Its Eyes Were Jewels
Chapter 50
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As way of disclaimer, I own none of Anne McCaffrey's characters nor do I own her world (though I sometimes wish I did), I'm simply borrowing them for the time being.
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After apologizing to Elrenia for his green's rudeness, the young rider managed to calm her down enough to pull Elrenia up and whisk her between. The trip took an eternity, but no longer than usual and he was dropping her off at the weaver hold. Wishing her good luck toward her endeavors before taking immediately to the sky again. With good reason. Even through the thick stone walls, Elrenia could hear Alana screaming, crying, shouting things at her husband that were so filthy that the girl paused with her hand raised to knock on the door. Did she really want to be in there?
Not with that kind of language, she didn't.
But Z'den wanted her there, so after a moment the girl took a deep breath and called out, "Radez?" A simple name that beckoned the man who owned it to the door. And the smile he gave her the moment he saw her face was well worth the trip.
"I was hoping Zariden..." The man paused, and cleared his throat, "Z'den, I mean, would send you."
This was surprising, what with their single meeting making her feel less than qualified to be the one chosen to help out, but she smiled kindly. They'd liked her when Z'den took her to dinner that night. The entire family did, and they'd been so kind. "Why me?"
"He said you were good with children."
Breath sticking in the girl's throat, she barely managed to choke out, "Not… not birthing—"
"By the egg, no child. Jasara and her cousins."
"Oh. Yes. Of course, I can help with them."
If she could keep the weyrbrats calm on a daily basis, if she could control a lonely, rambunctious niece she could control the likes of a few hold children. Granted, this was some excitement she'd never truly had to deal with at Benden. Even though she'd been there for a few hatchings, the children had never been involved. Maybe that had been done on purpose. Maybe the senior weyrfolk understood that she couldn't possibly be prepared to care for children under those circumstances and took pity on her. Maybe she was over estimating her abilities. But before she could recant her offer she was being stared at by over a dozen curious children, only a small handful she recognized from her last trip.
"Listen to Elrenia, children. Do you hear me?"
"Yessir."
Radez left Elrenia almost as soon as he showed her to the room the children were holed up in. There were two older girls, maybe fifteen turns by a rough estimate, and the significant lack of baby fat. Though they seemed to be holding down the fort well enough, they both look extremely exhausted.
One of them looked up at her when she entered and hoisted herself up from the floor, making sure not to disturb the furs covering one of the little ones. "I should go prepare food—"
"Sit down," Elrenia ordered the young woman before she even finished her thought, motioning to the small group of sleeping youngsters she was about to abandon. "Make sure they stay asleep, and I'll handle the food. Jasara?"
"Yes?"
"Would you like to help me?" When the child looked suspicious, she elaborated, "It'll get you and your cousins out of this stuffy room and all."
"Oh, yes!"
"Good, then come."
The children were fairly well behaved, all of them seeming tired and spooked. When a shrill shriek sounded from the other side of the hold, and one of the youngsters woke up and started crying, Elrenia understood why.
At their age she hadn't understood what birth entailed. She understood it meant a baby was inside of a woman. Understood that it hurt an awful lot. But… but that wasn't much. Wasn't enough. It wasn't the same as holding her own cousin's hand while the girl screamed and tried to force a little life from her body. Watching her bleed. It certainly wasn't the same as giving birth herself. Birth was supposed to be a happy time, she understood that as well. But with the amount of agony… Elrenia wasn't entirely sure how that was possible. The crying didn't help much either. Just when everyone started to doze off a cry from one of the children would wake them all yet again, and it was a surprise they weren't all a bunch of wherries after this!
So she sang while she worked. She was no Harper, but she sounded decent enough. One of the happier tunes she knew, one of the ones her mother used to sing. Now there was a woman with a voice of beauty. Her mother was always singing before she died, and when she did she took the music with her.
It was time to take it back.
