Shirleytacs, thank you for the review! yes, this story like Jessenia and Prisca have been beta'd by the excellent Trancefan
Chapter 9
Lord Groghe read a stern homily to the crowd at the assizes about hidebound stupidity.
"Hidebound stupidity killed my father!" he roared. "A simple operation would have saved him! A simple operation saved the life of a small child who had a pebble stuck in her throat, as can happen to any child! If the stupid fools who wanted to lynch a Healer Journeyman for doing her job had succeeded, they would have caused the death of a child as well as that of a valuable Healer! Oh, but they would have felt good about killing someone who performed what THEY could not understand! In my mind the crowd who tried to interfere are almost as bad as anyone who deliberately harms a child! And I say, well done to the staunch Harper Apprentices who helped the Healer – even if they DO take liberties with my Marquee!"
There were giggles from the said apprentices, and faces as red as hair from embarrassment!
oOoOo
The assizes got boring and the children wandered off; the twins wanted to buy gifts for their Impressed relatives. They irritated many stall holders dithering over what to purchase, and settled finally on a pair of gossamer scarves for the girls to tie their hair back under flying helmets, and a pack of dragonpoker cards for R'ban, by Geriana of High Reaches. The scarves were pretty, tie-dyed; C'rya's in the new shade of burnt orange with cream and brown, J'enia's the most vivid shades of green that the stall holder had.
"To match her eyes," said Ranya, earnestly.
"Special presents?" asked the stall holder.
"Yes, our sister and two cousins just Impressed at Igen; our sister is a Green Rider and our cousins Impressed Gold and Bronze," said Raissa proudly.
The stall holder whistled.
"Igen, you say? have you made arrangements for transport?" he twins shook their heads. He went on, "I'm off to Igen Hold; I can go on to transport them from there to the Weyr, if you'll let me give you their carriage as my gift to the new Weyrfolk," he said.
The twins considered, assessing him. He felt all right.
"Thank you," said Raissa. "We'll write a quick note then, and package them, if you can sell us some packing cloth."
"My gift also…. You have paper? Very good!"
It was a spoiled piece with drum exercises on the back, but it suffices for writing messages!
Of course, doing a favour for weyrfolk – especially Queen and Bronze Riders – would do the trader good in the long run, but the twins appreciated it nonetheless.
oOoOo
Having made their purchases, the twins enjoyed themselves watching life go by.
Watching Journeyman Rokayas trying to express his smitten admiration for a golden haired beauty amongst the paying students was almost as good as a play; and they settled themselves nearer to watch avidly and listen to the dialogue.
Rokayas became uncomfortably aware of eyes on his back and swung round in mid stream.
Not that his conversation was very edifying; he was explaining to a bored girl how responsible the task of manning the drums was, instead of taking her up to the seclusion of the drum heights as her intention had been for the attractive Journeyman, the reason she had asked about his duties there. Rokayas was not as mystified by the opposite sex as H'llon had always been, but the isolation of the drum heights when he was not teaching, and the need to think in formulaic phrases had rather stilted his romantic skills.
On turning, Rokayas saw two intrigued – and rather grubby – faces and roared at the twins to get the shards out of there.
They got.
Rokayas did not have the reputation for whacking apprentices with drumsticks that Master Olodkey had, but he was not a man with whom to trifle. The twins respected Rokayas even if he DID act like an idiot for golden curls. The golden curls in question was at least grateful in some sort to the brats in that her outright suggestion that he show her the drumheights sank in to Rokayas and she finally got to have her way with him.
The twins, having withdrawn, were wondering what to do next when Raissa felt a hand on her purse, and turned quickly.
The boy was about her own age and did not look in the least depressed, indeed he looked rather sleek.
"Huh, nothing in there," said Raissa, who kept a second purse on a string round her neck as the twins' stepmother had always taught them. "I know your face; you belong to that smug looking marksman, so I guess that tells me how honest he is too."
The boy pulled a face.
Raissa pulled a worse one.
Things went rapidly downhill from there; and Raissa retired triumphant and jeering from the fray shortly thereafter.
"Should we report him?" asked Ranya.
"Why bother? He'll get caught soon enough; he's lazy and sloppy," said Raissa. "HE's not one pilfering pockets because he has to; he just couldn't spell honest 'cos he's not been brought up to it. Reckon we might tell Journeyman Ferry and Journeyman Turkill 'bout his father though."
They passed it on to Turkil in the end; and the young Journeyman promised to keep an eye on the man.
Children were remarkably perspicacious and it was foolish to ignore such a tip-off.
oOoOo
The twins almost missed the competition to fight on the slippery pole.
