Chap. 272 Uncertain Future

Chap. 272 Uncertain Future

He waved open the door.

“Sir? K’ndar? You have a guest, sir,” said the young girl.

Behind the guide was D’mitran.

“Wow! D’mitran!! Hello, come on in! Thank you, lassie,” he said.

“You’re welcome, sir.” She trotted off.

D’mitran came in. Siskin warbled a hello. He’d always liked D’mitran.

Careth is here! We’re going hunting Raventh said.

Siskin chittered, took wing and disappeared.

He shook D’mitran’s hand. “It’s so good to see you! Sit down, please?”

“I’ve been sitting all day, K’ndar, if you don’t mind? I’m glad that girl was willing to guide me. This place is still so confusing, how do you keep from being lost?”

K’ndar laughed. “I was, several times. Eventually I took to just telling Siskin to lead me home. It’s a grid system, quite logical, actually, but it takes time to learn it. That’s why they provide guides.”

“You’re looking well, mate, and I saw Raventh coming in. Careth just said Raventh is taking him hunting.”

“I know, he just said so. Siskin’s going, too.” He headed for the kitchen. “I have klah and cold water, no wine or ale, I’m sorry to say.”

“Not to worry, K’ndar, I’m on duty, so nothing for me, thanks.”

D’mitran looked around. Francie had given K’ndar two paintings, one of her horse, Donal, and one of Raventh and Siskin. He took a closer look. How had Francie made the horse look so real? Paintings were new. They were so different from the tapestries that had served as art work for thousands of years.

“This…thing here, did you do this?”

“Oh, no. I’ve not the talent. No, Francie painted them for me. It’s something new, this form of art, I think they call it. I guess it’s much easier than tapestry but you still have to have talent. Which I have none of.”

“I don’t know about that, K’ndar, I’ve seen your sketches. You’re good.”

K’ndar nodded his thanks. He went to his desk to shut down his datalink, a trick he’d learned from Grafton. He was uncomfortable with it now, knowing that it could, theoretically, be minding whatever he was doing on it.

K’ndar had had the carpenters build a shelf for his growing specimen collection. D’mitran walked to the shelf and picked up the skull of a quorl. “Quite the digs, what? Your own weyr? A…’building’? he said, admiringly, “It’s big.” He put the skull down, gently.

“Aye,” K’ndar said. “This is just my living quarters. It’s much larger than groundpounder’s quarters, but that’s because Administration knew we needed room for dragons. So it’s a ways from the center of business, but I like it that way. It’s quiet. I think the Ancients used it as a workshop to fix their machines. Come on, I’ll show you Raventh’s bay.”

He waved the door open and they stepped into the bay. Raventh had left the door open, and they had a view of the expansive dragon meadow.

“Francie and her husband just moved into the building one over. Then there’s Leana, she rides a green and her husband, G’aryk, rides a brown. They’re still trying to decide if they’re going to stay in it or move to a cavern. G’aryk’s brown is BIG.”

“How about D’nis?”

“D’nis decided he’d be happier in a cavern, so he and Corvuth are up on the mountain’s flanks.”

“I thought..I thought there were six riders here?”

“Um…you’re right. I haven’t seen the other two in a while. One was D’arad, a blue rider and an utter boob. The other, a brown rider, I’ve forgotten his name! I only met him once, actually I only met the two of them once. Haven’t seen them since.”

“This is nice, K’ndar. What’s up on the shelves, way up there?”

“I’ve yet to have the time or the motivation to find out. I’d need a ladder. Siskin’s been up there once or twice, but I think there’s nothing but dust. I just wonder why they put them up so high, were the Ancients giants? Four meters high?”

D’mitran’s engineer mind knew immediately why. “If this was indeed a bay in which they repaired their machines, maybe a shuttle, that’s where I’d want a shelf, one where I could reach a tool when I was atop one. It’d be a pain in the arse to have to climb down for a tool.”

“I never thought of that. You’re right. Why hadn’t I though of that?”

“Because you’re not an engineer, mate. You biologists don’t think right,” D’mitran grinned.

K’ndar laughed. “What brings you to Landing?”

“Not what, who. Lord Dorn, here to meet with the agricultural folks. He’s had a lot of plans for expanding, and wants to clear it with Landing. I am his transport, now.”