Slowly it got the attention of the children between screams from Alana, got a few of the older girls to even sing along while they carefully sliced up root vegetables and tubers. This wasn't going to be a spectacular meal. This was not Elrenia's kitchen, and she couldn't find anything. Many of the children had no or little experience in the kitchen what with their young age. Most of the older girls, Jasara explained, were roped into helping with Alana. This was all well and good, of course, but it made things especially difficult when two young boys started rough housing across the room from her.
"Watch yourselves!" Elrenia all but snapped, energy and patience draining from her with every scream from across the house. Closing the door dulled the noise a little, but not enough, no where close enough to—
"Elrenia!" the shout startled the girl into dropping her spoon, splashing soup everywhere, but the young man who shouted at her didn't look the least bit apologetic when he plowed into the room barely avoiding knocking several children to the ground.
Incensed, the woman straightened a child while she tried to say, "That is no way to behave!"
She barely got a word out before the boy grabbed her arm, yanking her almost viciously out of the room, shouting, "Elrenia, we need you to talk to Fencer!"
"Fencer?" She questioned as she instinctively pulled herself from his grasp, coming dangerously close to striking him when he turned to grab her again.
"Our fire lizard!" He cried out desperately when she narrowly avoided his seeking hands once more. "Please!"
The desperation on his face, the way he pleaded, all red faced and trembling had her sighing and following him reluctantly much to his obvious relief. He didn't try to grab her again, but kept looking back at her, as though he was afraid she'd run away the moment he let his guard down, so she started talking, "Why do I need to see Fencer?"
"Because we need to send a message!"
"I don't—"
"Alana…" He looked stricken when he looked back this time, before turning into a room. A library of some sort, elegantly decorated with grand tapestries that she wouldn't have expected to see in so small a hold. Craft hold or otherwise. "We need Z'den. All right? We need him now, and Fencer is the easiest way."
"What do I need to do?"
"Give him the image."
"Image?"
The boy wasn't making any sense as he leaned over a table, scrawled the words "Come now! It's time" on a piece of paper and shoved it into her hand. "Fencer!" A tiny blue dragon was there in an instant shining in the glowlight, much like Koth, and when his little head tilted curiously Elrenia smiled. Fencer was a tiny version of her beloved blue, and when he fluttered over to sit on her forearm she smiled even wider.
"Show him."
"Show him what?!" The lack of communication was truly frustrating to Elrenia, because as much as she asked the frantic boy refused to give her actual information, but the little blue kept her moderately calm when he let her scratch his eyeridges. She wasn't mad at the boy, of course. Things clearly weren't going as planned, and quite frankly the terror in his face was contagious. It made her feel ill. But she still needed to know exactly what was to be done, and repeated, more calmly this time, "What do I show him? What do I have to do?"
What made her feel worse was the fact that she couldn't do anything until he finally snapped, "Show him Benden! He needs to see Benden to go to it!"
"Oh!" So she summoned the best picture she could in her mind. The sun in the sky like a beacon. The beautiful face of the building, warm and inviting. Heated by the sun. The bowl where the dragonets would relax very soon. An image all but burned into her mind from when the world was starting to grow cold once more. Once she was certain she'd given the creature a clear picture she looked him in the eye and said, "Please bring Z'den back here. Right here." And the blue blinked between.
The boy looked so relieved then, lunging forward to hug Elrenia before jerking back in shock of his own actions. But Elrenia drew him forward again, cradled the back of his neck when he wrapped around her. Stroked his back when he trembled.
Something was terribly wrong, and the knot in her stomach grew larger, heavier. But she managed to say, "I don't know your name, sweetling."
"Alan."
"Alan is a good name."
"S'my father's name, it is." Pulling away so he could stare sheepishly up at the tall woman, Alan said, "I'm sorry I grabbed you, Zafer told me not to, but you weren't comin' fast enough."
"It's okay Alan, I understand." And though she couldn't condone his behavior, she was willing to forgive it for the time being. "Now… what's going on?"
