Chapter 8
"I put my stuff in the new female candidate barracks, I'll show you there" said Jessenia. "There's no clutch but I thought it might be fun to be just together – and to bag the best beds! I guess I'd not have stayed if you hadn't come, but I reckoned you would."
"It'll be fun!" agreed Carya. "It's decent of them to let me come so early."
"It's V'sheren, I reckon" said Jessenia. "He's kind, though he bawls at the boys – and needs to! Like Granddad, it's for their own good. And will be for OUR own good when he's teaching us. I – I think he noticed I missed having a friend – a girl – my own age around. I mean, Rob's a good friend, but . . ."
Carya nodded gravely. "Even sisters aren't quite the same as someone your own age" she said.
They skipped happily across the Bowl, hand in hand, eliciting some curious glances.
"Nice . . . they come in pairs now" said a Blue rider. "Another nice, trim arsed little piece."
Jessenia flushed angrily and turned. "Blue Rider" she said "What you look at is your business; but I ask you nicely not to give tongue like the mindless baying of hunting canines."
The Blue Rider's jaw dropped, and his companion, also in the knots of a Blue Rider, hid a grin.
Carya turned her head.
"Oh, take no notice, cousin!" She said "it's our backsides he noticed, he's not yet realized we have fronts that are female and not likely to be his type!"
The loudmouth Rider's friend DID laugh at that one; and the strongly heterosexual offender spluttered!
The girls, flushed with moral victory, danced off.
"And serve you right for coming on strong to them" they heard the laughing one say.
"It's not so scary here when people pass comments" explained Jessenia. "It's usually if their dragon has been involved in a mating flight and they're feeling their oats a little . . . but weyrfolk have autonomy over their own bodies, and we're weyrfolk now."
"The Charter says everyone has autonomy over their own bodies" said Carya. Jessenia gave a bitter little laugh.
"Not if you're Holdless – or, I wager, a labourer's daughter with an aggressive ruling family! I only just escaped being raped by a Holder's son, he dragged me to his room and locked me in, and Pa and the boys made a pyramid outside for me to climb down onto because the walls were too sheer to climb. I WAS going to tear up his bed sheets," she added meditatively, "but it's much funner to think of him coming back and no clue as to how I got out – I managed to shut the window you see."
Carya grimaced and squeezed her friend's hand: though she was shocked that men should behave so.
"You were brave" she said.
"Never been so scared in my life" said Jessenia. "Even when my idiot brother walked the high wire across the bowl . . ."
She had then to tell Carya THAT tale, and Carya agreed that she would pretend to be utterly unimpressed if Lenner related the tale himself!
oOoOo
The girls were to meet another girl their own age sooner than they thought.
They were settling in to the candidate barracks very happily – they appreciated the space, for there was room for a dozen two-level bunk beds in there. Of these, they had picked the one nearest the bathing room and necessary as being the most desirable, Carya on the bottom bunk and Jessenia, who did not like being cooped up, on the top. As Carya was nervous of falling off the higher bed – despite her acrobatic training – it worked out well!
"They gotta have room for Queen Candidates too, if there are any" said Jessenia, knowledgeably "'cos Nadira's not letting them stay in guest accommodations anymore, as Pilgra of High Reaches doesn't. And this is all purpose-built, where High Reaches has been adapting and rebuilding in a hurry!"
"It's a clever way to shoehorn more into a small weyr" said Carya, admiringly.
"Yes, there's only room for 300 dragons; and Oldtimer Weyrs were small anyway because of having the breeding drop off at the end of the last Pass" Jessenia told her. "But G'narish is thinking of copying Ista and having weyrs on the outside, to accommodate more if they can only breed up, 'cos the areas Igen covers don't get much respite over winter when Thread's freezing, nor as much rain to drown it. And the hot ground makes bumpy air and can make people be blown into Thread; so it makes sense to have larger numbers to cope with casualties."
"There's more to Riding a dragon than I realized!" said Carya. "That was a knock at the door!"
"Are you girls decent? May I come in?" It was J'ton's voice.
"Come in and welcome, J'ton!" called Jessenia. "We can chaperone each other against your wicked Rider wiles!"
