The Slow Route

Writers: Estelle
Date Posted: 30th June 2018

Characters: Tasni, Elsya, Corvic, Vesya
Description: Tasni begins her journey to the Harper Hall on a riverboat
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 6, day 1 of Turn 9

When she'd been given her assignment to the South, Tasni had wondered if
she'd be ordered to travel there with a dragonrider, who could take her
to her destination in only minutes. The Northern Harper Hall was
on good enough terms with the Weyrs to request one. But she'd
hoped she would be allowed to travel the long way; over land, by sea and
finally, by river boat from the Southern coast to Emerald Falls.

Since she'd finished her apprenticeship, she'd lived for the times when
she could journey - waking up in a new place every day, hearing
different accents and learning new customs, surviving on her wits when
the protection afforded by her status as a harper had worn thin. She'd
never been to sea before, and was thrilled at the prospect.

Also, it would give her the time to do some gitar practice, since she'd
become decidedly rusty during her time undercover.

As it has turned out, her Masters had their own reasons for having her
take the slow route. After many detours to carry out errands, pass on
messages from the Hall to various holders and crafters, and spending a
few nights in a fishing hold where the Lord suspected smuggling was
taking place (it wasn't, much to Tasni's disappointment), she had
finally embarked on her sea journey. The first afternoon of the voyage
had been everything she'd hoped. Even now, she could close her eyes and
summon up the creaking of rigging, the shouts of the seacrafters and the
excited trilling of firelizards, the taste of salt in the air and the
strangeness of the way the deck rose and fell beneath her feet.

The second day had been awful. Tasni had hardly been sick a day in her
life, but once out in the open ocean, she'd felt so ill that she'd been
unable to leave her cabin. There had been times in that seemingly
endless nightmare of shivering in her narrow bunk and staggering dizzily
to the bucket in the corner to vomit, that she'd thought the end was
near. But fortunately, the next day the worst of the seasickness had
passed and she was soon out on deck, asking questions and trying with
varying degrees of success to avoid getting shouted at for being in the way.

By the time they finally docked, she was friends with most of the hands
(being able to accompany their singing each evening on the gitar
helped), a little more than friends with one or two, and had added a few
interesting new songs to her repertoire which she'd never have learned
at the Harper Hall. She was fairly sure the captain thought her an
intolerable nuisance who he was profoundly relieved to be rid of, but
that was often the way with Masters.

And now she was finally in the South. Tasni leaned on the rail of the
riverboat and watched the churning, foaming water around the paddle
wheel as it slowly increased its speed. Behind them, the docks, heaped
with crates and loading gear and bustling with crowds of sailors,
traders and stevedores, receded into the distance. As they rounded a
bend in the river, the noise of the seahold faded, masked by the rush of
water and the steady rhythm of the engines.

She closed her eyes and breathed in the warm, humid air of the South,
casting her mind back to her childhood at the Weyrhold. Somehow she'd
thought this might all seem familiar, but she had no sense of homecoming.

Thayan Peak had been hundreds of miles from here, though. Now, and for
most of her life, it was nothing more than ruins.

Tasni shook herself and turned away from the river. This was no time for
moping over the past. She was a grown woman now, and she had a job to do.

Part of that job, she recalled reluctantly, involved practising the
gitar. She retrieved the case from her cabin, found a quiet place which
was shaded from the sun's heat and out of the way of the crew, and
settled down to tune the instrument. A few curious looks were directed
her way, but she didn't sense any hostility. That was a relief; she
didn't want to have to hide in her cabin to practice. Maybe the new
policies regarding female crafters were being accepted - although from
what she'd heard the riverboat crews weren't as strict about upholding
the ban as the holders.

After she'd warmed up with some scales and exercises, she started
playing one of the Southern ballads Calenta had taught her. After a
while, she was concentrating so deeply on mastering some of the more
difficult passages that she nearly missed the two children who'd crept
close to watch her play.

"Oh!" Her fingers fumbled a chord and she stopped playing. "Hello."

The children looked like brother and sister. They both stared back at
her with wide, startled brown eyes. After a moment, the older one - a
boy, who looked about five or six, spoke. "We're sorry. We were just
listening."

