Chapter 3
The acrobats camped by the big new stone bridge that spanned the Igen River; the bridge was hollow above the six big arches and housed such Holdless as did not care to be registered and counted at the main Hold. Jessenia noted the absence of a family of mudlarks who had lived on one of the abutments; and pulled a face. Life so close to the edge was harsh and it was likely that Piaz and his younger siblings had died, all together of accident or ailment, or one at a time if Piaz had become sick say, and could not look after them any more. Piaz had been her age; and was in sole charge of the little ones, and Jessenia could not help admiring him a little for his stoic acceptance of responsibility whilst being repelled by the filth and squalor in which the little family had lived and the precarious way they made their living by diving the fast river for trinkets and tools dropped carelessly from the bridge, or by those camping on the river's edge.
The family of acrobats were waiting for the river gypsies; the colourful water travellers would willingly ferry the family downstream for a nominal sum and help with the boats. They would be up to shelter under the arches for Threadfall in a day or two; and help in fending the boats off with poles was always appreciated, while the leader, Tyrell, traded with the bridge folk.
The river barges duly arrived; and Tyrell and many of his people waved. A figure beside them, dressed in a tunic of Harper Blue, beneath the distinctive patchwork jacket affected by the riverfolk, stared, curiously.
"Meet our Harper, Kister!" called Tyrell, cheerily.
"I thought you despised Harpers?" said Fordel, surprised.
"Aye, well, changed my mind; our songs turn out to be Harper knowledge to keep folk alive, so I've lost my objections" said Tyrell. "Kister here knows how to sail the salt sea!" his voice held the touch of awe rivermen often have for seamen, "and he's a bit out of favour for scattering a whole Hold for disrespecting Harpers and Dragonmen, wanted somewhere away from Holderfolk!"
Kister grinned.
"The Masterharper backed me, but I'm a bit of an embarrassment I reckon… I'm not renegade but I AM keeping a low profile."
"And he's a good crewman too and knows some good songs; and he's learned us all to read in a couple of short months!" said Tyrell.
"Oh the hard work was yours" shrugged Kister. "Excuse me folks; I'm giving lessons up in the bridge in Threadfall until I can find these rogues someone as roguish as myself!" he winked cheerily and swung easily off the boat onto the nearest pier, followed by Tyrell, who wanted to go and trade.
oOoOo
Threadfall in the boats was nervous; the bridge was only just as wide as the boats were long. The older male acrobats helped the riverfolk to keep the tethered boats true, and Jessenia and Roban wielded flamethrowers at prow and stern respectively of the boat they were on. Jessenia was glad of her talent of sensing Thread; it meant that she could covertly watch the dragons going over. This region was covered still by Benden Weyr; but before Fall started it was possible to see first points of light over the Central Range, west of the river, and know that it was the dragons of Igen Weyr whose coverage was taken up by the dragons of Benden over the mountains.
The flamethrower protection might not be strictly needed: the ends of the boats were protected by skybroom resin and any of the squirming grey organism that fell in the water drowned; but nobody who had ever seen Thread could ever feel that there were too many precautions.
After Fall passed, nets were flung out by most youngsters to catch as many fish as possible that had risen to eat drowned Thread; then they were on their way. It was skilful business, for the water race through the bridge had a fall of a good hand's breadth with the boats moored between the piers. The polemen fended off as the tillermen steered, each boat going off in turn, as nice a piece of work as the tumbling of their troupe of acrobats.
When they were away, Jessenia asked rather diffidently,
"Do you know what happened to Piaz and the kids?"
Tyrell laughed.
"Fell on their feet they did! Though I nearly took them on myself. They went to work for a lady what buys things," he tapped the side of his nose, "and don't ask questions neither" he added. "Took 'em in as apprentices she did. She's Smithcraft trained, a jeweller she is. They're living in the Igen Holdless caverns; reckon you'll run into them there" he laughed. "I wager they're so well fed you 'on't reckernise 'em though; she's no idiot this lady, and doing well to afford a bodyguard AND apprentices!"
Jessenia smiled, pleased.
It might not be an entirely honest profession, but it was better than some; and at least they were learning some manner of craft!
oOoOo
Kister was a cheerful fellow who sized up the twins straight away and took the wind out of their sails by palming dead fish to shake hands with them.
"You remind me of too many apprentices I've known" he grinned at their startled expressions "So I thought I'd get my retaliation in first."
