Chapter 2
Bretine's lessons in skiing continued next day; but the girls were called over by Journeyman Otelek.
Otelek was a prime favourite with the apprentices; he was not averse to impromptu outings to illustrate a point about flax cultivation or ovine raising, and he made the academic subject of fibre theory interesting. They skied over to him readily.
Otelek looked from one to another, taking in Bretine's open and friendly face.
"I wanted to ask Amrys and Kevanna a favour; as you're older than most of the new intake – Bretine isn't it? – perhaps you can help too."
"Anything, Journeyman" said Amrys promptly.
"You ought not to promise that without finding out what it is first" the Journeyman teased.
"For you, anything" said Amrys firmly. "You're what Larek calls thoroughly bonza."
Otelek chuckled.
"Ah, Keroon and its linguistic idiosyncrasies!" he said. "It's about a new apprentice who's due; a little girl called Janika. She's my niece; the child of my older sister."
"You want us to keep an eye on her?" asked Amrys. "See no-one calls her Journeyman's pet or Master's pet?"
"It goes a little deeper than that….Leka, my sister, died four turns ago, birthing a stillborn baby; and then four months ago my brother-in-law drowned while travelling to a new Hold as their weaver. Janika was saved, but…."
"Poor little mite" said Amrys softly; and the other girls too made little cries of sympathy.
"Exactly" said Otelek. "She – she's a little childish for her eleven turns, I'm told; and I can quite see why. But we're her only family now, and father deemed it best if she entered apprenticeship to give her something to concentrate on, because all the other apprentices are separated from their parents too, even if they DO have kin to go home to. She only just got returned to the Weavercraft Hall in Southern Boll, and the story with her; Father and Mother have gone to collect her, thanks to the kindness of the dragonfolk from High Reaches Weyr."
Otelek's father was Master Braelek, the Sewncraft Master, and Amrys' favourite Master for teaching her favourite subject.
"Oh well, it's only one night; Bretine and I will move into the dorm straight away" said Amrys "If you'll bear us a hand with our kit, sir; it's silly to put her for one night one place and move her straight after. Your parents are almost next door to us after all, with your mother being in charge of us girls and the paying ones too."
Otelek nodded.
"I'll get my skis; go ahead and pack and I'll come over and check that your parents are all right with that."
"Of course they will be" said Amrys "Rillys wouldn't expect any different!"
"Blood obligates, huh?" said Otelek.
"That too; but mostly the way decent people ought to behave" said Amrys with more earnestness than grammar "Bags I the bed by the window again!"
As neither Lyssa not Kevanna had wanted the bed by the window there had been no problem the previous turn; and Amrys had every intention of keeping a first-turner in her place, weyrbred and older than her or no!
The girls' dormitory had originally been a twelve bed dorm, but had been divided down its length to give the original girls' dorm over to the use of the paying students next to Master Braelek and Otaysa's room. Amrys strongly suspected that her six male cronies who slept in the other half would be moved the next turn to make the female dorm into two, senior and junior. These six were Jilamon and his bosom buddy Tirley, three older boys, Jeral, Larek and Kyilin, who were at the bottom of most mischief in the Hall; and the sixth lad was Jerellan, accepted into the midst of the others for his talent. Jerellan was a studious lad who had suffered long illness and had taken up Weavercraft as something to do when laid up in bed; he and Tirley had been considered the most talented boys in the Hall until Nelon came along; who, transferring from another Hall via the weyr, had come too late to fit into the little dormitory.
Rillys was more than willing for Amrys to be a comfort to a poor motherless little girl; and gave Jilamon leave to go over early too if he so wished with Nelon to help him.
"We can be superior at even the earliest new arrivals" grinned Nelon "And reckon Zayven won't want to be left out; his granddad will give him leave to come too, I'm sure!"
The new intake were in fact scheduled to arrive, on the whole, a day after the return of those apprentices as had gone home to their families for the Turnover break; for Master Lynger the Master Weaver of the Hall, had decided to divide the previous turn's apprentices into three groups according to ability and to redistribute them about dormitories accordingly, as the boys discovered when they got there. The first and second groups were the smallest, those who had worked hardest and shown most talent. The first consisted of the two youngest senior apprentices, Zayven and Hetel, and Nelon was an obvious choice to join them. Hetel was above the others; but he was closer in age to Zayven than the other senior apprentices and asked to share a dormitory with them even if he was doing more lessons with some of the older ones. The Masterweaver was also seriously considering putting talented Tirley and Jerellan in with them too; especially as Jerellan was much of an age with Zayven, his illness holding him back from what he might have otherwise achieved. Tirley and Nelon were of an age, and Tirley was quite capable of catching up to Nelon. The boys were excited to be told this as they were stopped from heading to what had previously been their dormitories; and Jerellan was delighted to be given senior apprentice tassels to add to his knots! Zayven was to head that dormitory, since Hetel was something of an extra in the room!
