Chapter 7

With Marra in Green Dormitory, the partition had been taken down. The idea of Upper and Lower Green with just seven little girls so close in age seemed silly. On Sadvia's suggestion, and with her skill, it had been made into a folding screen that locked back between the two windows, to give the option of partitioning in the future.

Master Lynger was beginning to think towards a time of expansion; the hall had become very successful, very quickly, and soon there would need to be more room for the female apprentices as they grew in number. He had seen the Printcraft Hall with its loggia and courtyard for exercise in all but the coldest weather, and thought of asking for help from the minercraft builders to build a loggia that was sturdy enough to have rooms atop it, on the inside of the corridor that ran around the upper storey. The common room would remain big enough; it ran much of the length of one side, the rest of the length being the senior common room. But further dormitories would be useful. A dedicated pair of dormitories for Ranking paying students would not come amiss, with the option of taking boys from next turn as well as girls, and freeing the current Gold dormitory for senior female apprentices into the bargain. Another two dormitories available opposite the extant ones would permit, if need be, upper and lower sections to Brown and Blue dormitories, though in these cases the dormitories would be based more on position in class than in the making of extra classes. Or even on age. Or maybe he might just number the dormitories as well as call them by colour. Time enough to worry about it when there were more than a dozen boys at each level – as one day he hoped, and indeed believed there would be! If he was going to have to expand, it was better to do it all at once; and soon, too, he would need extra Journeymen's quarters, and married quarters, that might go on the corridor opposite the infirmary and proposed new Ranking quarters. The infirmary already was built on the outer side of the courtyard with the main stairs and female necessaries and bathroom upstairs too.

The other alternative was to add a second courtyard, with effectively three more whole wings to it. That way there would be even more room for expansion, and the non-teaching journeymen might be moved at a distance from the apprentice dormitories. And more married quarters could be purpose built. It would give more living room for the support staff too, and enable them to live upstairs in a wing above the extension from the kitchen block. There would be more workrooms downstairs, which would be needed for the new brocade looms Sadvia was busy building to the design of H'llon and R'rik.

Lynger nodded to himself.

A loggia would be nice; but a second courtyard was the priority. And loggias round each courtyard then a possibility for subsequent expansion. With a decently long summer and autumn, it should too be substantially completed before the new intake at Turnover; and ready by the time he would take in more paying students next summer.

There was to be one more paying student this turn.

As Marra was moving into a real apprenticeship, Lynger had been receptive when he had been contacted by Lord Larad's steward about a niece of the Telgar Hold's Lord Holder. It was not encouraging to be told that 'My Lord feels that a little discipline would be good for the girl." From the Bloodline that had bred Thella, Kylara and a girl whose name escaped Lynger who had been sent home from the Harper Hall in disgrace, that might be a somewhat unpleasant experience; but he could not in honesty now plead a lack of room. Indeed, with six beds in what had been planned as a twelve-bed dormitory there was plenty of room, and one might even add a couple of beds and still house them in comfort even from the point of view of a Lord Holder's niece. They might then even take in a couple of girls for a half turn at Turnover. However, now they had a new girl coming who might be a nuisance, and in case of trouble, Lynger determined to have Otaysa welcome the girl, Fenoria, personally. Otaysa would take no crackdust.

oOo

The dragon from Telgar arrived; two big carisacks were dropped off after the two girls who scrambled down, and the dragon took off again before Otaysa could reach where it had landed as if afraid he might be forced to take them back.

One of the girls was richly dressed and was busy dragging off a heavy wherhide flying jacket and overboots; the other, with a meagre bag of her own strapped to her back, wore only a thin, faded dress and sandals.

She was quite blue with cold.

With an exclamation, Otaysa ran forward and started chafing the girl's cold hands.

"Oh don't worry about her, she's only my drudge. The lower orders make such a fuss!" drawled Fenoria.

"If she dies of cold, my girl, you'll be worrying," said Otaysa, grimly. "I'd like to see you come between inadequately clad, you irresponsible little madam! I'll be speaking to you later. Come, child, let's get you into a hot bath – oh, Amrys!"

Amrys could not resist hanging about.

On due consideration she had put on her Rank knots as well as her apprentice ones.

"Shells! Some stuck up piece don't understand that Blood obligates," said Amrys. "C'mon, kiddie, hot bath, klah and decent clothes for you – I didn't know Telgar was so poor a Hold it can't afford to clothe its people properly! I'd be ashamed to be a Holder where all the support staff don't have adequate clothing."

And, thought Otaysa, Amrys can say what perhaps I cannot, bless the child!

"How dare she denigrate my Hold?" cried Fenoria.

"One judges on what one sees, my girl," said Otaysa, "and all the drudges in Lady Amrys' Hold have adequate clothing according to their task – including flying kit, as I have seen, if sent off to tackle problems that requires them to go dragon back when helping with Mountain Rescue, as this Hold does, to support the Weyr. Now pick up your bags and follow me, and I'll fill you in on the rules on the way. I'm Otaysa; I'm house mother to all the girls here, paying ones and those with apprenticeships. I stand in the stead of your mother, and I'm very displeased that you ignored the instructions and brought a drudge."

