Chapter 11
Molly, meanwhile, was experiencing her first day with the weavercraft.
Explained as a new girl, as Amrys had thought, with the implied reason of delay through illness, the Masters and Journeymen were relatively gentle with her. Journeyman Kevas set a project of plaid weaving for the others and went through the basics with the girl. Kevas was not the most patient man on Pern, but he had enough imagination to think of his own daughter held back by disease or disability, and made pains to start Molly on the road to catching up.
Molly was a quick learner; and was soon asking sensible questions that had Kevas nodding approval! Kevas reflected that of the two new ones, Marra had the most raw talent, but Molly was probably the more intelligent, and, like Amrys, would succeed using her quick brain and sheer hard work. Talented himself, Kevas had needed to learn that not all were so talented as himself, and that often better results were obtained by plodding hard work than by the more talented youths, like Laterel, who found things so easy they were inclined to scamp work! Kevas himself had got into a habit of hard work before he realised how far ahead he was, when he was an apprentice, and was glad of it. Since Marra was also a hard worker, Kevas saw no reason why the two should not easily catch up to the others.
The Master's voice interrupted all classes, however: it was audible throughout the Hall, only the Mill and the Dyehouse being out of earshot.
Molly winced and almost cowered.
"What's wrong, child?" Kevas asked with brusque kindness.
"Loud, angry voices mean trouble," whispered Molly.
"Shells, you have been somewhere rum," said Kevas. "Don't worry, lass, whoever it means trouble for isn't you. Never heard the Master shout before, mind you; mild mannered man as a rule."
"It'll be that new Ranking piece, father, er, Journeyman," said Ankevor, taking advantage of his relationship with Kevas to talk out of turn. "She took the hot water of the girls who walked sweep."
Amrys was perfectly amenable to discipline but Kevas did not fancy the idea of being a mere paying student on the receiving end of the rough edge of her tongue.
"Cuh!" said Brafor. "You don't think the Master is chewing out Amrys for language, do you?"
"Not with such phrases as I managed to hear whole," said Kevas. "I'd have said it was more likely the paying student is getting a chewing out … Get on with your work, you cheeky brats, do you think I have time to waste speculating on the Bloodbrat?"
Ten heads bent obediently to looms.
Molly's heart sang.
The sympathy was not with Fenoria, certainly not if Journeyman Kevas casually referred to her as a 'Bloodbrat!' Fenoria would not force her back, even if the Ranking girl got sent home!
Kevas may have felt faintly guilty afterwards at his choice of words, but none of his class had anything but sympathy for him, having to teach her!
oOo
Various apprentices saw a dragon arrive from Lemos; and Amrys, Sadvia and Sajed recognised Lord Larad: Sadvia and Sajed from having met him, Amrys from description.
Sadvia made sure to accost the Lord Holder on his way out; he did not look pleased at being stopped.
"Lord Larad … My cousin, Asgenar, introduced us once, but you'll have forgotten me, I'm sure," said Sadvia. "I was only ten, after all,"
Larad managed a grin.
"And not likely that I'd realise you'd grow into a beauty," he said, politely. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm attached to the hall as the woodcrafter; my sister is in with the paying students," said Sadvia. "And so I've heard about Fenoria."
Larad's face clouded.
"Oh." He said ominously.
"Indeela got in with a bad crowd, and needed curing of it," said Sadvia, bluntly. "If we can help Fenoria, we will; if you'll only be blunt about what's wrong with her and why."
Larad stared. He had expected complaints.
"Well, if you can help her to become more human … All right. She's lazy and selfish, and has been brought up with the idea that her grandfather's Blood makes her something special. Her mother was a child of his later years and was spoilt; until he died. She's passed on her own featherheaded notions to Fenoria. And I don't really believe Fenoria could be another Thella; she's too fardling lazy to try!"
"Well, that's perhaps a good thing in a way," said Sadvia, privately thinking that Thella had needed a good push in a constructive direction instead of being threatened with being married off. But Larad had only been fifteen when he became Lord Holder, too young to always make wise decisions. "Are you sure that Weavercraft was the right choice for her?"
"Sewing a little is all she does," said Larad. "She's not musical, and I doubt she could manage woodcrafting without shrieking at sharp tools. I don't want her to poison anyone learning bakercraft and she's too unfit for anyone else to have her. And Otaysa seems a good, down to earth sort of woman, ready to give her the discipline she needs."
Sadvia nodded.
"A child deprived of discipline has no self discipline," she said. "They grow up to be criminal because they cannot curb their desires."
