Chapter 1
"It'll be good to get back to work" said Amrys.
"What, tired of us already?" teased Corbin, her stepfather.
Amrys flung herself across the room to give him an affectionate hug.
"Never! But it's such fun to learn and to be with the crowd!"
Her mother Rillys laughed.
"Judging by the steady tramp through the place of those staying in the Crafthall for the holidays, besides you and Jilamon you ARE with the crowd!"
"Rillys! It's only Zayven, Hetel, Nelon, Kyilin, Torghen, Kevanna and Kevanna's little brothers and sisters!" Amrys rose before she realised her mother was laughing and joined in ruefully. "I suppose actually that is quite a crowd really, when you think about it" the little girl added. "I guess it's nice to have lots of friends my age; and it's something someone with Rank doesn't often get, because you can't always really count fostering. I was lucky in Sagarra; and I'm really lucky to have friends from a whole lot of disparate backgrounds, it gives me a much more balanced outlook than some stuck up brat who's only ever known other stuck up brats."
Rillys nodded.
She agreed; her Amrys was a much better balanced child than many a Holder's child, and it would stand her in good stead when Rillys relinquished the Wardership and Amrys Held in her own right.
"Did you know, Kevanna's next brother Ankevor will be one of the new ones starting?" said Jilamon, Amrys' much loved adopted brother.
"No real vice in Ankevor anyhow" said Amrys. "I hope Ellavas grows out of falling headlong into trouble though before HE joins us."
"Be fair" said Nelon, who was waiting to stand for Impression and was spending part of the holiday with Amrys and Jilamon, and the rest with Kevanna, whose parents were fostering him "Ellavas is only five turns old; you can't really expect him to NOT fall into trouble."
"I just wish he didn't have such an affinity for things like snow drifts" said Amrys "Are we going out for a ski as it's fine?"
There was a flurry of agreement, though Rillys, five months pregnant, cried off ; even little Corrys was bundled up well and slung on her father's chest in a sling. She would be skiing for herself next turn of course; but at only a turn old she was still mastering the intricacies of walking and running steadily!
Jilamon ran to get Zayven, a fellow apprentice, but one who had earned his senior knots before the younger ones started their apprenticeships; Zayven's grandfather had transferred to Rivenhill Hold and acted as a willing uncle for Corrys when the Lady Warder and her husband had official business.
It was a jolly trek, the various firelizards playing games with the snow that had the children laughing in delight at their antics!
As they returned to the Hold, pink cheeked from the cold air, a Brown dragon could be seen coming in to land.
"Funny, I don't recognise him" said Amrys, squinting through her snow goggles. The Hold Glasscrafter had been busy making up goggles for the anticipated new apprentices; though it was not so time consuming as having to make enough for the whole Hall at the beginning of the previous winter! Fortunately Rillys had anticipated the need and had asked him to get to work before Amrys had earnestly explained to Master Weaver Lynger the necessity for tinted glass goggles in the thin dry air with glare from snow. Natives of Southern Boll had never come across the phenomenon of snow blindness; but it was to Master Lynger's credit that he accepted the word of a native. He was, in Amrys' words 'an absolute sweetie with a good share of common sense'; and he was glad of advice from those who knew the local conditions,
The little party skied over to the visiting Brown, who had a passenger.
The Rider dismounted, taking a large carisac from the passenger and helping her – for it was a young girl – to dismount. She was shivering violently, despite flying gear designed to keep out the cold of Between; for that was only a top layer to deal with the three heartbeats of bitter cold. Here in the High Reaches in midwinter the cold was intense; and sustained. Her little green firelizard chattered worry and distress, her eyes whirling violet.
"Great shells, you must get inside at once!" said Corbin "Those thin boots are no good – children, carry her!"
Amrys and Jilamon promptly crossed two of their ski sticks between them.
"Sit there, we'll fly!" said Amrys "Arm around each neck!"
