the extra chapter today is a get-well present to one of my readers... besides it's a nasty cliffhanger after chapter 11
CHAPTER 11 A Storm and a Problem
T'lan and some of the steadier weyrlings were sent out with the groundcrews to fight Thread when it fell locally; and she learned to handle a flamethrower and also to handle the inbred fear of the greyish threads of the hateful organism.. Few enough of the strands got through the vigilance of the dragons, but the sight of them wriggling into vegetation gave Talana an unpleasant squirming sensation in her belly. She swallowed on a dry mouth and kept flaming. Afterwards R'gar held her; and she laughed shakily.
"I guess it's going to be worse up there." She said. "And we're just going to have to handle it before we take our dragons out there. They need us to be calm and in control. We did all right didn't we?"
"You all did fine." He said. "Next time you'll find it's more automatic. Now go and join the celebrations with the other boys or they'll wonder where you are."
T'lan joined her happy friends; T'sellan, Sh'len, T'ral and K'len greeted her cheerfully.
"We were just coming to rescue you from weyrlingmaster Grumpy" grinned Sh'len. "What was he growling about this time?"
"Oh, nothing. I need to work a bit harder because my reach is shorter than most people. He was running through techniques" improvised T'lan, promising herself that R'gar should do so there would be no lie. She did not like to lie; and had told him that her one real lie had been the matter of her age. "He's not so grumpy as you think you know." She said.
"How can you of all people say so!" protested T'ral. "Why he's always carping at you!"
"I don't mind." She said. "He's just spurring me on, is all."
R'gar had been even harder on T'lan since they had become lovers, partly to allay suspicions and partly so he could avoid any suggestion of favouritism. As R'gar was his own hardest critic this led to the majority making the assumption that in fact he disliked T'lan and went out of his way to be unfair; and T'lan had her back thumped by other weyrlings and got undeserved praise for putting a brave face on it.
oOoOo
Meanwhile it never occurred to Talana to question the cessation of the annoying monthly proof of her womanhood; time was of little moment to her save when it involved Thread charts. If she thought about it at all it was with the indifferent dismissal that Thread sometimes fell out of pattern; and that too was a curse of nature which was better for failing to occur. With her duties as a weyrling and Sagarra's foster mother she had little time to think; and what time she had was divided between Mirrith, R'gar and mathematics. R'gar was taking quite an interest in the latter, learning with her; and the long Indian Summer evenings after Sagarra had gone to bed often found the pair flying off on the dragons to a quiet valley within reach of straight flight to learn together and enjoy a companionable hour or two.
The spot was lovely; a steep sided valley cut by a laughing brook chuckling down a stair of stone. A braid of pools and streamlets ran past a lush meadow that was the flood plain, large enough for two dragons to land comfortably and still leave room for their riders to play such boisterous games as Sagarra devised on the occasions when she came too. The little girl was blossoming out of her initial shyness; and although she still preferred adult company she was as bouncy as any of the weyr's children.
They had visited Lanelly several times; and the old lady had warmed further to the shy young girl who so patently adored Sagarra, the apple of her eye. Talana had taken to wearing a skirt for these visits – put on after leaving the weyr – much to Sagarra's amusement. Talana explained firmly to the giggling child that she was pretending to be a boy because it was more convenient and she was sure Sagarra was old enough to keep a secret. Sagarra was delighted to be treated to a confidence; and Lanelly appreciated Talana's courtesy in the matter.
oOoOo
R'gar went alone one day to visit Sagally. Talana asked nothing; and he told her nothing; but a weyrling candidate who had been so imprudent as to lay a practical joke for a fellow candidate had fled in terror as R'gar wordlessly crushed in one hand the earthenware jar full of flour which had taken the boy so long to balance on the lintel. R'gar had then gone to T'lan's weyr and bedded her silently and almost roughly; and as she held him against her stroking his thick black hair until the tension went and he slept, she knew that Sagally no longer held any part of him and was exultant, though her heart wept for his distress.