"Where did you learn that?" asked Larad, surprised.
"Oh, I'm a logicator, My Lord."
"Isn't that a game the children of High Reaches Weyr play?"
Sadvia flushed angrily, and let him see the irritation.
"It's no game, My Lord. Children listen, and put in ideas, yes; but it's brought many murderers to book, rescued children from perverts and other things. The Harpers recognise Logicating, and so do the other crafts; there are knots for it now."
He was surprised.
"Then I stand corrected. I'll see if I can find out more. But I have to go; too many things to do."
Sadvia nodded. He had been distracted by his wedding and had doubtless missed it at the previous Holder conclave.
"Thank you for your time, and your assessment of Fenoria," she said. "Asgenar will be able to fill you in about logicating."
Obviously it was the child's parents' fault; an idiot could work that out, let alone a logicator. The mother had been spoilt, but the implication was that she had been trammelled when her father had died. Spoiling her own daughter might be a subconscious rebuke and revenge on her half-brother. No mention of the girl's father; presumably he was lower born, or they would not have had quarters in the main Hold, and he was ready to worship, or at least give way to, his wife and daughter. Or maybe there was no father. Larad was too cagey!
Poor kid, in any case, thought Sadvia, with a twinge of sympathy. Turned into a self-willed monster, then thrown into a situation where her selfishness was despised, her tantrums laughed to scorn. The girl Vorinia had been turned around by a short, sharp shock; and frank discussion with the drudge she had ill-used, whose rights had been violated. Sadvia smiled wryly to think of that one-time drudge, Josis, who expected to make Woodcrafter Journeyman as soon as a clutch was laid, as it must be, very soon, at High Reaches. There she would rejoin Vorinia as her dearest friend. Somehow, Sadvia, who could put two and two together, did not think that the girl Molly would be as forgiving.
Sadvia resolved to tell the story at the next logicator meeting; Amrys would drag the girl along. Meantime a friendly hand to Fenoria might help her find a way out.
Sadvia went in search of Fenoria.
oOo
Fenoria was sobbing in her bed. It was in an appalling mess.
"Fenoria, I'm Sadvia. If it counts for you, Asgenar is my cousin," said Sadvia, crisply. "Indeela is my kid sister, though we're not that close. I think it's time you had a chance to talk without prejudice to someone you've not yet had a bad start with."
Fenoria lifted a startled face.
"Poor little brat you are," said Sadvia, "all confused. Come into the bathing room and wash your face; then we'll go to my room and get some klah, and I'll try to answer the questions you must be wanting to ask. And then I'll help you re-make your bed, for it's as ruffled as if you had never made it this morning."
"I didn't. I have to make my own bed?"
"Well unless you want to live in a rumpled mess, my dear kid," Sadvia sounded amused. "I don't suppose any of the boy apprentices would notice. They get stood over and shown how to do it properly! But we girls have nicer ideas about living comfortably, even Amrys, who's half boy and half weyrbred!"
Fenoria let the older girl lead her to the bathing room and bathe her face.
"Have … have you got numbweed?" she asked.
"Sure, why?"
Fenoria blushed.
"Uncle Larad … he used his belt on me … I've never been beaten before!"
"Pity about that," said Sadvia, "a spanking or two at least when you were little – I don't hold with beating anyone – might have saved you all this pain now. Your parents were cruel."
"My parents are kind and would never hurt me! I wish I could go home!" flashed Fenoria.
"Your loyalty is to your credit; but if your parents had been truly kind to you they'd have taught you self control and how to live in the real world. Would you let a runnerbeast run wild in a meadow and then suddenly saddle it and bridle it and ride?"
"I don't know. I guess they have to be broken."
"So do people," said Sadvia. "A tiny baby is selfish because it has to be, to keep the attention of its parents in order to survive. Those of us with siblings learn to share; me from birth, because I'm a twin. Wise, loving parents teach their children that we all fit together and all have our place, as the Duty Song tells us in the broader sense. Foolish parents neglect some of their children's training and leave them ill-equipped and undeveloped, unable to cope with the real world. Which is why you feel so out of your depth, so resentful; because you've lived in a dream world, a fantasy, far removed from reality. You have as much idea of real life as a weyrbred Bronze Rider, if as much; and the sensible ones of them talk to people and find out what other folks' lives are like. And the idiot ones who didn't got sent to Southern," she added.
"But I liked my life! Why did I have to be sent here?"
They had reached Sadvia's room and she reached down the numbweed she kept on the shelf.
