Chapter 21
The healer gave Silaya a small dose of fellis to relax her rather than to make her sleepy, and prescribed wearing a wide, supportive belt and taking it easy for several weeks; and reported the same to V'sheren.
"As though THAT would be any different to usual," whispered Carya to Jessenia.
"She IS hurt – give her a break, I think she's realised she's not behaved well, and wants to change," Jessenia replied.
V'sheren wondered whether to respond to the whispers; or leave it, as presumably Jessenia was explaining something to Carya. But once left it was a precedent.
"Jessenia, Carya, I'm sure your private affairs are fascinating, but I'm more concerned with your knowledge of a dragon's mainsail mending than in you gossiping like laundry women at the river," he said.
"Sorry, sir," said Jessenia.
The girl lingered after class.
"Sir, about Silaya," she said.
"I heard you making a start on civilising her. You think she's going to behave a bit better?"
"Yes, sir: I think she's been given some awesomely bad values and has been spoilt dreadfully. But I think she can learn; I hoped you'd give her a chance and – and maybe praise her more than you would a normal girl if she does well. She's not stupid; and she knows no-one likes her, and it makes her unhappy. Because we all like to be liked. And she's ready to ask why and do something about it. You have to admire that."
V'sheren nodded, hiding a smile at what could be taken as a colossal piece of cheek, a weyrling telling him how to run his discipline. The thing about Jessenia was that she was earnestly and honestly trying to do her best for another – and indeed a girl who has been unpleasant to her! V'sheren admired Jessenia her ability to do that – few would have cared to!
"You mean, notice and praise what in you, for example, I should take for granted?"
"I guess so… I mean, most of us know how to behave. Show her you notice and approve such simple things like saying 'please' and 'thank you' and if she tries to wish you 'good morning' smile back and be friendly – well as friendly as a Weyrlingmaster is allowed to be," she added, grinning impishly, "rather than giving her a startled and suspicious look that might be anyone's initial reaction."
He laughed.
"And will you tell me when you've stopped Nilis stirring mischief and Tragarra telling lies?" he said.
"Be fair, sir, I can't do the impossible! Though I suppose Tragarra might have got the habit to avoid extensive punishment for things so she learned to lie about them, or when truth was disbelieved told lies instead. Melvi didn't start lying when her mother disbelieved her, but she might have done, mightn't she?"
V'sheren thought about it.
"Yes, she might. I was joshing you, though; I do NOT look upon it as your duty to sort out all the others, you know, even though I know I put those I thought you could bring out in your care, like Bannoria!"
"Well, now I feel guilty because I've ignored Tragarra; I despise her, you see. I should have thought more about WHY she's a liar. At least Falinn's mostly sorted out – she's valued more here than in her home, and her eczema's almost gone, even if she does pull silly faces at Green and Blue Riders together. Nadeena found her some supplies to organise so she's happy and has stopped interfering in the way the rest of us choose to store our belongings. I'll see if I can help Tragarra: Nilis gets her jollies from causing other people hurt and embarrassment, so what thoughts go through her head I just don't WANT to consider," her belly rumbled loudly. "Sorry, sir, didn't mean to make you late for dinner: and I want mine!"
oOoOo
"How come you never were an apprentice at the Woodcrafter Hall, Tragarra?" asked Jessenia, apparently idly, during the girls' rest hour. It was warm enough to take blankets outside to lie on, if one wore a jacket; and most of them were glad to be out of the rather stuffy sleeping room. Silaya had a pillow under her belly and lay on her side – Melvi's suggestion, and Silaya had been grateful for the suggestion that made her much more comfortable.
Tragarra looked down her long, delicately chiselled nose. It was just a trifle too large for beauty, but made an otherwise uninteresting face distinguished. Jessenia thought she looked as though she was carved out of teak, a richly coloured skin as smooth as sanded wood. Appropriate for a Woodcraftbred person.
"Not that it's any of your business, but my father was opposed to females being craftsmen," she said.
"Is that why you wanted to come to the Weyr – to be more than a brood mare?" asked Jessenia.
Tragarra shrugged.
"Isn't that the reason all women come to the Weyr?" she asked.
