Chapter 4
The Harper class swelled officially to four members; all with different levels of experience, but at least all with the same level of theoretical knowledge. L'gal and T'rin were able to work with all from scratch in everything but instrument playing, and indeed it was only really Mira who needed extra work in this field as she was already self taught and T'rin felt that the effort should be made to correct any bad habits she had acquired although the techniques involved were more advanced than the theory she was covering. Garald and Garvan were happy to start from scratch on real instruments, and there was no question of Lyseder playing anything until his hands healed!
Into the class one day marched eight-turn-old Kullana, Pilgra's fosterling and the child by rape of an Oldtimer, T'kul himself if the child's grandmother was to be believed.
T'rin sighed.
"What are you doing here, Kullana?" he asked. "This is the Harper class, not general lessons."
"Yes." She acknowledged.
"Please go back to Pilgra."
The little girl looked at him consideringly for a long moment; then replied again, equally monosyllabically.
"No."
Short of physically ejecting her, there was little T'rin could do; Kullana, like her sister-aunt Takula was a strange little girl, hurt by the unkindness of the woman who had brought them up. The woman had demanded the Weyr take them; she was the mother of Takula and grandmother of Kullana, and as a result of her harshness they seemed to understand little of how to react to people save confrontationally, despite surreptitious affection from the woman's surviving daughter, Kullana's aunt and Takula's sister. A strange relationship with both mother and now dead daughter impregnated by the same dragonrider. Pilgra was making a great deal of progress with both her fosterlings by giving them the love and security they needed but sometimes they could be difficult to fathom! T'rin groaned inwardly.
"Well then, if Pilgra is busy and you have nothing better to do you may sit in quietly, so long as you do not make a nuisance of yourself." He said. Kullana have a little smile at the floor; and sat down. T'rin glanced at her from time to time as he explained things to his class; but she was sitting quietly enough each time, apparently listening. He shrugged and dismissed the matter from his mind.
When Kullana turned up at the start of the next lesson, T'rin frowned; but the child wordlessly passed him a grubby sheet of one of H'llon's gash sheets. On it was a version of the work he had set the class; and though the notation was not conventional, he found it easy enough to follow and essentially correct. T'rin left the class briefly to find L'gal; and showed him the child's work.
The Bronze Rider shrugged.
"So let her sit in." he suggested. "If she gets bored, she'll go away. She's too young to apprentice, but if she can pick up what you're teaching and come up with a way of showing her understanding, she deserves to learn more."
T'rin nodded. It confirmed his own feelings; but he wanted the decision ratified by his senior Journeyman. He returned to his class.
"Your work is good, Kullana" he began with praise. "I have showed it to L'gal and he agrees that you may join the class; but you must learn to write the proper notation. I shall set the others a task and begin to teach you."
"Good."
It was the only comment T'rin got from her; but she applied herself assiduously to learning how to write out the correct notation.
Takula was not best pleased by her sister-niece's defection; and T'rin was interrupted in a discussion about notation by a mud pellet fired at him from the doorway.
T'rin counted to ten.
"Takula, come here."
She stayed down the passage, making faces.
T'rin had every intention of being patient; he remembered how he had felt the need to test the tolerance of the people who had taken him in when he had first come to the Weyr and had been naughty just to see if they were like everyone else and getting ready to throw him out with a beating. However, that did not mean that the child should be indulged in her naughtiness.
"Very well" he said, sternly. "You leave me little option. Prism" his voice softened as he spoke to the little white firelizard "I need you to take a message for me to Segrith."
"NO!" Takula came unwillingly towards him.
T'rin had sometimes wondered if it was the only word the girls knew; though he had got a few more out of Kullana since she joined his class! He asked,
"Takula, your sister wants to learn. Do you?"
"No."
"Then leave her be. If you interfere again I shall have to inform Pilgra and Segrith. Do you understand?"
"Yes." The answer was drawn from her unwillingly. It was to Segrith that the girls fled first if they felt afraid; but they were also in awe of the great Golden Queen. T'rin asked,
"What do YOU want to do?"
"Nuffin."
"Then if you are truly so boring, do nothing elsewhere. Otherwise find something that interests you." Admonished T'rin.