oOoOo
Other than this brief incident days were halcyon; the weather remained glorious – with the odd thunderstorm – and R'gar began talking of flying between. Talana endured his lectures on the dangers of between stoically. She knew him well enough to sense the thought of losing her frightened him – as much as the idea of losing him frightened her. She always feared for him on the few occasions he was required to fly Thread; these were rare since for both dragon and rider to be blind on one side was a danger to everyone as well as themselves. However times arose when an extra rider became vital; and knowing his limitations but also his caution, Talana wished her love good luck with a smile on her lips. She adopted the trick of keeping her mind with Laranth's to assure herself of their safety: and earned herself several rebukes for ignoring people or treating them to a vacant unfocused stare. Whilst a similar look was common when riders were talking with their dragons, the concentration Talana required magnified the effect.
" Wherever are you child?" Pilgra asked her irritably one day as she stopped dead in the middle of the Bowl.
"About a hundred and fifty Lengths up" Talana replied absently. "It's falling thickly…GREAT EGG!" she cried out "TURN him T'kil!" she turned to Pilgra. "Shath and T'kil a patch out of nowhere! Laranth says they hadn't a chance to avoid it – we'll need Calla!" and the girl ran as fast as she could to alert the healer and grab buckets of numbweed as the bronze dragon appeared from between and all but fell from the sky. Talana sent a mental command, broadband to all the juvenile dragons.
"Get up there and help him. Mirrith, lead them!" Several dozen immature dragons streaked off to help break the wounded dragon's precipitous descent and as he landed jerkily Calla and Talana and other willing hands were there with soothing numbweed, Talana concentrating on the Thread-bared wing of the young bronze, Calla on the slumped figure of his rider.
"It hurts" Shath complained
"I'm not surprised" she retorted. "Your mainsail's in shreds. Shards, and R'gar's fighting Thread." R'gar had specialised in more than teaching when he became unable to fight Thread on a regular basis; he was also a skilled dragonhealer. This was the main reason for his insistence – some said obsession – on the weyrlings having a detailed knowledge of dragon anatomy. Talana cursed fluently that the heaviness of this unexpected fall had seen him volunteering to fly left flank sweeper. Only she and T'ral had come close to R'gar's stringent standards in the postponed test. She quickly bespoke Firath.
On closer inspection of the wing – once the numbweed started working and Shath stopped twitching – she found that the damage was not as bad as she had thought; the batten ribs were all in place, though two were broken. That would, she thought, be due to Shath's frantic contortions to stay aloft; and she said so to T'ral. Shath said plaintively that it did not matter How it happened and how did she propose to fix it?
Talana grunted..
"A patch of stronger material sets up stress concentrations in the structure thus patched and causes structural failure" she muttered quoting from her book "but I guess that you'll be growing everything back before you try and fly. So, we can make do with a splint of reeds with hides tacked on."
"Moreta." Said T'ral.
"Huh?"
"Moreta, she used basket reeds and cloth."
"Fine" agreed T'lan. "We couldn't improve on that I guess."
Between them they painstakingly straightened the wing and laid out the tatters, tacking them onto supporting pieces of cloth. R'gar arrived in the middle, reeking of firestone and shedding layers of clothing as he came.
"Things got a little hectic" he explained to Calla as Talana covertly admired the rippling muscles of his bared arms and chest. "Let's see Shath then and I'll…" he broke off seeing the youngsters at work. He examined their handiwork, frowning now and then, and deftly altering the placement of some of the stitches; then he finished the splinting faster than either of them would have believed possible. He turned to them and they both quailed, expecting a ticking off for having interfered.
"Well?" his tone gave nothing away.
"I thought it needed straightening as soon as possible." Said Talana. "We had no idea how long you'd be…and T'ral remembered what Moreta had done…"
"Quite right." He said; they stared at him, in pleased surprise. "Don't look so worried" he told them. "You did exactly the right thing; and your repair work would have healed adequately. Your few mistakes would have been negligible as far as Efficiency is concerned" he looked straight at Talana who had endured many of Master Fandarel's comments on efficiency with regard to her book. She relaxed into a grin. R'gar went on, "However, since you did make mistakes, if you two have an urge to be dragonhealers I am more than willing to give you extra work."