J'ton came in grinning. "Idiot" he said, amicably. "Though I guess if there were regular candidates there WOULD be a stink about me invading the girls' barracks. Which of you is the untidy one?"
"Me" said Carya. "I know. V'sheren will wax irritable if I don't shape up, Jessenia told me. I'm better than I was three days ago."
"Jays!" said J'ton, awed. "And I thought it looked like the aftermath of a Gather hit by a hurricane anyway!"
The girls exchanged looks and threw pillows at him.
J'ton chuckled. "I do HAVE an errand" he said, passing the pillows back "I need a favour."
"Just like a man" sniffed Carya "Make nice when they want something."
"What do you want us to do?" asked Jessenia, sensing his seriousness.
J'ton vaulted lightly onto an upper bunk to sit. "It's kids from the Holdless Cavern" he said. "It's an inequity decent folk might find hard to credit . . . some men like sex with children."
They both stared at him, horrified.
"The worst thing is" said Carya, in a sad little voice, "I believe him."
Jessenia nodded. "Where do we come in?"
"Well, Lady Petrilla found out about a procuress of little girls who tried to abduct her own fosterling, and called in her tame Jolly boys – H'llon and T'rin of High Reaches – and me. G'narish came along too; and dumped the business in Laudy's – er, Lord Laudy's – lap. But we have the kids, they're with the halers right now, those that didn't have family and the two where family sold them."
Jessenia retched. "Their FAMILY?"
"Girls being valueless" Said J'ton, dryly. "True, the baby they sold to Petrilla, but even so . . . Anyway, the oldest girl is your age. She's been a – well, a slave – for a couple of turns. She's club footed and she couldn't take any chances to run, even leaving aside the – the shackles on the bed." He gulped, pale beneath his tan. Jessenia patted his hand.
"And she needs friends?"
He nodded. "That's about the size of it. The next two youngest are 12 and 13, sisters, only abducted recently and quite feisty. They have each other. The little one and the babe will be fostered around under the child hold, but though Leealla may never learn the guts to be a Dragonrider we though we'd put her in with you two for a more normal girls-together thing, and hope you could draw her out."
"She'll be jealous of the acrobatics, maybe" said Carya.
"We can tell her about my aunt Della" said Jessenia. "And help her find out how much she CAN do. Trot her over, J'ton; we'll be as good friends to the poor kid as we may."
oOoOo
Leealla was terrified of meeting 'ordinary' girls. She had been told that the abuses she had suffered were no fault of her own, but she also knew that society had double standards and that she risked being castigated as a loving wench. Her big, violet-blue eyes stared in terror, too big in her pale, pinched face made paler by her lank white-blond hair.
She was unprepared to be embraced by two girls, one of them petite to the point of being tiny, with short blond hair, golden skin and almond-shaped green eyes, the other dark skinned with lustrous blond curls and hardly any taller.
"J'ton explained what a terrible time you had" said Jessenia, one they had given their names. "And if you want to talk, we'll listen and try to understand; or if you want to put it behind you and make today the first day of the rest of your life, that's all right too. We'll be guided by you, 'cos we've both been dead lucky to have happy childhoods; but I only escaped by the skin of my teeth being raped and that was scary so I might understand a bit more." She came up for air.
Leealla burst into tears. "You – you don't hate me?"
"What, for having been hurt? Talk sense!" Jessenia gave her a hug that was half a little shake.
"SOME girls are stupid" said Carya "And they'd squeal loudest if anyone hurt THEM. They are wet, and we ignore them. Or put nasty things in their breeches if they're unkind to you." She added cheerfully.
"Oh but they – they're candidates, they might be Riders!" said Leealla.
"Don't matter" said Jessenia. "Candidates got NO Rank. Anyway, my cousin here is Ranking if it comes to that. So sucks to them."
Leealla managed a slightly hysterical giggle. "I don't know how they expect me to be a candidate" she said. "I don't walk too good."
"Oh fardles to that!" said Jessenia, airily. "There's a Queenrider at High Reaches who can't walk at all, she has a wheeled chair. And my aunt Della has a twisted foot like yours; Grandfather made her do exercises to strengthen it as much as possible, and it hardly shows. She's a journeyman Smith, and expects to be a Master before she's forty. You won't do somersaults I guess, but then, lots of people with straight feet can't either, so that's no loss to you. And you can strengthen your arms to toss firestone. If you Impress, your legs are stuck on a dragon anyways. Much less trouble than for Bronze Rider V'sheren, whose arm is so Threadscored he can't use it much. Though Granddad HAS been giving him some exercises too" she added cheerfully.
