Chapter 4
The other girls proceeded to ignore Clareena utterly, which should have pleased that maiden: but their cheerful chat of what they were going to do to add green furnishings to their dormitory left her greener with jealousy and resentful that they bullied her by leaving her out. She was determined to pay them out somehow!
The opportunity came when, as the others were chatting together with their male friends discussing a toboggan run, Clareena found herself the only child in the common room the apprentices used as a combination sitting room and hobby room. The girls had left patchwork and knitted squares neatly stacked for when they returned to leisure work; and the jealous girl snatched up all the green work and cast it on the merrily crackling fire!
Half aghast at herself she ran down the stairs and outside to join the others; a snowball fight had started in an impromptu fashion, and she watched in horror as Amrys and Jilamon pounded each other with snow. There was no doubt about it in her mind; Amrys was rough and a bully! What names she called that boy! Clareena watched in satisfaction as Jilamon leaped on Amrys and stuffed snow down her neck.
"OOF" said Amrys "Peace! I cry Peace! You win, you big oaf – you've been growing on the sly!"
Jilamon laughed and got off her, extending a hand to help her up; and in another shock to Clareena draped an arm about his foster sister's shoulders. Amrys grinned at him; then glanced at the sky. It had a coppery sheen to the clouds in the west and was coloured like a bruise above.
"Snow in half an hour" said the little girl laconically. "Let's get in; I've knitting to finish besides."
"Rugs for your dorm?" Jilamon asked.
"No, I'm doing a layette for the new baby; but I'd already picked green for a girl 'cos I reckon it WILL be a girl and green's not TOO girly if I'm wrong, not like yellow or pink."
Clareena hung back as the other apprentices went laughing into the warm room.
That the girls' work was gone was the first thing apparent to them; then Bretine gave a gasp and pointed wordlessly at the charred remains of knitting in the grate.
Janika burst into tears; and so did Kevanna. Bretine, Lyssa and Amrys went white; and Amrys swayed, giddy and sick with reaction. Jilamon put a supporting hand under her elbow.
"Why who could have done anything so MEAN?" he cried.
"None of our lot" said Larek "First, second OR third; they're a bonza crew. But we know who hates the idea of girl apprentices" he turned his gaze on Cavan.
"I never!" said the boy "It wasn't me!"
"No?" asked Sajed "Who else would attack the girls in so mean and bullying a fashion?"
"It wasn't me! I swear – I'll swear in BLOOD if you want!" said Cavan.
"Does he have an alibi?" said Amrys quietly.
"What?" said Cavan.
"Where were you, and with whom were you after you came out of your last lesson?" he voice was tight and controlled "I'll not condemn you without proof; if you can show you could not have done it, that clears you."
"I – I came out late; Master Telarish was explaining something to me" said Cavan.
"Yes, how not to lark about with poisonous dyes" said Arter. "I seen him come back from the dye house; and I caught him a nifty one in the face with a snowball too."
"If he came out late and took part in the snowball fight he's exonerated" said Amrys. "The stuff was here at the beginning of the last period; I asked permission to fetch the crochet hook I'd left in here."
"Did YOU do it, Amrys?" asked Clareena, spitefully. If she could only turn the others against the popular girl!
"Talk sense, you little idiot" said Jilamon, while Amrys gaped at so ridiculous accusation. "Why would she burn her own hard work on our babe's layette? And why should she burn anyone's work for that matter, let alone her friends? It's an act of insanity! Only a real MEAN would damage ANYONE's work! And you've been here long enough to know that Amrys is the least mean person alive!"
"She is so, mean!" said Clareena "She turned the others against me!"
"Wherry teeth!" snapped Bretine "YOU turned us against you by bullying Janika in front of us. Now dry up; we need to get to the bottom of this, not bellyache about your imagined wrongs!"
"Clareena, did YOU do it?" asked Amrys.
"I? Of course not" lied the little girl "I was putting my things away until I came out and watched you get your deserts by having snow shoved down your neck."
Explaining where you were seemed to be important; and they could never prove how long she had taken.
"There's no choice but to go to Master Lynger about it then" said Lyssa "This level of spite means it's not sneaking, I think – does everyone agree?"
There were murmurs of assent.
"I'm the oldest now Jerellan's in the senior apprentice common room" said Jeral "I'll go. Amrys, you'll come too?"
Amrys nodded.
"I suppose so" she said reluctantly "I can't see it being a senior doing it; which mans the culprit MUST be here. And you know, I'd rather have whoever it was own up and explain whatever was in their crazy head than that we should involve the Master. Even staying quiet about it is living a lie you know."
"Could have been one of the drudges" said Cavan "Thinking that they ought to be allowed to get above themselves like you girls are."