Ranya and Raissa exchanged looks; and promptly volunteered to fight the champion , the fight being by means of whacking each other with flock-filled sacks while balancing on a greased pole over a tank of water.
There was much merriment from onlookers.
"Your mother will be shocked when you come home wet!" grinned the showman running the competition.
"No she won't either, she's dead," said Ranya, literally.
"And our stepmother is at home a long way away," added Raissa, "and senior apprentice Meeri will just tell us not to drip on the bed linen."
"Oh, liddle apprentice girls, eh, let out of home for the first time?" said he. "I'll tell him to hit you gentle-like!"
"Don't you tell him any such thing!" said Raissa, indignantly. "We want to win fair and square!"
"I'll have a mark on that 'un!" called a man in the crowd.
"We'll have a mark each on each of us," said Raissa. "WHERE is Miax when we need him to work out the odds?"
There was more general laughter; and the girls found themselves at twenty to one to stay on more then the three hundred heartbeats required to win, or knocking off the man on the pole.
Raissa went first; the pole was slippery, but with her boots off she thought she could feel it well enough with her feet.
"Rule is, stay on, right, fighting only when standing upright?" she checked.
The man on the pole nodded. Raissa realised that he, too, was a trained acrobat; but carrying a little surplus flesh.
He was not as fast as she was either. This game was easier than tumbling for a living, no doubt, with plenty of idiots willing to pay to try, and usually easy to drop in the water. He could afford to lose some tone.
The man's first swing was low; and Raissa jumped over it. Keeping her balance landing was challenging; but her opponent had braced for impacting her legs and was having his own trouble staying upright for his swing having gone further than he expected.
Raissa saw an opening and helped him on his way.
The big man descended into the tank of water with a cry of frustration.
Raissa ran lightly along the pole and jumped down to tumultuous cheers.
Ranya waited for the big man to towel himself off and remount the pole, then she got up, grinning.
The man braced himself more securely this time, and swung higher.
Ranya's strategy was a back walkover to land astride the bar, her hands holding the bag of flock on the bar for extra purchase; then she rose in one movement and flicked the bag up towards her opponent's face.
It looked for a long moment as though he would stay on; but in awful slow motion his balance went and he received a second ducking.
"You little missies leave an acrobat troupe to become Harpers?" asked the showman, in chagrin, handing over the prize, a whole mark for the outlay of a sixteenth to play.
"No, sir, but our stepma left an acrobat troupe to be our foster mother, and then she married Pa," said Raissa.
They had won a sizeable amount for their efforts, through having betted on themselves. The showman would probably more than recoup the two marks less an eighth he had had to pay them in no time, with plenty judging that if two little girls could succeed, they could do so too.
"Does Lord Groghe have a fund for orphans, do you think?" wondered Raissa.
"I don't know. We need to ask someone," said Ranya.
"Let's ask Lord Groghe," said Raissa, who believed in going straight to the person most suited to answer a question regardless of their Rank.
They were fairly disreputable objects by this time, after the effects of climbing, fighting, greasy pole wrestling and bubbly pies; but as they had no mirror, they did not know, or care.
Raissa accosted Lord Groghe as he left the assizes.
"Oh, please, Lord Groghe!" she said.
One of the Lord Holder's men stepped forward.
"Beat it, you grotty urchin!" he said, threateningly.
"I'm not a grotty urchin, I'm a Harper apprentice so the same to you with bells on!" said Raissa, indignantly.
Groghe stepped forward.
"One of the youngsters who helped that Healer, if I'm not mistaken, hmmm?" he said.
"Yes, sir, but it's not about that," said Raissa.
"What is it about, then, young, er, lady?" the Lord Holder asked.
"Sir, do you have an orphan fund?" asked Raissa.
"I do indeed. Why do you wish to know?"
Raissa pushed a clinking pouch at him.
"We won the greasy pole fight – both of us – and we made side bets and we're well enough off so it seems best to pass it on," she gave him a beatific and sticky smile.
Lord Groghe was touched. These little girls had got themselves in such a state for those less fortunate than themselves – he would be glad to find his dear Nataly doing as much! If she were not so quiet and shy a child, doubtless she would too, and she would love to know about these little girls a little younger than she!
Lord Groghe steeled himself to kiss both grubby objects on the forehead.
"Thank you, young apprentices," he said, sincerely. "The female apprentices at the Harper Hall seem all to be a credit to it. A credit indeed!"
"Oh well!" Raissa scuffed a toe on the ground. "You know!"
Groghe patted them both on the head and passed on, feeling full of charity towards the Harpers!
oOoOo
The time was getting on for the evening meal, when the younger apprentices were required to be in for the night. Gather evenings could get rowdy, especially in Spring when a lot of young men were feeling their oats. They paused to wish Derris best of luck in the jigging contest and gave him a mark each, which they were able to tell him they had won – this being the prize itself from the slippery pole wrestling - and ran home to the Harper Hall.