"Well it wasn't why I came," said Jessenia, "I wanted to be near dragons. I'd not have to wed if I didn't want to, in my family we discuss our futures, and whilst Granddad has the final say, he's always led by our own wishes. My brother's here too, to support me because we've always been close, but he's got pretty fond of dragons up close, and I think he's pleased he stayed with me! Carya's here 'cos she's my cousin and it's fun to do things together, and she thinks dragons are wonderful, AND she wants to do more with her life than being some overdressed younger daughter of a Holder. She'd not have had to wed if she didn't wish either, and would get to choose who she did anyway; it's only her oldest brother who had noises made at him that he ought to marry. Some of the girls are here to escape something or other: some are here for the advantage and some just because they want to be with dragons."
"And some of us to get the chance to grow up because our well-meaning, well-loved and overprotective parents think we are delicate and still about six," put in Bannoria, lazily. She was lying on her back, knees up, pressing her shoulders back slowly and rhythmically to help pull her shoulder straighter. "You got rotten parents that make you such an infernal little liar, Tragarra?"
"Huh, you'll say your parents never beat you, next," said Tragarra.
"Mine never have," said Bannoria, "even if they felt like it they would have been afraid of hurting my back. Heh, I've been a spoilt little monster in my time, being able to get my own way by wailing that my back hurt. I grew out of that because I needed to prove I was strong enough to be allowed to ride, and temper tantrums about being weak were counterproductive."
"I've been thrashed a couple of times," said Jessenia, "and I usually thoroughly deserved it – I can't think of a time I didn't deserve it, and thought it was fair at the time, too. Granddad would have thrashed any of us thoroughly for stealing or doing stupid, dangerous things; none of us ever did steal, though one family of cousins is less… savoury. And if we were punished granddad then would sit us on his knee and check we understood why; otherwise there's no point in punishment. Three stripes with his belt was a jolly good reminder not to do something again!"
"Three stripes? That's hardly a thrashing!" said Tragarra.
"Strikes me you've got more to run from than breeding endless brats then," said Jessenia, "and reckon the Masterwoodcrafter would take a dim view of that too! and you being prevented from apprenticing! IS that why you lie? To get others into trouble to avoid punishment yourself?"
"Mind your own business!" snapped Tragarra.
"Well, if that's the case, you might ponder that here it's not only unnecessary, but counterproductive; because dragons and dragonmen always know when someone is lying," said Jessenia.
Tragarra turned a shoulder on her; and Jessenia left it.
It might well be a start, anyway!
oOoOo
The third and final viewing of the eggs was a little more amiable than the previous two; Silaya had not improved entirely overnight, but Jessenia's friends were making warily friendly overtures, and Silaya was realising how lonely she had been!
With the fact that they were prepared to discuss – sometimes forcefully – matters of style and fashion and politics and music with her rather than just agreeing with everything Silaya said, she realised that she had really been lonely for a long time!
Carya and Leealla had both firmly told Silaya that her favourite yellow gown made her look bilious.
"But everyone says it's such a pretty dress!" said Silaya.
"Yes, it is; but not on you," said Leealla.
"Agreed," Telara joined the discussion. "Black hair and bright yellow do not always go together; it's too yellow for your skin tone. It'd look great on Luaysa; and Carya could almost wear it, but it sucks out your colour."
"Perhaps the people who said it looked good were afraid of your temper if they didn't pretend," said Carya, bluntly. "Your best gown is the rose pink one with sage green embroidery. You look like a Queenrider in that, all right!"
"Golden yellow you could wear if it's got other colours with it," said Leealla, "Or really pale yellow. Pale yellow would be pretty."
Silaya swallowed hard.
"Well, I've learned enough to know that you girls are frank," she said. "Luaysa, as you're the one it would look best on, will you have it, please? I – I'd like someone who can to wear it."
Luaysa's eyes were hungry; her family were not well off.
"Truly?" she said. "I'd love it! And I'll help you sew others when you can get more cloth that does suit you!"
Silaya's eyes were wild in panic.
"I never sewed my own clothes before," she said.
"Oh, that's all right! I'll show you how," said Luaysa.
It was the start of a tentative friendship.
oOoOo
The girls had decided to dress up for the final egg viewing – for confidence, as Jessenia suggested – hence the discussion. Luaysa's nimble fingers made quick work of alterations to the yellow gown, for she was taller and slimmer than the more curvaceous Silaya. Silaya wore her rose coloured gown, and the others too put on their finest. Leealla had a gown L'issa had grown out of and given to her friend, so she was not left out; Silaya appreciated the richness of the brocade gown Jessenia had, with metal threads in the brocading of rich brown with fantastic patterns of an avian and flames in orange, gold, russet and tawny, simply cut , long and straight and slit each side to wear over trousers of black silk. The pattern was said to be as old as the ancestors, and Jessenia loved it.