The girl, a little older than Amrys, looked slightly put out at getting orders from younger children; then did as they suggested, recognising that the cold was striking up through her relatively thin boots.
Jilamon had learned fast; and skied almost as well now as Amrys. They shot away back towards the Hold at top speed.
"Why – it's almost as fast as flying!" said the girl between chattering teeth. Her firelizard flew alongside, eyes whirling less rapidly now.
"Faster downhill – unless they're flying flat out in a mating flight!" said Amrys. "Zay, ski on ahead and have Rillys prepare a hot bath and klah, would you?"
The older boy took orders from the junior apprentice in matters pertaining to the local conditions; used to cold weather as he was he hailed from the plain of Nabol, where the weather was never quite as extreme as at the lower end of the Esvay Valley where Rivenhill was situated. He sped away.
Nelon brought up the rear of the youngsters with the girl's carisac, while Corbin slipped off his skis to walk with the Brown Rider, himself wishing he had heavier boots!
There was very little time to talk with the girl, for Rillys had her in a hot tub and then into a llama wool nightgown before the children were permitted to talk to her!
Corbin introduced the Rider.
"This is Brown Rider B'tin" he said "As you can see from his knots he is from IgenWeyr"
B'tin nodded.
"I've brought my daughter Bretine to learn a good craft before she's old enough to stand for Impression" he said "As Igen is now opening Green dragons to girls like High Reaches does. I was told that the daughter of this Hold and the foster son were weyrbred and might help ease her into a very different life….is your daughter here, Lady Rillys, Holder Corbin?"
Amrys rose and bobbed a curtsey as well as she might in her trews. He stared.
"Oh, I apologise!" he said "I quite took you for a boy…did you cut your hair in the Weyr, then?"
"Oh no, Brown Rider B'tin" said Amrys "It is the rule in the Weaverhall; for safety reasons and because people don't like finding hair in their cloth."
Bretine, entering wrapped in a blanket over her nightgown heard this last; and opened her eyes wide, pulling a face.
"It'll grow back again" said Amrys practically, seeing the face. "And it really is loads more comfy, believe me!"
"Oh well!" the girl said "Vanity has no place for an apprentice I suppose…I'd rather have not, but if it's the rule…."
"You can bob it to the shoulder" said Amrys "But I figured, in for a thirtysecond, in for a mark. Besides it's a sight easier under a flying cap."
"Well, Nadira cuts hers fairly close" said Bretine "She's so pretty and fine boned she looks good whatever she does. Mother wears hers longer, not being a rider."
"Only T'lana and Pilgra cut theirs at High Reaches" said Amrys "And Pilgra's is down her neck a bit. L'rilly claims it's an extra layer of warmth to ward off the cold!"
"Well, it's heat that's more the issue at Igen; so off it goes" sighed Bretine.
"I'll do it for you tomorrow, dear" said Rillys "I take it, B'tin, you'd like her to foster here between the long holidays?"
"If that's acceptable to you, Lady" he said.
"Oh, I'm quite used to weyrbred little girls" said Rillis amicably "I gave up getting grey hairs over their exploits long ago; life's too short to worry about them taking on a greater number of bigger boys."
"Rillys! You know fine well we had to! They were teasing the watch wher!" Amrys was injured!
"She and her friend were eight. The three boys they took on were around thirteen" Rillys explained dryly. "The girls used the mucking out shovel. Never seen such cowed boys."
"Quite right too" said B'tin "Whers are dragonkind too, even if the big fellas prefer not to acknowledge it. I'd hope Bretine would wade in, in such a situation."
"Of course I would, B'tin!" said Bretine "Rillys told me I need long underwear; may I have some more marks for all I need?"
"Of course" B'tin dug into his pouch "You'll need spare for those ski things too."
"Skates as well" said Amrys. "We talked the Hall woodcrafter into building toboggans, so that at least is sorted; and reckon I could knock one together anyway, it's no harder a build than a table loom, I could plane a curve for the runners."