Later there was a very private fight between the two little girls; and apparently Kullana won. The general consensus of opinion in the lower cavern was that it was healthy for Kullana to break away from her sister's leadership; but Pilgra was not so sure that they had the situation correctly. She spoke to T'lana.
"Everyone says that Takula leads and Kullana follows; and it does look like it. But Kullana only has to lift a finger and Takula comes running."
T'lana nodded; she had noticed it too. She had also noticed that the little girls spoke animatedly between themselves and their speech was effectively another language. Her twin sons Rogan and Rofel had their own words that they used just between the two of them. Rofel called it 'twinspeak' and T'lana accepted the phenomenon.
"I can find out what really interests her." The younger Queenrider said, tapping her head to indicate her innate talent for 'hearing' human thought as well as dragon.
"If you would, I'd be grateful". Said Pilgra, relieved.
T'lana discovered that, as suspected, Takula was jealous that Kullana had found a talent and interest outside the pair; and was refusing to give her own talents reign out of sheer perversity. T'lana firmly borrowed her one afternoon and painfully set to work decorating a new quilt with appliqué. As she had hoped, Takula watched her covertly; and finally took the sewing from her impatiently to do it better!
T'lana let Pilgra know; and the bouncy little weyrwomen was able to encourage her difficult foster daughter to help her with colour choices and decoration in her weyr!
Kullana relaxed and joined in more when Takula had found her own interests; and T'rin even got some polysyllabic verbal responses from her! He was a little nonplussed that the single student he and L'gal had envisioned had grown to five – a regular little Harper Hall!
Master Robinton sent a carefully worded request to speak to Bronze Rider L'gal and Blue Rider T'rin; and the young Harpers treated it as a summons!
The Masterharper wanted personal reports about the little cove hold; and the journeymen told him all they knew.
"Which admittedly is not much." Finished L'gal.
"Well, we shall see." Said Robinton, absently stroking his little firelizard, Zair. Prism was asleep in T'rin's jacket having made her greeting to the Masterharper's bronze pet; and had soon lost interest in the discussion. Robinton added, "I have a mind to send a journeyman accompanied by a bright apprentice."
"Sir, I recommend Felimmy." Interrupted T'rin; then burned scarlet at his own rudeness.
Master Robinton smiled gently.
"Now what makes you think I hadn't thought of that young rogue?" he admonished.
T'rin blushed redder. Robinton laughed and went on,
"I had thought of sending Journeyman Sorill – you've worked with him, T'rin."
T'rin nodded. Sorill was a good undercover man.
"But won't you need him for more important trips?" he asked the Harper.
The Masterharper nodded.
"True. Therefore I was considering waiting until I could make up your friend Kister to Journeyman. He's about eighteen turns now, and a lot steadier than he used to be."
T'rin grinned. Kister's practical jokes had been fairly famous – or perhaps notorious was a better description!
"He's got the lighthearted approach to life that will allow him to brush by without taking any insult too seriously." Suggested L'gal. Robinton nodded.
"I thought you two might like to renew your acquaintance with T'rin's fair of scallywags; and when Kister walks the tables tonight, I was hoping you'd take him and Felimy to the wretched sea hold."
The two journeymen nodded cheerfully!
L'gal had old friends of his own to look up, not least Master Domick; and T'rin was left alone with his friends, who thumped him enthusiastically on the back and told him their news at full volume in a combined and occasionally contradictory cacophony. T'rin noticed however that both Kitiara and Felimmy held back. He grinned at the younger boy.
"Glad you like this bunch of ne'er do wells, Felimmy. How's it going?"
Felimmy grinned.
"I'm doing fine." He said firmly. "I can work hard even without you to put fire on my tail."
"Never doubted it." Said T'rin. He turned to the little girl hanging back from the crowd. "Hey, Kit, are you too old and grand to greet me?"
She shook her head.
"Aren't you a little grand for us now?" she asked. "A dragonrider – with dragonrider friends?"
T'rin made a rude noise.
"C'mere squirt." He said; and pummelled her gently but firmly. "As if you weren't still like a sister to me, whatever!"
