Chapter 9
There was no music to face; Mallene refused to even mention the incident, merely saying
"Ah there you are" when the girls turned up.
"I guess it's how she stays sane when married to Bitrul" said Varalie "Just pretending unpleasant things have never happened and ignoring them."
The rest of the Gather therefore was relatively uneventful; at least in terms of unpleasantness or unusual circumstances, and Varalie and Jerissa were permitted out next day with no more said to them than to any of the girls. Varalie went to view a Weavercraft stall and fingered cloth she could never afford; and mentally shrugged over that. Sifella bought several whole bolts of cloth and took fittings from a seamstress and left orders for finished gowns to be delivered to her, caring little how much might be left over or what became of it! Varalie decided that she would rather not have fine cloth and remain unaffected by the sneering haughtiness that typified Sifella, as though the two were synonymous. In some ways of course they were; for Sifella had been brought up to expect anything she wanted should be hers; and that made its inevitable mark on her personality.
Varalie felt really very little need to buy anything; looking at the exciting stalls was enough! There was nothing she truly needed – her clothes were serviceable enough – and little after which she hankered, save a fine gitar on the weyr craftstall, to which she returned several times and finally plucked up courage to ask to try it.
The stall was being manned by a big Bronze Rider who kept straightening the goods every time any passer by looked at anything and moved things out of true. He smiled gravely at Varlalie.
"Yes of course, you must try it; you need to know the tone."
Varalie was about to ask if he were a Harper, then felt foolish as she noticed the Journeyman Woodcrafter knots with a tassel presumably indicating further status alongside the knots that marked him as a Bronze Rider Wingleader. This must be H'llon who had crafted Lavanni's chair!
The gitar had a lovely rich tone. As she had known it would. Anything that came from under T'rin's or H'gey's hands had a good tone. Varalie played a few brief airs and was entranced!
It was journeyman crafted and cost ten marks. And that was very reasonably priced too, for there was even a touch of marquetry work around the sound hole, five compact stylised dragons flying around it, each in dyed wood appropriate to the different colours. Varalie ran her finger over them.
"Please – isn't the price low for such fine work?" she asked tentatively "Has it been wrongly marked?"
H'llon laughed.
"That's the first time I've been asked to up the price! No, miss, we've a new invention that stamps the shapes out of the veneer and we can lay them directly into the hole stamped with the same machine in the main veneer!"
"Why that's so clever!" said Varalie "How does it work?"
H'llon grinned. She seemed genuinely interested – and he had learned finally to recognise the spurious interest girls sometimes showed in his work to try to use it as an excuse to get to know the handsome Bronze Rider better.
"We have a water wheel" he explained "That can put more power into things than even the strongest man can. When you emboss leather or cut shapes from it, you use a metal die cut to the right shape, blunt for embossing and sharp for cutting or piercing; and it is hit with a hammer when held against the moistened leather. It's the same idea but mounted in a big press so it will go through tougher material, and cleanly too, without cracking the wood."
"That's so clever!" said Varalie. "You Weyrfolk are so clever and inventive, I can hardly wait until I come to the Weyr as a candidate."
H'llon grinned.
"Anyone with so open a mind and keen intellect is welcome at the Weyr" he said. "Excuse me, am I correct in thinking you are a friend of the girls with the chair?"
"Yes; she's resting for the morning, she gets fatigued easily" said Varalie. "And oh, Bronze Rider H'llon, you've changed her life and she's so grateful!"
"You know who I am?" he was taken aback, for H'llon was a modest young man despite all his achievements.
"Yes, you are the weyrwoodcrafter aren't you?" she asked, "I heard about you from T'rin!"
H'llon smiled gravely but with a twinkle in his eye.
"Don't believe it all!" he said.
Varalie laughed.
"Oh he said nothing to your detriment!" she assured him gaily. "Please – will you hold the gitar while I check if I have enough?"
H'llon obligingly cradled the instrument in his big but delicate hands while Varalie fumbled and counted. She had given some of her precious marks for Ibella's weesweets as the child's needs were greater than hers; but she had enough, and handed them over. H'llon wrapped her gitar in linen.
"I hope you enjoy playing it" he said. "I know enough about music to recognise that you know what you're doing."
Varalie shook her head.
"I'm a competent amateur" she said "Not good enough to be an apprentice I'm afraid. I think that's the story of my life with all my skills" she confessed with a sudden rush.
