," he added slanderously.
"Can they count to three masters?" asked Ipominea.
"Now, now!" said H'llon, mildly, hiding a grin.
"We didn't even hear from the Fishcrafters," said Tahnee. "Or the Tanners."
"Waiting to see what the others do, I wager," said H'llon. "They're both a bit hidebound, though apparently not so much that they want to send insulting replies like some people."
"That's because Lord Oterel has a lot of say in the Fishcraft, Master, and he rates you highly," said Ipominea, dryly. "He probably sat on anything too insulting."
"Alas, likely enough true," said H'llon, "but maybe he'll persuade them to it. And then we tell them politely that as other crafts asked first they will have to wait. See, I CAN do diplomacy."
The others laughed.
"Only when you think about it though, Master," chuckled Tahnee. "It's a good start to our revenue, anyway! And if they all wanted them right away, we'd never have time to eat or sleep."
"I suggest we run a few more than each craft asks for – and store them locked away so no-one can accuse us of carelessness – " said Saralsi, "and then when they WANT more and want them yesterday, or have found some people they had forgotten, as people always do, we can comply quickly even if we have other jobs on."
"He's good, isn't he?" said Tahnee.
"An asset to the craft!" agreed H'llon, warmly.
Saralsi flushed, but looked pleased.
oOoOo
The new Printhall was to be inaugurated with a big feast – courtesy of Keerana – to celebrate it. Every Craftmaster had been invited, all the Lords Holder and Weyrleaders and sundry people H'llon liked, just for that reason.
F'lar and Lessa of Benden dragged themselves away from the mounds on Southern for so exciting an event; and so did N'ton, G'narish, G'dened and their respective Weyrwomen. Nobody expected D'ram to leave the Southern Weyr where he was still smoothing out problems; and no-one expected R'mart to heave himself out of his wallow of hidebound snippiness, as T'lana described it.
All the High Reaches Lords Holder came; and Lord Groghe; Lord Jaxom, fully confirmed now as Lord Holder brought his new bride, Sharra, and her brother Lord Toric attended from Southern, bright eyed and curious, wondering how to turn this new craft to his advantage. Lord Jaxom had also brought Lord Warder Lytol, who had too been on H'llon's personal invitation list. Lords Laudey, Asgenar and Larad were there, and no-one missed Sifer of Bitra, Nessel of Crom or Sangel of Boll. Lord Raid of Benden had come to enjoy himself scoffing; and so presumably had a good time.
The ceremony to open the Crafthall was run by Masterharper Sebell; and it was brief and simple. The weyrfolk at least appreciated that; it prevented too much delay in the bitter High Reaches winter from getting down to the serious business of feasting.
oOoOo
There were some dozen apprentices attending the ceremony – and appreciating the feast - who hoped that this culinary excellence might turn out to be a usual state of affairs in their new craft!
They were not to be too disappointed, for Keerana's niece Keereesa was to be the new Hall's headwoman, and H'llon was delighted to have secured the services of one of Keerana's numerous and legendary nieces!
The starting apprentices were volunteers from Smithcraft, Woodcraft and Harpercraft Halls who were interested in the new and very technical craft, and each with their own craft's outlook to bring to it. Some of them would prove to be senior apprentices soon; and H'llon planned to take in a dozen more totally new apprentices in the spring, when these boys and girls, used to intensive learning, had picked up enough to be a real help while he was teaching those with no knowledge of any craft.
H'llon addressed the apprentices and told them that there were to be several aspects of the craft to be covered; and proceeded to list them.
First was the making of paper, on which most printed material would be placed, which ultimately the Printcraft would take over from the Woodcraft hall. Second was the skill of looking at words backwards to make up the pages in mirror language, and with that the actual operating of the press. Following from that would be both the carving of master copies of words or letters and the casting of them in bronze. This would be allied to carving scenes or pictures of notorious renegades for distribution , in which they would co-operate fully with the artists of the Weyr Atelier, or other artists as seemed fit, and the Atelier under Geriana had also offered to run classes for the most adept in etching, for fine line pictures to illustrate books. The Printcraft was also to bind books, and tooling of leather or stiffened cloth for covers would be another possible speciality. Besides all this was the printing by sound of music on phonograph. One day, Harpers might be trained to use it, or a Printcrafter assigned to Harper Halls might print musical sound as well as printing musical scores.