“I know. I also heard that you’re his Alemaster? When did that happen?”

They walked to just outside the dragon bay and sat down on the bench. It was a beautiful day. D’mitran sat down and stretched his back.

“Thanks, D’mitran. It’s so lovely out, and I was inside, wasting it,” K’ndar said.

“Thanks for what? For being outside? I prefer it. As for being Alemaster? It’s a bit of a story, and part of that is why I’m here as more than transport. I need to talk to D’nis in his job as Councilman.”

“Something wrong?”

“Well, let me cover the alemaster thing first. Things changed, a lot, after you left the weyr, K’ndar. It’s amazing, it’s been not more than seven months? And things have just gone crazy with changes.

Alemaster. Okay. We set up an ‘adult school’ at the Weyr. It was voluntary, if you wanted to learn something, be it history or math or a skill. Rendel was roped into either doing the teaching or finding someone who could teach it. For instance, if you wanted to learn metalsmithing, Harlan took you into his shops.

The kids were tickled to tears that Mum and Dad were going to school. At first we were alongside the kids, but that didn’t work so well. It was just Rendel, juggling kids and adults at the same time. The kids are reading books and using datalinks, now. We adults are still conditioned to teaching songs, and we learn at a slower rate. He was worn down in a hurry, until his apprentice harper took over teaching the kids, and he could spend time with us, after duty hours.

It was amazing, K’ndar. I don’t know why we didn’t start doing adult school earlier. Everyone wants to learn something new. Hariko, she’s such a treasure! She wanted to learn how to make pots! So twice a week or so, one of the dragonriders takes her to the Crafthall. Your friend, Terylin? took her under her wing, teaching Hariko, and in return, Hariko is teaching her to make her incredible meat pies. Terylin, she’s a master all on her own. She would have no problem being a Master Potter, maybe even have her own Craft Hall. Lord Dorn proposed it, but I don’t think she’s interested.

I wanted to learn how to make ale. I truly enjoyed M’rvin’s, and somehow I knew he wasn’t going to be at the Weyr much longer. So I followed him around for a week, learning the basics.

It was rough, K’ndar. Getting him to say much about anything but Siena was virtually impossible. I think he was trying to talk out his problems, hoping they’d go away. But I was so worried that they’d stick to me! I won’t go into it any further, you’re quite aware of the problems he posed. But if I got him involved in teaching me to make ale, he was sort of able to put those problems aside.

Just before he left, he gave me his recipe for ale. And a warning- ‘beware of brown rain’.

“Brown…rain?”

D’mitran laughed. “Oh, yes. It’s what happens when you forget to monitor the fermentation and BOOM! there’s ale everywhere-on the walls, on the ceiling, raining on you. And one’s weyrmate, She Who Rules the Weyr? She was NOT HAPPY. Oh, my, no. It took some cleaning but my kids helped and were giggling the whole time. “Daddy it’s raining inside!”

K’ndar laughed.

“After that, when she was willing to talk to me again, I was stuck. M’rvin had skipped a lesson, or assumed I understood, and by then he’d left. I didn’t know what to do next.

Sevan, my boy, says “Daddy, you need to talk to Data. He knows everything, he can teach you.” That boy! He’s sharp as a razor, K’ndar, he takes after his mum in more than just looks.

“Who’s Data?” I asked. “He’s the man who lives in the datalink,” he said. I didn’t disabuse him, sometimes I think there really is someone living in the computers here. He took my datalink and bikbikbik, he calls up a screen on the datalink about creating ale, step by step. If I’d known that was possible, I would never have had brown rain.”

He shook his head in dismay. “I felt stupid, mate. I felt like the yoke I was before I was Searched. This boy of mine is teaching ME after reading the datalink just once.”

“Your kids are using the datalink?”

“Aye. Not just mine, the kids at the Hold, the kids in the Weyrs. Me, I can use it as a data recorder or taking a reading. They’re far more versatile, though. The kids? Sevan can make the datalink sit up and beg. They’re soaking up technological stuff like a sponge. Rendel is a bit unhappy, because they’re not interested in the teaching songs, any more. The datalink makes for less memorizing. He was grateful his apprentice took over with the kids. She’s a lot closer to them in age and understands the kids don’t want to take the time with teaching songs. And mind you, there’s stuff, now, that a teaching song just doesn’t cover. Poor Rendel, he was running in place, working his tail off just to keep two steps ahead of the kids. With us, we can still do teaching songs and take time to explain.”