"Strip off … why? Because your uncle was scared you would turn into another Thella, I guess,"
"But she was a criminal!"
"She wanted her own way and was prepared to push anyone aside who displeased her," said Sadvia. "From what I've heard of your utterances, my child, you displayed similar characteristics. You can't blame him for being scared! There's also Kylara, you know – selfish to a fault! I should think Lord Larad has nightmares about all his female relatives, and if they throw hissy fits about not getting their own way, he's going to panic, you know, whether it's going to happen or not. And of course it's partly his father's fault, and partly his own, because he was too young – only your age – to know how to handle strong minded sisters. If he'd found something that was challenging for Thella to do, I wager she wouldn't have gone rogue. And your mother was spoilt by your grandfather, I believe, and I have a theory she's made you as spoilt as can be to get back at Larad, for not continuing to pamper her when your grandfather died."
Fenoria looked shocked.
"You mean – to turn me into another Thella because she's not strong enough?"
"Perhaps, or at least to be shrill enough to give him headaches. You show tendencies to want own back, would you have balked at using your own child?"
Fenoria stared, and then she started crying again.
"She doesn't love me, she only hates him!" she said.
"I might be wrong," said Sadvia. "But you have a chance to escape this silliness, and become a person who will one day thank your uncle for this – well, the sending to the weavercraft, anyway, this is a cruel beating, and I cannot approve – when you've learned how to get on with people and make real friends, not bitch-me-better partners."
There was a knock at the door.
"Who is it?" called Sadvia.
"It's me, Otaysa … I've lost that silly child, Fenoria, and by the sound of it, Lord Larad was rather harsh. I'm a bit worried."
"Come in, she's in here," said Sadvia.
Otaysa came in and looked at the rapidly developing bruises and welts.
"Yes, I thought he was a little over zealous in making his point," she said. "A bit more than the spanking I hoped he'd give her."
"I'd never have complained if I thought he was going to come and be so cruel!" cried Fenoria.
"Now stop that!" said Sadvia. "You'll only make your eyes sore too; and no point giving yourself more pain! Maybe you'll appreciate more how much you wield the strap at your drudges," she added dryly. "You should be able to sit up now and drink klah."
"I think she should be in the infirmary to sleep until that's cleared up," said Otaysa, tutting. "The child hasn't the courage to sit to do lessons on that."
Sadvia nodded.
"And, my poor prune – as Amrys would say – it gives you time to reflect, put yourself in order and decide if you're going to meet the other girls half way or if you're going to carry on the same and give yourself heartache as well as arse ache by sulking and refusing to talk to them."
"Your language is as bad as Amrys'," commented Otaysa. Sadvia chuckled.
"Too much Weyr influence, I expect!" she said.
"You can't blame it all on the Weyr; Amrys makes a blooded Rider blench when she fairly gets going."
"Oh yes. Cruel parents," said Sadvia. "Didn't her bloodfather beat her cruelly enough to make Larad's efforts look like love taps?"
"Yes," said Otaysa. "So she knows well enough from personal experience that Blood does not imbue a man or woman with perfection. She's all the more grateful for her stepfather. My dear Fenoria, you have much to learn; but we will try to teach you, if you will only listen!"
"I wish I could go home!" cried Fenoria.
"Well, you can't," said Sadvia. "Janika wishes she could go home too; and she never can because her parents are both dead, and that destroyed her home pretty quick. The sea can be cruel. And she, mite of eleven that she is, handles it."
"Well, commons don't feel things deeply, do they?" said Fenoria.
"That is unmitigated nonsense," said Sadvia, "And please try not to put up Otaysa's back when she's ready to help you by insulting her granddaughter."
Fenoria gaped.
"Shut it up, dear, you could drive a Golden Queen in there to lay eggs," said Otaysa. "Perhaps you might learn not to blurt out the first silly thought that comes to mind one day, but I'm almost despairing at the moment."
"The only difference between Blood and a drudge is who they're born to," said Sadvia. "And as some Bloods have their way with drudges, that gives the children of those drudges as much Blood as you have. Stupid people tend to end up doing menial tasks, unless they're born to the Ranking, when they end up being Lord Raid of Benden. Asgenar says if he were any more stupid, he'd bleat and leave pellets on his chair."
Fenoria actually managed a giggle at that!
"My grandfather, Lord Sangel, isn't the sharpest stick in the bundle either," said Otaysa, "but he is a man of duty; and he believes that Blood obligates. Raid is stupid, stubborn, bloody-minded and cussed as a hobby. Unlike Sifer, who is clever enough, in a shrewd sort of way, but likes to go fork-first."