"You don't need to be sorry! Anyone can listen who likes. I'm not very
good, though." She grinned and plucked a dissonant interval. "What's
your name?"

"Corvic. My sister is Velsyn." He hesitated, looking down in obvious
shyness, but the little girl had no such fears and tugged on his hand to
move closer, so they could sit down beside the harper. "She likes music."

"So do I." Although she'd always preferred her fellow journeymen's
playing to her own. "My name's Tasni." She played a few chords and a
line of the melody from the song she'd been practicing. "Do you know
this one?"

The boy shook his head. Tasni wasn't that surprised - it wasn't really a
children's ballad. "How about this?" She tried the first few lines of
one of the Teaching Songs, and saw Corvic's eyes light up as he joined
in, although he frowned a bit at one of the harmonies. Clearly some
songs were the same in North and South, even if they'd shifted a little;
her fellow archivists would be interested to hear that. She wondered if
the riverboat crews had their own tunes, like the seacrafters did.

"Do you live on this boat?" she asked.

"No. We're going to the Hold, at Emerald Falls, to meet my Da. He and my
uncle have started a cothold, and now we're going to live there too."
Corvic sighed. "He's been gone for months and months. I miss him."

"Then we'll be going all the way to the Hold together. That's where I'm
headed." She played a few soft, idle chords from the Teaching Song. "I'm
going to the Harper Hall."

"Really? You're a harper?" He sounded surprised and Tasni wondered for a
moment if she should have kept her mouth shut, but then he broke out
into a wide grin. "Do you know any songs about dragons?"

"Oh, yes. Lots." She considered launching into the Duty Song, which she
was pretty sure everyone on Pern knew now that they were in a Pass, but
instead chose a ballad from her northern Hall, since it would be new to
the siblings. They listened intently, and by the third verse they were
joining in with the chorus. She'd have to tell Zhelan how well his
dragon song had been received.

"That was good!" The little girl beamed. "Play it again!"

Her brother shook his head at her in reproof. "Is it new?"

"Yes. My friend wrote it, but maybe you'll hear it from your teachers
one day soon. He's good at a catchy tune." She started to play again,
more softly this time and without the words.

"Corvic, Velsyn!" A shadow fell across their little group, and Tasni
looked up to see a young woman, about her age, with the same dark curls
as the two children. "They're not bothering you, are they?"

"Not at all." She put the gitar aside, carefully, and stood, offering a
hand in greeting. "It's good to have an audience who isn't listening
intently for the slightest mistake."

"This is Tasni, Mama," the boy said. "She's a harper, and she knows
dragon songs!"

"A harper?" The children's mother looked at her a little warily, but
took her hand. "I'm Elsya. Thank you for keeping an eye on them; I was
worried they were getting underfoot and annoying the crew."

"It's no trouble. I need the practice! Corvic said you were going all
the way to Emerald Falls - I'm bound there myself, so they can come and
listen to me any time while we're travelling. I can even go over some of
the Teaching Ballads, so they don't get behind in their education." She
winked at the boy, who crossed his eyes and pulled a face. Tasni wasn't
entirely sure if she was supposed to be teaching here without permission
from the Southern Hallmaster, but it seemed harmless enough.

"Well...I'll think about it. I don't mean any offence - I just don't
know what their father would say."

"None taken. If you'd rather, I can just play and sing." She did her
best to look friendly and reassuring. "You don't mind songs about dragons?"

"Oh, no - not at all. My children have been brought up to respect the
Weyrs. As long as the words are...proper?"

"Of course." Tasni mentally revised her wicked plan to teach young
Corvic some of the lyrics she'd heard from the seacrafters. They were
far worse than anything she'd ever heard sung about weyrfolk.

"Well - I'll let you get on with your practice. Come on, you two. I want
you to get cleaned up before lunch." She gave the harper a brief, but
warm smile before escorting her children away towards the cabins.

Tasni watched them go, then reluctantly returned to her practice,
thinking over the conversation she'd just had. Clearly the Southerners
weren't all implacably hostile to female crafters like herself, but nor
were they entirely comfortable with the changes. She hoped that on her
journey, she'd manage to change a few minds...

Last updated on the August 21st 2018

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