"Hmm" said H'llon "But you are the girl who brought us Ibella and her brothers, and asked about a chair for your friend. I'd say your skills for finding, sorting and being compassionate about troubles were well developed. And those are the skills we value in the weyr."
"Oh Jerissa's better at FINDING trouble than me" said Varalie "But I guess I am quite good at getting her and me out of what she lands us in."
H'llon nodded.
"Well, I look forward to meeting you in the Weyr, candidate" he said formally. "My Weyrmate is weyrlingsecond for the females so I'll tell her to look out for you."
H'llon was nobody's fool and he wanted to make it quite clear that he was spoken for, in case common courtesy be mistaken for anything more! It had taken him a while to realise that girls and women found him attractive and now he was careful to avoid misunderstandings!
Varalie, who had not noticed his good looks particularly, grinned cheerfully.
"I look forward to meeting her too" she said sincerely.
"Would you also be the lass who has made instruments?" asked H'llon.
Varalie nodded.
"Some apprentices showed me some simple techniques. I enjoyed it; I'm told I shall be allowed to make more in the Weyr."
"Well, I assume you were competent enough to get stamped by a master; you must show me what you've learned, and providing you've a reasonable competence I'll not object to considering you as a woodcraft apprentice" he said "If you'd like a craft to stand by should you not Impress. I've another couple of female apprentices at the moment, a little younger than you, if you're worried about propriety."
"Oh! Could I? I'd like to try!" said Varalie happily. "I don't care much about propriety, you know; I'm not really looking for lovers yet if you've male apprentices old enough to be irritating. And I know where to put a knee if a man bothers me. And you're sort of married, so doesn't your weyrmate count as a chaperone against young men? So I'd not have to worry?"
H'llon laughed with genuine amusement that she quite plainly did not consider him in the category of 'young men' being too impressed by the status of his knots!
"No, you'll not have to worry!" he said, thinking what a nice kid she was and so delightfully straightforward compared to a lot of Ranking girls!
Varalie enjoyed taking Lavanni to see such traditional sports as catching the greased porcine, an event of great hilarity; wrestling on a greasy pole above a tank of water; shooting contests – at which she considered again what an easy way it was to smuggle weaponry – and other formal and informal bouts. Teams from Holds all over came to play Kabaddi, a game of five on each side who had to take turns to raid and capture in each other's territory – divided by a line on the ground in the court – whilst chanting 'kabaddi, kabaddi' all the time to prove they held their breath.
Unsurprisingly, those of the highest altitudes carried most of the honours with this game, finding the air at lower altitudes richer than they were used to; and the honours went finally to Mile High Hold, whose team narrowly beat the team that included two Harpers from Northfork; and Varalie wondered how the Harperweyr Harpers would do, having high altitude and trained lungs on their side!
And then there was the racing.
Dragonriders flooded in for the races and not just from High Reaches Weyr. It was interesting to watch how the commons gave respect to their own Weyrfolk, but hopped smartly out of the way with something between deference and fear at the sight of any thread than dark blue in one of the more or less complex triskele knots traditional to dragonriders of various ranks. Even relatively lowly Green Riders were treated with circumspection if not locals; and the sad thing about it was that none of the visitors seemed aware that anything was amiss! Varalie had to admit that she would have behaved with equal circumspection to Riders at Pook's Pass; but then they would have come from Telgar Weyr, and she had picked up enough from what had not been said to know that there was an atmosphere towards Telgar in the High Reaches!
One pair, wearing the colours of Benden, a Blue and Green Rider, did seem to notice how they were treated; for Varalie heard the Green Rider say,
"And from what Elissa said, the attitudes towards dragonriders were supposed to be more open here!" he sounded disappointed.
Varalie went forward without thinking.
"Oh Green Rider, the attitudes here ARE different, but you see, you're wearing foreign knots, I mean" she explained "You're from the wrong, er, a different Weyr so you're an unknown quantity."
The two riders regarded her, and Varalie flushed.
"I think they left 'tact' out of your lexicon, young lady" said the Blue Rider "But then, I think that's what we need here, blunt truth. Right Ch'sseri?"
"Every time, D'vind. So, we're treated circumspectly because we're er, foreign dragonriders?"
Varalie nodded, scarlet faced.
"Sirs, if you hid your knots, or found some High Reaches people to go around with, you'd see" she said "You'd never be mistaken for anything but Riders, for you walk proud; but if people couldn't see your knots they'd assume you were locals who hadn't bothered with them; 'cos they're not always formal enough to bother up here, you know."
The dragonriders exchanged looks.