"Yes please sir," said T'ral. As the younger of two brothers he was delighted to have found a talent of his own which did not involve following in Sh'len's footsteps. Talana just nodded. She had other plans for the dragonhealer in the very near future.
oOoOo
It was shortly after this that R'gar told Talana that she was ready to go between for the first time.
"Remember to have a clear visualisation of your co-ordinates before you attempt to go between" R'gar warned. Talana nodded
"I will be careful" she assured him.
The first trip was to be immediately above 'their' valley. Talana took her time with the visualisation, determined to do everything right; then the gaspingly cold period of between shocked her body; then they were out above the grassy meadow. Laranth appeared beside them, and together the dragons landed.
"Good" said R'gar, trying to look as though he had not been at all concerned. "Now return. Remember – visualise. I don't want you ending up embedded in the seven spindles because you weren't sufficiently careful."
Talana and Mirrith achieved a return and executed a perfect landing, Laranth following with a comically repressive bugle in reply to Mirrith's bellow of triumph.
"It's really very easy" she said "But now I am hungry"
Talana slid off her friend and undid the straps.
"Go hunt then." She said. She did not go as she usually did to watch Mirrith daintily select and dispatch her prey; the thought turned her stomach.
So did Lirilly's sour face.
"I can't think," said the older girl "Why you get individual tuition, T'lan. Even I don't get much and I'm a…"
"Pain in the backside" retorted T'lan, rudely. The pain in her belly shot through her like fire.
"R'gar?" She raised her voice a little, though it sounded strange and distant to her.
"Quite the master's pet." sneered Lirilly. Talana didn't even hear her.
R'gar came over at the urgency in Talana's tone and the prompting of Laranth.
"What is it, T'lan?"
"Are – are you sure we did that right?"
He frowned.
"Yes it seemed fine. Why?"
" I think I've left part of my innards between…I've stomach cramps like I've never had before…" a wave of nausea and pain made her sink into a squat, clutching her belly. With one look at her white face, R'gar swept her into his arms and bore her to her weyr sending weyrlings scuttling for Pilgra and Calla. Talana shivered in spite of the heat of the sun, and R'gar held her to him as the waves of pain washed over her. Calla and Pilgra arrived together, and soon, with their help she was in bed, obediently drinking a bitter brew. Her mind numbed by the fellis juice in the drink it was with extreme reluctance that she moved as instructed and submitted to being washed. Dimly she heard R'gars voice as though, she thought dreamily, from the other side of between.
"Shards, if I'd known she was pregnant I'd never have taken her between!
"Nonsense" Pilgra's voice cut in. "Best thing in the long run. Of course she'll feel lousy after a miscarriage but she's too young to have a baby."
Talana felt vaguely resentful at Pilgra deciding such a thing for her whilst being relieved at not having more responsibilities just yet. Pilgra went on,
"She should at least have made sure she was taking the right herbs."
"Perhaps she didn't know there are any, Pilgra." Said R'gar. "I didn't – and I'm weyrbred. These hold girls are often expected to be permanently pregnant."
Pilgra grunted
"And if you knew she had a lover I suppose you'd advise her to chew firestone " she said ruefully.
It was the last thing Talana heard; she fought sleep but gradually the voices faded into a confused mush and disappeared altogether as she drifted away.
oOoOo
R'gar didn't really know what to say to Talana when she awoke; so he just held her.
"It's not the end of the world" she managed to say before howling into his broad, comforting chest. "And it would have b – been difficult to cope with." She tried to be practical. "And it's not as if I'd realised."
"I love you." It sounded inadequate to him as he said it but it seemed to comfort her.
"Dear one, I do want to have babies with you one day"
He kissed her.