"But obviously I brought a drudge! Who else is going to help me dress and do my mending?"

"What? A big girl of fifteen turns can't dress herself? Why, I'd be ashamed of a child of mine who couldn't dress by five turns old! As to your mending, that's one of the things you're here to learn."

"Don't talk to me like that, woman!"

Otaysa stopped in her tracks.

"The next time you call me 'woman' in that insolent tone, my girl, I put you over my knee and slipper you. And you've left your bags in the middle of the field."

"You have no right to speak to me like that!" the girl whined.

"I have every right. I told you, I stand in the place of a mother; and Lord Larad wrote to warn us that you needed strict discipline. You will get it. And your bags are still in the middle of the field."

Fenoria paled. That Lord Larad had written this was news to her; and made it impossible to write to her illustrious uncle and complain.

"You can apologise for a start," said Otaysa, "and then you can go pick up your bags."

"I'm sorry if I was out of line," said Fenoria, sulkily. "Won't drudges bring my bags?"

"Great Shells, girl, waste drudges' time when you've two healthy arms on you? I'll wait here for you to fetch them. They can't be heavy as you were obviously expecting that skinny, ill-cared-for child with you to bring them."

Fenoria was furious.

"But I have never carried anything for myself!"

"Then it's about time you learned how, isn't it?" said Otaysa, implacably. "Fetch them; or start to smell as you run out of clean underlinen. That'll really make you popular in the dormitory."

Fenoria dragged back unwillingly and tried to lift the bags. She promptly dropped one, and struggled over to Otaysa, her face set and her rosebud mouth compressed.

"Someone will have to bring the other one," she said.

"That someone will be you," said Otaysa. "If you can't handle it, you should [] not have brought so much stuff. You carry this one up, and then go back for the other. It won't do you any harm; there's a pasty look to you that could do with some exercise."

Fenoria was horrified! She was proud of her plump prettiness with pink-and-white skin, blue-grey eyes and fine golden hair; and to be called pasty by some lowborn was too much!

"I'm not accustomed to be spoken to so!" she snapped.

"What, with brutal honesty? Then it's about time you learned. You don't want the apprentices calling you Fatty Fenny or something equally derogatory do you?"

"You would have them punished, surely?"

"Speech is free. If they start ragging you, that's different; it verges on bullying. But giving you a nickname amongst themselves is nothing to punish for – especially if they keep it from your ears," said Otaysa. "They will comment on your overfed body in contrast to the skinny piece you call your drudge, and they'll judge you by that, you know."

"They have no right! I'll not be judged by lowborns!"

"Get one thing straight, my girl. The apprentices are here by right of merit. We take paying students as a favour to the Ranking who have daughters of too limited ability to do it properly," said Otaysa. "And of the people who will be doing the judging, there are four Ranking apprentices and three weyrbred, if that counts for you. Lady Amrys for one, is a full time apprentice and SHE's seen your drudge and how she came in without flying kit. Dear me, I suppose the girl will have to stay overnight before we send her back."

"But I need her!"

"Oh? You'll share your bed with her, then?" asked Otaysa. "we can put up a bed in your space, but it will make it a little cramped, you know."

"I'll not have a dirty drudge sleep near me!"

"Well, she goes back, then," said Otaysa. "You can't have it both ways. Dear me, your Hold must be poor if the poor girl is dirty; you'd have thought you could have afforded sweet sand, even if lyesoap or hard soap is beyond you. Now here's your dormitory," and she opened the door after knocking. "Girls, Fenoria of Telgar."

Otaysa then retreated hastily and applied her ear to the keyhole.

It was another shock to Fenoria, who had not even heard the word 'dormitory' and had expected a room of her own.

"But – but I can't be expected to share with all these lowborns!" she wailed.

The pretty girl who was brushing out her golden brown hair regarded her with narrow eyes.

"Lowborns, eh? Who's lowborn?"

"You all are! You must be! I'm the niece of a Lord Holder – Lord Holder Larad of Telgar!"

Kelia's eyes narrowed even more.

"Then, my fine child, if you take note of Rank, everyone here outranks a halfblood extra whose main claim to fame is being related to a Renegade Holdless murderess and a woman responsible for killing two Queen dragons!"

Fenoria flushed.

"How dare you!"

"I dare because it's true," said Kelia, coldly. "Larad had two legitimate sisters, one who is too young to have produced you. I know all of Kylara's children, and some of them are friends of my brother. So by deduction, you are in descent of one of Lord Tarathel's side issues; in other words, a half-blood. And the way you speak sounds more like Thella and Kylara than a decent type like Lord Larad or Famira."

"Absolutely" said Indeela; Fenoria saw her as another older girl with chestnut hair and big brown eyes. "Famira is married to my cousin, Asgenar, and she's nothing like a rude brat like you. And by the way, Amrys already ratted you up about the treatment of your drudge."