Kitiara hugged him and snuffled into his chest. Sister! It was too cruel! He truly loved her – the wrong way!
Ferry watched her; and sighed. T'rin picked up his look and raised an eyebrow.
Ferry tapped deliberately on his palm the drum measure,
DDDDshe loves youDDDD
T'rin blinked; and replied,
DDDDyou love her, queryDDDD
DDDDyesDDDD
DDDDthen (qualification obscene) do something about itDDDD
DDDDshe needs to recoverDDDD Ferry replied indignantly.
DDDD(Qualification obscene) does she. Give her giftsDDDD
The other apprentices followed most of this; only Kitiara, her face against T'rin was unaware of being thus discussed!
Ferry tapped,
DDDDshe's also ranking. I'm notDDDD
T'rin's reply was laconic.
DDDDso get her pregnant. Then they'll have to put up with itDDDD
Ferry looked outraged; but T'rin winked at him to show he was only half serious.
HHH
T'rin hugged to himself the secret that Kister was to walk the tables; and also the secret of the present he had cadged from R'cal for his friends.
The dragonrider Journeyman was greeted by enthusiastic calls at the supper table; and L'gal and T'rin both had to accept the congratulations of dozens of youths before they could sit down to eat!
Kister's promotion came as a complete surprise to him; and L'gal and T'rin pulled rank as dragonriders to be his escorts up the tables! Kister had such a big grin on his face, T'rin teased him he looked like he'd just Impressed!
After supper, T'rin collected his friends and passed out his gifts – firelizard eggs. They were well hardened, and he had asked Master Robinton to delay the dispatch of Kister and Felimmy until the eggs had hatched: as having a quick means of communication would make their job safer. The Master Harper had agreed; and asked the journeymen whether the Harper Hall could come to some arrangement so that all journeymen and some senior apprentices might ultimately have firelizards. T'rin thought; and said,
"You know my foster mother's ability to solve problems – and she's making almost a craft of it. It comes close in some ways to some of the things that harpers do. I think she'd really like to turn it into a specialist craft after the Pass is over; because having the speed of travel of a dragon is an advantage to examine evidence. But harpers give law, and there needs to be clearly defined areas of responsibility and co-operation. To talk about it, and to to support the idea of a cohesive means of deterring the incorrigible criminal would really please T'lan. Would that seem a fair exchange, sir?"
Robinton blinked.
"Such is no more than we would hope to do anyway" he said in his melodious voice.
"Well, let's say that helping out the Harper Hall is no more than High Reaches Weyr would do as well" grinned T'rin.
As T'rin hoped, his friends were delighted and almost overwhelmed by their gifts! R'cal had kept gold eggs and those he thought to be bronzes back, but any firelizard was an amazing gift!
T'rin returned with L'gal to pick up Kister and Felimmy after they had been briefed by the Masterharper. The young dragonmen brought them on Solpeth first to High Reaches so that they could talk to Lyseder; and it was the younger boy, Felimmy, who got the most answers from the still frightened boy, chatting easily with him while he let the lad stroke the head knob of his beloved little brown firelizard.
Felimmy had almost cried in his gratitude after Impressing Garnet, as he called the little creature. Now he had some inkling of how T'rin felt about Renpeth! Kister also had a brown lizard, whom he had named Piper for his trilling voice.
The other boys and Kitiara had all also chosen music-related names. They had thumped Ferry into submission when he had suggested the name 'Cheesy' for his little green; he had instead come up with the name Rhapsody – felt to be far more suitable!
Kister was unwontedly serious about the coming mission; they were not expecting to be well received.
"At least Felimmy is craftbred and very handy at manual work" he confided to T'rin. "I think we'll have to prove ourselves by being hard before we're taken seriously."
T'rin nodded.
"Well assessed, I'd say" he nodded agreement. "And you can always send Piper and Garnet if you have any real trouble and need help."
HHH
Kister's assessment of Seaholder Aleseder was that he was dour, inflexible, humourless, tunnel-visioned and intractable with little room in his life for anything that did not involve fish. That he had once had a bad experience with a harper was apparent right away.
"We don't need no fardling harper!" he exploded when they arrived. "We didn't ask for one!"
Kister gave a brittle smile.
