-1Chapter 7: Being Rediscovered

Menolly went to find Sebell, Brudegan and Talmor. 'I feel like a brown dragon rider on search!' She thought to herself wryly and a song started to come to mind. By the time she was back in her study and waiting for everyone, she had the chorus and a verse. She fed little Merobel with one hand and wrote with the other.

She was contemplating the content of the second verse when Sebell strode in. He smiled at his mate's bent head, in her typical composing pose. Their children, he reflected, got music from the breast, since the older three could hold a tune and play. Their oldest daughter was constantly coming up with new songs. Menolly had helped her daughter capture the essence of a few of her songs, and now many holds and halls had simple little tunes just for children.

"A new composition?" Sebell asked as he walked over to Menolly.

She nodded and held the sheet out to him. "I have not played it yet and it needs work." She changed Merobel to her other breast and stood to ease her back muscles. "Did you see Talmor or Brudegan on your way here?" She asked, wondering where the two other masters were. They had told her they would come shortly. She hoped to review Kaya's progress before the young woman arrived.

As if in answer to her question, there was a knock on the door and the two masters strolled in without any more invitation.

"I am sorry about last night,' Menolly said in greeting.

"That is all right," Talmor answered. "We had a good time with an equally good Benden. I am still surprised that the good Master did not drink this planet dry for all times."

They all chucked, as Menolly showed them chairs to sit. At that point, she had a somnolent Merobel over her shoulder.

"Tell me about Kaya's progress," she asked them.

Talmor and Brudegan looked at each other and with some unvoiced accord Talmor went first.

"She is amazing. There is no end to her eidetic memory. I am running out of music to test her! She sees it once and knows it by heart! The only thing she can't do is read and play. But she does not need to! She recalls every thing note, time perfect! With Brudegan's training, she can recite whole scores to me. I run out of drill questions before she runs out of answers. I bet that there is not one master in the whole Hall that knows as many songs as she does off the top of her head. In the beginning, she would take one of those bound music books, like we made for Master Robinton, and come back in the next day having memorised the whole thing."

"How is she instrumentally?" Menolly asked Talmor.

"She plays the guitar beautifully. As I told you yesterday, she is not doing too bad with the violin. We tried harp, but she can't hold her hand's steady enough to play. The same thing for the flute." He grimaced as he remembered the first and only time they tried. "She bashed her lip and put a tooth through it when I had her try. The same goes for the reed flutes. She has absolutely no control over the head tremors. Drums are also out along with any other percussion instrument."

"But she can play guitar?" Sebell asked. He had seen the girl around the hall a few times.

Menolly nodded, "And quite well too. I am no healer, but I think the neck of the guitar stabilises one hand and I notice that she rests the palm of her other hand on the body of the guitar." She thought for a moment, "Have you tried her with an accordion?"

"No, but that might work." Talmor said.

Menolly turned to Brudegan and invited him to give his report with a tilt of the head.

"I wish Master Shonagar was still among us to hear her. Her soprano is splendid. She has a range to rival the firelizards. As Talmor said, she sees the score once and can sing it without consultation. I never have to explain a technique to her twice. What she has done with mastering her stuttering has come from within her self. All I have done is teach her breathing and voice control. She is a pleasure to teach. Dedicated, never complaining, and always wanting more. Kaya does not know what a rest day is for. I have to keep reminding her that she is not to come every seventh day."

Talmor nodded in agreement. "The girl lives for music."

"You've both worked with her. Do you think she has the intelligence to be a harper?" Menolly felt she had to ask, given the girl's origin and disabilities.

Brudegan and Talmor looked at each other.

"Do you think she does more than just memorise and parrot the music?" Menolly pressed.

The two masters shook their head in unison.

"No," Talmor answered. "She is very bright, brighter than me. Now that she is freer to speak, she often asks complicated questions related to the music. She wants clarifications over why one cording is better than another. She regularly stumps me with her questions."

"Me also," Brudegan said explaining how Kaya had baffled him over a particular complex aspect of musical theory.

"Do you agree that she is ready for journeywoman?"

"Journeywoman?" Talmor and Brudegan asked at the same time as if it had not occurred to them that Kaya was a real musician. However, they had just finished telling Menolly how good she was.

"Humm," Brudegan started. "I…"

"Musically, she is sound." Talmor jumped in. "I don't know if she could wear any of the other harper hats."

Menolly chuckled softly. "Oh, if asked, I am sure Kaya could get a lot of information from anywhere we would send her. Who would pause to think that a lowly shaky drudge was able to think for themselves? However, that is not what I have in mind for her. I would never ask her to be put back in such a situation." Both men nodded. "Besides, what is wrong with just being a pure musician?" Menolly asked. "I don't remember good Master Shonagar going much beyond his work room, and never out of the hall."

