Chapter 5
Between lessons, Amrys settled stubbornly back to the tedious moss stitch layette; when she was not helping little Janika with her green cushion cover. The child had wanted to sew green sequins onto a printed dragon; and if Amrys thought it might look a little overdone she said nothing.
Journeyman Hetney came into the common room, and the children rose promptly, wondering what the knitting teacher wanted.
He motioned them down again and came over to Amrys.
"I did the jacket to the pattern you were using because it's the most complex piece" he said kindly "I know you'd rather do it yourself, but time runs out so fast…if you've time to redo it and want to, you can send this one to the childhold."
Amrys hugged him!
"Oh Journeyman Hetney, you're a ROCK!" she cried.
"You'd worked so hard and you're a good little daughter to your mother" Hetney flushed slightly "You should be encouraged."
He nodded; and went out. Amrys was fighting back tears of emotion.
"Was that a payment for favours then?" sneered Clareena "Practising to be a loving wench like your mother?"
Amrys, once again, could only stare.
"What are you on about?" demanded Bretine "And what foolishness have you got in your head now? – no, Jilamon, we girls will deal with this" as Jilamon bounded to his sister's side, eyes ablaze.
"They have different fathers – she admitted it, and that their fathers beat them!" said Clareena "So her mother MUST be a loving wench!"
Amrys began to laugh. It was slightly hysterical laughter; but it was still a laugh.
"How can you laugh when she's so insulting to Rillys?" demanded Jilamon.
"Because she's taken facts out of context and made such a total mess of putting them together" said Amrys. "How could I but laugh at the daft way she's reasoned?"
"Will y' listen t' this, ye poor prune" said Lyssa "And listen well, fer I'll say it only this once so I will. Jilamon and his brother Brown Rider T'mon are adopted by Lady Warder Rillys and her husband Holder Corbin, who's her second husband and who's sired this newest baby that's coming and little Corrys too; and I'm thinkin' that ef ye cannot be getting' yer facts roight 'tis keepin' yer stupid mouth shut is what ye should be doin' f'sure! Ye've had yer knoife inter Amrys from day one when ye attacked her and it's sick av it all we all are; and sorra any speech at all will ye be getting' from the rest av us from now on, for we'll be 'sending ye to Southern' completely I'm thinkin'!"
"And we boys shall do likewise" said Sajed. "And we'd've done so even if Lady Amrys' mother HAD been a loving wench; for to make spiteful comments after her suffering such a shock is the outside of enough! You can't have lost more than a few days' work, she's lost MONTHS! What was burned of yours, anyway?"
Clareena was beet red; to be caught out so thoroughly and be so far off in her surmise was bad enough; that Amrys, on top of being popular should be Ranking was too much! And of course she had not had any work burned!"
She muttered something incoherent and rushed off.
"Eejit" opined Lyssa in her own idiom.
"We didn't show her much sympathy for anything she lost" Amrys' conscience smote her.
"Sure, and was she not just fiddlin' around playin' solitaire with half a pack of dragon poker cards whiles the rest av us was busy?" said Lyssa "It's half guilt the daft creature feels because she'd nothin' on the go" she glanced over at Clareena's own spare time work of the last few days, the start of an aggressively red scarf. "It's not wanting to join in jollyin' up the dorm she was, and if she started that scarf it got missed fer not bein' green I'm thinkin'."
"Oh HOW I do not understand that girl!" sighed Amrys!
Clareena had nobody but herself to blame for being 'sent to Southern'; even apart from the spoiling of the other girls' work that they did not know was at her door. But she sobbed bitter tears for all that.
If the truth were told, her animosity towards Amrys stemmed partly from the other girl's very popularity; Clareena had some muddled idea that popular girls were unkind betrayers of those who liked them. The little girl had had something of a 'crush' on a slightly older and better off girl in her seabred dormitory; and had been petted by this girl, Bettana to her face. Coming back quickly from an errand one day, Clareena had heard her idol saying scornfully that 'Clareena was such a besotted little fool that she could be made to do anything.' Adoration had turned to anger; and she had flung in with angry words, to be laughed at, effortlessly have her arm twisted and be spanked with the other girl's slipper; and told that if she wasn't going to make herself useful any more she should instead make herself scarce.
