Chapter 10
K'iara introduced Teffie to the other girls as:
"M'sister Teffie; be nice to her and ease her in gently, she's had a few idiots fostered with her who have crackdust between the ears."
Teffie flushed slightly, but greeted the other girls politely enough.
"K'iara's a good sort" said Carlinna "You're lucky to have her for an older sister."
"She's my YOUNGER sister!" said Teffie, indignantly.
Carlinna winced.
"Sorry. Foot in mouth my speciality" she apologised. "Wrong to make assumptions. Are you looking forward to being an auntie?"
Teffie had been told by her mother that K'iara had written to tell them that she was pregnant so that at least was less of a shock; but in truth she had forgotten, and K'iara in a loose smock for a warm autumnal day had not really shown enough for Teffie to notice.
"I still can't believe she'd be so careless!" she said "And surely there are people here who'd take it Between for her?"
"Ah….." said Carlinna "I'm guessing that actually you and your sister aren't that close that you don't know how excited she is to be with child?"
"Well she's been off fiddling about at the Harper Hall for turns" shrugged Teffie.
There was a long silence.
"Yes, she's worked hard for her JOURNEYMAN status" said Carlinna, herself sporting Journeyman knots. "And she and H'gey want this baby very much you know. Your family's not very fertile in the female lines and I guess she's afraid to lose the opportunity; too much going Between is thought to cause sterility."
"Oh, she's still with him then and hasn't moved on to another lover?" asked Teffie. She saw by the looks that this was the wrong thing to say too.
"They're WEYRMATES" said Carlinna "It's like marriage! Oh dear, you're not planning on upsetting the balance of life by being promiscuous are you? It's so tiresome!"
Teffie felt injured.
Everything she said seemed to be wrong.
"Well I don't know what she's like a all really" she almost snapped "I was hoping to find out. And no, I wasn't planning on being promiscuous. I might have the odd lover but I'm not about to throw myself in the furs of every handsome Rider that looks at me you know!"
"Oh, apologies then" said Carlinna "Only you seemed to assume K'iara might; so I wondered if you suggested things the way you planned to act. Lots of people do, like cheats are the first to accuse others of cheating. It's a well known phenomenon. Are you going to join the Logicators?"
"The what?" Teffie was baffled. She only half listened to half of what her mother told her about her sister's letters, not thinking so much younger a sister to be of much account. To find that K'iara was accounted someone to be respected here was a shock.
Carlinna explained the logicators, with additions from the others.
"It sounds rather….interfering" ventured Teffie.
"Oh it is" admitted Carlinna cheerfully. "But there are people alive because of our interference; or not made Holdless, or who have a live child returned to them not a murdered one. Like L'beth, whose daughter was kidnapped and 40,000 marks demanded for her safe return, when L'beth was Lady Libethra. Most people who aren't nasty like us to interfere."
"Oh" said Teffie dubiously. "Is Kit – er, K'iara – a member?"
"Oh of course!" said Carlinna airily "And H'gey's quite a leading light within it. They've a bunch at the Harper Hall that T'rin started. And the Harperweyr led the way in the craft stall for our orphans and needy."
Teffie had to have THAT explained too; and Carlinna privately thought that she and her sister might as well be strangers for all that Teffie knew of K'iara's life at the Weyr, let alone her time in the Harper Hall!
Teffie was a little bit spoilt, and a little bit silly; but she was no idiot. She realised rapidly that she had much to learn, and that the things she had always considered to be priorities might not be considered in the least bit important here. The main priority here was the dragons of course; and Teffie had no quarrel with that!
Also, the other female candidates were not to be seen as rivals, as when she had stood at Fort Weyr for a Queen egg, for there was more than one Green dragon to be had. And if they all Impresses, they would be colleagues, as K'iara had said, and it would be better to be friends than otherwise. Teffie gave an embarrassed laugh.