"I'd like that." He said. "One day."
oOoOo
Talana spent several days taking things easy – or as easy as R'gar could bully her into taking it – and after reading about sheer modulus and related subjects with woven cloth cited as an example she made herself a dress cut on the bias from a rich green cloth R'gar purchased for her from High Reaches Hold. On trying it on, she discovered that she had acquired some quite respectable curves beneath the clinging fabric. This pleased her almost as much as it pleased R'gar, who was less interested in the calculations than with the result. He was however indulgent of her desire to create conversion tables to convert the measurements of the Ancients into those more familiar to normal people, and cheerfully lay down for her to measure him.
"It says here," she explained, "That the mean – that's a form of average – height of a man is 1.7 metres." She stretched a rope from R'gar's head to his feet, pegging it into the sand with a wooden peg to hold it straight. "So as you are a hand's width above the height of most holders, I stop measuring just above your ear, -so and call it one and three quarter metres." She cut the rope with her belt knife. "If I work it into seven equal parts I will have a quarter metre which I suspect will be approximately equivalent to one Knot."
"Can I get up now?" R'gar asked.
"Sorry. Yes of course dearest."
She reached down a slim hand to help him up; and unaccountably found herself in his arms.
"This doesn't get my measuring done" she murmured a half-hearted protest.
R'gar ignored it.
oOoOo
With the help of tables in the back of the book, Talana set to work, flying over to the glassworker hall to purchase vessels of very precisely defined dimensions and with carefully measured markings up the side. Talana realised that she would need two identical vessels, for if she used a known amount of water to represent weight she would need to balance that mass with another container to cancel the first out. Then she read further and constructed a pair of scales with a moveable pivot point to allow for any container to be used providing it could be measured in her measuring jar. Thread provided an occasional interruption as she worked with the groundcrews; and there were jibes from such weyrlings who neither understood nor cared about what Talana was doing. Lirilly said,
"I suppose that after getting sick from a simple thing like going between you've now addled what few wits you had."
T'lan grinned equably.
"Yes, I'm almost down to your level."
Lirilly was not happy; but Talana tried to ignore her and the young men who were always trying to impress her by scoring off others. Sometimes it seemed that Sh'len and T'ral were the only ones in that group who were immune from her allure! This was not strictly true, but they, together with her old friends K'len and T'sellan were always willing to help with Talana's experimentation.
T'bor stopped by occasionally to ask Talana how she was progressing. He had stopped asking exactly what she was doing quite early, because she had taken him literally and had explained. T'bor was a man who was pleased when things did work but T'lan in full spate made his eyes glaze over. T'lan was glad of the ever cheerful K'len who was happy to help with heavy work and just as happy to listen to her explain her calculations. He had no desire to learn the mathematics involved but he stimulated Talana by asking intelligent questions when she came across problems and setting her off on other trains of thought. He just as often annoyed her into a stand up shouting match. Talana usually kept her temper in check but K'len was one of the people she could let off steam with. The fights usually ended wetly as one of them hurled the measuring water at the other; and then degenerated into the sort of horseplay the young dragons enjoyed joining in with. Once R'gar had been hit by a bucket of water as he came to see how things were progressing; and he threw both youngsters in the lake. K'len was startled at the good-natured way the weyrlingmaster had taken the incident; and even more startled at the look he surprised between him and Talana as he heaved her out of the water; but for once K'len said nothing.
R'gar declared that there was going to be a storm.
"It's very close" he said "And tempers are short. When it breaks it'll be a big one."
oOo
The storm broke in the night, bringing a welcome coolness as rain fell in sheets. The weyr as a whole fell into an easier slumber, the crash of thunder muffled in the caves.
The shriek from Segrith roused everyone.
Talana jerked into wakefulness, 'listening' to the Queen's complaint to Pilgra.
"I'm wet!" she said "and my lovely eggs are getting wet too."
