This chapter goes very much with the one before it, and unfortunately, human nature being what it is, it is easier to deny an unpalatable fact than to acknowledge it.

17.12.195

H'ric stood outside the massive doors of Fort Hold and looked around at the bustle and activity. M'nas joined them and H'ric asked him where he had been.

"Down in the kitchens, Weyrleader, getting some insider information."

"On what?"

"The possibility of Thread, the likelihood of someone's son becoming a rider, how the harvest was really good this year, all that sort of thing."

H'ric began walking. The Healer and Harper Halls were below Fort Hold, and he wanted to calm himself before he arrived at what he was gloomily sure would be more confrontations.

"A good harvest, they say? The Lord Holder wasn't at all sure he could put prime cattle into the empty Weyr for fattening."

"Oh, he'll try and pull a fast one on that," M'nas agreed.

They could hear the Harper Hall before they reached it. Someone was practicing drum rolls on the drum heights, the same sequence over and over again, and M'nas cocked his head.

"Nothing very important, just a sequence of practice words."

"You can interpret the drums?"

"I asked Yorus to teach me," M'nas said. "I hope I didn't do wrong?"

"Not at all. I wondered why you were accompanying him the other night."

"Yes, as a bonus of course, I can help him out."

They could also hear voices singing over scales and exercise pieces, and B'rnel pointed to the open windows.

"They have the same metal shutters as Fort Hold. This was built at the same time, wasn't it?"

"About then, yes."

They were admitted to the Hall and once again H'ric was struck by the size of the place, the way it seemed to be growing out of the rocky cliff face. A journeyman brought them into a study where the Masterharper, Serellim, was dictating letters to another journeyman. He broke off and rose courteously to greet them, calling for klah and some sweet rolls to be brought.

"You are not yourself on Search, Weyrleader?"

"No, I am on a visit around the holds and halls," H'ric replied after he had introduced the other two. "I intend these visits to be done with regularity, Masterharper, to keep us all up to date with the news of our concerns."

"Weyrs, Halls, and Holds, are governed individually," Serellim said sharply. "We do not have a central government, that was never part of the plans for this world."

"You have details of that?" H'ric asked at once. "You hold the major sets of records, I understand that correctly?"

"We do. Some of them are nonsense now, of course, because we don't use whatever it is they describe, but they are kept and copied."

"As we do at the Weyr. I find the quality of parchment and hides to be far from satisfactory, however."

"You would have to take that up with the Craftmaster at the Tanners Hall - I simply buy my provisions in as you do."

H'ric nodded.

"Yes, we do that. What d'you use when you're composing?"

Serellim's eyes shifted to an inner door.

"I use a sand table. Damp sand, and then copying to parchment."

"A useful idea. Make a note of that, B'rnel."

Serellim watched him write.

"And you are using?"

"Wax melted onto wood," B'rnel said. "Something suggested from seeing youngsters making models out of candle wax and putting their names on them."

"Hmph. Not permanent, then?"

"No. Nothing is very permanent, is it?"

Serellim shook his head. "No, apart from the very first records, inscribed on a substance we no longer have."

"But you have older records from previous times?" H'ric asked. "Those found at Fort Weyr, for instance? Two generations back, I'm told."

"Who told you that? Why would you know about that?"

"The dragons remembered," H'ric replied. "They talk amongst themselves, and pass on what they remember. Usually, it's mundane things like the last time they feasted on wild animals, or the weather from season to season. But two generations ago a rider was used as a watcher, and he discovered some old records at Fort Weyr. May I see them, Masterharper?"

"I'm afraid I don't know where they are."

"Perhaps you could institute a search? I would be most grateful for a sight of them."

"I'll have to see about that. Oh, and whilst I remember, I require my journeyman Yorus back from your Weyr. I need him here in the Hall, he still has a lot of learn!"

"Impossible until after the eggs are Hatched," H'ric replied with a smile and a shrug. "I allow most males to stand, Masterharper, and with his musical talent, it may be that Yorus will Impress."