Sajed slapped him across the back of the head.
"That's for disrespect" he said.
"Besides, you flat-footed, half-witted dung-ignorant dimglow" said Kyilin "The drudges are Craftbred; and have the opportunity to be apprentices when they're young if they want to, so they're not hardly going to be jealous, are they? They had the choice already. Like me; my parents are drudges, so don't you fardling well disrespect the support staff neither."
"Anyone want to speak up?" said Amrys. "No? Jeral, don't you think we should give it overnight for someone to talk to you or me or their dorm head if they don't want to speak out in front of everyone?"
"Well I say that's pretty big of you" said Jeral "But I agree it's better not to involve the Master. All right; meet me right before breakfast. If no-one's come forward we'll see the Master then."
Amrys turned soberly to pacify Janika who was still sobbing.
"At least most of you have only lost a few days work!" she said, trying to sound bright "We can soon make it up with hard work; there's still all the sketches. The perpetrator wasn't stupid enough to destroy Crafthall property by destroying notebooks."
The perpetrator had not thought of it; and would not have realised the implications if she HAD thought of burning the notebooks! She squirmed and was glad she had not burned Hall property!
"You've been working on that layette for a couple of months haven't you, Amrys?" said Kevanna.
"Yes" said Amrys "And my initial reaction is to wring the neck of whoever had done this. But whoever it is must be a truly sad little tunnel snake to WANT to hurt people so; I'm trying my hardest to be sorry for them."
"Well, sure, and that's more than I am!" said Lyssa, her Ruathan brogue intensified and her eyes flashing with anger "I'd like to see the nasty little creep thrown out of the Hall and sure, I'd like it to be from the top floor and during Threadfall!"
"Well I guess if someone is so nasty AND a n'egregious liar into the bargain they're not worth keeping" sighed Amrys "You can't bring the craft into disrepute by having the dishonest in it; and it IS dishonest to do so sly a piece of spite! I don't understand it; bullying I know all about – Jilamon and me both from our respective blood-sires; and I can cope with that. Sly meanness is out of my knowledge."
"I've come across it" said Bretine. "A candidate for our last Gold egg was sly. She pretended to be friendly with people then passed unkind comments behind their back, trying to win the favour of the Bronze Riders by putting down the other candidates. Mind, there's no flies on our Bronze Riders and S'sher threatened to spank her. And Crysoreth wasn't fooled either and picked Larissa who's a decent type. This other candidate also thought it funny to hide people's possessions if she didn't like them and swore blind she'd stolen nothing. G'narish threw her out in the end; and he DID give her a good thrashing for having stolen the stick of a Rider injured by Thread – he'd all but lost one foot to it – because she'd called him an annoying little brat. She got to walk home in company of some rather malodorous traders and their ill-tempered and worse smelling burro."
"Serve her right" said Amrys "I like G'narish already! He could technically have sent her to the Eastern Isles; 'cos that constitutes an attack on a dragonrider!" she added, "Here, Janika, there's still some more of that nice fabric you picked for your cushion cover here in the rag bag; I thought there was. We've time to cut another before supper!"
Supper was an unwontedly sober meal; little was said, though the others of Brown dormitory quickly shared what had happened with Jerellan, Hetel and Zayven.
The Masterweaver noticed the mood of his apprentices, of course.
"Do the junior apprentices have anything they wish to tell me?" he asked.
Amrys stood as spokesman.
"With respect, Master, we hope NOT to have to tell you anything; if we do, please might our representatives see you right before breakfast tomorrow?"
"Very well; I will be in my study if you need to talk to me" said Master Lynger, wondering what was going on that could leave the redoubtable Amrys looking so subdued and upset! However, with such information the Masterweaver had, overnight, to be content.
The girls went soberly to bed early; the shock had been exhausting.
"If any of the boys wants to confess he can jolly well do so to one of the other dorm heads" said Amrys.
Clareena went with them rather than look the odd one out; but she did not sleep.
Amrys was not given to emotional outbursts; but it should be recorded that she did cry bitter tears into her pillow; and at least one subdued sob was audible to the wakeful Clareena. All of which should have made the vengeful girl's heart fill with delight; but somehow it did not. The girl was also reflecting on the scorn in Bretine's voice when speaking of the girl who had pretended friendship and then said mean things to others – it was not FAIR to compare her to a rotten girl like that, the sort ALL other girls turned out to be!
Clareena eventually fell asleep in sheer exhaustion; and Otaysa herself had to rouse her and the others.
"Whatever is wrong with you girls? Another midnight feast?" she demanded.
"But no, Otaysa; someone burned all our hobby work on the fire yesterday" said Kevanna, used to treating the woman like a spare aunt.
