CHAPTER 10 Repercussions from the Past; and the Coining of a Word
"Slut! Bitch! Dragonriding no – good, you kill your children Between while we have to carry your menfolk's seed!"
Talana turned in surprise at the bitter words; and the ragged woman tailed off as she saw the gentle curves of the little weyrwoman's gravid belly. However she soon resumed, shaking the arms of the skinny children she held by the wrists to emphasise her words.
"All of them randy turds! And how do they expect us to feed what they've dropped on us? How do they expect respectable girls to marry? You tell me that!"
"You evidently have grievance" began T'lana carefully. The woman spat, her face contorted in hatred that made her quite hag like.
"Grievance? For sure I have grievance! One daughter dead of birthing a brat, the other unmarriageable for the dead brat she bore and my man casting the whole of us out! And not enough food to even fill the brats out enough to make them saleable." She shook the two children again; and Talana strode up to her, eyes blazing.
"You may have grievance, woman, but by Mirrith's shell if you shake those children once again or talk of – of selling them, I'll slap you till your head rings!"
"You take them then if you're so keen! But I'll want my expenses covered – the effort they've taken me to rear – I want fifty marks apiece for them!"
Talana stared at her, horrified.
"You can't sell people like runnerbeasts!" She exclaimed.
"I didn't ask to saddled with them by T'kul! I had to feed them! Fair's fair!" She whined. Talana fished around in her pouch; she'd had a good day at the races and was well in pocket for her eye and skill. One hundred marks was beyond her; but she took what she had. She threw the marks at the woman.
"I have no jurisdiction over T'kul" she said. "But you could have come to the Weyr with your grievance when T'bor took over. I have no doubt you had ideas of raising them to an age to sell over and over at gathers but ran out of funds to keep going now you've lost your own looks. This is your compensation for T'kul's injustice plus the keep of the children; for the state they're in you've never spent more on them than the tossing of your leftovers! I'll pay no more. Is it witnessed, riders?" For several other riders had gathered. M'kel stepped forward.
"You should not pay, weyrwoman." He said, putting his foot over the marks as the woman scrabbled on the ground for them. "We shall take this to Lord Bargen and let him set compensation to be taken from the tithe to the Weyr. There should be no compensation for keep, since as you said she could have brought them to the Weyr before; and they are scarcely kept."
Talana had her arms around two frightened little girls.
"I just want it sorted M'kel" she said, "So we can take these little ones away from the old hag."
"I'll sort it." Said M'kel, grimly. He scooped up Talana's marks and dumped them in her pouch, dust and all. Then he conferred with the other riders as the crazy faced woman kept up a vituperative monologue. He came back to T'lana.
"Weyrwoman, we are agreed to save trouble to each contribute towards compensation if a harper can be found as an impartial witness. S'gell's gone to find one."
S'gell was not long returning with Samwil, whose addiction to horse racing made the harper easy to find. The matter was explained; and he thought hard.
"For the pain and inconvenience I should have said twenty five marks each to the woman and her daughter; and fifty for the loss of a daughter. But the compensation for the absent daughter shall be held until she herself collects it." He declared. The riders gave according to their means, including T'lana, and the harper gave the marks to the woman, holding back the twenty five for her daughter. She hissed malevolently at him, but grabbed the marks and scuttled off. Samwil shook his head.
"I mislike the look of that one." He said.
Talana nodded grimly.
"That is why I was disinclined to be generous." She said. "Riders, help me outfit these babes. They have a cold flight ahead." The cluster of two dozen or more riders willingly found odd pieces of clothing to wrap the little girls until they sweated on the ground; and Talana strapped them on.
"My thanks for your support." She said to the others as she left.
oOoOo
The two little girls seemed too numbed even to be afraid of Mirrith. Talana talked to them cheerfully, telling them that they would have a home in the weyr and plenty to eat. One of them started to cry.
"Shan't eat, shan't eat! I won't be big enough to be eaten by a dragon."
Talana stiffened in horror.
"Dragons don't eat people!" she exclaimed. "Tell her Mirrith!" she heard Mirrith's rather hurt mindvoice explaining that dragons never ate people because it was extremely bad manners and if she hadn't been such a very little girl, she, Mirrith, would have had to have taken offence. Talana itched to slap the woman who had filled these babes' heads with wicked nonsense. She judged they were about the same age as Sagarra had been when she had first brought her back to the Weyr; at least she had experience of the age group; and Sagarra had experience of rejection and would be able to empathise with them over that. The hour and a half flight was perhaps a bad idea, perhaps she should have sent them back with someone going Between; but they seemed none too healthy and the risk seemed considerable. She tried telling them about some of the people they'd meet; and got some attention, and even a nervous giggle as she described the pomposity of Orth.