"Impress? Impress a dragon? Have you run mad, Weyrleader? He spent the best part of his childhood here, we fed him and clothed him, and expect some return from that, not that he goes running off on some wild - wild - "

"I'm sure you have plenty of journeymen," H'ric said. "I, however, do not have that many Candidates that I can afford to pass up on one who is willing to stand."

"And if he does not Impress? He can return here? I demand his return!"

"Well - I will certainly release him in due course," H'ric said with a smile he was far from feeling. "He is most useful to me, Masterharper, of great use in teaching the children their lessons and their learning, their ballads and songs."

"Hmph."

Serellim sat back, staring at all three of them, studying them, and H'ric took the opportunity to do the same with the room he was in. There was no sign of music in here, he thought, no instruments piled carelessly in a corner, no sheets of music on stands, no sign that this man did anything other than dictate letters.

"Mind, if he stays with you, I don't want him making new songs!" Serellim said suddenly. "He's not nearly as competent at that as he likes to pretend. He was always making fiddly little tunes and couplets, but they can't be graced with the name of music, or given a Harper's approval."

"I'll be sure to tell him that," H'ric replied. "Meanwhile, I would be grateful if you would send word, perhaps by the drums, when you locate the records I am after?"

"I'll endeavour to have them located."

"Thank you. We will be seeing each other very often, Masterharper, when this Interval comes to an end."

"Indeed. Dragonmen must fly, when threads are in the sky."

H'ric stood up as Serellim came to his feet, signifying the interview was at an end. H'ric was very sure he would never see the old records, but he made pleasant small talk as they walked through the main hall and out into the late winter sunshine. Serellim squinted into the north east, and shaded his eyes.

"You can see it quite clearly now, even in daylight," he said.

"I am aware, and I will have watchers at the Star Stones of every Weyr to cross check, when the sun rests on the Finger Rock."

"Then I will not keep you from your duty, Weyrleader."

He turned and walked back, and H'ric watched him go as B'rnel watched other apprentices and journeymen hurrying to their duties.

"And may it be a warm day between before he gives you any help at all, Weyrleader," he said drily.

"Well, that went about how I expected," H'ric said as they entered the courtyards of the Healer Hall. "Now let's see what welcome we get here."

A journeyman hurried across to them, bowed to them, and conducted them inside.

"The Masterhealer Perera will be here directly, Weyrleader. Klah? Or something a little stronger?"

"Nothing for the moment, thank you."

"Very well. Through there, if you need to refresh yourselves."

He hurried off, and the three riders took the hint and went to attend to their toilet, coming back out into the main area to find the Masterhealer waiting for them.

"Weyrleader H'ric - ah - I have to sympathise with you for the loss of R'tin, I knew him quite well."

"You did? I mean, did you?"

The Masterhealer smiled. "Yes, he came down to consult with me on an illness that struck when he was a young man, your age perhaps, before he became Weyrleader."

"Thank you for your sympathies, then."

"You should find the notes I sent back with him, in your records."

H'ric fetched a sigh as he sat down.

"I wish I could be as confident as you, Masterhealer, that they're still in the Weyr. I find the records have been kept very poorly."

Perera nodded. "I find the same here, unfortunately. Apart from the oldest records, which were preserved by the Ancients in a method we cannot now replicate, parchment and hide production has been much reduced in quality - as if - no one knew how to do it and had to learn afresh, and without deep knowledge."

"We have some records scored on stone which are useful, but they're mainly recipes and quantities for large meals, or records of tithes."

"And how can I help you, Weyrleader?"

H'ric relaxed at little, encouraged by this man's open manner and smile.

"I want to visit all the Craftmasters as well as the Lord Holders," he said. "To explain in person what has to be done, as far as I understand it."

"As far as you understand it?"

"I have been Weyrleader for barely four months."

"But you've been in training for it, surely, ever since you Impressed a bronze? There is always the possibility, is there not, that any bronze can mate the queen? The gold?"

