Chapter 6

The two young acrobats were made much of when they landed.

"Aww, wherry-teeth" said Roban, embarrassed.

"Please – it was nothing!" said Jessenia. "Just what we're trained to do."

"And the presence of mind to know how to use your skills to the best advantage" said G'narish, coming forward. "S'tend is lucky you were here. Let the kids alone now, they need rest, klah, and checking over for rope burn and abrasions!"

The Weyrleader ignored all protests from the youngsters and escorted the youngsters firmly to the healing caverns, where they were quickly joined by Tanni, who hugged her offspring firmly.

"Ma! It was a piece o' piss!" said Roban.

Tanni looked at Jessenia.

"HER face says different" said Tanni.

"It was easy enough to climb," said Jessenia. "The strain was in the kid panicking . . . Rob escaped that."

Roban shrugged. "I figured he'd get embarrassed if he realized I'd seen him cry . . . girls are different."

"Well, I'm glad you're safe" said Tanni firmly. "You both did well. . . I know you don't take unnecessary risks."

"We never would, Ma" Jessenia assured her!

oOoOo

Weyrlingmaster V'sheren came in.

"S'tend is sleeping on a dose of Fellis, and Dath is covered in numbweed and is resting his wing" he said. "What's this about sensing Thread?"

"Oh, I always know when it's about to fall, and where clumps are," said Jessenia, "like I sense when bad weather's coming; Roban senses weather too."

"And Grandad senses Thread" said Roban.

"He knew when the Pass was starting" volunteered Tanni. "He believed the Harpers anyway, but he got us under stone when everyone else was scoffing. My husband doesn't sense it, it skipped a generation."

"Looks like your family could train up some good Dragonriders" said V'sheren.

"I was rejected on Search because I was deemed too young when there was only Benden," said Tanni, quietly, "And then I met Dukkar" she laughed. "I really was too young; and it turned out that they thought I was a boy anyway because my hair was tucked away in a hat because it was the Great Cleaning and I was in trews. I was ten" she added. "And the next Queen was Ramoth, and no girls put to Green dragons in those days! I don't regret it though."

"Well the Weyr's loss is your family's gain" said V'sheren.

"We'll certainly be glad to stand, Sir, when Grandpa says I may, and do our best" said Jessenia. "Sir, if you're looking for girl riders, I have a sort of cousin my age who might be interested."

"Caytreen? She's getting wed. and she's a scatty piece!" scoffed Tanni. "She's the type that squeaks at dragons in the hopes of being comforted by a handsome dragonman!"

V'sheren hid a grin. He knew the type.

"Oh, not Caytreen!" Jessenia's voice showed the scorn she had come to feel for her cousin's attitudes. "I meant Carya!"

"She's no relative at all, really!" said Tanni.

"No, but she's got a good head on her" said Jessenia. "Reckon she's got more than her share of common sense."

"Tell me about her?" said V'sheren.

Jessenia told her all about her aunt Relda's rather irregular relationship with Holder Ranyer.

"Carya always says, Relda's more her mother than Carissa ever was, 'cos Carissa wasn't interested in any of them" said Jessenia. "She's got Ranis – her older brother, her only brother until little Rel came along a couple of turns ago – out of trouble with scheming wenches. One girl she frightened off by asking if she was strong enough to hold him down to administer fellis when he had his fits."

V'sheren gave a shout of laughter. "These fits are fictional, I take it?" he said.

"Oh yes! Carra and Ranissa hadn't got a clue – there're older than us – but Carya's clever. And I guess Ranyer would be pleased to have his girls happily settled and not have to find wedding partners for them, 'cos I think it's ten girls now and the two boys."

"Formidable fecundity" he murmured.

"Well, Ranya and Raissa are twins" said Jessenia. "It was birthing them killed Carissa, and as they don't look like her OR Ranyer but aw'lly like the Hold Harper you can't blame Ranyer for ALL of them."

"Jess! Less of the gossip!" reproved Tanni.

"She's right, Ma, they have ginger hair like him and the same sticky-out ears" said Roban, much struck.

"Ranyer accepts them" said Tanni firmly. "That's all that matters."

"I'm sure your aunt is a good mother to all the children" said V'sheren, diplomatically. "Certainly we shall consider this Hold on Search; maybe in due course you'd accept a lift to ask your cousin for yourself?"