"I hope you girls will help me learn to fit in" she said "I can see I have a lot to learn – and, I suppose, a lot to Unlearn. I'm here because I love dragons and K'iara suggested I might try for a Green dragon in the only place that routinely puts girls forward for Greens. I hope that's enough?"
The others relaxed; accepting that she needed help meant that Teffie was a decent sort underneath the apparent airs and graces.
"Admitting to yourself that there's plenty to learn is a big step" said Carlinna, approvingly. "It took me long enough – three hatchings! We all have plenty to learn, all our lives, but it's those willing to do so who are the best, you know!"
And it was as easy as that!
Teffie still found it hard to adjust her outlook; but she intended to try her hardest in the hopes of the love of a beautiful dragon. After all, if the attitudes she must learn were approved by the dragons, those views must be more correct than those she knew. And everyone knew that Fort Weyr still had some Oldtimer attitudes that were not thought much of by other Riders – had not K'star and M'ander preferred to transfer to High Reaches after all!
oOoOo
Teffie was shocked at first at the concept of the child hold; not for the idea of caring for orphans and unwanted babes, but that to her mind such was the duty of the Lords Holders. Patiently Carlinna explained that many people preferred their overlords not to know about their illegitimate babes – or even their own parents if they managed to conceal a pregnancy – and saw deformed offspring too as objects of shame to be hidden as failures. Dragonfolk arriving from the sky to take a child were more anonymous, and whilst this was to be deplored, until attitudes could be changed, this at least gave the unwanted a chance. Most Holderfolk believed weyrfolk too high and mighty to be bothered with the identities of commons, and some even believed that the unwanted children were fattened to feed to dragons! Y'lara had had a thing or two to say on that score to the couple who had given up the midget child Vakas, who had asked if he would ever be a big enough morsel. She had told them succinctly what she thought of people who would give up children to be eaten, and explained what she would have done to them had the babe been of an age to understand the fate his stupid parents believed themselves to be giving him up to! As Y'lara pointed out that dragons might not eat people but that she would have no compunction about cooking their living tripes to make them eat themselves if they EVER frightened any children with such stories again, she left the couple trembling and chastened. Y'lara did not care how frightened they were; she had heard how the woman who had first raised K'lana and Takula had threatened to feed them to dragons to make them behave, so it had taken a lot of persuasion to get them to eat when they first came to the Weyr for fear they were being fattened up.
Once Teffie understood that it was not entirely the failure of the Lords Holders but more the intransigent attitudes of the Holderfolk she became more enthusiastic about the whole idea; after all, as she said to the other girls, she HAD been reared to the concept 'Blood obligates', and therefore if the people would not go to their overlords, at least the Lords could help matters through their Impressed relatives. She wrote straight away to Lord Groghe to suggest that he speak to N'ton to institute a similar system with Hold subsidisation of the resultant orphans if his people were as stupid!
oOoOo
N'ton listened to the enthusiastic rumbling of his loudest Lord Holder and tried to explain that unlike the er, eccentric Riders of the High Reaches, HIS people were not likely to be enthusiastic about rearing the unwanted children of others; and managed to strike a compromise that a special orphanage would be set up and that the more flexible Fort Weyr Riders would act as couriers to bring orphans and exposed children in while the irascible Lord Holder funded the affair and assigned his own staff to run it.
After the problems that had arisen from a cripple Impressing, when H'gey had Impressed Brieth at Fort, to the consternation of so many Riders, N'ton dared not actually suggest fostering children who had disabilities in the Weyr itself! He wondered at T'bor; but then thought shame on himself for forgetting that Dragonriders Protect and Serve, and he resolved to have a word with T'bor about sending some smokeless Weyrlings north to spend some time seeing how High Reaches Weyr managed and learning their attitudes there to bring back for the new generation.
oOoOo
Meanwhile Teffie was settling in and could be seen to be no problem. However she was not the last female candidate to arrive, and Larrina, a pretty, seaholdbred girl from Bitra was a different matter.