"Thank you, youngling" said the Blue Rider "We'll try that. Who do we have to thank?"
"Oh I'm waiting-to-be-candidate Varalie" said Varalie.
"Then our thanks, waiting-to-be-candidate" said D'vind.
"What ARE you like?" scolded Lavanni when the Riders had left.
"Tactless and impetuous I suppose" said Varalie "But it worked out fine!"
Tragen's team did predictably well in all the races; Lavanni was especially interested to watch buggy racing since Sebet had offered to teach her to drive. And Varalie discovered that the term 'driving unicorn' referred to the of arrangement of three runnerbeasts pulling a light buggy, two abreast and one in front. Tragen's pregnant wife was driving the Northfork team in this race; and there was much speculation in the crowd that Tragen must be in his dotage, for no girl could drive so difficult an equipage as unicorn at the best of times, let alone one so obviously with child – however good a jockey she may have been before he spoiled her as a rider by getting her with child!
Varalie laid her few remaining marks on Kaili to win, more out of impulsive fellow feeling for one being scorned than a desire to gamble!
Her winnings made her far richer than she had ever been in her life before; and she cheered herself quite hoarse yelling for Kaili!
"Well!" said Varalie half to herself, when she inspected her larger denomination marks, her original four back and another forty-four "I suppose that was a fluke."
"Heh, not from Kaili" said a passing Bronze Rider, a Fight Leader,one of the important men of the Weyr. "She's something special; she's a whisperer. But you're right to be sceptical – betting's a mug's game, young Varalie, unless you know what's what. Me, I only bet on Tragen's beasts and then usually to place."
Varalie flushed.
"You know me, sir?"
He laughed.
"Tales of you HAVE got around" he ruffled her hair and passed on by.
Varalie took no offence at having her hair ruffled; it was infinitely preferable to having a pass made at her, and was a friendly gesture. She decided to take the Bronze Rider's advice and bet small amounts on Tragen's various runners and buggies to place; and made a modest but reasonable overall return. She went promptly to the Weyr stall and handed over thirty marks to the female Green Rider currently manning the stall.
"What's that for?" asked the Green Rider in some alarm "I wasn't told there was payment due; have I something here for you to collect?"
"No, it's just for the orphans" said Varalie. "It's half my winnings; I never saw so much money in any one go in my life, so I figured they'd mostly have seen even less. And if I give it away quick I won't get all covetous, 'cos what you've never had you don't miss. Is – have I broken etiquette?"
The honey-blonde woman beamed all over her pleasant face and her green eyes glowed.
"No my dear, you've just made my day! I'm glad there are people like you – especially if you've never had so much in one go! There's those as have that and more to spend at every Gather that wouldn't even tithe you know!"
"Well, brocades are lovely" said Varalie "But people are more important."
She was startled to receive a hug and a kiss from the Green Rider!
Varalie half considered asking this warmhearted weyrwoman to care for her remaining marks until she came to the Weyr; but decided that you never knew when a good store of marks might be needed; and stowed most of them carefully in a bag inside her gitar and tied it back into its linen wraps. She did not think, for all their unpleasantness, that any of the other fosterlings was light fingered; but certainly whilst away from a secure place it would be foolish and unfair to place temptation in the way of any drudge at the Hold.
On due consideration, Varalie bought herself a figured velvet scarf with flame-like swirls of high pile in the new colour out of Boll called burnt orange, the next level of pile being in soft smoke grey all on a satin ground of black. It would cheer up a plain brown or black gown and not be out of place on the green medley-woven gown that had been her grandfather's choice of fabric for its economy. She hesitated and then spent another mark on another scarf similarly figured in soft pinks and grey for Mallene as a peace offering.
Mallene stared when Varalie offered it to her; then gave the girl a quick fierce hug.
"You're so impetuous!" the woman said. Whether that referred to the purchase of the scarf, Varalie's actions over Ibella or both she did not say; and Varalie wisely did not ask.
"Where did the poor relation get money for luxuries then – the brat she was with teach her picking pouches?" sneered Sifella.
"I know how to pick a winner at the races when I see one" retorted Varalie. "I expect Sebet did well too!"
"Pretty well" said Sebet "Save on the unicorn races – I fancied the team of bays from Highspire, not a girl that was breeding!" he sounded disgusted.
Varalie laughed.
"And you Ruathan runnerhold bred?" she said teasingly "I bet on the whisperer!"