"I should have told you my name" she said. "I am called T'lana. What are you called?"
They exchanged nervous glances. The one who had giggled volunteered,
"Sometimes we called 'Hey You' and sometimes 'Brat' and sometimes 'Shurrup'. Do weyrchildren have their own names like Pomana and Poralla?" She ventured the question.
Talana dashed a hand across suddenly wet angry eyes.
"I never met any children before who don't have names." She said quietly. "We will give you names of your own. Names that reflect the dragonrider ancestry you bear." She held them to her; and at first was horrified to feel them pull away, afraid; but she sent feelings of love and protection, and they relaxed against her. The one who had spoken first said,
"You are more like Poralla. She don't beat us often, and sometimes she cuddles us if Pomana in't around."
"I don't beat any children at all." Said Talana indignantly. "I have spanked my little girl once for being very bad – she did something dangerous that could have hurt her – but I'd never beat her." She remembered the time she had caught Sagarra halfway up one of the seven spindles with three weyrlings and had been so relieved to get her down that she had applied a heavy hand where it would do most good impartially on all four children to remember for future reference. "My man doesn't either." She said firmly.
"Men give marks to hurt women." Said the other.
"Some men give marks; and some men hurt women." Modified Talana. "Most men are ordinary people who look after their women and children. You'll see when you have a real family in the weyr. Pomana didn't do right by you. She's bad." They looked at her with round eyes, agreeing but terrified by someone voicing the thought. They would need years of love and tolerance to be able to find out how normal children should feel, thought Talana.
"Not if we make them feel it inside." Said Mirrith. "Dragons can talk to them and help them see that people do love each other, mostly."
"Mirrith, you darling. Can either of them hear you anyway?"
"I don't think so. They show no signs. They will probably Impress when they are grown, though."
Talana smiled to herself. Mirrith was in full support of Pilgra's female wing, having been a little betwixt and between until she attained her full thirty eight meter length, almost twice the length of most Greens.
"Would you like me to give you names?" She asked the girls. Wide eyed still they nodded. "You can always change them later if they don't suit you, but it would be nice to have something to call you that belongs just to you." She thought a moment; the names must be contractible, and perhaps reflect their parentage. The woman implied that she and her daughters had been all raped by T'kul but if he was on his own, surely they could have fought. Unless, of course, T'kul had threatened them with Salth and the old bronze had given up and failed to contradict him. T'bor had told her that people had fled from dragons when he had first taken over at High Reaches so intimidation appeared a favoured tactic of the shamed dragonman. Nonetheless he was a dragonman; and the sire should be indicated in their names. "I think" she said "Takula and Kullana." Indicating the bolder one for the more formal rendition and the other for the derivative. "What do you think of those?" Takula smiled, tentatively.
"Nice." She said.
"Pretty" added Kullana. The sisters said their new names to themselves, testing them and feeling them in their mouths; but with a wary eye on T'lana in case so much talking would earn them punishment. Talana had an urge to cry, but suppressed it. She wished now she had just taken the children and not paid compensation but insisted on a renunciation. She relayed her findings about their upbringings to all the dragons still at the race meeting to tell their riders; and as an afterthought reached forward to the weyr to prepare people there. Thus she was met by Pilgra and Keerana with clothing and food and ready laps for the newest members of the extended weyr family; and their physical needs were catered to as Talana spent time with her own four children and fosterlings and asked Sagarra if she would take a special interest in these unwanted and unloved babes.
"Of course I will, T'lan." Sagarra hugged her. "You did it for me when I first came here." Talana hugged the little girl to her tightly.
"You are the specialest, Sagarra" she told her. "The best daughter anyone could have."
"Aw, wherry teeth." Said Sagarra; but she was pleased.
oOoOo
Pilgra said,
"There is no way you can foster them."
"I know that, Pilgra" agreed T'lana patiently "And besides, I'd be the wrong person. They need someone calm and loving and totally committed to making up for the lost years of childhood. Someone who isn't at the hub of weyr life or I'd suggest Calla. Calla's daughter might be suitable, or that eldest daughter of Kylara, Lalora. After all she knows what it's like to have an inadequate parent – and wasn't she fostered by Manora at Benden for a while?"
