Part 5 (2/2)
Aware that water magnified sound, Alemi nonetheless felt he would need a larger bell than the one on his s.h.i.+p - which he borrowed when she was at anchor. He wondered if the alarm triangle that Jayge had put up outside his hold after Th.e.l.la's invasion would produce the same effect in calling dolphins but quickly discarded that notion. A triangle just didn't produce the same resonances.
So he needed a bell. He sent Tork on a second journey that day, to the Smith Craft Hall in Telgar Hold, asking them to cast a bell for him, similar to the one at Monaco Bay.
The Master Smith Fandarel sent back a message to Master Fishman Alemi that he would be happy to cast a bell of that splendid size but that the commission would have to wait its turn, what with all the other work that the Halls were currently undertaking to the purpose of eliminating Thread. Alemi had to be content with the promise but, in the meantime, Master Harper Robinton found him a small handbell. Then later sent him a message by his fire-lizard Zair that the harper at Fort Hold thought he'd seen a big bell in the extensive storage area of the Hold's lower levels.
Alemi studied the notes Aivas had given him every evening until he had memorized the hand signals and the basic commands that, he devoutly hoped, had survived in s.h.i.+pfish memories. As he studied, he was occasionally given to fits of incredulous head shaking.
”Why does reading those sheets make you shake your head, Alemi?” Kitrin asked him with a sigh of exasperation.
”Wonder, Alemi answered, leaning back in his chair. ”Wonder that we missed every single clue the dolphins gave us that they wanted to be friends. Shards, they tried to tell us and we humans didn't listen!” Kitrin made such a grimace that he laughed. He often knew her thoughts before she spoke them aloud. ”Yes, indeed, I can just picture my good father, Ya.n.u.s, listening to a s.h.i.+pfis.h.!.+” He snorted.
”Exactly,' Kitrin said with some heat, for a moment abandoning the little wrapper she was hemming for their expected child.
”I mean no disrespect well, maybe I do,' she added with a rueful expression, ”but he is sometimes ”Always,' Alemi amended firmly with a smile.
”So set in his ways. You know, neither he nor your mother have ever mentioned Menolly. Though your mother often remarks on ingrat.i.tude in my presence.” She sighed. ”lt's as if Menolly never existed.
”I think she prefers it that way, Alemi said with a wry and slightly bitter grin, knowing all too well the treatment given his talented sister during her adolescence at Half Circle Sea Hold.
”Both of them - mother and daughter.”
”Menolly's never been back? Ever?”
”Not to the Sea Hold. Why should she?”
Kitrin shrugged. ”It seems so . so awful . that they cannot accept her accomplishments.” Then she added shyly, ”Sebell always remembers to send us copies of her latest songs.
Alemi, when are we going to have a harper?”
He grinned for he knew that had been the main reason for this trend of their conversation.
”Hmmm. I've asked Jayge and Aramina. Readis is growing old enough to learn his ballads and so are enough other youngsters, including our own, for the Hold to have its own harper. Enough for a journeyman surely, and we can offer many benefits here decent weather and property to develop.”
”Ask if they've asked,' Kitrin said with unusual force for her.
”I'm not going to have the girls, or our son' - and she said this defensively, one hand on her gravid belly - ”grow up ignorant of what they owe Hold, Hall and Weyr.”
Alemi laughed. ”Stoutly said.” He did bring up the matter of a harper for the Hold the very next afternoon when he delivered to the Holder's the best of the day's catch: three grand big redfins.
”I could almost wish,' Jayge said with some acrimony, ”that Aivas hadn't been discovered! Everything depends on what he needs first!'
”But surely harpers ”Every harper who's done his journeyman's walk wants to have some part in transcribing Aivas' information which seems to be inexhaustible on every subject imaginable and all of it seemingly has to be done now!” The Holder rubbed an agitated hand across the stubble of his close-cropped black hair. He scowled. ”I've asked and asked.
”Master Robinton?” Alemi suggested hopefully.
Jayge dismissed that hope. ”He's worse than anyone else, stuck up there at the Admin.” Then the Holder gave a snort of amus.e.m.e.nt. ”Still has his finger in most pies! But 1 no more want Readis ignoring his duty - even if those too are apt to change with all these new gadgets and information - than you want your girls growing up untrained. Push comes to shove, the Farmcrafters have an elderly harper who might be persuaded to travel up to us now and again but ”If you don't mind me doing so, I'll drop a word to my sister,' Alemi offered. A look of intense relief pa.s.sed over Jayge's tanned features.
”I didn't want to impose ”Why not?” Alemi said, grinning. ”I haven't fished for many favors from my well-placed Master of a sister. She's got a child, too, you know. And another one on the way.
Jayge gave him a stare and then winked. ”Seems she does more than craft all the songs anyone sings these days.
”It's one way of being able to do just that, according to her, what with everything else harpers seem to be required to do right now.” While it was the hot season on the Southern Continent, it was bitter cold in the North. Alemi's plea to Menolly for a harper to teach the children of Paradise River Hold resulted in the message that one was coming as soon as transport could be arranged. What no-one at Paradise River expected was to see Menolly herself, and her young son, Robse, carried by the st.u.r.dy, loyal halfwit Camo, stepping out of Master Idarolan's longboat on to the beach.