Segrith had taken to spending most of her time in the hatching grounds after laying her recent clutch; and Talana received the impression of water from the roof. She heard Pilgra's soothing, telling the big dragon that she must have been dreaming, for how could it rain underground. Segrith bellowed, and huffily told Pilgra to come and see for herself.
Hastily pulling on some clothes, Talana hastened to the hatching cave. She was saturated by the time she got there and stood steaming gently on the hot sands as she asked Segrith's permission to enter.
Segrith had not been dreaming; there was a steady drip of water from the roof of the cave, clearly visible when Pilgra sent for more glows. In the shadows of the high domed roof, T'lan could just make out a crack. She drew Pilgra's attention to it.
"Scorch it." Said Pilgra. "I suppose that's the join between the third and fourth spindle where it's close to the surface. Well I suppose we'll have to block it with mortar."
"It's not as simple as that." Talana told her. "Cracks can be really dangerous if they get past a certain length and domes are only strong if they're complete. It must have been cracking all summer and no-one noticed until it rained."
"How long does this crack have to be before we worry then?" asked Pilgra. "And why won't filling it with mortar work?"
"Well, a crack means that the cave is kind of being pulled apart; and mortar's really weak under tension." Talana explained. "As to how long it can get, it's different in every situation. See, it depends on the type of rock, and how heavy the mountain is and…anyway, I can work it out" she added hastily as Pilgra began tapping her foot impatiently. "I suppose you couldn't persuade Segrith to move out for the time being? Losing the eggs would be bad but not on a par with losing her."
Pilgra paled.
"You think it's that risky?"
Talana nodded.
"I can't be sure without calculation but I don't think it's worth the risk." She said. "I suppose the eggs can't be moved?"
Segrith grumbled deep in her throat.
"She doesn't want to leave." Pilgra said.
"Ask her if she'd as soon fly to the red star." Snapped Talana concerned for the Queen's safety. Immediately several firelizards which had been nosily inspecting the crack winked into between with startled angry cries. Talana broadcast an apology for scaring them and warily they returned.
"Segrith" T'lan said, suddenly struck by an idea, "Can you make those flighty creatures understand to hold a piece of string against the crack to measure it?"
"I can try" Segrith said doubtfully. Several firelizards rose, chittering and squabbling over the piece of measuring string Talana produced from her pocket; after dropping it several times and playing tug-o-war they lost interest.
"That answers that question" grumbled T'lan. "The trouble with firelizards is they have no sense or self discipline"
"Except Brekke's and the ones the harper girl has." Said Pilgra
"Which aren't available" pointed out Talana. "Oh well, I'll make do with a ladder."
A green head poked through the entrance; and after a brief exchange with Segrith was followed by the rest of Mirrith. She suggested flying Talana up; but her young rider regretfully had to veto the well meant but impractical offer. She hugged Mirrith and thanked her; and sent for a ladder.
oOoOo
By the time a long enough ladder had been constructed out of three shorter ones, dawn had come and daylight was clearly visible through the crack.
"It must have been filled with debris that the storm washed through" said Talana. "There's barely a Length of rock above us here." She examined the crack and measured it. "It's only a Knot or so long at this end. I imagine there's a gulley above here where the rain's been washing between the spindles."
Quickly Talana climbed down and went to do her calculations. Pilgra asked,
"Wait a minute – you said you have to know the weight of the mountain. How are you going to find that out/"
"Surely that's impossible to know" said T'bor, who was even more pessimistic than usual before breakfast. "After all, you can hardly put the mountain on your scales."
Talana shook her head patiently.
"No sir, I can't. But I can find out its density using a small chunk, and find the volume by treating the two spindles as half a cone each and finding their volume. Once I have the volume and the density I can calculate the mass easily because…."
"I get the idea." Said T'bor hastily. Cruelly T'lan continued,
"Once I've multiplied the volume by the density, I need to work out the area of the cavern so I can figure just how much stress that roof is under,"
T'bor had definitely glazed over by now; and apart from telling her to let him know if she needed anything decided to leave T'lan severly alone to get on with it.