They all looked as each other smiling in memory, for all of them had been students to the massive voice master.

"Kaya's been a drudge all her life. I don't expect her to start thinking about all the things the Harper Craft does. I do not expect her to make instruments. If that was a requirement, Piemur would never have been made Master of Southern. At this time, we don't need teachers."

The men all looked at each other nodding their agreement.

"What I want is for her to play and sing in public. I want her talent to unfold as far as it can go. I'd like to see if she can compose. Has she shown any aptitude for original creations?"

The two masters looked at each other and shrugged. "I guess we've never given her the opportunity," Brudegan said.

"Taking into account all her limitations, physical and other wise, do you think Kaya is ready to be promoted to Journeywoman?"

The looked at each other again. "It is not her fault that we did not consider her an apprentice to start with," Talmor said. "Yes, Menolly, in my opinion, she has the knowledge, talent and dedication to be a journeywoman."

Brudegan agreed. "She could use more practice, but she does not need the guided instruction of an apprentice. She has the self-discipline and basic knowledge to peruse independent studies. So in those aspects, yes, I support making her a journeywoman. It is not her fault that we saw her as a drudge and not as a true apprentice to this Hall."

"Weyrwoman Lessa was a drudge before she was found on search in Ruatha," Sebell reminded them. "After hearing all of you, I really want to hear her sing and play my self!"

For the second time that day, as if on cue, there are was soft knock at the door. Menolly rose and opened the door for Kaya. The girl had changed into her best outfit, a dark grey woollen skirt with a loose brown tunic. Her hands and cheeks were still rosy from being well scrubbed. Someone had helped her braid her hair.

"Come in, I want you to meet Master Sebell," Menolly said, guiding the young woman inside.

Kaya froze for a moment looking at the three men assembled in the room.

"You are not in trouble," Menolly said reassuringly. She made the girl take the chair that was beside her. "Sebell, this is Kaya. Kaya, the Master Haper of Pern."

Kaya dropped a courtesy to the Harper.

He reached out and took her by the hand and made her sit. "There is no formality here." He said gently. "I've heard good things from Master Talmor and Master Brudegan about you. I'd like to hear you play and sing too."

Menolly handed her a small guitar. Kaya took the instrument, and immediately noticed that it was not the same one that she had used in the past. The veneer of the body alternated from light to dark, the grain of the wood forming a herring bone patter. On the front, some sort of iridescent shell had been used to make two birds. She examined the instrument closely. She turned it in her hands, feeling the weight. Only then, did Kaya run her fingers across the strings. She smiled broadly at the sweet sound the instrument made.

"Very nice," she whispered.

"If you can play something for Master Sebell, the guitar is yours," Menolly said, the girl's smile was infectious.

"Mine?"

"Yes. I commissioned it for you," Menolly said.

"Oh! Non! This is too nice for me," she held the instrument back to Master Menolly.

"What? I would have you play to the Master Harper of Pern on your little guitar?" Menolly said smiling, only realising once the words were out of her mouth how much she sounded like Silvina.

Kaya just stared at her Master.

"Sebell, how about you ask Kaya to play you something?"

The Master Harper of Pern looked at the girl for a second then asked: "Lessa's Journey."

With only a few seconds hesitation, Kaya played the ballad with her usually heart and skill. She sang the part of Lessa, but played all the other parts. Sebell found no fault in her music, instrument or voice. The other masters had been right. Then, curious as to the extent of Kaya's knowledge, he requested an obscure song that he had not heard since his childhood in the Woodcraft Hall. The young woman sang it without hesitation.

"I agree with every one here, Kaya, you are very talented." He tested her knowledge of music in general with a few questions. There was no hesitation in her answers other than the occasional stutter. He asked a handful of more complex questions. Kaya answered those as easily as the first ones.

"Do you think you could sing to a group of people?" Menolly asked her apprentice.

Kaya shrugged.

"We could start you in a play!" Brudegan said.

Kaya jumped a little at Brudegan's exuberance. Fleetingly, Menolly wondered if the girl would ever get over her nervousness.

"You have a beautiful voice and talent," Menolly said. "It is time we stop hiding you among our drudges. You are a harper now Kaya." With that Menolly handed her the blue jumper that she had put under her chair.

The girl took the garment and turned it in her hands. The fabric was soft and fine, the stitching even. She looked at Master Menolly, then back at the garment. She thought she was dreaming again.

"Tonight, you eat in the dinning hall with all of us, for we will make you Journeywoman. A great disservice was done to you while I was ill. I forgot to tell every one that you were my apprentice."

"Me? Aaaapreaaaprent…" She took a deep breath for her voice was breaking and she could not control it. "Apprentice to you?"

"Yes Kaya. That is until this evening, when you walk the tables."