"Alana…" The poor boy choked on the woman's name, lips trembling when he did. "She's bleeding too much. Ama is scared for her. We need Z'den."
"What can Z'den do about it?"
The shock and horror on the boy's face told her everything she needed to know before he burst into tears, sobbing that he didn't know who else to call. Who else would help? Who else could help? There was no one. "But I love her so much!" he shouted, crying harder still. It was heartbreaking. "She's all I have now dad's gone, and I—"
"Hush, darling, hush." Elrenia kissed the boy's forehead and held him close. "Alana will be fine."
"You didn't see the blood!" he insisted, pulling frantically at his hair in a way that reminded Elrenia too much of herself. This wouldn't do. This young man shouldn't be allowed to be so upset.
"Alan—"
"This is her first," the boy explained, sliding down the wall to sit. "Alana and Nasor've been married almost a year, and this is their first baby. She's wanted to be a mother her whole life, Elrenia. It's all she's ever wanted."
"And she'll have her baby, just you watch," she assured. But when she went to sit beside him on the ground he pushed her away from him, buried his face in his knees.
"What's a baby worth if she dies trying to give it life?"
"Alan—"
"I'll always hate it," he said, looking so disgusted with himself as he did. "I won't want to, but I'll hate it forever if it kills her."
"That isn't fair—"
"Nothing is fair!"
"We can always get Oldive here."
"He would never come here!"
"And why not?" Elrenia knew exactly why. It was the same reason that no one could possibly ever have wanted to go to Levic. It was so small. So useless. No one cared about it. Who was Alana to a man like Oldive, who cured the likes of Masterharper Robinton and Weyrleader F'lar? He had trainees who worked these little places, and why wasn't there a healer here already? Was there? Was there nothing else that could possibly be done to save this poor woman? "He will come if we ask him to," Elrenia assured the boy when she realized she hadn't spoken for a long moment. "We just have to wait for Z'den to get here, and we can get his escort to get Oldive. They won't mind." And if they did, Elrenia would shout and carry on until they decided they could do her this one thing. If she had to go and drag Oldive here in person, she would, and she told the young man as much. "I will not give him a choice."
"Elrenia—"
"No, Alan. You listen, and you listen well." Turning in the middle of the hallway so she was face to face with the boy, Elrenia said, "Oldive will come here, whether he wants to or not. Alana is just as important as anyone else, and if we need a dragon to time it to get here in time, we will. I won't allow her to die."
Alan's chuckle was watery, but surely it was better than nothing. The shadow about his eyes lifted slightly, just enough to get them both to their fight. Both of them were completely exhausted, though it wasn't quite noon yet, but they walked back to the children all the same. So the boy could rest, and Elrenia could finish cooking.
Food would be ready to eat very soon, and Elrenia figured poor Alan needed a warm cup of klah regardless. Or water at the very least, he looked so pale. So sickly. Elrenia wanted more than anything to just fix everything, but couldn't. She knew she couldn't even as Alan thanked her profusely for the klah and collapsed into a chair.
The children didn't approach him, and didn't ask what was going on. They just went about their various chores with grim expressions. The screaming had stopped, but there was no crying. No crying from a baby, no crying from the adults…
So Elrenia sang more. Left the door open so spirits could be lifted through the house. Just for a moment. Everything would be okay if they believed it would be.
"Elrenia!" Ama's voice was brittle and tired when she walked into the room, and the brunette was rushing over to usher the woman into a seat. "You're too good to me, child."
"What do you need?" Elrenia sounded tired as well. She'd only been there for a little over an hour, by her reckoning, but it felt like an eternity. It felt like an eternity where a thousand things were happening a second, and the old woman was gratefully accepting the bowl of soup she was being given.
"I hate to ask this of you," she spoke after swallowing a spoonful, "but the runners are all locked up for the day, and—"
"What do you need, Ama?" Z'den sent her to help, and by the egg she was going to help. "You don't need to worry about apologies and nonsense."