Rillys and Corbin exchanged a proud look.
Their little girl had learned so much and gained even more confidence than ever!
Bretine was bedded down in Amrys' room and demanded to know how come Amrys was 'a little bit Weyrbred' in the little girl's own words. Amrys told the tale readily enough; and how she and Sagarra had engineered the romance between Rillys and Corbin, or at least, she admitted candidly, tried to help it along! She also mentioned that Corbin was a dragonless man.
Bretine gasped.
"I'd never have guessed!" she said "He seems so…..so…." she grasped futilely for words.
"Sane?" supplied Amrys "It took a while, you know. His firelizard helps, though Silka can't fill the gap left by Brown Doroth, but at least she's in his head; and there's mother; and all the High Reaches dragons talk to him. It makes the empty place a little less empty, I guess."
"So your father – 'cos I can see he really is your father now – is a Brown Rider too!" said Bretine.
"And so's my other foster brother T'mon, Jilamon's brother, but they don't pull colour rank at High Reaches you know, and you mustn't either; it's awf'ly bad form" said Amrys. "Bronze Riders and Brown Rider Wingleaders bear the brunt of Fall and earn respect for that, but it's all pretty egal – egal – er, equal at High Reaches."
"We're quite laid back at Igen too I guess" said Bretine "G'narish is more interested in whether people do their jobs than in fiddling around worrying about rank. And he said I had best go away for a turn or two in case I accidentally Impressed earlier than he's prepared to let girls be for Greens. I guess I agree, 'cos it'd be a pretty quick end to childhood to Impress."
Amrys nodded.
"Jilamon and Nelon – he fosters with my friend mostly but spends a lot of time with us too – are waiting until they've Turned fourteen to stand" she said "And if they can come close to being Journeymen too, that's all well and good; otherwise they'll have to put craft aside until their dragons have stopped being walking tummies."
Bretine blinked over absorbing several things in that sentence.
"They expect to continue craft after Impression? And you expect them to Impress for sure?"
"Jilamon was sired by a Brown Rider; Weyrbred DOES tell, you know! And Nelon was tipped by K'len – he's bookholder at High Reaches – to Impress Bronze, and K'len doesn't often fall on his face over things like that! So yes, I am sure they'll Impress" said Amrys. "I hear mother coming; and she'll be pretty waxy if we're still talking when she comes in."
Rillys looked in with a shaded glow basket and smiled at the two girls trying to look virtuously sleepy.
"I know it's tempting, but I don't want any more talking now!" she said "It's a long day tomorrow – go to sleep!"
"Yes Rillys" said two obedient voices.
And without conversation to keep them awake, both little girls were asleep before Rillys even got back to the family living rooms!
Next morning there was a blizzard roaring in earnest; and Amrys made a face.
"I WAS hoping to take you over to meet Kevanna and her brother and Hetel" she said "They being Craftbred and children of journeymen here. You'll be in young Ankevor's group, being a beginner; he's not bad for a scrub just Turned ten. You'll be in a dorm with us more senior girls unless the whole new lot are girls too – which I doubt. There's to be a dozen new ones in total and there's only us three girls for now, and you and we're in a six bed dorm so I reckon we'll all be together."
"That sounds nice and cosy! We've a dozen girls to a dorm at Igen, sorted by age if we're not dorming with a fostering group as some do. My mother fostered a couple of kids older than me but she's got no fosterlings right now, she reckons she's not as maternal as some! Tell me about your two friends!"
Amrys happily talked about Kevanna, and her unexpected bronze firelizard from the idiot trader who had tried to cheat the crafthall; and of Ruathan born Lyssa from Ruatha's one main Seahold, down to earth and sensible; and she told Bretine about the expedition to gather Green firelizard clutches for safety in the uncertain weather of the High Reaches. Bretine was fascinated; and learned, incidentally, a lot of weather lore and safety rules!
Zayven strolled over.