Thereafter it amused Bettana to pinch and poke surreptitiously; and to encourage her own idolising coterie to do the same! As Clareena had once been one of her pinchers and pokers – to a trader's girl who stayed a couple of nights and refused to worship Bettana – there was a bitter irony in that. Clareena had begged her parents to be given an apprenticeship to get away. She had some idea that apprentices lived in single accommodation and that there were so few girls in crafts that she would rarely see any. The self-introduction of a girl who had left a large and laughing group had made her assume that Amrys was just like the dangerously charismatic Bettana; who was able to charm adults too. It was beginning to dawn on Clareena that Amrys was not using people the way Bettana did – she never sent Janika running errands the way Bettana would have – and was liked by strong minded girls and boys, even those not of her own 'set'. Even so it was hard to break out of the stubborn dislike for fear of being used again. So poor Clareena desperately interpreted the girls' irritable dislike of her as 'proof' to herself that Amrys had set them against her. Even strong-minded, weyrbred, pretty Bretine had been turned against her classmate; and how Clareena would have loved to have become the friend of the daughter of a Brown Rider! Or even of Amrys herself, that so many people seemed to go to with their woes from the scraped knee of a five-turn-old mite, some Craftbred child, to Master Braelek begging her to help him unravel some embroidery silks that one of his firelizards had been playing with! And Amrys herself had two firelizards too! Amrys seemed willingly to bathe knees, kiss sticky faces, unravel silks, loan pens and give pithy but sound advice.
It was too much.
Clareena stopped talking to anyone; they weren't listening in any case.
Amrys watched a tear fall on knitting ravelled and reknit too many times over the last couple of sevendays by Clareena.
"Clareena!" said Amrys "This has gone on quite long enough. We're at the edge of bullying you by keeping you in Southern so long. Won't you start again? You mistook my intentions and it all got right out of hand. We girls all need to stick together – especially if we have an enemy here! Come over by the rest of us and tell us if you like our efforts for the dorm – even if mine are a little desultory!"
Amrys was using up odd ends of green wool of different shades to crochet squares for a blanket, in short periods when she had not time to concentrate on the complex patterns of baby clothes.
Clareena flushed.
Surreptitiously watching Amrys working patiently, seeing the love in her face when she spoke to the others of her baby sister and the baby that was to come with the spring was bringing home to Clareena the enormity of what she had done; and she felt horribly guilty. But she craved the companionship.
Slowly she came over. Amrys gave her a quick smile.
"Reckon you've known some pretty beastly girls; like I said before" she said.
Suddenly it all tumbled out; about Bettana and her charm and her using. The other girls listened in shock.
Bretine nodded.
"I suppose I'm less innocent about rotten girls than some of you – seeing candidates come and go" she said.
"Reckon I've seen a few too" said Amrys "And what about Siresha?"
"Sure and isn't she just a hog of the first water, not a kind thought in her body but not clever enough to be a spiteful piece like this Bettana creature" said Lyssa.
"Siresha whacked Amrys so hard just for asking politely if we might get past to bathe that Amrys was knocked out and still has headaches" Kevanna explained to the new ones "Only unfortunately Otaysa managed to get her to apologise so we're lumbered with her until the Turn is up – shards Amrys, I bet SHE was the one who burned our work!"
Amrys' eyes flared. Clareena half opened her mouth, but Amrys was speaking grimly.
"I promised Master Lynger I'd keep my temper in check and not strangle whoever did it, but….if Siresha did do it I'm going to punch her nose so hard she'll never get a husband it'll be so ugly!"
Clareena's half formed resolve to confess vanished; Amrys' anger after a tentative drawing of her into the group would be terrible!
"Sure and don't ye think Master Lynger would not have thought of her? 'tis her and Serry are the only people in the whole of Pern would go out of their way t'do you and ill turn, Amrys; t'my mind 'tis a woman hater and aimed at us all" said Lyssa.
Amrys calmed down and gave a rueful laugh.
"Oh there's others like me less than you lot do…. I'm no favourite of Journeyman Benor because I don't go out of my way to give him the level of respect he thinks he deserves for his mediocre accomplishments; then there's the little snot that Zayven. Jilamon and me pulled out of the ice when he went through it; and his wherry headed friends don't like me at all for I didn't mince my opinion of THEM I can tell you!" she said.