"Yes, that's right. Ranelly looked after her and T'kil at first when they went back in time, but she went to Benden to be fostered when they had caught up, together with the younger three. She was old enough to appreciate the problems Kylara was causing; it's not been easy for her. Especially as she had to make shift for herself a lot when she was little, Ranelly always danced to Kylara's tune first."
"She's been helping with fostering the youngest anyway, hasn't she?" asked T'lana.
"Yes, though she helped with all of them. B'kyle and Kytula are fully adult and of course Kibor has been presented for Impression twice."
"If he's who I think he is, he's only waiting for the right dragon. Don't think I don't know that you've been bringing them up for the last few years – and no doubt even before the queens died."
Pilgra laughed and sighed.
"It would have been nice to have had children of my own." She said wistfully. "I think it was coming forward all those turns."
Talana hugged her friend fiercely.
"Well why don't you foster them, Pilgra dearest?" She asked. "You've mentioned before that you had to put up with T'kul's attentions. They could have been yours."
Pilgra looked at her thoughtfully
"They are much younger than any children I've ever had to look after before – Kibor was eight when they came to High Reaches and he was the youngest" she said "But – why not? It's not as though I don't have competent junior weyrwomen to help out with the duties of running a weyr. Yes, I think I shall. Give Lalora a chance to find someone of her own and get her own family if she wants one!" She added, "But I am at the hub of weyr life as you put it – and I must put the weyr first."
"I think that it won't matter because you are such a very special person. If they know the rest of us well, and Lalora is perhaps an auntie to them, they've then got more than one person to run to in case anything prevents you from being as active in their upbringing."
"In case Thread kills or cripples me – or Segrith you mean."
"It's something we live with." Shrugged T'lana.
oOoOo
Sagarra was happy to help the sisters adjust to weyr life; and she was gentler than many of her contemporaries in this respect, patient with ignorance of weyr ways and recognising the withdrawal of the uncertain, frightened children. She showed them about, and at first gently bullied them until they began to find their feet; and above all she encouraged them to turn to dragons for comfort. Living under Pilgra's aegis they tended towards Segrith for comfort; and as Sagarra was just a little in awe of the senior queen earned her respect as well as sympathy. Pilgra was plainly built for motherhood, and had them running to her for caresses in no time. Talana's heart went out to her barren friend seeing how much love she had there to give.
oOoOo
Barrenness was evidently not a problem for A'ira. R'gar rescheduled some of the weyrling drills to take into account her sudden bouts of sickness in the mornings. T'lana had said nothing to R'gar of his father's involvement with the girl – he had managed to find another excuse to visit the weyr before A'ira's sickness manifested itself and stayed beyond the time he took to pass messages and greet his grandchildren – and R'gar was unaware of the identity of the father of her child. He had not pried or questioned her, beyond asking whether she was contented in her condition, and adjuring her to tell him immediately if she was having any problems which would affect her efficacy as a weyrling or jeopardise Joroth. A'ira recognised the concerned embarrassment behind his gruff words; for even in a short time she was coming to know R'cal. When he next visited she was nervous of speaking to him.
"What is it, my lovely?" he asked, as they lay together, his fire lizards chirping contentedly on the end of the bed.
"R'cal – how do you feel about repeating fatherhood?" she asked.
"You're pregnant?" for a moment horror swept his face and she looked away. He turned her to him. "A'ira, is it true that if you've already had children there is less danger of dying?" His voice was pleading.
"I believe most deaths are with first babies, yes." She said. "Afterwards, everything's been stretched."
He pulled her to him; and he was trembling.
"My – R'gar's mother – Garla – died birthing him. I could not bear it to happen again." She stroked his face, telling him that she had no intention of dying, that she'd sailed through childbed twice with no trouble, and only three miscarriages, one of those because she was young for the first one. Again R'cal had an urge to shake the deceased Clom.
"You see that you don't die." He said fiercely. "And I'll be right here to see to it. I've asked T'bor to find someone else to run Oterel's messages."
A'ira embraced him, overjoyed; she needed nothing more to make her happiness beyond anything she could have believed.
oOoOo
R'cal felt he should break the news to R'gar. He sought him out and steered him firmly into Laranth's weyr for a talk.
"I've not always been a good father to you." He began. R'gar gripped his shoulder.
"I understand now what I never could before." He said. "I should feel lost without T'lan. I like to think that I'd find comfort in the children; but who can know how they'll react?"
"You looked so like her to my eyes. I did not realise that you resembled me at all – until that cheeky minx of yours pointed it out. But – how would you feel if I were with someone else – and perhaps you had rather late siblings?"