"You know, we could do worse, while we're stuck inside, than to give Bretine a tour of the craft as you might say" he suggested "Show her something of all the disciplines."
"And make sure she can knit" said Amrys.
"I can't" said Bretine "I can sew and I've done some weaving and tablet weaving."
"Oh, that'll stand you in excellent stead" said Amrys. "So many people get in and AWFUL muddle with tablet weaving. Journeyman Kevas – Kevanna's father – threatened to tie Jilamon in his own mess and dangle him out of the window in the snow! And I think he ALMOST meant it too, 'cos Jilamon's work looked like it had been done by a green firelizard when they make a nest out of seaweed!"
Bretine laughed.
"Obviously the Journeyman isn't really unkind or I'd hear that about him in your voice" she said.
"He's not Pern's most patient" said Amrys, tolerantly "But he's a decent man. His bellow is worse than his bit."
The morning was therefore spent profitably, introducing Bretine to the art of knitting, one of the crafts many youngsters came to the hall bringing knowledge of the rudiments. The blizzard blew itself out by the end of the noon meal; and Amrys asked permission to take Bretine to meet Kevanna.
"I've never skied before" said Bretine, doubtfully.
"S'all right" said Amrys "We strap you to skis and you keep your feet together while we tow you over; we can start to teach you when we're over there. Weather should be fair; it's when you have three day blizzards the respite between them can be a little short."
Kevanna did not find making friends easy; she belonged to the group of friends largely because Amrys had firmly befriended her before any other apprentices arrived and dragged her headlong into the friendships Amrys made so easily. Kevanna was a little inclined to be jealous of the other friends of Amrys, even Jilamon; but had the sense to keep it to herself! The little girl, whose self image was not good, hoped fervently that this Bretine would not prove a replacement for the Sagarra that she had heard so much about, because of being Weyrbred!
Zayven went off to find his friend Hetel; so Jilamon and Nelon, joined by the other two Craftbred boys Kyilin and Torghen, gave their attention to helping improve the skiing skills of Ankevor and little Ellavas, Kevanna's next brother down after Ankevor. Kevanna and Amrys taught Bretine from scratch; Kevanna's mother decreed little Kellaia, the youngest child, too young to be out, though Amrys did tell her that a toddler was at the best age to learn!
Amrys had taught Kevanna, her first Weavercraft friend, well; and it made Kevanna feel much better that she was able to show the weyrbred newcomer something!
Bretine did not lack courage or determination; and was soon able to make some semblance of forward motion.
"These wretched skis keep crossing!" she said, emerging from a tumble into the snow "I swear one thinks it's a Green on heat and the other a Blue!"
The other girls laughed at both simile and indignant tone; but Kevanna's mother called them in at that juncture for klah and cakes.
"You bake a mean applecake, Ellaia" said Amrys, appreciatively, with her mouth full.
Ellaia laughed.
"I'm glad you approve. And who is this?" she smiled at Bretine, still feminine even with her pale hair cut close to her head.
Amrys filled Ellaia in, with interruptions from the others. With four children of her own, Ellaia had no trouble following this rather confusing narrative, and nodded.
"The Master said we'd have another Weyrbred child, but it was all he said" she said "I'm sure you'll settle in well, while you wait for your dragon to shell, my dear."
Bretine beamed.
"Oh I'm sure I shall!" she said "I was a bit afraid I'd get treated oddly for being weyrbred, but nobody has yet!"
"Oh, people can have peculiar ideas about weyrfolk right enough" said Ellaia "But we consider that background is not important, only dedication to craft; and we'd squash any silly ideas. I don't THINK any of our kids here have silly ideas?" she made it a question and glanced at Jilamon to answer.
Jilamon shrugged and shook his head.
"Not that they've said anything about to me!" he said "Couldn't speak for the paying students; prefer not to speak TO the paying students!"
"Now then, you bad boy!" chid Ellaia.
Jilamon just grinned at her!