It was too much for Kaya. There were too many emotions. She could not breathe. She needed to go where the air was cool and she was the only one breathing it. She needed to get away, this was too good. It could not all be for her. She stood abruptly, gently set the instrument on the chair, and took off, the blue jumper in her hand.

Talmor stood to go off after her, but Menolly stopped him. "Let her go. She'll be back when she is ready."

Kaya ran to her small room. Once there, she opened the glow basket and sat on her old sleeping rug. She wished she had her small guitar. The instrument had been left in Master Talma's study. There was only one glow glowing in the basket and it was about to die. Its feeble light flickered. Kaya watched it as she thought of everything that had just happened to her. She fingered the jumper in her hands. They wanted to make her apprentice. More than that! They had said she was to be made journeywoman.

She watched the glow go dark, and sat in the darkness. Kaya could have lit her last time candle, but she decided not to. The blackness around her and the silence were comforting. She lay down on the sleeping rug and dozed for a while. Her mind unable to stay focussed on the events of the day.

Kaya did not know how long she slept, but judging by hunger it had been well past the noon meal. She stood, gathered the apprentice jumper in one hand found the door with the other. Making her way in the dark, she went to the kitchens to find food.

Silvina greeted her from her chair. Kaya went over to the old woman and sat beside her on the edge of the cooking hearth.

"I see you have not put on your jumper," the old woman said motioning to the garment.

Kaya shrugged fingering the cloth.

"Master Menolly wants me to wwwalk the ttables tonight," Kaya said in a voice low enough for just Silvina to hear.

"That is wonderful news! You deserve it. But you are not sure." The old woman placed her hand on Kaya's shoulder. "You have the talent, the dedication and the love for music to be a true artist. Why do you feel it is not for you?"

"I am a drudge," Kaya said slowly.

Silvina shook her head slowly. "Your circumstances brought you to a life of drudgery. However, my dear child, you are not a drudge. Not like Camo, or any others who do not have the wits or the capacity to be more. You on the other had, have the gifts to grow beyond. Did you know that Weyrwoman Lessa was a drudge in Ruatha before she was found on search?"

Kay looked up at Silvina: "Lessa a drudge?"

"Yes, when her family was massacred, she hid among the drudges and lived as one of them. I was once told she can still put a room to order and cleanliness in a short order. However, she rose above and developed her full potential. Kaya, you have more potential than most of the harpers in this Hall. It would be a shame to waste it scrubbing floors. Beside, you are in a unique position to teach Pern about its lowest class. Too often it is forgotten that drudges are people too, with feelings and who can feel pain. You need to sing about what it is like to be a drudge, and how important the work is. They are often taken for granted and should not be."

The gong for supper sounded, making Kaya jump.

"Evening meal!" She exclaimed. She had slept longer than she had realised.

"It is," Silvina said standing slowly. Kaya stood and helped her. "Now, lets get this jumper on you."

"Can I eat here?" Kaya asked, pointing to the table where some of the other kitchen staff were eating. "I'll pput it on after," she said holding up the garment.

Silvina smiled gently and they walked together to the table. Kaya shared her last meal with the kitchen staff. She felt safe among them. She felt like she belonged. However, she did understand what Silvina had said, and had decided that she would develop her potential, not just for herself, but all those who had helped her in the past months, especially Silvina and all the drudges of Pern, especially those who went to bed cold and hungry.

After eating, the old woman helped Kaya slip the jumper over her head and into place. They walked to the large dinning room and stood near the door where Menolly could see them. The Master nodded acknowledgement of their presence. She looked relieved that Kaya had decided to come.

The evening meal wrapped up. The last of the desert dishes were emptied. Master Menolly stood, and the dinning hall fell quiet.

"Sometimes," she started, "great talent goes unseen right under our noses. We trust our eyes and do not look beyond the exterior. We are accustomed to rank and what should go with it. For months now, we've had a musical genius living among us." There was a low rumble amount the dinners as they looked around at each other, trying to figure out who this person was. Menolly gave them a moment to look around, and then resumed her narration. "A chance encounter brought this person and her amazing talent to my attention. I made her my apprentice. However, due to circumstances beyond my control I was not able to make this public. Today, I am rectifying this. I have consulted with several key Master Harpers, including Master Sebell, and we all agree that the young woman is to rank among us as Journeywoman. In the few months under the tutelage of a few Masters here, she has gained more knowledge and musical understanding than any senior apprentice." Menolly looked over the hall, remembering for a moment her own precipitous ascension to Journeywoman. "We are departing from tradition in another way today. Usually, it is a Journeyman who accompanies the apprentice to the oval table. However, I had a Master request the honour today." Menolly nodded to Talmor, who had been seated on Sebell's side of the round table.