Sighing heavily, Ama touched Elrenia's cheek and said, "Quite a ways down into the fields is a shed. We need the extra wood."
"Okay."
"We only keep it for emergencies," the woman explained further. Maybe she felt it was necessary, since she was sending the girl—a visitor—on such a chore. "We've run out of what we have here already, boiling as much water as we have been. Trying to keep the house warm enough."
"Don't worry. I've got it under control."
"Bring a cart," the old woman warned. "You won't be able to carry it all by hand."
"I will. How much do you need?"
"A lot. Enough to last us the night, dear." Ama rubbed her eyes, and picked up one of the children. The little girl stayed quiet and settled in, burying her face in the grandmother's bosom, breathing in her smell. A safe smell. The smell of family. In return, the old woman held her closer. "I'll have the boys cut more when they all get back."
Nodding her head, Elrenia smiled lightly and said, "Don't worry." It brought her back to her days at Levic, when she was forced to do these chores all the time for lack of help. She hated chopping wood, but if this was already handled and all she had to do was transport it, she wasn't going to complain. It was the least she could do for the tired woman and her family. "You watch the children and rest."
"I'll go too," Alan said as he got to his feet, rolling his shoulders and stretching his back. "I'll help."
"No, sweetling." Elrenia shook her head adamantly. "You stay here and rest."
"It's going to be heavy, Elrenia, and you're going to need a couple of carts."
"Alan—"
"I'm not asking your permission," he said as he pulled on a jacket. "I… hate just sitting here, not doing anything. I want to help, okay? Let me help."
"I… All right." Maybe getting the boy's mind off of things would make him feel better. Make him forget that Z'den wasn't here yet, and there was absolutely nothing he could do to save his sister's life. Maybe it would help. "We'll be back soon."
"You're amazing, child."
Amazing. She was amazing. Being able to do anything at all was enough for her, but amazing? That would have taken her breath away. It would have if she didn't need it in order to jog through the cold, winter barren fields to a rickety looking old shed, dragging an old cart behind her all the while. There was heavy hide over the large bundle of wood, protecting it from being dampened by the rain and snow that happened to fall through the holes in the roof. Missing stones in the wall only helped to dampen the wood even more, and she wondered why no one had ever fixed it. Surely it would have been easy to do so.
With a little repair the shed could be extremely useful. A way station of sorts when thread returned. Food, likes grains, could be stored in pots. It could be used as a drying shed for herbs or meat! There were so many possibilities, and yet it was being used to store wood. Poorly.
Surely there was a reason for this, and Elrenia made a mental note to ask about it after they were finished with the wood. But not before she slipped her coat off, and tossed it onto the cart with the wood, fanning her face lightly. All the running about was making her break a sweat. All the work was. It'd been an awful long time since she'd had to do actual work. The Weyr had spoiled her, and she laughed even as her stomach roiled with an uneasy feeling.
The Weyr made have spoiled her, but it had taught her more than enough to make her marginally decreased stamina worth it. The fact that she was able to smile at Alan's jab about the red, blotty color of her face was proof of that. "Oh, shut it," she warned without venom. "You aren't exactly better off."
"It's too warm for these coats," he laughed, taking his own off as well. "I'm surprised. There was a frost just this morning. Maybe we're finally moving out of the cold."
"That would be a blessing." And a curse, just like Lessa said. The warmth would bring fresh food, and clear minds, but it would also bring thread. Just the thought made her skin crawl, and she said, "Let's fill the other cart."
"Will these two be enough?" Alan asked. "Is there even enough wood in there?"
A good question. The carts were rather small, and they'd need to make several trips to get enough back to the house in them. "Not if we need to heat the whole house tonight, no…"
"What do we do?"
"Do you know where they keep their tools here?"
"Of course."
"Go fetch an axe," Elrenia said, motioning toward piles of snow covered, uncut wood. "We'll find the dry pieces and chop up as much as we can. In the meantime, I'll reorganize the carts so they can carry more back to the house in one trip."