The female dormitory was, as Amrys suspected, to be in two six-girl dorms divided by seniority; though as there were to be only three new girls, the senior half would remain empty for the time being. It made sense; and would mean less reorganisation later!
Amrys was glad to find that she and all her friends would remain togethter in classes, having made it to the second group; that was, Lyssa and Kevanna, Jilamon, Jeral, Larek and Kyilin, two seabred lads called Lalter and Sherek and a boy called Irral who would, Amrys thought, one day make a good journeyman teacher, for he was kind and gave his time patiently to the slower learners. Amrys thought it good that he should be placed in a group commensurate with his own abilities so that he would not be slowed down by helping others, for he really was TOO good natured! Trust the Master to notice that, thought the little girl!
The rest of the apprentices who had not been in, and had in some cases scoffed at, the self help group, would form the third group and would not have the option to drop some classes as the first two groups would, in a move toward specialisation. The first two groups would have no more basic fibre theory unless they decided to specialise in the subject of fibre production. Amrys was in some ways disappointed; for she liked Journeyman Otelek, but spinning, fulling and retting held little attraction for her. She had also elected to drop dying and loom making; she wished to study printcraft, lacecraft and weaving further as part of her specialisation in design and sewing; and she would be learning under Master Braelek the drafting of patterns and tailoring.
That Journeyman Otelek helped his father in these classes was a nice surprise when the Journeyman mentioned it; for Amrys had apologised to him that she would be dropping his classes.
"I too love to sew" he said "But as I am interested in the whole process of turning plant or animal into the fine fibres I sew with, I have taken that as my subject to teach. But I love to work with my father when I am free to do so!"
They were, as they spoke, awaiting the dragon that would bring in Otelek's orphaned niece; making conversation to cover a degree of inevitable nervousness.
Presently a Blue dragon burst out from Between, bugling a signal of his arrival; and he backwinged neatly to land in front of the Hall.
Master Braelek and his wife Otaysa dismounted from the dragon, thanking him and his rider and helping down a big-eyed little girl, her hair as dark as that of her grandmother and uncle Otelek and with the same tumbled curls. Otaysa led her over.
"This is your uncle Otelek, Janika, our son, whom I'm sure you remember from when you and your father lived all the time at the Weavercraft Hall in Boll; of course, you must not call him uncle in classes."
"How do you do? I don't remember you very well I'm afraid" the child was polite if terrified.
"I do very well, thank you" said Otelek, gravely accepting the child's proffered hand. "I must say you've grown so much it is almost like meeting for the first time! But I hope that out of lessons we will learn to be a little less formal to each other; because you look so like my sister, and I miss her, even as you miss her as your mother. And of course you miss your father too, who was a friend of mine when we were both apprentices. We who are your family will all be there for you, you know."
"Thank you" the child was close to tears; and Otelek kissed her on the forehead.
Otelek put a hand on Amrys' shoulder.
"This is Apprentice Amrys" he introduced the girl "Who will be the senior girl in your dormitory. She is a nice girl who will be a big sister to you and help you with any problems."
"There's four of us in there that we know and another new one to be coming" said Amrys. "I thought you'd rather be in the half of the room with those in your class than next to me, so you'll be in the fifth bed; and the last one is stuck by the door."
"Th-thank you" managed Janika.
"And Otaysa is living next door but one – well, and Master Braelek of course too" said Amrys "- so she's nice and close for you. NEXT to us are the Ranking paying students, but then, not all things in life can be good."
"Bad child!" said Otaysa comfortably.
Amrys grinned irrepressibly!
"Will you want to spend some time getting to know Otelek or will you come away to the dormitory and meet the other girls?" she asked.
Janika looked bewildered.
"I – I don't know" she said.
"You go with Amrys" said Otaysa "Otelek will bring your baggage. Settle in with the other apprentices, my dear!"
Kevanna greeted Janika politely enough; and Bretine volunteered the information that she was new too. They proceeded to help the little girl to unpack.
Part of Janika's luggage consisted of a host of small jointed dolls, some exquisitely dressed, others more crudely sewn.
"Oh, how pretty!" exclaimed Amrys "Why, they're dressed for different regions – here's you, look, Bretine in Igen costume!"
"My mother dressed some for me" said Janika shyly "When I was very little… I – I remember her by dressing more. Pa helped…." The tears overflowed at this point.
Though Janika was no more than a turn younger than Amrys, the older girl lifted the poor bereaved little mite onto her lap and cuddled her.
"And so dressing dolls will help you remember good times with your Pa too" said Amrys. "Otaysa sews well, I expect she'll help you; and so will I. You'll need to make High Reaches dollies while you're here to add to the collection – a llama herder, a lady jockey, one of Lord Deckter's excessively numerous nieces and so on!"
The little girl hiccoughed and looked up.
"Will you really help me?"