"Oh! I'd LOVE that!" gasped Jessenia.

Tanni shook her head.

At least the weyrfolk seemed ready to accept her children for their useful skills and did not think them presumptuous for their forthright, open manner! And they were happy to accept both Jessenia and Roban standing for Impression – it was well for the troupe that they had the twins, who had been showing no instincts to be light fingered, and had made friends with some of the weyr children too, along with her baby, Harri. She sighed. And him almost old enough to be allowed to perform too; and willing to do so! Dukkar could join his sons and brother for the four-cornered tumbling, and the twins on Lenner, Tas and Jibben's shoulders, and maybe Harri right on top of a human pyramid. Fordel would adapt things, and not grudge two of the family to the Weyr. And perhaps one of Relda's own daughters would have talent to train up – if any were prepared to leave the comfortable certainties of accepted half-Bloods in a small but prosperous Hold. The two older ones were old enough to travel with them, and Ranee old enough to perform if Relda had trained her up. Tanni gave a rueful smile to herself. What would be, would be!

"When does your grandfather permit you to come?" V'sheren asked Jessenia, his voice breaking in to Tanni's musings.

"Well, when we spoke to the weyrborn Woodcrafter who told us about High Reaches taking girls, he said a turn round before we travelled to High Reaches" said Jessenia "and that was around Midsummer. So I guess in about half a turn or so."

"Hmm, we've no clutch at the moment" said the Weyrlingmaster, "But I wonder if he'd let us have you when we next do, to help get any female candidates fit – for girls in Hold and Craft life are less fit than boys often enough, and will need more training to bring to standard suitable to care for a dragonet."

"I – I guess you'd have to ask him" said Jessenia. "He kind of forbade me to talk about it, though he did say I might ask here about – about sequestering, if I Impress, when she rises to – to mate." She flushed.

"You are rather younger than G'narish was thinking of taking" said V'sheren. "But mostly only on a grounds of having common sense, and you don't seem to lack that. High Reaches, I understand, takes girls from the same age as boys, twelve turns; and we all sequester the smallest boys of course. I see no problem; you can sequester until you feel ready, like the boys do, usually once they've found a lover. You need not worry." He patted her kindly on the shoulder, and Jessenia nodded in relief.

J'ton was nice, and she half thought of getting to know him a lot better if she Impressed, but there was plenty of time to worry about that in the future.

oOoOo

Fordel listened to V'sheren's request.

"This genuine, or are you after getting the girl in your furs, if you'll pardon the blunt question, Bronze Rider?" he asked.

V'sheren flushed. "She's just a child – well, hardly more than!" he said indignantly. "Do you think I'd take advantage of an innocent girl?"

Fordel gave him a straight look. "No, Bronze Rider, I read your honour in your voice and face" he said, "And I suppose she could go further and do worse than such a man as you. I apologize; we've had trouble. And if you'll look out for her, I'm half inclined to leave her with you for her own protection. She's the wrong age and too pretty to be Holdless I suppose" he sighed. "My daughters stuck together, safety in numbers. But I'll ask another favour if I may."

"Name it."

"To go to visit my daughter Relda; she has girls of an age with the twins and Harri. Girls ARE a draw, especially if they look cute" he pulled a face.

V'sheren nodded.

"Jessenia wanted to ask her cousin Carya if she'd come to the Weyr too; that's easy to arrange. Let me get my boys flying securely – a couple of sevendays – and I'll take a day out to take you, your daughter-in-law if she wants, and Jessenia. Asreth can bring back two or three lightweights, no trouble, so long as they're all friendly!"

Fordel nodded curtly. "My thanks, Bronze Rider. I appreciate the kindness the Weyr has shown my family."

"Even if Jessenia doesn't Impress – and as she senses Thread I think she will – I think G'narish would want to ask her to stay, both for THAT talent, and to train girls to fitness as I suggested. That makes you all kind of weyrfolk, and part of our family."

Fordel digested that, then nodded. "We'll not presume on that, but I will bear it in mind. Pride will not take hand-outs, but if we need help, fi it's by way of family, I'd be the first to give aid to cousins – even those that are no such thing like Ranyer's older children – and so I'd be a fraud not to accept aid too. It is good."