To illustrate this, H'llon played and excerpt from the Harperweyr creation 'Flying', a sonata involving the voices of dragons and firelizards as well as human harmonies.
The youngsters gasped to hear the sound of such voices coming from a horn attached to a box!
"Recording music is so new a thing that we are still in the throes of experimentation," said H'llon, "but I hope one day to be able to send Journeymen to record every important performances played, so that the Harper Hall will have a record of particularly fine voices or performances. I have the only people on Pern here – myself and Senior Apprentice Ipominea – who know how to make this; you will be amongst the first with this exciting new skill, as with the exciting new skill of making books. I welcome you; I am still a learner myself, although your Master, and if anyone has an idea, I will always listen to it. You have been chosen from volunteers for your ingenuity; and I hope to see it in action!"
He was cheered.
oOoOo
H'llon intended to see each of his new apprentices individually; but a party was a good place to circulate and gain first impressions. Fandarel had said bluntly that there would be two types of volunteer; those keen to be a part of a new craft, whether for joy of learning or personal ambition; and those who were not outstanding at their own craft and hoped to shine more in a new one. Which, as the Mastersmith had said, did not matter as long as they were hard workers and gave it their best. The three Craftmasters had said they would choose from amongst volunteers to give H'llon as good a selection as possible to found his craft. Elissa had written that one of her close friends was interested in the craft but would not join him; Aleran had been in on the start of printing, but for him, as for Elissa, lathe was his first love; and the new young Journeyman would be teaching lathe from Turnover as a new skill at Threewoods Crafthall. H'llon shrugged to himself; it would have been too much to hope for some logicators, and another journeyman.
There were three woodcrafters amongst those sent; a couple of lads a little older than Elissa and one around Tahnee's age. Tahnee had greeted this one cheerfully, and by name, Haster. He had then embraced her, and given her a friendly peck on the cheek, congratulating her on her promotion with what H'llon thought seemed genuine warmth. Of the other Woodcrafters, one looked bright eyed and clever; and the other appeared more determined than anything else. There were also four Harpers and five Smiths, of whom two were girls; one was an elegant young woman, even in boyish trews, the other was about Tahnee's age. One of the Smiths and two of the Harpers seemed quite young; but they were all hand picked, and their Masters knew what they were about.
One of the older Harpers came up to H'llon, rather shyly; he was a stocky lad and, unusually for apprentices, had a brown firelizard on his shoulder.
"Sir?" he said, "I – I hope you don't think I'm here under false pretences: Master Sebell said it would be all right. And – and you're a friend of T'rin, aren't you?"
"I am glad to call T'rin friend, yes," said H'llon. "Why should you be under false pretences? What is your name?"
The youth flushed.
"I'm Duthi, sir…. I was in T'rin's dormitory when he was at the Harper Hall. He… he made sure us slower ones kept up…. And then Kit – I mean, K'iara – took over, only, well, I KNOW I'm not the musician so many are, even if I can more than keep up with the work; and I didn't want to end up as a more-or-less adequate Journeyman, teaching reading and nursery songs to a bunch of seabred brats who don't want to learn and whose parents don't care if they do or not, so long as they can wrestle with a sheet in a gale and land a pile of packtails. I – I'm basing that idea on my friend Shoris and what we know of Menolly, sir. So – so I had left."
H'llon nodded.
"And not just the seabred," he said, sadly, "but many outlying farmers too. I see your envy, lad; you love music, don't you?"
"Yes, sir, I do. And I love hearing those who are better than me playing; but I FEEL inadequate. And – and Master Sebell sought me out and suggested I should come to you, because I'd be near the music of the Harperweyr, and I've made paper with T'rin, and there's nobody outside the Drum Journeyman who knows more measures than me, thanks to T'rin and his charts! Though I didn't want to be a drum apprentice. Master Olodkey scares me."
"I don't know the man, and of course as a Master I could not comment on another craft's Master in any case," said H'llon, "but if you're experimented with T'rin's paper, and don't mind experimenting further with ink, we need something stickier than normal for a really good result. And you – I suppose all Harpers – could check scores if we print them. I can't read music."