Roby and Ruri looked at each other; then grinned.
"He's all right" said Ruri.
After that they settled down to let him review all that they knew; and Harri, Roban and Jessenia too. Tanni had taught her own children well; and had been shocked to find how far behind the twins had been. That precious pair had worked hard to catch up; though not for love of knowledge so much as to avoid a kid a turn younger than them like Harri looking down on them. Jessenia was finding her eyes opened quite a lot about all her insouciant trader cousins; and found herself liking them less than she had previously thought she had done! Naturally she would be loyal, but an insuperable gulf had opened between her and Caytreen.
Kister was pleasantly surprised by the attainments of the acrobat children; and praised their parents as well as the children for their hard work.
"Grandfather says, while Harpers risk themselves to pass on knowledge, it's unfair and undutiful to be plum ignorant" said Roban, seriously.
Jessenia would not have chosen to put it so bluntly with the – until recently – uneducated riverfolk in earshot, but she nodded.
Kister nodded too.
"He's right" he said. "I never served under Fax; but I know Harpers who did. And the apprentice I had with me and I had a hairy moment when the Holder I so irritated threatened to throw us out just hours from Threadfall; he was as much a tyrant in his own as Fax, trying to keep people from knowing their rights."
"Harpers be necessary" put in Tyrell with the zeal of the converted. "We had them all wrong because some was trained bad in the bad old days."
Jessenia hid a grin; to describe the time before the Pass began when Harpers were despised as 'the bad old days' held its own irony. Kister caught sight of her mouth twitching, and, with his back safely to Tyrell, grinned in sympathy at her ready intelligence!
oOoOo
The river trip saved some tramping; but when they were set down on the other side of the river far enough downriver for the temperature to have naturally risen, it would still be a tram of fifty miles to the foothills of the Weyr's great volcanic cone.
Jessenia, as always, thought it beautiful; the great dark cone lightened by haze, soaring up against the bright sky in the fine early morning, the sky like polished steel. The afternoon would see heavy rains at this time of turn and this side of the mountains at least; they would make as good progress as they might to set camp up before the rains. It would take three or four days because of that; and the perfect cone tantalisingly close-looking in the early morning's pure air, yet seeming to come no closer for the first couple of days, as though they walked without going anywhere. It was a phenomenon that always fascinated Jessenia more than it frustrated her.
The twins grumbled about it, of course.
"ARE we getting closer to that fardling mountain at all?" demanded Ruri as they set off on the third day.
"Language" said Fordel. "Yes of course we are; it fills more of the sky than it did yesterday."
"Doesn't much look it" muttered Roby; but he kept his tone low enough for his grandfather not to hear! The pair were learning a healthy respect for Fordel's strictures, if not for the person of their grandfather himself; in time they would learn to be grateful for having boundaries set, Jessenia hoped.
By the end of the third day's walk, the Weyr was noticeably closer, looming over them. Next day would do it!
oOoOo
The Weyrfolk were delighted to see the acrobats. Long hours of leisure between hard and dangerous Thread fighting meant that most dragonriders welcomed any diversion, and as highly-trained, fit individuals themselves, dragonriders appreciated display of skill perhaps more than anyone else except other acrobats.
Predictably, Lenner was busy boasting; and declared he could walk on a high tightrope clear across the top of the Weyr. He grinned then.
"Well that would be if you fellows could get it taut enough, anyway" he added. "Perhaps with a dragon sitting on each end and pulling with their, er, forefeet?"
"Cheeky!" said a Blue Rider, without rancour. Tall stories were part of the stock in trade of itinerants. "I wager you never could" he could not resist adding.
"Done!" said Lenner. "How much?"
Jessenia was busy sighing with exasperation over her eldest brother when there was a flurry; and G'narish himself arrived.
"Have you taken leave of your senses?" demanded the stocky Weyrleader. "I forbid it!"
Lenner muttered,
"Spoilsport!" under his breath. It was not meant to be audible; but the Weyrleader obviously had preternaturally sharp hearing.
"Young man," he said, "far be it for men to denigrate your skill – which, by the way, I have no intention of doing – but have you any idea of the strength of the crosswinds and sudden gusts of wind up there, caused by the air rising up the mountain? No, I thought not" he added as Lenner looked suddenly aghast. "I DO: I've flown in them. In the heat of the day, the winds are totally unpredictable. And you lot!" he swung round, stabbing accusing fingers at the dragonriders who had been more than ready to back up a wager, "you have NO excuse! You know about the winds! This man is a significant part of his family's livelihood – if you are so lost to shame you don't care for his safety, think at least of his aged grandfather and young siblings and his mother!"