Fordel had asked V'sheren bluntly if he was prepared to put up with some pain to develop such muscles as had not been irrevocably damaged by Thread, and V'sheren had been willing to try anything!
"Reckon you're really brave and strong" said Carya "'cos you've survived all that horror without being a drooling lunatic. Guess that's why they think you could make a Dragonrider, even if it takes a while to adapt to finding out who you are and putting your life back together."
"Do – do you think so?" asked Leealla. "Dragons are lovely. . . and it's not like I haven't been close enough to Thread, too often. . . My mother died in Thread, she put me in a cave but it was too small for her too" she sobbed suddenly. "I HATE it! I WANT to fight it and destroy it!"
"Yup. You'll make a Rider" said Jessenia. "Let's get you over to Granddad and see what he thinks about your foot. Though he'll want you fed well for a while before you do anything too strenuous."
Leealla was overwhelmed.
She flinched as Fordel's hands explored her foot and lower leg; but the touch was impersonal and kindly.
"I'm not a pervert" the old man growled "No need for fears on that score, missy. Yes, it'll hurt, but I can improve this if you'll take the pain and the tedium of exercises. And we'll limber you up generally."
"Boy at High Reaches" said G'narish, coming over "had two twisted feet. I'm told he wins running contests. He's also a Blue Rider now. If you've skill exercising muscles, Fordel, and V'sheren tells me he already has more movement in his arm, I shall be sorry when you leave.
"Then, Weyrleader, perhaps I can arrange to Winter here every turn, and you can always send for me in the meantime" said Fordel. "It'll be close on a couple of months before I'll be needing to move on, I can bring her a long way by then, and Jessenia to help her keep up the exercises."
G'narish nodded. "It's an admirable arrangement, Master Fordel. I like it. Settling in, Leealla?"
"Oh, yes, thank you Weyrleader!" Said Leealla, flushing for being addressed by so exalted a personage. "Jessenia and Carya have been very kind to me!"
"Excellent" the Weyrleader smiled.
oOoOo
Leealla soon settled down to the daily routine of exercises. And, as she confided to her friends, they hurt a lot less than some of the things the cruel men wanted to do; though she did not want to say any more about that!
Their situation as candidates came a lot closer when the other full grown Queen blooded her kill; and the Bronzes gathered and she hissed menacingly.
"Her Rider has to have whoever's dragon catches her, doesn't she?" said Leealla, scared.
"I guess, but I think a lot of Riders find ways to fix it" said Jessenia.
Nadira heard and came over. "Dragonlust is wonderful because your dragon is having fun and you have fun with her" she said. "And if a Rider has a preference, her dragon often prefers his dragon too! We do have ways to, er, fix it – it's a question of preference, often, more than sheer strength or size! I'd back G'narish's Gyarmath to catch my Baylith even if there was a Benden Bronze here, just because. And Leealla, as has been explained to you, you may sequester yourself! And none of us would blame you if you did so for evermore – but once you've felt what your dragon feels and are old enough to understand it, you'll want to share with her, I promise! Thera – the Queenrider – fully expects her weyrmate's dragon to be with her Tiralith, but if he isn't, in a weyr we just accept that. She'll not be HURT as you have been hurt, my dear, for it's shared, not enforced. That makes all the difference. And in three long months and three hot weeks maybe you'll feel what it is to share the love of a dragon friend, and always know that she will be there to look out for you." She gave Leealla a kindly embrace
Naturally, a mating flight was enough to disrupt all Weyr activity, with everyone straying out to watch what they could; and V'sheren himself involved as Asreth's own lusts were aroused by the nubile Queen.
K'said managed to re-break his healing arm by running too fast up the steps to the Junior Queen's weyr where the Bronze Riders assembled; he fell up the steps in his haste, landing on the still-strapped arm and putting his tooth clean through his lip.
Nadira grimaced ruefully before she went to administer first aid.
"I must tell Thera that K'said literally fell at her feet" she murmured!