"And Nessel of Crom is obtuse, obstinate and an obstacle, if you believe H'llon," said Sadvia, "which I do."
"What was H'llon doing trying to work with Nessel?" demanded Otaysa. "Crom's under Telgar Weyr, and deserves it too."
"Let's not denegrate any dragonmen," said Sadvia, mildly. "Anyway, Telgar is under new Weyrleaders. It was over Printcrafting, the getting it going," she added. "H'llon thinks Lords Holder should be chosen from those who have studied an apprenticeship in Holding, which is what the system is supposed to do, with the children raised, and the best one chosen. But it doesn't always work that way."
Fenoria sipped her klah, listening. She had no idea that Sadvia and Otaysa had come to an unspoken agreement to gossip so freely to give her an idea of how many of the Blood were thought of! And as both Sadvia and Otaysa were ranking, this carried more weight for her.
"What makes you respect people then?" she asked.
"One respects those people who do their jobs to the best of their abilities, working hard at it," said Sadvia. "Asgenar goes out to walk sweeps, having pioneered more trees; so does Lord Groghe, and I think all the High Reaches lords too. Masters and Journeymen have had to reach a certain level of competency; I was so proud to get my Journeyman's knots last turn, because I really put an effort into getting there. My twin brother did it the turn before, and I'd slacked a bit. It was a real wake-up call!"
"Braelek always made time for the children, but he was often tired because he was determined to get his Mastery," said Otaysa. "He showed how he could use fabrics in an innovative way in embroidery to get it; being a journeyman you have to reach a particular level of competence, but to be a Master you have to show that you can add to the craft, and be creative too. As well as being one of the best on Pern at what you do. Braelek is one of the five best embroiderers there is at the moment, and he chose to pass the skills on by teaching. I'm so proud of him that he puts forwarding the craft before personal wealth and ambition. I respect that."
"Me too," said Sadvia. "I also respect the dragonmen, who face death every seventy hours or so to fight Thread, regardless of the weather or horrid time of before reasonable-waking-up o'clock as H'llon puts it. HOW that man is grouchy before breakfast!"
"Who is this H'llon?" asked Fenoria.
"Masterprinter Wingleader Bronze Rider H'llon started life as a woodcrafter, who made journeyman, and was sent as weyrwoodcrafter to High Reaches Weyr, where he promptly Impressed one of the biggest Bronzes in the Reaches," said Sadvia. "I know his family well. He's inventive and innovative, and I hear rumours that as well as developing printing, he's also inventing a sewing machine to take all the boredom out of hemming sheets."
"If so, and it's as neat as hand sewing, generations of women will bless him," said Otaysa.
"And of course, he's also invented, with the help of an Impressed weaver Journeyman, a loom that'll make far more complex brocades possible," Sadvia did not intend telling the girl it would make weaving faster too. That would be a craft secret! And it did make weaving more complex brocades possible. "I respect him no end! He's always got time for people, and to do little kindnesses, and he's devoted to his fosterlings and apprentices, you know! As for others I respect, I respect my mother, who always had time to play with us all; and my father, who gave us as much time as he could. Some parents who are Holders only give their children expensive things, not time! And both of them taught us good values. I got spanked once, I think; I was insolent. But we had privileges withdrawn for bad behaviour, and missed out on treats. My patents really are kind; they gave us love in abundance, their time, and a good firm basis in self-discipline. When Kyal and I came to apprentice in the Woodcraft Hall, we went a whole turn before anyone found out we were Ranking, and by then we'd made friends! We were no snots. Though we never were such imps of mischief as my smallest sister is!" she winced. "The apprentice pranks of her and her friends would turn your hair white! Still, Elissa – her house mother – has Ambreen well under her thumb, and Ambreen adores her and hates to let her down," she grinned. "And I have every respect for Elissa, weyrbred, going to the Woodcrafter hall and making Journeyman within the turn, and taking on three … no, four, fosterlings at fifteen turns of age, and is now running the dorm for the smallest female apprentices. She's well on her way to Mastery, but Master Benelek says she must be over twenty before he'll award it."
Fenoria had much on which to ponder.
In the quiet solitude of the infirmary she had time to do her pondering in peace; perhaps more peace than she might have liked as it slipped into boredom.
Nobody wanted to be bothered to visit her, save Sadvia, and Sadvia was busy building the new looms for the expanding Hall.