"Of course! Your grandfather is my special Master; I love sewing!" said Amrys. "And I know a woodcrafter – well, he's a Printcrafter now but he's still a great woodcrafter – who can make lovely little dollies to dress whenever you want; but he'll expect you to pay for them because the spare marks he makes go to help children who are orphaned, but unlike you have no family. Or none that want them. Some of his apprentices are orphaned, or have been abandoned because they have disabilities, like Radall who was born without legs. Don't stop him carving, of course."
Amrys thought it a healthy idea to divert a natural self pity to thinking of others even less fortunate!
It worked.
Janika was amazed to hear about Radall!
"Oh! How does he get about? Must he be carried?" she asked.
"No, he can 'walk' on his hands, and for speed he used to have a cart he sat in and pushed it along with his hands on the ground. But H'llon – his Journeyman teacher – made him a chair with big wheels he can turn with his hands" said Amrys "And in that he can even play goalball! He's almost your age now; and he's been H'llon's apprentice – and foster son too really – for about three turns I think. He'll be going to the Woodcraft Hall to confirm Journeyman next turn I shouldn't wonder; Radall's pretty amazing, I'm proud to count him a friend."
"His Journeyman is a dragonman?"
"Yes, we in this crafthall have good friends at the Weyr. If you run out of regional costumes you could dress dollies for all the Queenriders and female Greenriders" suggested Amrys. A good hobby that kept her busy would also help to keep the little girl from brooding!
Amrys went to see Otaysa on her own later.
"She looks delicate" the little girl said bluntly, of Janika.
Otaysa hesitated; and decided to be frank.
"The storm at sea did not break the boat up, though a wave carried away Janir – Janika's father" she said. "But it was dismasted and carried before a bad storm and the child was ill under the Healers of Tillek Hold for the last two months before they judged her fit enough to go by dragon to her family's crafthall. Of course, if people had managed to send the occasional message she could have come straight here and not have to go Between twice, but there you are – it's what you expect of fishermen I suppose, nothing but seaweed between the ears! They say her lungs may be weak for a turn or two; but the air up here is wonderfully dry and clear so we may hope that despite the cold she may improve."
"I'll keep an eye on her" said Amrys. "And tell Bretine to do so in class; and if she looks pulled she must come to you to rest; I expect you'll tell all the Masters and Journeymen."
"You are a good girl!" Otaysa kissed the little girl.
Amrys hugged her back.
"Who would do anything else?" she said "I'm trying to keep her from brooding by interesting her in the High Reaches Weyr childhold, and in dressing more dollies. She needs to grieve but she needs to be taken out of herself too."
"You are a very practical child!" Otaysa praised. "And I thank you; I'm sure if anyone can help that child to settle in, it's you!"
"Aw, wherry teeth" said Amrys; but she was pleased!
Kevanna and Amrys leaped upon Lyssa the moment the child arrived, with Jeral, on Camnath, who had collected them from Ruatha. After thanking R'cal, and giving him a big kiss on the cheek, Amrys dragged her other girl friend to meet the new girls! Lyssa was a sensible little body who took people as she found them; it looked as though the girls' dorm was to be a happy one!
The rest of Amrys' friends were glad to be in a dormitory and class all together; and more than happy to find out that Zayven, Hetel and Nelon were there too, although ahead of the rest, the top two classes sleeping for the time being together. That Zayven would head the dorm occasioned the odd grumble, for Zayven liked to organise things to his own standards of efficiency which did not suit those people who liked to cling to their warm furs as long as possible!
"Soft Keroonian that you are, Larek!" laughed Tirley, the Ranking lad from the same vicinity of Nabol as Zayven.
Larek stuck his tongue out cheerfully.
With Hetel, the dormitory was filled to capacity, containing twelve; and Hetel would have to move if others were promoted. The third dormitory was initially proposed to take those of the new intake who pulled ahead.
It was Master Braelek who proposed honouring the Weyr ties by naming the dormitories by colour; the senior apprentices had Bronze, classes one and two Brown, class three was Blue, the girls were Green and the new intake were White. It was an idea rapidly taken up by returning apprentices who swore to start work on quilts and coverings and adornments of appropriate colours to decorate their dormitories!
"What about the paying students?" asked Amrys "If we called them Gold it's give them airs!"
"Oh, we can afford to flatter the egos of silly girls a little" said Otaysa cheerily "It'll make no difference to the sensible ones; and I've heard enough stories to know that there are Weyrwomen and Weyrwomen" she winked.
"Not at High Reaches" said Amrys seriously "But I guess you're right, Otaysa; 'cos the ones who are constitutionally smug will take it as their due anyway without – without perceiving the inherent irony."
Otaysa his a smile at Amrys' enjoyment of long words; for her words were sensible enough!
The idea that the children wished to decorate their own dormitories would be an activity to keep them out of mischief during long winter evenings still to be expected for the next three or four months to come!