"Good kid, Amrys," drawled Kelia. "I'm Kelia, by the way; I'm head of the dorm by election of everyone else, and as I'm weyrbred I outrank everyone else here of right. Indeela is cousin to major and daughter of minor and is legitimate. Barla is the legitimate daughter of Lord Bargen of High Reaches; Rulene is the legitimate daughter of a Holder, and more importantly she's the sister of a Bronze Rider and a Brown Rider. Breda is also legitimate, and the daughter of a clever and shrewd man who could run rings round most of the overbred Blood idiots."

Breda might not have been Kelia's favourite person, but the girl had been behaving better and trying to settle in and learn, and hence deserved the fillip of knowing that she had value in the eyes of the others especially next to a rude and spoilt girl. Kelia added,

"This, Breda, is the perfect bad example of Ranking wenches who don't actually have a real position and so sit around worshipping their own Blood – or half-blood – because they're incapable of doing any more. They're two a mark at the Weyr, thinking they might Impress, and we all laugh at them."

"It isn't fair! You're all being horrid to me!" Fenoria whined.

"Actually most of the others were too shocked by your behaviour to know what to say; I'm being horrid to you," said Kelia. "And if you stop being daft we'll be nicer. But start insulting us and we will all give as good as we get. You'd better unpack your bag and get your kit away."

"But … but where's my drudge? I can't put my own things away!" cried Fenoria.

"Shells, how feeble," said Barla, turning up her nose. "Telgar isn't much good at breeding useful females, is it? Famira excepted, of course, Indeela, dear. I expect the child you damaged is in the infirmary, hoping to have her feet and hands saved. If you will treat your servants carelessly, you can't expect them to function you know."

Fenoria pulled the things out of her bag and looked at them helplessly.

"Shells, didn't you pack any underlinen?" asked Kelia.

"It's in the other bag, I suppose," said Fenoria, sulkily. "That woman Ot – something – said I had to carry them both! I'm not going back for it!"

"You'll smell, then," said Kelia. "For if Otaysa told you to fetch both, you'll fetch both – or leave it out to be eaten by Thread. It's due overnight, you know! And the apprentices will be warned not to do it for you if you were told; and we do not give orders to the Hall drudges, in case you're so bad with your memory that you forgot that as well as Otaysa's name. And," she added, "don't you even dare to disrespect a Master's wife set over us as our House Mother. She's kind and caring and is there to take care of us as a mother should – and she's a sight better at it than some of our own mothers."

Fenoria burst into tears.

"But I can't carry another one!" she wailed.

Breda spoke up.

"Look here, I'll help you carry it; but don't think it's out of deference because you're no better than anyone else. I've learned that it's self worth that counts, not Blood, nor wealth. And by the way if you let me take all the weight, I'll drop the handle too," she added. "Come on; quicker started, sooner finished."

Kelia gave Breda a nod of approval; the girl was really trying.

"Nicely offered, kid," she said. "After all, if she's been badly brought up, she can't help being a feeble object, as Barla called her."

Fenoria started spluttering.

"How dare you call me feeble?" she demanded.

"Well, ain't ya?" said Kelia.

"Don't rise … come on," said Breda, laying a hand on Fenoria's arm.

Fenoria stared at it.

"Take your lowborn hand off me," she said. "Lowborns smell."

Breda stared.

"Not as much as you will without undies," she said. "I withdraw my lowborn offer of lowborn help; you won't want any lowborn hands on your bag handle, after all." And she turned away.

"Nicely done," murmured Kelia. "As much dignity as the best of the Blood."

Breda flushed in pleasure.

Praise from the Weyrbred girl was worth having!

oOo

Since nobody else offered to help, being shocked by Fenoria's rudeness and not wanting anything to do with her, the girl went sullenly down to drag up the other bag.

She had no idea how to fold clothes properly; and could not fit all her belongings into the clothes press assigned to her. She was crying with frustration when Otaysa came in.

"Great shells, child, have you no concept of civilised living?" cried Otaysa. "You've jumbled those things in with as much abandon as a heedless ten-turn-old boy! Now take them all out and start again. The rest of you may go to the Harper to sing; it'll take half the evening to sort out this green firelizard's nest!"

"I never put my own things away before!" wailed Fenoria.

"Then you won't learn any younger," said Otaysa. "I'll show you how; then you can sort them out and I will watch to see you do it properly. Though I can't see why you have three Gather Gowns; choose which one you want, and I'll put the other two in your bag, out of the way in the loft."

"But they're everyday gowns!" protested Fenoria.

"Ridiculous! You can't work a loom with all these dangling bits – so unstylish! – to catch in it! We'll start your lessons with running up a couple of nice plain work gowns. Don't worry, dear, you're here to learn how to understand style and fashion too, and how to choose appropriate clothes, not dress always in your best finery like a cotbred-girl who always wears her best in public, regardless of how unsuitable it is."

This was a little unfair, for the girl's Gather gown was even more excessive, with figured velvets and brocades in layers showing through each other for effect. Otaysa however did not want the girl risking herself with catching frills and furbelows in the more technical looms that she would not be used to!

The evening was not a pleasant one for Fenoria.