"Tragen's wife's a whisperer? Well how about that!" Sebet was chagrined. "You and whoever else knew that must've cleaned up – the odds were eight to one when I laid my marks."
Varalie laughed.
"Then you helped drive the price to eleven to one – which was what it was when I laid mine!" she said.
Sebet shook his head.
"Beginner's luck" he declared darkly, but with a rueful grin.
At last the gather was over; and they were off back to Twosprings Hold. T'rin dropped by as they were leaving; and offered Lavanni a trip dragonback to save her the journey when tired by the Gather; but her obvious fear of the whole idea made him drop his exhortations to her.
Sifella tossed her chestnut mane and smiled provocatively at him.
"I'd not mind a lift, dragonman" she cooed, somehow managing to infuse suggestion into the whole sentence.
"That's a pity then, isn't it?" said T'rin cheerily "Since the lift wasn't offered to you."
Sifella visibly fumed and started demanding of Mallene how a useless cripple brat got offered a ride dragonback with a handsome live one, and didn't even have as much intellect as physical abilities that she not jump at it, when she, Sifella, who appreciated such things did NOT get offered it!
Jerissa opened her mouth to comment on Sifella; and Varalie stood on her foot! The younger of the pair of friends had decided it might not be a bad idea for them to try to be model fosterlings, at least for a while, peace offering or no peace offering, to give Mallene a chance to recover from their forthrightness! She muttered of this to Jerissa, who brightened.
"Lull her into a false sense of security you mean?" she said brightly.
"No I did NOT mean that!" said Varalie exasperated "I just thought, let's not draw attention to ourselves – let her have the opportunity to be cross at someone else for a change, surely even you've got the sense to see that?"
Jerissa made a face at Varalie for calling her sense into question and promptly got ticked off by Mallene, already irritated by Sifella's arrogance, for acting the hoyden.
"Wouldn't it be nice not to be in trouble?" Varalie appealed to her.
"Oh well, old thing, I guess I'll try it. You were right about Ibella after all though I confess I almost hated you for a moment then when you ticked me off!" said Jerissa "I just don't like a quiet life, you know."
"No, I noticed" said Varalie.
The party set out to return; Lavanni was suffering a bit more on the return journey for being over tired.
"But I'm glad I went" she said "I'd not have missed it for anything. But I'll be glad to get to the bed I'm accustomed to in the Hold."
Varalie squeezed her friend's thin hand and sang as she had on the way out to take Lavanni's mind off it.
Suddenly she broke off her song.
"Mallene" she called "Stop the others!"
"So much for keeping a low profile" said Jerissa.
"There's a Brown dragon over there" Varalie pointed to a pasture not far from the road "And I think he's ill, for he's a terrible colour!"
"Let's go see" said Jerissa.
The girls threw their reins to Bimall and Biron and dismounted quickly to run over. Runnerbeasts did not appreciate being too close to dragons!
The Brown dragon was pale, almost beige, with a dirty grey sheen to his skin; and the unconscious Rider on his back looked scarcely any better.
"Brown dragon" Varalie addressed the creature, big enough if a little on the small side for a full grown Brown "I need to climb up to help your Rider. I hope you won't think it a liberty."
It was scarce a coherent thought she received in return; but more the impression that his Rider needed help and a desire that she should do what she needed to, to help him.
Varalie climbed up and fumbled with the fighting straps. The Rider groaned.
"It's all right, Brown Rider, we're here to help you" said Varalie. Ket on her shoulder gave a little chirp of reassurance too.
The Rider blinked and tried to focus.
"Fire-lizard? They – they really exist then!" he mumbled, and lapsed back into unconsciousness.
"Really exist? Where the Fardles has he been lately?" laughed Jerissa.
"Shards knows. Oh, how stupid I am!" Varalie gazed into Ket's eyes, concentrating on the idea of a sick dragon, then showing him H'gey's face and the instruction to find the Harper Journeyman.
"Find H'gey!" she said out loud.
Ket chirped and vanished Between.
The girls had lowered their patient carefully to the ground when Ket returned, chirruping smugly.
A Blue dragon appeared from Between not two lengths up and Jerissa raised her hand to her head in startlement at feeling the arrival so close; and the dragon came in hastily to land.
The sick Brown Rider came to again and tried to speak.
"It's all right" said Varalie "Help from High Reaches Weyr is crossing the meadow right now. You came Between time, right?"
"Yes" he managed. "High Reaches? T'kul?"
Varalie stared at him open mouthed, shocked out of words!
"What's the matter?" he asked urgently, seeing her horror!