"I'd be delighted, R'cal. Not that I'd ever be able to treat any hypothetical siblings as such – there's rather an age gap."
"You're going to laugh at me I think."
"Why should I?"
"She's scarcely any older than T'lan I think, though she has children already."
R'gar gave him an old fashioned look.
"R'cal, have you been knocking off A'ira?"
R'cal looked uncomfortable, and nodded, flushing slightly. R'gar grinned at him and gave him a bear hug.
"Well good for you. And she's certainly happier than she was when she first arrived! I say, go for it; you're both good for each other!"
oOoOo
Talana chafed most under the restrictions her pregnancy imposed on her when the idea exchange began at the Smithcrafter Hall. She agreed to look after Melth so H'llon could go with R'gar in the hope (she said) that between them they would bring back a full account.
R'gar brought back more than an account; he brought T'lan a gift from Master Wansor.
"He told me that it's flawed – a journeyman made a mistake grinding it" he explained as he handed her the lens. "It won't do for a distance viewer, but he thought you might find a use for it."
T'lan gave a squeak of excitement as she saw the degree of magnification the single lens gave as she held it in her hand, and she examined her fingers minutely making little noises of fascination and discovery.
"Oh how wonderful!" she exclaimed. "I must think of something really special to do for Wansor. This will really help me look for tiny things – you know I found that hair on Seela? – Because I'm convinced that no-one can be anywhere without leaving a trace of themselves behind, like a thread off their clothes or a hair that might identify them. It really expands the whole horizons of Logicating."
"Is there such a word?" asked R'gar, laughing at her enthusiasm.
"There is now." She said firmly. "No-one has ever done it before, not that I've heard of. I'm Pern's first Logicator. When this Pass has ended I shall start a crafthall for it."
R'gar laughed and kissed her.
"You'll have H'llon joining you for one." He said. "He's gotten worries about dragonriders becoming despised again. He'll be glad of something to do that would make Melth valued – if only for flitting back and forth looking for lost daughters and stray corpses!"
"I'm convinced there could be a lot more to it than what I've already done. If the Lords Holders had unified policies on not just how to deal with criminal elements but also on what to do if renegades cross boundaries – because mark my words, one day there'll be a large organised group that wreaks havoc and they'll not know what to do about them. I know the Harpers disseminate information about those who have been banished and why; but if there were notes about what they did and how they did it - I'm convinced that a criminal could be known by his work in the same way as a – a woodcrafter can be recognised by his chisel strokes – they could be caught without anyone seeing them. In the same way that I was able to describe whassissname, Someth's rider at Fort by what he left and what Seela heard. And dragons would be useful, not merely for going places quickly, but for being able to overfly areas and see if there are paths or camps that should not be there and so on." She grinned at him. "I could go on for hours – but I suppose the people I need to convince are the Lords Holders – and the Harpers. After all they disseminate information; so they must be pretty good at gathering it." She pulled a face. "Of course, if anyone did take me seriously, it'd be put under the Harper Hall since they already have the Right to settle disputes and act in a judicial manner."
"Don't you think you've enough on your plate with a fair of children and Thread to fly?" Teased R'gar.
"I'll not be even a half century before the Pass ends; and the children will be grown. I've no desire to become like Mardra or go crazy with inactivity under the ingratitude of Lords Holders. H'llon is right; people have short memories. I don't want any grovelling gratitude like the Oldtimers did but I don't want to be discarded like an old boot either."
There wasn't a lot R'gar could think of to say to that argument; so he expended some time and effort not saying anything; and Talana seemed well content with the non-arguments he mustered.
oOoOo
It was H'llon who pointed out (when playing with T'lana's lens) that the wrinkles at the ends of fingers had very distinctive patterns.
"It's like wood grain!" he explained excitedly to T'lana. "Also, a lot of illiterate holders put their thumbprints to documents in lieu of a signature. Do you think it could be significant?"
"Quite possibly." Agreed T'lana. "Tell you what, H'llon, you and that rascally band of seabred weyrlings you lug about with you can get the fingerprints of everybody in the Weyr and see if there are any patterns in families and if they really are all different."
H'llon opened his mouth to protest the description of his dormitory mates (which was not entirely accurate since he also weyred with the harper L'gal and Solpeth and also T'mon and Denth, whom T'bor felt would do better under the protection of the two steadier older lads ) but he thought better of comment. She was, he realised belatedly, teasing him; and he merely grimaced at the enormity of the task.
"Should keep those young Hellions out of mischief." Grunted R'gar.