"What's that? We've not been hearing that story!" protested Lyssa.
"Oh it's not much of a tale!" said Amrys, and made a funny tale of the show-off who ignored thin ice signs and had to be landed, floundering and gasping like a packtail. Even Clareena laughed! Amrys grinned at her.
"Oh that's nicer" she said "You're so pretty when you smile; it's worth doing more often instead of pulling faces like a constipated wherry."
Clareena had started to draw back; Bettana had been free with compliments. The second half of the sentence however was so unlike Bettana that she laughed again, half in surprise, half in relief!
"I wish you'd told me earlier about that little tunnel snake, you prize prune" said Amrys "We could have avoided all this ill feeling; or you could have told Otaysa you know!"
"But if you were like Bettana it would have given you something to tease me with" said Clareena "And if I'd told Otaysa, well, grown ups were fond of Bettana and told her things about the girls in her dormitory."
Amrys was much struck.
"I hadn't thought of that!" she said "Though I guess it's a pretty poor house mother who passes on stuff told her in confidence! It didn't occur to me to think you'd avoid telling me stuff in case I teased you because I know I'm not some fork-faced sour chittering wherry kite of a tunnel snake so I guess I never realised you'd assume I was"
"You'll get fined for language if you don't watch it" said Kevanna. "Fork faced? That's ASKING for it!"
"I'm ALWAYS being fined for language; and most of the time it's worth it" said Amrys cheerfully. "It goes to the childhold anyway, so I don't care; it's a worthy cause to be fined over."
Once the childhold had been explained to Clareena she felt almost like one of the others; and even started to venture ideas for cheering up the Green Doritory, including plaited rugs to be warmer on the toes than bare boards first thing in the morning!
"I know how to peg rugs but plaited ones are quicker and easier" she said.
"Right; we'll start collecting green ends and rags to sew together" said Amrys "We can take it in turns to hold ends while others plait; you design 'em, Clareena, which pieces should go together, and direct the making of them. They're at least a two person job each I'd say."
"They are" said Clareena. "They look so gay though."
"And warm toes too!" grinned Kevanna.
"Heh, at last we have underfloor heating – courtesy of H'llon" said Amrys. "Diverting the flues to warm the dorms was a masterstroke as we're not trusted with fires; he really is unnaturally clever, bless the man!"
"Why was a dragonman involved?" asked Clareena, mystified.
"Oh, 'cos he's next thing to being adopted brother of T'lana and my mother was milk mother to her little Felgarra – my baby brother had died – so we've a close friendship with the weyr an I'm the same age as T'lana's fosterling Sagarra and H'llon's always happy to help build things for friends" said Amrys, glossing over why her baby brother had died. She tried not to think about that terrible time too often, when her father had accused her mother of playing him false and beat her until the baby came early then killed the babe as he still lived. Crazed with jealousy he had doubted Amrys' own legitimacy and had forced her and her mother to drudge, even though her mother was weakened with punishment and birthing. No-one here knew the full story save Jilamon; and Amrys planned on keeping it that way. She added, "It's why I joke about being a little bit weyrbred; I spent time there with mother fostering with Sagarra while mother fed Felgarra. Sagarra's my best friend ever, 'cept she keeps on at me to go for Impression and I really just don't have time!"
"You'd find time if you did Impress" said Bretine.
"Oh I suppose so; and I love dragons and I guess I could face Thread up high but I prefer the threads we weave" said Amrys. "Be fair, if all the girls with two thoughts to rub together went off and Impressed, who'd run the men of Hold and Craft?"
The others laughed.
Rillys and Corbin formed a close partnership; and Amrys never showed any signs of truly bossing the boys!
Clareena went to bed that night almost happy, despite her nagging conscience; and in consequence slept better than she had done since she had arrived.
As a further consequence she was more alert in classes and her mentors actually started wondering if the girl might stay the course after all!
As Bretine and even little Janika now started coming to her aid if she faltered, with a quiet word or a demonstration, Clareena felt for the first time too that she might indeed succeed.