Like Teffie, Larrina was a disappointed candidate for a Queen egg; and Aderina recognised her when the new girl was brought in by the obliging Ch'sseri from Benden.
Aderina clutched the arms of the nearest two girls for support, who happened to be Teffie and Geiona.
"That's Larrina!" she said in dismay. "Oh NO!"
"What's her problem?" asked Deiona "She a bully?"
"N-no…. she's as hard as nails though. She – she laughed at me when I was raped and said I was a stupid kid to get into that situation if I didn't want to go through with it. And maybe I was, but…."
"Tunnel snake" said Geiona "Well, we'll be polite; make like you don't recognise her. That'll drive her up the pole."
Aderina managed a grin.
"Thanks" she said.
K'iara had accepted the duty of greeting new female candidates; as a junior weyrwoman and a Harper it seemed appropriate. T'arla claimed to be antisocial, M'ia was shy, and I'linne was a younger girl as well as being a little, 'er, overwhelming to those not accustomed to her extensive vocabulary' as T'lana put it.
I'linne had grinned at this and murmured,
"Indubitably as unnerving an experience on initial appearance."
So K'iara had volunteered. She was well trained in social skills as a girl of the Blood, and found it no ordeal. Accordingly she introduced this new candidate to the others.
"Well, well, little Aderina" drawled Larrina, who was twenty one turns old and felt very superior to these youngsters. "I should have thought that you'd worry about the voracious appetites – sexual appetites I mean, of course – of Green dragons."
"Excuse me?" said Aderina "You address me as though you consider yourself known to me. Have we ever met?"
"My dear child! How can you be such a dimglow? You ARE from Benden after all; I was a candidate there as well you know!" said Larrina.
Aderina peered at her, and shrugged.
It was beautifully done.
"Can't say I've much recollection of you" she said nonchalantly. "So many failed candidates come and go, it's hard to keep track of any of them, they're all so much alike."
Larrina was put out; but did not lose her temper.
"Ah well, what can one expect from such a child as you!" she said disparagingly.
"Well, I'll leave you girls to get on with it" said K'iara, certain that the steadier girls would deal with any tensions that might be building. "Carlinna is chief female candidate; she's in charge of the dormitory."
"Excuse me? Surely I'm older than she is" said Larrina. "Should not I be in charge of the dormitory?"
K'iara looked at her with the well-simulated surprise cultivated by High Reaches weyrwomen and Weyrwomen when dealing with the presumptions of the more self-loving candidates.
"A new incomer with no proven ability? I hardly think so" said the Harper, looking down her nose. "Carlinna is a Journeyman too and so knows responsibility. The next choice would be Teffie who has kin in this Weyr and is well trained in leadership skills and is known to the Weyr Leaders. She's also about your age, though age is NOT a consideration. It is experience and reliability that are taken into account."
It was indeed High Reaches policy to depress the pretensions of ANY candidate who came in expecting higher position or better treatment than any of the others.
Larrina seemed to accept this ruling quite readily and made no disparaging comments about custom, nor about the accommodation as some spoiled girls had. She asked relatively sensible questions about rules, and even accepted the concept of working hard to develop muscles without so much as a blink. Carlinna was wondering whether she had been merely tactless that had led to an unfortunate comment and upset Aderina.
When Carlinna explained the Logicators and the Child Hold however, Larrina looked confused.
"But why bother? If people can't solve their own problems, why make an effort on their behalf?" she said. "And as for taking on cripples, why that's foolishness. They should be given an overdose of fellis to stop them wasting resources."
She looked surprised when suddenly all the girls started shouting at her.
Carlinna held up her hand; the voices stopped.
