The Liar

Writers: Estelle
Date Posted: 5th May 2018

Characters: R'fal
Description: R'fal discovers his secret is out.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 4, day 8 of Turn 9

R'fal's letter had had mixed success with the harper journeywoman. She
had praised him for working hard and producing such a long letter, and
said that his descriptions of Marlath and the Weyr were lively and she
was sure his mother would enjoy reading them. However, it had contained
many mistakes for him to copy out, and she'd said they were going to
work on his punctuation next, which sounded painful.

He frowned at the corrected letter. How could "certain" be spelled with
a C, when it clearly began with an "ess" sound? Spelling was not just
hard, it seemed to have been designed by some malevolent genius in days
of old to bewilder him. Still, if Journeywoman Rhela said it began with
a C (and had an extra A in it, for no apparent reason) then it must be
true. Carefully, paying attention to his handwriting, he finished the
sentence and added his name.

Now he just had to find a way to send it. Back when he'd been fostered
with his uncle and aunt, he'd entrusted short messages to traders and
travelling craftsmen; since it was only a day's journey, they'd been
able to pass these on verbally and most had been happy to help a young
boy if he was polite and respectful. Now he was...he realised he wasn't
even sure how far he was from home, or which direction his letter would
need to travel in. Perhaps he could ask the journeywoman what to do.

He'd have to do that later, though, because it was time for class. R'fal
got to his feet and followed the other weyrlings who were leaving the
barracks and heading for the classrooms. Outside, the day was overcast
and humid, without even the respite of a sea breeze. Being indoors
wouldn't be so bad on a day like this, but drills were going to be tough
later on. Maybe it would cool down, but he wasn't counting on it.

"R'fal! Can I talk to you for a second?"

He looked behind him and saw one of the green weyrlings hurrying to
catch up with him from the girls' section of the barracks. "Oh - good
morning, Lydela. Sure, but we need to be quick or we'll be late for class."

"Okay." Lydela drew them away from the main group of weyrlings. Over the
past few days, R'fal and his liaison with the journeywoman harper had
never been far from her thoughts. She was absolutely dying to tell
someone, but O'len didn't want to talk about it and a faint sense of
duty towards her classmate had kept her from sharing the story with
anyone else...so far.

"I just wanted to make sure you knew," she said.

"Knew what?"

"About Journeywoman Rhela."

R'fal felt as though he'd suddenly swallowed a huge, freezing lump of
ice. How did she know? Although he hadn't known Lydela long, he'd
already got a pretty good idea of her character. She adored gossip. Who
else had she told? Did everyone know he was seeing the harpers for extra
lessons? His throat seemed to have seized up and he could barely manage
to get a word out. "Huh?"

She had been right! Whatever R'fal and the harper had been up to, it
wasn't innocent. "Look, it's okay, I won't tell the Weyrlingmaster or
anything. But I think you should be careful. She has a mate."

"She...what?" R'fal blinked, distracted from his panic for a moment.
What did that have to do with anything?

"I don't think he'd like it if he knew." She gazed at him with sympathy.
Poor holdbred boy. He clearly hadn't known, or perhaps he'd thought
anything was possible at the Weyr. They might be more informal in their
relationships than at the Holds, but that didn't mean they weren't
sometimes prey to human emotions like jealousy. That journeywoman ought
to be ashamed of herself! "R'fal, maybe you should talk to one of the
weyrlingstaff. They can help you."

"Help me?"

"They won't be angry. It's not as though you've done anything to upset
your dragon..." There was an unspoken "yet" in the greenrider's voice.
"We'd better get to class, but think about what I've said, won't you?"

R'fal thought about nothing else during the class. At first he was able
to pay at least some attention to what they were being taught, but then
he saw O'len giving Lydela a suspicious look and it suddenly all became
horribly clear. Somehow, Lydela had found out about his supposed
girlfriend...and she thought it was Journeywoman Rhela! How, he didn't
know, but it was the only explanation for what she'd said to him that
made any sense.

Afterwards, he wasn't quite sure how he'd got through the rest of the
class. He certainly didn't recall what they'd talked about, since his
attention had been focused on the appalling situation he'd got himself
into. It was surely only a matter of time before Lydela gave in to
temptation and told someone else his secret. Before long, it would be
all round the barracks, and then it would get to the ears of the
Weyrlingmasters. What would K'sedel say if he thought that R'fal had
been using the harper classes which had been provided for him, not to
learn, but to seduce the journeywoman? Worse still, what if Journeywoman
Rhela herself heard about it? The very idea made R'fal want to run away
into the depths of the Weyr and hide there until everyone had forgotten
he had ever existed.

But what was the alternative? If he told Lydela what he and Journeywoman
Rhela had really been doing, not only would he reveal himself to be a
stupid herder who couldn't spell, he'd be admitting to being a liar as
well. A liar who made up an imaginary girlfriend to make himself seem a
better person. Could anything be more pathetic?

When class was finally over and it was time for lunch, he told one of
the other weyrlings he wasn't feeling well and headed towards the
barracks, deflecting Marlath's worried questions as best he could. He
couldn't face Lydela and the others just now, and he didn't feel the
least bit hungry. Instead of going inside, though, he hesitated at the
door, then turned and walked away towards the feeding pens at the other
side of the Bowl. None of his classmates should be there now, so he
would have time to think. There must be some way out of this mess...

Last updated on the August 26th 2018

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

The Liar