"I am so glad I did not have my dollies there or the porcine who did it might have burned all my memories of mama and papa!" said Janika "But oh! Grandmamma I did feel SICK at such unkindness!"
"I should think so indeed!" said Otaysa indignantly, giving the littlest girl a hug and a kiss "How mean and unpleasant! You have reported it?"
"I'm going to on the way to breakfast unless someone has already confessed to their dorm head" said Amrys "It was an attack on us girls; and girls only. But the only boy I can think of it who might have wanted to can alibi himself, backed up with an eye witness."
"Well, you girls need to be strong" said Otaysa. "I'll see all the masters and journeymen know why you're all rather low; they'll make allowances for the lot of you."
Naturally, Otaysa assumed that Clareena's work had also been included in the outrage!
Amrys met with the other dormitory leaders, Sajed, Traal and Zayven as well as Jeral; and all the boys shook their heads.
"'Course that dimglow Cavan said it was a load of fuss to make over what was bound to be inferior work from girls so we gauntleted him a couple of times with knotted drying cloths" said Sajed grimly "And I pointed out he'd better shape up or ship out. Where'd he come from – the stable of a llamacot accidentally brought forward by the Oldtimers?"
"Twosprings Hold" said Zayven grimly "I escaped the place; but the atmosphere's not good there. Holder Bitrul'd have been glad to kiss Fax's arse before Lord Deckter threw him out after he irritated the Weyr so much they threatened to withdraw cover from his hold."
Sajed whistled.
"It takes some doing to piss off a Weyrleader that much!" he said "Well, I guess it takes time to change attitudes; we'll do our best with Cavan. One way or another."
"Don't let it cross the line into systematic bullying" warned Zayven.
Sajed nodded.
"Thanks for that tip – I'll ask advice if I may if I think we might be going too far."
Zayven nodded.
"Good. I suppose as I hie from there once I should make myself responsible for the little snake but I can't see him without wanting to shake him. Oh well, let's not put it off; on to the Master?"
The others nodded soberly; and they went to the Master's office.
Master Lynger listened to the tale with horror.
"This is horrible" he said "You had no choice but to come to me with this, my children. I WILL ask amongst the support staff's children in case it was an honest accident or a thoughtless and childish act; and then I must ask every apprentice in turn – including your own dormitory, Amrys, for girls can do the oddest things – if any has done this or knows who has done it."
Amrys nodded.
"That little ass Clareena accused me of doing it myself, of course" she said "She's really got it into her head that I'm a bully, and obviously a snivelling cowardly tunnel snake too to do such a thing. As if I could!" a big tear rolled down the side of her face before she could stop it and she dashed it away with an impatient, boyish gesture.
"My poor child! And you were knitting for the new baby, weren't you?"
Amrys nodded.
"And in moss stitch at that…it's warmer but it takes so infernally long" she said "And the completed leggings and dress gone as well as the jacket I was working on because I'd taken them to show Lyssa and Kevanna… I – I'm fit to strangle whoever did it!"
"But you won't my dear; because I ask you not to" said Lynger gently, putting an arm around her shoulders.
Amrys gulped and swallowed, nodding.
"I won't, Master" she promised obediently.
The Master was solemn at breakfast; and called on everyone to remain once that had finished eating instead of dismissing them as usual.
Each apprentice, including the seniors, were called up to the Master's table and asked if they had perpetrated the act. Serry was furious; he was surely KNOWN for his good character and attempts to keep the brats in check; and asked the Master if that did not count.
Lynger regarded him coldly.
"Ready as you are to sneak on minor mischief, Serry, apparently you are not capable of catching a real troublemaker in the act" he said "And from my standpoint you are one of the people who has made the most vitriolic comments about the juniors which makes you a strong suspect. Just answer the question."
Serry was fuming; but did as he was told. Lynger thought the boy too angry to dissemble; but in fact he did not discount the possibility of Serry doing something of the kind as 'proof' of the irresponsibility of the younger apprentices.
Nobody owned up; for seeing what was coming Clareena lied quite smoothly. Any agitation in her manner was no more than that of the rest of the unhappy little girls and she managed to pass through the questioning without trouble.
"Very well" said Lynger "I have already determined that the children of the support staff and younger children of the journeymen were accounted for during the time period involved; all were with the Hall Harper. Therefore it has to be one of you; one of you has lied to me, your Master. Since we have never had anything so terrible happen before, I must say my first suspicion falls on the dozen newcomers. I WILL be investigating further; and I assure you that unless the perpetrator of this filthy act comes forward they will be expelled the Hall when I find out of my own accord."
The apprentices departed soberly for their lessons!