"Yes, I can do that, and it wouldn't be hard to do as mirror writing, I shouldn't think," said Duthi, "and we can listen for flaws in music sound-printing. That piece you played was by T'rin, wasn't it? I know his style, though I find it a bit too clever for my tastes, sometimes."
H'llon grinned.
"You have to be in the right mood for it, I find," he said. "Yes, it would be as well to have reference notes sung into the machine to check how closely it records."
"Perhaps Caragel's voice will settle enough to do that," said Duthi. "He was a soprano, but his voice broke; he's never concentrated on much else, so he's a bit bereft right now, and anxious for a new string to his fiddle. I think Master Shonagar can't be hopeful that his voice will be as good as an adult or he'd never have let him go, and Caragel must feel that deeply. He has perfect pitch, so you'd think he'd be a useful chorister, but the idea of being near dragons AND getting to try something completely new was enough to console the kid somewhat. Femil's his friend, and good with his hands."
"The oldest boy, what can you tell me about him?" asked H'llon. He had been hoping for a Logicator, and Duthi was certainly one of those, like all T'rin's friends!
"Elerel's eighteen; he's like me, he loves music and is a good plodder, but he's Harpercraft bred. And I guess that can be a little stifling if you are just a good plodder. He doesn't seem to mind too much though, and he's clever, so he gets to do well in theory. I think he'll do really well here, sir."
H'llon nodded.
"So I think will you; if you enjoy the new, and experimenting, why, we're all learning!"
Duthi grinned shyly.
"I missed the atmosphere of learning far more than I realised, back herding ovines in my father's cot hold, suffering gibes from my brother. 'Course, he'll assume I'm being had by all the Blue Riders around because that's the way he thinks, reckon when he was young he was left out in Threadfall and it ate his brains and then died of indigestion."
H'llon laughed.
"You Harpers have clever tongues! I don't get on so well with my older brother either," he confided. "Do people STILL assume Weyrs are a non-stop orgy and that all Blue and Green Riders are homosexual?"
Duthi shrugged.
"Only the stupid ones," he said, "at least with printing, more true tales can be circulated to change views."
"Ah, the Harper at work," H'llon teased gently. "Which is why we wanted Harpers in the first place as part of the first growth!"
oOoOo
The tall, elegant Smithcraft girl came over; her rich, honey blonde hair toned with her golden tan.
"Couldn't help overhearing, Master," she said, "and I'd say that to protect individuals, tales might be covered with false names and… romanticised a little for the right effect."
"An interesting idea, apprentice….?" said H'llon.
"Glenlys, Master," she said. "Smithcraft, chemistry. I know how to make the etching acid; and I'm looking forward to experimenting with the best alloy for printing masters," her face shone with enthusiasm.
"I hope you have winter woollies," said H'llon, "I see you are from the south, by your garb you are of prosperous family, and probably close to the Weavercraft Hall in Southern Boll for the unique weave in your tunic. You are of Ranking family and yet of late accustomed to hard work and not afraid of it."
Glenlys blinked.
"You can tell so much? I suppose the calluses on my hands speak of the work. My speech? That gives my origin away? My tan is lighter than from Ista or Igen, as well as the new Weavercraft pattern, I wouldn't expect many to recognise that!"
H'llon nodded.
"Well done. We'll make a logicator of you. Duthi can explain that – and Tahnee."
"Sir, with reference to Tahnee," said Glenlys, "without disrespecting her craft ability and doubtless her maturity, she IS younger than me – if I have any personal problem I wish to speak to a woman about, to whom might I go?"
H'llon blinked. He had begun to bristle and had planned to point out tartly that Tahnee was responsible for inventing much of printcrafting, but this was actually a reasonable query. He would himself have felt uncomfortable going to a very young Bronze Rider when he was first in the Weyr. It was much the same.
"It's a good question," he said. "My weyrmate's no older than you either; there's our Headwoman, Keereesa; or there's always T'lana, the red haired Queenrider. Most people take problems to her; and you are nominally weyrfolk now."
"T'lana is T'rin's foster mother," said Duthi, "and she's really nice!"
"Tell me about her – and about logicating!" Glenlys drew the youth away for conversation.
H'llon grinned. He'd got a couple of good ones there, anyway!