There were some red faces and a lot of shuffling and muttered apologies.
"Sorry, Weyrleader" said the Blue Rider, chastened. "We didn't think, I guess."
G'narish nodded curtly.
"Cultivate the habit of thought, A'tar; it might save your life as well as not risking others" he said crisply. "If you want to go through with this absurd wager, lad, I've thought of a way" he added to Lenner.
Lenner brightened.
"I've always been ready to take a wager on my skills, sir" he said. "I'm good."
G'narish eyed him thoughtfully; then nodded.
"We might stretch a rope, if a couple of dragons were willing, from one weyr to another, within the bowl, where there are some winds but not so intense, mostly a few updrafts. If it goes across the bowl at the end where the lake is, I wager an athlete like yourself could then turn any fall into a dive if need be, and have a good chance of surviving. Our lads dive into the lake from dragonback for sport and the worst that we've had is a broken collar bone from a bad dive, and a few very sore rumps from badly timed acrobatics."
Lenner grinned.
"So long as someone will fish me out IF I fall; I don't swim so good" he said.
"Easy to arrange; and I trust your ability to walk the rope far more now you've admitted you don't swim well" said G'narish. "I don't want to be a spoilsport; but nor do I want you taking risks where you don't know the dangers. We've had weyrlings injured for not taking note of the warnings of unpredictable winds."
THAT was a sobering thought.
"I'll be at one end, if you like, Lenner, if the dragon holding it will take advice over tension" said Jessenia.
G'narish looked on her with approval.
"I'm sure any Rider and dragon will take advice from an expert" he said.
A'tar grinned.
"Preth is enthusiastic; he wants to get it just right!" he said. "I weyr over the lake; up you come and we'll sort out a rope soonest."
There was a rushing feeling between Jessenia's ears, inside her head, and a Blue dragon quickly landed.
"What, now?" groaned G'narish. "Well, if you must, make sure the rope is checked by Seabred Riders."
oOoOo
Jessenia had never, of course, been on a dragon before!
"Hello, Preth" she said. "What a beautiful colour you are – like a summer sky!"
Preth looked pleased.
"He says to thank you" said A'tar. "He's a bit touchy about his colour because a candidate for our last Queen Egg said 'Oh dear, not really quite HARPER blue' to him and it hurt him when we collected her."
"Rude chit! I'd have made her walk!" said Jessenia, angrily.
A'tar laughed.
"I nearly did… she had power though and it was her Right. Soon got herself thrown out, though, sly tunnel snake…you've got power. You ever think about standing?"
"Well I was going to go to High Reaches Weyr because they put girls to Greens there" said Jessenia, candidly. "My grandfather wanted me to be older."
A'tar grinned.
"We're putting girls to Greens here from the next clutch…and the climate's better here too. Cold in the Reaches, you know! I'll ask G'narish if you like."
Jessenia flushed.
"Why – thank you!" she said. "Oh, and thank you very much Preth!"
The dragon had extended a front foot for her to mount; and A'ta came to help her.
Jessenia was a bit nervous; not of Preth, but in case A'tar touched her anywhere she preferred him not to, but he was the soul of courtesy.
And then he was seated behind her, and in three powerful wingbeats they were airborn!
It was over too soon as almost immediately they landed on Preth's weyr's ledge.
Jessenia thanked the dragon again and slithered off, peering over the edge curiously.
A'tar laughed.
"No fear of heights then?" he said.
Jessenia shook her head.
"I walk high wire too…but I'm not so, er, impetuous as my brother."
"I wouldn't have let him risk too much on purpose you know" said A'tar, seriously. "I take account of our currents when flying, but I guess it never occurred to me to think that walking would encounter the same draughts. I am sorry for not thinking!"
Jessenia nodded.
"I know. And Lenner doesn't always think either. How are they going to get a rope up?"
"Firelizard – or Preth will fetch an end" said A'tar. "They've found one, anyway – your brother is inspecting it too, he's safety conscious enough."
Jessenia grinned.
"Not enough to avoid a clip round the ear from Granddad later!" she said. "Right, Preth, we'll rig this most carefully…."