"You sure?" The boy didn't look very happy with the plan, and shifted anxiously. "I can do the heavy lifting, while you go get—"
"You know where the axe is, not me. Go get it, then hurry back, okay? Stop looking like a frightened wherry. What's wrong?"
"Nothing… I…" The boy peered at the sky, before shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know. This just doesn't feel right."
"Nothing feels right," Elrenia agreed gently, stomach churning further, tightening around the knot that had been there all day. "We're just both worried about Alana. For all we know, Z'den got here while we've been messing with the wood. Get back to the house, and get what we need, okay?"
"Okay." The boy nodded his head, but still stared nervously for a second. "Are you—"
"I'm sure!" the woman laughed, and pushed the boy gently in the direction of the house. "Now move, before I give you a swift kick!"
The smile Alan gave her broke the tension, and the tightness in her belly lessened as he ran off. "I'll be back soon."
"Get going!"
Once the boy was out of sight she looked at the wood, haphazardly tossed in the cart, and sighed. The cart, made to be pushed by a person instead of pulled by an animal, was oddly shaped. Narrow at the bottom and wider at the top, which made stacking a tricky affair. Even piles couldn't happen. It was a poorly designed monstrosity, but Elrenia tried her best, coming up with a pattern that gave hollows for actually stacking the pieces. By the time she was done it fit almost a third more wood than they had the first time, and cut the pile in the shed in half.
Good.
Fanning herself again Elrenia rolled up her sleeves, and turned to squint up at the sun, noticing for the first time the eerie silence that consumed the world around her. Quiet like a hold after the death of a loved one. Not so much as one of the wild wherries she knew lived in the area rummaging for food. The way her stomach clenched and her blood ran cold told her everything she needed to know long before her eyes caught sight of it. In the distance, gray clouding the horizon like a nightmare.
"No."
Thread.
But it couldn't be. Thread wasn't supposed to start falling for another sevenday. It was still too cold for the wriggling spores to survive while they fell to the ground, but it wasn't cold. The sweat on her forehead, she realized then, may have been from more than just the work she was doing.
It was warm out. The sun heating her flesh would have been pleasant if not for the fact that it somehow felt like ice. She was frozen in place. Staring. Because it couldn't be thread, but it was. There was no way she could ever forget the way it looked falling from the sky over the wherry field. The way her stomach knotted in primal terror at the sight of it. "No."
Stormy eyes looked around frantically, trying to find anywhere she could go to hide. But there was nothing. The trees wouldn't protect her. The shed at her side wouldn't be able to protect the wood inside it, let alone her. She could try to run back to the Hold, but it couldn't possibly work. It wouldn't work. Her feet ached at the very thought of it, but she ran anyway. Maybe there was a rock somewhere along the way that she could hide under. Another shed. Maybe… anything. There had to be something, and Elrenia refused to let tears come to her eyes as she pumped her legs against the ground. Running faster, and harder than she ever had in her life. This was not how she was going to die.
There was so much she hadn't done yet! They had only just found her brother, and were still trying to bring Ronomer to justice. There was a queen waiting for her! Elrenia was supposed to be a rider, and she knew it. It was what she was meant to do and she couldn't die before she had the chance!
Except the leading edge was moving quicker than she was, quicker than she could, falling a little bit closer every time she glanced over her shoulder in terror. This was it. This was how she died. Trying desperately to help Z'den's family. Wanting nothing more than to make things okay for them. She was going to die. "No!" as though screaming at the skies would make it better. "No!" She just couldn't believe this was it, and something swept down above her.
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Ha. Do you all remember when I had a solid, once a week, Sunday schedule? I do. I won't promise it's back, but I promise I'll try. The next chapter is written already. And several people have asked in the past few weeks when the story will be wrapping up, and I'll repeat what I said a few chapters ago-The story is extensively outlined and will be coming to an end soon. Very soon.
