A Thorny Issue

Writers: Estelle
Date Posted: 30th July 2005

Characters: Gilbek, Ryndel
Description: Gilbek brings Calenta to the Harper Hall, where she is welcomed by Ryndel
Location: Harper Hall
Date: month 7, day 5 of Turn 3

Gilbek did not wait long at the Harper Hall with his wife. They had been met by an apprentice harper and shown to the Hallsecond's study, which was empty, and the apprentice had run off to fetch the man from his workroom. For a while they sat together in cold silence, Calenta clutching the small bundle of clothes she'd brought with her.

Over the past months, the Hall had become like a second home to her. The faint smell of stacks of music, of sawdust and varnish from the instrument workshops, the delicate snatches of melody that drifted on the air as she walked from one place to another - all of these made her think of safety, and her own self-respect as a singer and more than a mere drudge. At the Hold there was Gilbek, but there were also men who thought nothing of striking a drudge who got in their way, and women who gossiped nastily in her hearing as if she were deaf as well as blind. It was a little better now that they had a Headwoman, but she could never feel entirely _safe_ there.

She had even wondered, guiltily, what would become of her if Gilbek were to die, or to find some other woman he preferred. Nothing pleasant, she knew - not at Emerald Falls Hold.

"I suppose I'd better go now." Gilbek said, coldly. "There's no call for me to be here."

"You don't have to..." Her hands tightened on the cloth bundle. "Listen, Gilbek, they could find you a place here."

"As what? The Hall doesn't have guards, and I'm hardly musical. A drudge, perhaps?"

Calenta was silent. She had refused to remain as a drudge for his ambition; she supposed she could not expect him to do the same for her. After a moment, she heard his chair scrape as he got up, and then the door opening and closing behind him.

The Hallsecond arrived a few minutes later. "Calenta? It's me, Ryndel."

"I know." She smiled weakly. This was meant to be the beginning of a new life, a triumph for her over the foolish craft bans that would have held her back. She tried to think of how pleased Master Gridis would have been at her decision. "I can smell the sawdust."

"Well, at least that's not a _bad_ smell," Ryndel said, taking a seat behind his desk. "I thought the apprentice said your husband was here with you? The guardsman?"

"He's gone back to the Hold. We...said goodbye." Calenta took a deep breath. "I received your letter with the offer of an apprenticeship, Master Ryndel, and I am here today to say that I would be honoured to take it up, if you'll have me."

Ryndel sensed something more than a simple goodbye there. "Calenta, I'm delighted to hear it. Though you need not begin right away, if you have...matters to sort out with your husband. The Hall is not going anywhere, after all."

"No." She shook her head firmly. "I have to do this now."

"Very well." He wisely decided to keep silent. The Hold and her husband were only a short walk away; no doubt any troubles between them would be resolved in time. "I'll ask for your bed to be made up in your old room - the one you shared with Aylai and Tirana. You won't mind that, will you? We can hardly put you in an apprentice dormitory and I imagine you'd prefer two girls you know to sharing with one of the paying students."

Besides, no doubt some of those spoilt young ladies would object to sharing quarters with a former drudge. While he had no patience with such attitudes, he neither wanted to subject Calenta to them nor deal with their complaints himself.

"I'd like that. They were both kind to me." Both were unmarried girls who worked in the Hall's kitchens. They spent a good deal of time discussing the merits of the different journeymen and devising ways to catch husbands, but were good-hearted and there was a humour in their gossip that Calenta liked.

"Good. Are you hungry?" Ryndel asked. When she nodded, he continued. "The bell for the evening meal should ring soon, and perhaps you'd like to settle into your new quarters first. There'll be time enough to discuss your schedule tomorrow morning - it's a little different to that of most apprentices, taking into account your aims and your previous training with Master Gridis."

The question of dinner was another thorny issue, he thought wearily. A mere apprentice ought not to sit with the Masters or the journeymen, and yet he did not want to subject a full-grown and married woman to dinner among the younger boys, or insult her talent by seating her among the drudges or the families of the married harpers. Perhaps with the students...there were some pleasant girls among them. Besides, it was usual for one of the Hall's respectable married women to sit at the head of their table at dinner and insure there was no improper behaviour.

"I understand." Calenta stood, and he came around the desk to take her arm. "It'll be...good to see Ali and Tiri again." Perhaps in listening to her two friends, she could forget for a while the momentous nature of the decision she'd made - a decision which might have irrevocably damaged her marriage.

Last updated on the September 6th 2005

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

A Thorny Issue