V'sheren was glad he had trod the right path with the stiff-necked old gentleman! No more than a Weyrling himself when they had come forward, he had learned to adapt to the more outspoken 9th Pass individuals more easily than some of his older fellows; and had now spent more of his life in the current era than in the Old Time!

V'sheren had a job for the twins and Harri too; J'ton had collected the young brothers Petrilla had asked to be housed, and they needed reassurance from boys who were not of the Weyr, but who had found their way about it and started to make friends. That they were Holdless too would reassure the lads.

The three young acrobats were delighted that so exalted a person as the Weyrlingmaster would single them out for so responsible a job!

It would also, thought V'sheren, keep them out of mischief – at least until the new ones found their feet, and Fordel might well be moving on by then.

oOoOo

V'sheren found his flying classes went with much less trouble than usual; S'tend's foolishness had dampened the usually overly-high spirits of newly flying weyrlings, and they were chastened and obedient to strictures about not overflying their dragon partners, however over-optimistic the young dragons might be! Consequently things went smoothly, and he left the boys to practice under the eye of another young Bronze Rider, currently injured and in need of occupation to stop him climbing the walls in frustration while a broken arm mended!

The broken arm was K'said's own fault.

He had intervened in a dispute between a Riverman and a pugnacious Rider from Ista. He had taken the Riverman's part, and had been involved in a fight with the Istan Rider, whose Bronze had been disappointed on the famed mating flight. The fracture to his arm had been complex, multiple, and slow to heal, though he had said to V'sheren "But you should have seen the other fellow's nose!"

Obviously the Istan's skull was harder than K'said's arm.

G'narish had made inquiries, but apparently the Istan Bronze Rider had suffered no lasting damage beyond a slightly dented ego and a broken nose that he swore helped him to pull girls even better.

K'said was often in trouble.

He was honourable to a fault, but rather naïve. G'narish thought he might be similar to T'bor's young Wingleader H'llon , before the Weyrwoodcrafter Bronze Rider learned a bit more about how the wicked world wagged. The Igen Weyrleader half considered sending K'said to H'llon for an education, but decided that the boy would lose his innocence just enough anyway!

oOoOo

Fordel and Jessenia were ready to go. Jessenia mounted Asreth in her usual flamboyant manner; and noting the painful scars, Fordel followed suit, to V'sheren's amusement. Fordel's little newly hatched Brown firelizard chirped complacently and flew up to join the old acrobat, looking smug.

Asreth is most moved by your family's courtesy to his scar: said V'sheren. "As am I. We both appreciate it; he can take scrambling, but some people can be careless where they put their feet."

"No need to cause a dragon unnecessary pain – he's already taken those injuries for the likes of us. As have you," grunted Fordel.

V'sheren liked Fordel more and more every time he spoke to him. The old man was touchy, proud, and a bit grouchy, and he reminded the Bronze Rider of his own grandfather who had not survived he Eighth Pass.

"Hold tight" he said.

Jessenia loved getting airborne, though she was unmercifully(?) hot in the flying furs V'sheren had insisted they both borrow. Then they were in the crosswinds, buffeted a moment before they were in the incredible cold of between!

Jessenia's heart thudded painfully for three loud beats, then they were out in sunshine, her grandfather's gasp of shock loud after the silence of that no-place that was between.

"Not a sound from you, young Jessenia" said V'sheren. He sounded pleased

"I suppose I was just surprised, Sir" said Jessenia. "There was nothing to make any sound about. It was odd but not really frightening. Asreth knew where he was going, after all."
V'sheren grinned Asreth had taken visualisation from Fordel – what a Dragonrider had been lost in that man not being Searched – and found it good.

"Asreth is good" he said. "And you're right, youngling; HE knew where he was going. And there is nothing to be afraid of – with so experienced a dragon as he. I hope you WIL be scared – and of me more than anything else – when you learn to go between, so that you listen and get it right!"

"Oh I will, Sir" said Jessenia, earnestly. "I"ll listen for my dragon's sake; 'cos I can't be scared of you, however much of a blistering you give, 'cos it's only because you care about your kids. Like Grandad – he's most awfully menacing if we're bad because he wants to save us injury."

"Why Master Acrobat, that chit has our secrets rumbled!" laughed V'sheren.

"Hmph. TOO clever by half" said Fordel, not displeased that his granddaughter saw his love for her for what it was, unable as he was to unbend easily.