Silvina exclaimed as they put their heads round the door of the Great Hall to see if the supper tables were laid yet.
"What DO you look like!" the Headwoman exclaimed.
"Please, Silvina, how can we know what we look like without a mirror?" asked Raissa.
"Look at each other – you look as bad as each other," said Silvina.
The twins actually stopped to look at each other, as asked, and fell about laughing.
"N-no wonder Lord Groghe's man called us grotty urchins!" giggled Ranya. "You look like nothing on Pern, twin!"
"You're- you're not exactly a painting yourself!" giggled Raissa. "Do we have time to bathe before the meal, Silvina?"
"You will MAKE time to bathe before the meal!" ordered Silvina. "And wash your hair! And I hate to think of how many tears your clothes have under the grime!"
"Oh, we can mend our own tears," said Ranya. "Mother Relda always makes us."
"Thank the blue sky for small mercies," said Silvina, "now be off with you! If anyone comes visiting they'll think we don't have apprentices at all, but a menagerie of wild animals!"
Giggling, the twins retired to the girls' bathing room. It took a while to be sure all the grime was off, and a little more time to pick several scabs satisfactorily, but two shiny faces and four neat plaits descended to eat in plenty of time.
The rest of the Red-headed League were equally well scrubbed, having been caught and sent home a little earlier by Dorasha, who would brook no argument.
"That was a pretty good day," said Yanal, satisfied.
"Mmm… wish we could watch the jigging, though," said Raissa. "I'd think about breaking bounds, only I'm nearly asleep as it is!"
The decision to be virtuous was taken in view of the already tired state of the apprentices and the fact that Shivanny was lolling in her seat snoring gently. They blew in her ear to wake her.
"Wake up, Shivanny, it's time to go to bed," said Teerima.
"Only a Ruathan could come up with something as contradictory as that," said Shivanny, crossly. They toiled thankfully to bed and slept the sleep of tired children after a good day!
oOoOo
It turned out that Derris was a canny better; he had laid all the marks to finish in the top pair.
"Which meant," he grinned, "I didn't have to hang on to beat the Keroonian. Stringy fellow, all nervous energy; I hadn't a hope of outlasting him. He danced long enough to win and he was still dancing on his way to the beer tent to get drunk after."
"Cuh!" said Miax, "takes something to beat a Ruathan at jigging!"
Derris grinned.
It was a sentiment he agreed with.
Turkil also had news.
"That marksman you got me to look out for is a crook all right," he said. "He claims to people he reckons want something for nothing that he has a die to stamp five-mark pieces; and will sell them for a mark apiece."
"That's cheating the crafts!" said Raissa, indignantly.
"It would be, if he was telling the truth," said Turkil. "He shows all these five-mark pieces; then when people pay their marks he switches the bag for a bag of blank mark chips, utterly worthless."
"But why, if he has a die to stamp five-markers?" asked Shivanny.
"He hasn't; it's just part of his story which is a lie," Turkil explained. "It's to make people give him marks for no return, and they can't complain because knowingly buying forgeries is illegal. It's been done in the High Reaches, where they call it the wooden goods game. At least the new ten and hundred mark notes made of paper will stop it being done with higher denominations for the design is going to be too complex to copy, at least not so it's worth the while it would take."
"Has he been apprehended?" asked Petiana.
"He and his son; his son is to be family fostered by one of Lord Groghe's guards and the Marksman is sweeping sawdust in the Hold Woodcraft Hall," grinned Turkil, "since he likes wood so much. The old – er, Lord Groghe – does know how to make the punishment fit the crime, so he does!"
"I like him," said Raissa, "he kissed us even when we looked pretty loathsome."
They told the story of their adventures and how they had money for orphans.
"We could give some of our winnings on Derris to the orphans too," said Yanal. "I for one want the rest for wood, but if we gave perhaps a quarter of our winnings it would add up."
The others voted it a good idea!
The Harper Hall provided most of what they needed, after all; and apart from Yanal they were not ready to craft their own special instruments, so needed nothing extra!
"I wonder if the songs I wrote out sold," said Raissa, and went to find out.
They had sold out; and she pocketed another four marks to add to the orphan fund too!
It was nice to feel that they could earn, because all they earned brought in a proportion to the Harper Hall too, to keep it running. It was a very important thing to keep the Harper Hall running to fight ignorance and stupid ideas, such as those they had encountered even at a big cosmopolitan centre like Fort Hold!
The twins were both very contented.
They could do their bit to do their duty under the Charter, and have cartloads of fun doing it!
Finis for now