"Lord Oterel asked for one for you" he said, as pleasantly as he could. "He did not wish to be in breach of his duty by leaving a place Beholden to him without a harper, as the law decrees."
Aleseder scowled at him.
"Phaugh! Just you keep your hands off our women, or I'll cut your manhood off!" he said crudely.
Kister raised an eyebrow.
"Touch YOUR women? My dear Holder I DO have my standards."
The insult was clear.
"WHAT?" roared Aleseder "Do you call down our women?"
Kister tutted.
"Make up your mind, my dear chap. You can't have it both ways."
"You are insulting, you little jack-a-napes!"
Kister looked him in the eye.
"No more, sir, than you are for calling my morals into question – and in front of my apprentice, a boy of tender years! I will not be so miscalled and tarred with the same brush as some person with less than perfect morals I an guessing you may have met – who happened to be a harper!"
Aleseder scowled blackly.
"I could break you in two, little man."
Kister shrugged.
"So could an enraged Wher. Does that make a wher a better Holder? I think not. But I begin to think you are trying to demonstrate by your attitude that you are one."
The Holder flushed.
"You and your clever tongue! I'll not let you into my Hold! Begone!"
"Indeed? I would remind you that the penalties for harming a Harper are severe." Said Kister.
"I'll not lay a fardling finger on your scrawny body! But you'll not come in!"
"Oh, but you will, Holder Aleseder. In five hours Threadfall is expected. To refuse any shelter is tantamount to murder – and be sure I'd leave a message writ in the sand for dragonriders to read."
The man looked baffled and furious. Kister went on,
"Has it not occurred to you that Lord Oterel has asked for a harper to be sent to give you a chance of showing that you are capable of doing your duty?"
"I do my duty!" Aleseder growled.
"Maintaining a harper to educate is part of your duty. And if you had forgotten that part of the Duty Song, I am evidently well overdue here."
Thoughts flashed furiously through the young man's mind. It was his guess that young Lyseder were the illegitimate by-product of the proddy harper that Aleseder was so angry about. The man he called his father was probably no such thing – which would explain both Lyseder's talent and his so-called father's antipathy towards it! Judging by the name, the boy was probably also related to the Holder. Kister did not believe that Aleseder was, as such, a bad man: but so insular and stubborn that he would need to be shocked out of his fish-bound world if he were to maintain any civil relations with outsiders. Kister's heart was pounding after the encounter, and little Piper was chittering angrily under his cloak. But he had kept his cool throughout and countered every one of Aleseder's blusters!
Felimmy whispered,
"That was worthy of T'rin!"; and Kister was well pleased at such praise!
Aleseder led the young harpers in.
"And you know nothing of fishercraft or sailing, I'll be bound." He grumbled.
"Then the teaching can be two way, can it not?" said Felimmy, brightly.
"WHAT?" barked Aleseder.
"My apprentice suggested that you teach us" said Kister. "It would make sense for us to understand the rudiments of the life of the people whose children we teach. Much teaching draws on analogy as illustration for the very young. We need to appreciate how the Hold functions in order to draw such parallels."
Aleseder sniffed.
"You and your jaw-crack words" he grunted.
"He said you gorra fardling-well larn 'em by example like" Felimmy did a good impression of the seabred language golden-voiced Shoris lapsed into when he was in the mood to shock.
Aleseder grunted again.
"Well at least your apprentice can talk plain" he said.
Kister found it worrying that the Holder was quite serious!
Felimmy managed to earn himself more points of approval in the Seahold by acquitting himself so well in a fight against two bigger lads he could have been said to have won on points. Felimmy himself certainly thought so. They had thought a soft harper boy easy meat and fun to tease cruelly; but Felimmy's miner-craft bred frame contained deceptively small but wiry muscles. And miner boys played rough too; so he had developed a high pain threshold and hard limbs. He looked disgraceful afterwards; but so too did the others.
Kister demanded to know what had happened; and Felimmy beat on his hand a brief explanation. For the benefit of witnesses he shrugged.
"Walked into a wall" he said casually.
It had the desired effect; Felimmy at least became accepted – if warily – by the boys of the Hold: and Kister had his way in through him.