"For one thing, what you are suggesting is murder" she said coldly "We have autonomy, all of us, over our own lives to choose if we have quality of life or not, this right is protected by the Charter. For another, even if crippled in one respect, many have other talents. Blue Rider Harper Journeyman H'gey for example, a relation of our Teffie, had his back broken on Harper business; pretty ungrateful the Harpers and the rest of us would have been to murder him when he had given the use of his legs to stop renegades! And besides, it did not stop his ability to play and sing and teach. And he did not accept the verdict that he would likely never walk again and now needs only a stick to get around. Queenrider Sh'rilla, crippled with disease in childhood, uses a flamethrower on her adapted chair as well as any Queenrider and better than any in the old days who were crippled merely by convention and inertia. Radall, born without legs, is a very skilled woodcrafter. To say that those who have disabilities are useless, you are talking from HERE" and she delivered a stinging rebuke to Larrina's own backside "And if you do not understand the oath a dragonrider makes you will never Impress!"
Larrina looked taken aback.
"The oath? To fight Thread? Why what has that….."
"The oath, my good ass" drawled Carlinna "Is to protect and serve the people of Pern. There is no qualification to that – no 'except the crippled' or 'except the Holdless'; nor does it specify Thread as the only thing to protect against. 'Protect and serve the people of Pern' it says. Quite clear I would say."
"Hear-hear" said Geiona "And if they need protecting from their own relatives, who in some cases are quite nearly as stupid as you, Larrina, that covers that too."
"What do you think you'd be riding a dragon for, dimglow?" said Aderina "Just to be decorative?"
"We have our duty; and besides that it is a matter of common humanity" said Teffie.
"Yeah" said Geiona "Tell me, Larrina, as an obvious outsider, what is your opinion of the human race?"
It was a phrase T'rin had barked at dirty Tanaish when taking a class in general knowledge and Geiona had stored it away in the hopes of the chance to use it.
"Well I think you're all incredibly naïve and childish" said Larrina, ignoring Geiona's question. "Where's the marks to come from to look after these cripples of yours? If you increase the tithes you'll soon get complaints – and small wonder!"
"Some Lords have donated funds" said Carlinna quietly "And some of us – most, actually – who have the ability to perform a craft for not being useless objects unable to shift, give our time to produce goods to sell on a Weyr craft stall at Gathers. And many of our cripples, when old enough, can earn enough through joining crafts, to support themselves. Radall, at nine turns old already earns four hundred marks a turn with his excellent work. Oh, and by the way, SOME problems can be cured by surgery."
"You let the Healer Hall experiment on them? Well I suppose that's one use for them" said Larrina
Teffie boxed her ears hard.
"NEVER speak so about the Healers" she said coldly "Surgery is not experimentation. Healers know what they are doing. My Grandfather has always known that his father could have been saved if his mother hadn't had such stupid ideas as you have! And it would have been a simple operation! To be so hidebound and ragingly IGNORANT in this day and age unless you come from a cothold so buried in the High Reaches as to be inaccessible for three quarters of the turn or were born a tinker girl without any education. In either of which cases you are due sympathy and help."
"How DARE you? I'm not Holdless trash!" howled Larrina.
"Holdless equates trash, huh?" said Geiona, her eyes sparkling dangerously.
"Of course! Such feckless creatures deserve to die out in Fall!" said Larrina.
"Ah well, Bronze Riders D're and Ch'vul and Green Riders M'ielle and T'arla, Gold Rider Sh'rilla and Blue Rider Harper T'rin will be thoroughly delighted to know what you think of them" said Geiona sweetly "As I am delighted to know how you feel about me too. Girls, this one has crackdust between the ears; let's send her to Southern."
"Seconded" said Teffie
"Thirded" said Aderina "If there is such a word."
"Motion proposed, agreed and carried" said Carlinna. "Other than necessary instructions, Larrina, none of us is going to speak to you from now on: you're too much of a waste of space for us to be bothered with you."
"How childish!" sneered Larrina.
"Then grow up and apologise and learn how to be a decent human being" said Carlinna; and deliberately turned her back on the girl.