Only Melvi and Tragarra were found to have little in the way of finery; Tragarra affected not to care, and Bannoria enlisted Luaysa's aid to lend Melvi one of her own gowns. Melvi would not accept it as a gift, but was persuaded by the forceful Bannoria to accept a loan!
The brightly clad girls moved amongst the eggs like flowers in a meadow; and this time there were no clashes!
Jessenia viewed the Queen egg too, of course; and whispered,
"Pretty Queen, if you do choose her, I shan't worry now!"
oOoOo
Thera remarked to V'sheren, as she watched the girls,
"The pretty bitch seems a little subdued – but I really do NOT want her to Impress our Queen, you know! she tried hard to get into G'lar's pants and that by scaring them off him with her aggressive tactics."
V'sheren laughed.
"She's beginning to understand the realities of life – and to realise that she's not a happy girl and needs to learn how to make real friends."
Thera sniffed.
"Anyone who can pull THAT off with spoiled Holder brats is working miracles," she said. "I didn't know you had it in you!"
"Oh, it's our Jessenia, as usual," said V'sheren. "She has a knack with people; and it isn't in the tact, for she has none. She just knows what to say."
"I'm glad then she's agreed to stay whether or not she Impresses; are you going to make her Weyrlingmistress for Gold and Green candidates? They have one at High Reaches and I've been hoping to avoid the duty," said Thera, candidly.
V'sheren laughed.
"I'll ask her to help me out – but give the kid a break! She's only just Turned fifteen and I'd like her to avoid too many onerous duties."
"That young? I'd have thought her older. Yes, she needs a chance to be frivolous, I guess," opined Thera. "Though some kids are just born that way, I suppose!"
"I'm inclined to the view," said V'sheren, "that she might not Impress this time – particularly as she is so young. As indeed are Carya and Leealla. But the experience is good for them, and they can have fun as weyrlings, and grow up gently until another clutch comes around, for I think they all have potential! I was, I confess, dubious about Leealla at first, so downtrodden as she was, but with the help of the other two she's blossomed out!"
"Yes, J'ton doesn't hang around them just for the acrobatics," said Thera, dryly. "And he has a similar background that might make Leealla more willing to turn to him and not flee, because he understands."
"He's a good lad," said V'sheren, "with a maturity beyond his turns to hold back for the time being and wait for her to be ready. Of course, he might grow out of it; but it's more than a boyish crush, I'd say he admires her pluck and strength and will to help others, in the same way he does."
Thera nodded.
"I expect I'm teaching my grandmother to hunt tunnel snake eggs," she said, "but in your boots, I'd drop a word to him to keep it friendly and let her make the first move."
V'sheren nodded.
"The advice is appreciated," he said, "I don't really understand how women are motivated at the best of times – let alone hurt little girls, so horribly violated."
"I'd say that she needs to know that a man can be a friend without having just one thing on their mind," Thera said, "and it may take her subconscious thoughts and dragonlust to get them together. But that would be good for her, even if they grow apart over the turns."
V'sheren nodded again.
Really, he thought, Igen was lucky in its Weyrwomen! L'issa had had her moments at first – but she was a basically decent girl the older women had soon sorted out! And generally speaking, the candidates for Green dragons were a good bunch of girls, Nilis excepted, now that Jessenia had convinced Silaya to look for more in life than being a spoiled pet with no idea how to make friends! And if Tragarra could be broken of telling lies, too, it would be real progress!
As to who was worthy to Impress a Queen, V'sheren preferred not to speculate. Had Jessenia been older, she might have been a strong probability…perhaps she would not Impress until another Queen was Shelled! Lineta, Telara, Luaysa and Lailla were all possibilities, and even, thought the Weyrlingmaster, Bannoria, now she was forgetting to be a cripple and just mixed in with the others! V'sheren had had a blunt word with her, telling her to build up slowly in the heavy chores; to build strength to avoid damage. Bannoria had appreciated that he was not banning her from heavy work and he hoped to be able to treat her like the others when her back adjusted to unaccustomed strains! Weyr life suited the girl; and she looked a far healthier girl than she had done, and even prettier – especially as her lovely face often wore a smile, now, not a self mocking sneer! And her care for Melvi had brought both girls out.
V'sheren was very pleased with his girls.
oOoOo
When Baylith rose a few days before Hatching was anticipated – caught, almost inevitably, by Gyarmath – the Weyrlingmaster was glad to think that if any of his protégés did not Impress this time, there would soon be another opportunity!