“We all learned from watching others,” K’ndar said. “The teaching songs, yes, I learned history, etiquette, how to boil water, but working alongside my father and uncle and our hands taught me how to do stuff like trimming a horse’s hoof. There’s no teaching song for that. It’s all hands on and watching the master.”

“Aye,” D’mitran said, “in many ways I still think that’s the best way to learn, at least it is for me. I’m a hands on kind of man.”

D’mitran sighed.

“So…Alemaster?”

“Yes, yes. I’m getting there. Once I moved to Singing Waters…it’s nice, K’ndar, although I do miss the special culture we had at the weyr, I was looking about for something to keep me busy when I’m not transporting Lord Dorn or sweeping. My wife said, ‘you spent all that time learning to make ale, so make ale.’ I think she just wanted me out from underfoot! and sure as sunrise didn’t want another bout of rain! But that’s okay. Lord Dorn was all for it and so far, I seem to be a success. But it’s M’rvin’s recipe so I can’t take all the credit.”

“I’ve heard good things about it, D’mitran. I won’t ever know, though.”

“I know, that’s okay,” he said. “Today, we’re here because Lord Dorn wants to expand his new cothold, the one you found? on the edge of the steppe, and is wondering if there’s boundary issues. He thought it was on his Hold Lands, but now he’s not so sure, and he’s not one to step on people’s toes when it comes to whose land is whose.”

A crawler skittered out from under their bench and climbed his boot. “Crawl away, run away, little crawler do, your partner’s at home with nothing to do,” he quoted, reaching down to tickle the crawler’s tail. It fled. They both took note of the direction.

“It ran northeast. Rain’s coming.”

“Feels like it. So, you want to talk to D’nis, too? I can take you to his weyr, I think he’s off now. It’s a ways, maybe two kilometers.”

“Sure. I need the walk.”

K’ndar shut the bay door. I don’t have to worry about finding my way, he thought, I can SEE the caverns.

“Is it any of my business?”

“You’re a dragon rider, so, yes it is, and I don’t mind talking to you about it. I miss talking to a dragonrider, K’ndar, even though I’m happy where I’m at.”

He stretched out his legs, matching K’ndar’s pace. This feels good, he thought. I need to walk more.

“I have to talk to D’nis and the other dragonrider Councilman. I’m a nobody, K’ndar, but the Weyrleaders of the planet need to get together and address a problem that I see festering.”

“What sort of problem, like, no more Thread? Riders moving out of the Weyrs?”

“Worse than that. What I said about the kids? That they’re really taking to technology?”

“Yes?”

“It’s at the expense of Impressing dragons. The kids don’t want to ride dragons, they want to play with the datalinks.”

“Um. I’d heard that.”

“It’s getting bad, K’ndar. The Weyrs are having trouble finding kids willing to Impress. They’re Searched and invited to a weyr and they’re saying, no thank you. It’s not so bad at Northern, I guess, but here? Maybe it’s because we have more access to the database, with datalinks? I don’t know, but things are bad when you can’t fill a hatching with Candidates. Western Weyr had a hatching where they had twenty eggs and only seventeen Candidates. Three of the dragonets had nobody there to Impress.”

K’ndar went cold.

“Oh, no. That doesn’t sound good.”

“The hatchlings turned on each other. They blundered around, looking to Impress, and then, woosh, they’re fighting like whers over a kill. Tearing and biting huge holes in the other’s hide. Eating the chunks. The queen got mauled trying to separate them. They were too young even to know how to go between. The weyrfolk didn’t dare go near them, they rushed the kids who had Impressed and their dragonets out of the hatching cave. The fighting dragonets all died with minutes. Was it from their wounds? Or madness?”

K’ndar’s mouth went dry.

“D’mitran…if…if there’s nobody to Impress a dragon…if they die on hatching, or nobody wants to impress them..what will happen?”

“Eventually? They’ll go extinct.”