On learning that a harper was being sent, Jayge had organized a work party to put up a neat three-room hold near the old storage shed. That could be used as the schoolroom and the little hold was far enough away from other dwellings to give a harper privacy. When he discovered that the Master Harper Menolly had arrived, he was all set to oust one of the younger settler couples and give Menolly better accommodation.
”Nonsense. It's not as if I can make Paradise River a permanent home,' Menolly said to an embarra.s.sed Jayge. ”I can only stay until the babe is born. And that is solely,' she wrinkled her nose in disgruntlement, ”because even Sebell's got tired of my complaining about being too cold to compose, much less play. See?” and she held out her long fingers. ”Chilblains!” She brushed past a dithering Jayge and on to the wide verandah, a hammock slung on its ”breeze' corner. ”Besides, down here you spend more time outside than in. There's enough s.p.a.ce for a small cot for Robse in my room and a room for Camo; he's so good with Robse who adores him, since he's not much more than an overgrown baby himself. You've made a very nice kitchen, and I can always use the store shed, can't I? If I need s.p.a.ce to work in?”
”No problem. Or I can settle Camo in the s.p.a.ce in the store shed. That way, he's near but not underfoot all the time.”
”Well, then, we move in here,' she said, turning on the ball of one foot to circle back to the house, hugging herself before she threw her arms out in an expansive gesture. ”Oh, it's so grand to be warm.
Jayge gave her a cynical smile. ”Wait till the hot weather really starts.
”Whenever,' Menolly responded, tossing her thick mop of hair behind her, ”but at least my blood is thawing.” She gave a convulsive shudder. ”It's never been so cold.”
Camo arrived then, pus.h.i.+ng the barrow with the household effects she had brought with her, Robse perched on the top, hugging a lap harp case. A good third of the baggage consisted of musical instruments and an enormous supply of writing materials. Later Aramina told Jayge that Menolly'd only brought two changes of clothing for herself and one long, elegantly embroidered ”harpering' gown.
That was worn by Menolly the first evening when Aramina and Jayge hosted her at a quickly organized gather. Everyone living in or near Paradise River Hold wanted to meet Master Menolly. The new settlers at South Bend Holding apologized for not attending as they were so busy raising a big stone beasthold but two of their aunties came to help with the cooking.
Jayge could be proud to host such a large crowd that night for the inhabitants had increased over the past Turns, each new arrival bringing needed skills or crafts. Jayge had been able to be selective, though there was only one couple he had actually dismissed. So forty-seven hold residents, adults and children, gathered that night along with the crew of the Dawn Sisters, anch.o.r.ed in the bay.
With a gather to attend, Master Fishman Idarolan was quite willing to stop over a day to see these ”doll fins' of Alemi's.
”Catch two fish on the one hook,' he said drolly to his Craftsman, his eyes surveying the neat Fishhold that Alemi and his two journeymen had constructed.
Alemi had had to sternly keep under control his eagerness to prove dolphins' intelligence to Master Idarolan because, of course, Menolly's arrival had to be celebrated. It had never once occurred to Alemi that his sister would appear to harper at Paradise River. It had certainly thrown everyone into intense and exciting surprise. Keenly aware of the prestige of her husband's sister, Kitrin had been for giving up her beloved house but Alemi had laughed.
”Menolly'd refuse to accept the offer, dear heart, he told his wife, ”especially with you further along in pregnancy than she is.
”But she's the Master Harper ”She's also Menolly, my sister, and hasn't really let her exalted position go to her head.
So Kitrin launched into a full-scale baking and cooking operation to prepare for the evening's eating. ”After all, we can't be lacking in any courtesy to a Master Harper, especially your sister Master Harper.”
Alemi laughed and left her organizing the other fishmen's wives to produce the specialities that abounded in Paradise River Hold at this time of the year.
It was a very late evening, but tremendously enjoyed by all the Paradise River holders, hungry for new songs and new faces.
Menolly had sung and sung, request after request, as well as the newest songs. Without, Alemi noticed, mentioning which she had herself composed, though somehow he knew which ones she had written. Her style was inimitable. She'd made him harmonize with her on some of the sea songs they had both learned from Harper Petiron. Alemi was genuinely glad that they'd have a long delayed chance to enjoy each other's company - in ways they had not when living at Half Circle Sea Hold.
As Alemi listened to his sister's lovely, rich deep voice lilting up and down octaves, he was more amazed than ever that no-one at Half Circle Sea Hold - with the exceptions of old Petiron and himself- had recognized her talents and encouraged her. He had been furious with his parents' vindictive att.i.tude when she'd cut her hand on a venomous packtail fish and the injury was likely to prevent her ever playing again. They had been so pleased!
”Why are you grimacing like that, ”Lemi?” Kitrin asked in a low voice during a brief pause in the singing while Menolly had a sip of juice and chatted with her audience. After his duets with his sister, Kitrin had made him her backrest where they sat amid the enthralled audience.
”What you said about my parents, he replied cryptically.
<script>