With a bow, to the two Master Hapers of Pern, he walked towards the door opening to the kitchen. All the kitchen staff had assembled, drudges included, to see one of their own walk the tables. Kaya stood a step ahead of them, her tremors increased by her nervousness at being the center of so much attention. Silvina took Kaya's hand and placed it on Talmor's arm.

"Go with him," Silvina said quietly. "Go and sing for all of us here." She gestured to all the people standing behind her. "Kaya made journeywoman. Kaya made journeywoman. Walk Kaya, walk!" She shouted, and the kitchen people and drudges took up the traditional chant. The rest of the dinning hall joined in a beat later.

Talmor whispered in Kaya's ear: "Master Menolly ask if you could sing something for us this evening."

"Ooookokay," she answered, unable to control her voice.

As Kaya was given a place at the oval table, the applause of the support staff of the Harper Hall threatened to lift the roof off the large building. The murmuring among the apprentices was only partially hidden by the noise. It was rare that a secret like this was kept in the hall.

Menolly stood and called for silence. "Welcome among us Kaya. If you please, can you sing us something?"

Kaya bowed to the master and looked at all the faces looking back at her. She had never performed for so many people before. Her mind drew a blank. She could not recall any songs.

Silvina spoke up from her place near the kitchen doors, still surrounded by all her staff, calling out for a happy song.

With a title in mind, the words came and Kaya let them out. Every bit of Brudegan's training came to her as fluently as the words. She sang from the belly and from the heart. Talmor made the second request. As soon as Kaya was done with that song, she was asked to sing another. She was immersed in the music, almost loosing contact with those around her. She never knew how many songs she sang, when Menolly put a hand on her shoulder. The physical contact broke her concentration and made her jump.

"Easy," the Master said. "You've sung enough. Take a rest. Have something to drink."

Kaya sat, feeling the exertion setting in. She noticed someone had placed her heavy cup on the table in front of her and had filled it with cool water. She took careful sips, as not to splash her self. The thunder of the applause rolled through the room. As it died, the murmuring about her started anew.

The instructions for the evening were given, and everyone dismissed from the dinning hall. The room emptied, except for the dozen of apprentices left behind to clear the tables. Kaya stayed where she was. She was too exhausted to move, and did not know where to go next. She longed for the comfort of her bed.

One of the boys came to the oval table, and as he picked up the dishes he told Kaya: "You sing really pretty."

Kaya felt her self blush at the praise and thanked him. She then decided that bed would be the best place for her. Tomorrow, she would find out what a journeywoman of the craft was supposed to do with herself.

On her way to the drudges' quarters, she came across Silvina.

"Where are you going?" the old woman asked.

"To bbbed," Kaya answered.

"We can't have you in the drudges' quarters. You are Harper Journeywoman now. Let's go find Audiva, to see where we can set you up."

Kaya followed Silvina. Audiva was in the kitchen overseeing the last activities of the day. She informed them that Menolly's old room had been prepared for Kaya. The old woman beckoned Kaya to follow her. At the stairs, Kaya took her arm and helped her up.

"I remember when we set Menolly up here. She was about your age. There were no girl apprentices at that time. Ah, here we are." She opened the door and left Kaya go in first.

The bed had been made with a new sleeping fur. On the small desk there was paper and pencil. Her little guitar was on a shelf on the wall opposite the bed. The guitar that Master Menolly had given her that morning hung from a special hook on the wall. On the bed there were three sets of clothing. One was a gown in many shades of blue.

"This is gorgeous!" Silvina said holding up the garment to see how it would fit on Kaya.

She fingered the garment, and looked at the other ones on the bed. "These are too nice for me!"

"I remind you young Kaya, that you are a journeywoman now, not a drudge. You have an image to uphold now. We can't have you running around in drudge clothing. It would disgrace the Hall. You are not scrubbing floors any more." She looked at the other garment, "these are just fine for a Harper Journeywoman. And that dress will be perfect for your performances. Turnover is coming soon, and I am sure you will be sung hoarse!"

She patted Kaya on the arm. "You get some rest now it has been a long day."

"Do you need help to go back down stairs?" Kaya asked.

"No. Don't worry girl. I'll find someone to help me to my room."

As the door closed, Kaya looked around her. She looked at each article of clothing again. The cloth was of quality and the tailoring equally so. There were no patches, stains or worn spots. She tried the dress on and looked at her self in the long mirror that hung behind the door. She did not recognise the girl looking back at her. The colour of the dress went well with her freckled complexion. Some of her hair had escaped the braid the strands falling in ringlets around her face. It made her look tall and accentuated her small female figure. The cloth felt sensual around her legs.

She took it off and folded it carefully away in to the press at the end of her bed. In the press, she found undergarments and a night shirt. Dressed for the night, Kaya put the other clothing away, including her 'best' drudge garments.

She took her small guitar and played the mournful instrument for a while, processing what had happened to her that day.