"Hmmm," Lessa replied in a testy mumble as she gave him a sour glance.
"We all will have new things to learn, I think," Fandarel said. "And it is time. Jaxom, I'll need those sheets Aivas made, so I can give them to Bendarek."
Obediently, Jaxom collected them from the flat worktop where Piemur and Jancis had left them. "Jancis went to make fresh klah," he told Lessa. "She should be back any time now."
"Then off you all go," Lessa said, flipping her hands at them in dismissal. "Jaxom, if you're all determined to get a start on the caves, take Fandarel on Ruth, will you? That way he won't break his neck stumbling about in the dark. I'll wait for Jancis and Aivas."
2
By the time the sun had risen, many had come to view Aivas-the tale had spread as fast as Thread burrows. Curiosity and disbelief are mighty movers, so men and women had come from every Hall, Hold, and Weyr. To the disgust of some, most of the fervor was prompted not by Aivas's vast store of new knowledge, but by the chance to glimpse the miraculous moving pictures that this marvel was purported to produce.
Fandarel, supervising the acquisition of the material on Aivas's list, was busy in the Catherine Caves. Breide, overwhelmed with helpers, was making great strides in carefully clearing the ash and dirt from the roof to expose the remaining solar panels. Master Esselin was poring over Aivas's redesign plans, though he railed that Breide's men were not working fast enough for him to begin his job. Breide retorted that he hadn't even dismantled the buildings that were to provide the material for the extensions, so what was Esselin bleating about?
Lessa, hearing the argument, told them to stop behaving like apprentices and go about their duties. Then she, with Menolly and Jancis, found willing helpers among the women to do the drudge work of washing down the walls of long-disused rooms and shoveling out the dirty ash that had seeped in around windows and doors. The largest room, which the women decided must have originally been intended for conferences, was prepared for that purpose again. Remembering what she had seen stored in the cave, Lessa sent for enough furnishings to make the room usefuclass="underline" tables, desks, and as many chairs as could be easily reached without getting in Fandarel's way. All these were washed down, revealing bright colors that made cheerful accents in the otherwise bare rooms. The room farthest from all the activity was turned into a private retreat for the Masterharper, complete with a comfortable bed, a well-cushioned chair, and a table.
"The only problem will be in getting him to use it," Lessa said, giving the table a final swipe with her cleaning cloth. She had smudges on her cheeks, across her fine-bridged nose, and on her strong chin. Her long black hair was coming loose from its braids. Menolly and Jancis exchanged glances to decide who would tell her how dirty her face was. Jancis thought that the Weyrwoman's disarray, as well as her energetic cleaning, made her suddenly more accessible. The young Smithmaster had always been scared of the famous Weyrwoman.
"Somehow I never thought that I'd see the Weyrwoman of Pern working like a drudge," Jancis murmured to Menolly. "She does it with a vengeance."
"She had practice," Menolly said with a wry chuckle, "hiding herself away from Fax in Ruatha Hold before Impressing Ramoth."
"But she looks as if she was enjoying this," Jancis said in faint surprise. Actually, she was, too. It gave her a sense of achievement to return a dirty room to cleanliness and order.
The charts that Lessa had requisitioned from Esselin's archives arrived, and the Weyrwoman had the girls hold them up on the various walls to decide the best position.
"Is it really right to put such precious artifacts to such a..." Jancis struggled to find the appropriate word.
"Mundane use?" Menolly asked with a grin.
"Exactly."
"They were initially used in this way," Lessa said, quirking her lips and shrugging her shoulders. "So why not put them back up?"
Applying herself to the task had restored the Weyrwoman's equilibrium; the discovery of Aivas and its promise to help F'lar achieve his deepest ambition had shaken her. She desperately wanted what was promised, almost as much as F'lar did, but she was fearful of the consequences. The morning's scrubbing attack had allowed her to expend some of her anxiety. Now she felt herself peculiarly revived.
"Since the maps haven't deteriorated-amazing material the settlers used-I see no reason why we shouldn't use them for the purpose they were designed for," she went on briskly. She had decided that "settlers" was a less intimidating word than "ancestors." She studied one of the maps." The Southern Continent certainly does spread out, doesn't it?" And she smiled, half to herself. "Lift your corner a trifle, Jancis. There! Now it's straight!"
She smoothed the map of the Southern Continent against the wall. Then, with considerable satisfaction, she sited a tack and hammered it in with a rectangular lump of rock she had found. Esselin had dithered so much about giving them two baskets and a shovel that she hadn't bothered to ask for a hammer. The rock did as well.
She stood back with the girls to survey her handiwork. The lettering on the maps still took her moments to decipher. It was familiar and yet different, and certainly larger. She wondered how Aivas had fared reading the crabbed tight script that Master Arnor had used in writing up the Records. Poor Master Arnor.
Not to mention poor Robinton, who had been so mortified to learn that there had been language shifts despite all the hard work that the Harper Hall had put into keeping it pure. Old Arnor's mind was notoriously inflexible, and the old fellow might have spasms when he heard that. Which was yet another aspect of this discovery: Its knowledge and its obvious intelligence put Aivas into the role of a Master of Masters in all disciplines except, perhaps, the dragons. She might have been reading things into its tone, but had there been a note of excitement in that otherwise level voice when it mentioned the dragons?
"Yes, the maps are appropriate here, aren't they? Not merely decorative." She smiled at Jancis and Menolly. Working with Piemur's young woman had reassured her that the journeyman was well matched with Fandarel's granddaughter. Lessa had been dubious about including Jancis on Aivas's roster, but she had lost her reservations this morning. Jancis had earned a place, and not simply because she had been instrumental in finding the room and was proving to be a willing worker. She had the right attitude toward Aivas and the future.
Jancis's eyes glowed as she studied the map. "They produced so many wonderful things. Things that could last for centuries; materials impervious to Thread. Things that will enrich our lives, too."
"True enough, but how am I going to reduce this-" Menolly waved an arm in Aivas's direction "-into a ballad that will explain these events to people?"
Lessa chuckled. "A change from your usual subjects, isn't it? You'll manage, Menolly dear. You always do, and splendidly. And don't bother to explain I doubt even Master Robinton could 'explain' a phenomenon, like Aivas. Present him as a challenge, to shake us all out of our mid-Pass doldrums." She pulled out a chair, absently gave it a flick of her rag, and sat down with a loud sigh. Then she cocked her head at the other two. "I don't know about you two, but I could certainly use a nice hot cup of klah."
Jancis sprang to her feet. "And fruit and meatrolls. The cook was up before dawn, complaining about hordes to feed on short notice-but he was making enough food to feed a Gather. I'll be right back."
Menolly turned to Lessa then, her expression serious. "Lessa, is Aivas going to be a good challenge? Jaxom told us such incredible things. Some people are simply not going to accept them, or even try to." She thought of her hidebound parents and others of similarly rigid minds whom she had not in her Turns as a harper.