"Yes, there is. I've always been trained as a leader, and I led a Wing before - this happened - "

"And now you are Weyrleader. With an experienced Weyrwoman and Headwoman to help you?"

"It might not be too much of a stretch to say both of them run the Weyr," H'ric said with a smile and a shake of the head. "They're a constant, you might say, where Weyrleaders come and go throughout the active life of the senior queen."

Perera nodded. "I have always surmised that to be true. And there is far more equality in a Weyr than in the Holds or Crafts. Much as I deprecate it, the attitude of men knowing best has gradually overcome all the equality I suspect was inherent in the early days of the Ancients when men first came to Pern."

"Are you allowed to speak of that?" B'rnel asked, and Perera glanced across at him.

"I would hope free speech always prevails on Pern, brown rider, but I cannot always be sure of it."

"How did you know I ride a brown?"

"There are three dragons on the heights, and you came in at your Weyrleader's shoulder, with the third of your group two paces behind. He is the rider of the green - which is a female - and you must be the brown rider."

B'rnel nodded his assent and Perera looked carefully at all three of them.

"You know the Lord Holders and Craftmasters declare there to be no more Thread? That the Weyrs suicided, as it were, to relieve the land of their upkeep?"

"I find that - very disturbing," H'ric replied. "To think that a species, bred to defend a planet, linked in mind with the riders, both of them sworn to defend lands and peoples, would willingly - extinguish themselves - "

Perera nodded. "I too find it mightily strange, Weyrleader. I might have expected that with low reproduction, and natural wastage, the Weyrs would diminish anyway, throughout an Interval. What do you think?"

"In the wine of Benden, riders say the other Weyrs went somewhere else to fight Thread. That's implicit in the Question Song, in the last verse Have they flown to some new Weyr, where cruel Thread some others fear? Are they worlds away from here? Why, oh, why, the empty Weyr? Have they gone somewhere and will they return?"

"Ah. Will they return? That is your fear, is it not, Weyrleader, that they will not return, and Benden alone will have to fight a full Pass?"

"We have twenty six eggs hardening on the sands, and Haveneth is young enough to rise every Turn until then," H'ric replied.

"And the four junior queens will rise," B'rnel put in. "Bronze will mate with gold and produce more eggs."

"Will the gold dragons share the sands?" Perera asked in surprise.

"With some careful management, it can be done, so the Weyrwoman tells me."

"So then. Five or six Turns, shall we say, before the full fury is upon us? What can we at Healerhall do to help you?"

"Numbweed and fellis juice, and some experienced healers to come and reinforce the teachings we have at the Weyr. If there's any new learning to be had - "

Perera shook his head.

"The Lord Holders are very sure that all learning has been done, or brought north with us, and there is nothing more to be learned about the human body. I can tell them different, of course, but they will not countenance it. However, I will send to you two or three of my - shall we say - more rebellious spirits - for your education. I'll be glad to have them out of the Hall and out from under the suspicious gaze of Lord Holder Riasalt."

"We can fly them now, if they're ready," B'rnel said. "Our dragons are all mature beasts and capable of carrying an extra man and his baggage, if there isn't too much of that."

The Master Healer shook his head.

"Shall we say in two days time?"

"You can come back, M'nas, with G'las and P'tar," H'ric said at once. "Take the opportunity, all three of you, to learn the landmarks around the Halls and Hold."

M'nas nodded, and Perera looked from one to the other.

"That is kind of you, Weyrleader. I look forward to meeting the other riders. Where are you off to now? You must be careful, not to go between too much in one day."

"I'd planned to go down to Ista and swim and rest," H'ric admitted. "As you say, too much travel can be draining, and a tired rider is a dangerous rider."

"A very sensible idea, I commend it. I will see you, green rider, in two days time, and I will search out any records I can find, Weyrleader, of the time at the end of the last Pass when the Weyrs left us. In the meantime - if I can be of assistance to you - if you feel troubled or overwhelmed - please feel free to come any time and speak to me. You are the most important cog in the wheel of fate at the moment, and it behoves us to keep you in good health."