“Leave him alone!” Forgetting her quarrel with Pona, Menolly launched herself at Benis. Putting shoulder and body behind her fist, she drove it right into Benis’s face. He staggered back, roaring in outrage and pain. One of the other fosterlings came charging forward, fist cocked to slam Menolly, but Audiva hung onto his arm.
“Viderian! Menolly’s a seaholder! Help us!”
Startled, her escort bounded in to help Audiva, just as Menolly ducked under Benis’s swing and tried to protect Piemur, who was struggling to get on his feet, blood streaming from his nose.
The next moment, the air was full of shrieking, clawing, fighting fire lizards. Piemur was screaming that Benis better not hit the Harper’s apprentice, or there’d be real trouble; Camo was howling that his pretty ones were afraid, and he waded in, thick arms flailing, hitting indiscriminately at friend and foe. Menolly got a clout across the ear as she tried to restrain the misguided Camo. “Shells! It’s the Hall’s dummy!” “Scatter!” “Get her!” “Knock him down!” “Got her, Menolly!”
The fire lizards were not hampered by Camo’s inability to distinguish friend and foe. They went for Pona, Briala, Amania, Benis and the other lads. Menolly, trying to catch her breath, realized that things were completely out of hand and desperately tried to call off the fire lizards. The girls were scattering, screaming, vainly trying to cover their heads, hair and eyes. Attacked from above, so did the fosterlings.
“Be still! Everyone!” The bellow was stentorian enough to penetrate shriek, howl and battle cries, and stern enough to command instant obedience. “You there, hang on to Camo! Douse him with that skin of water! You, tanner, help them with Camo. Sit on him, knock his feet out from under him if necessary. Menolly, control your fire lizards! This is a gather, not a brawl!”
The Harper strode into the midst of the melee, yanking a fosterling to his feet, spinning one of the girls to the arms of the folk who had converged on the scene, giving a bloody-nosed Piemur a hand up from the dust. The Masterharper’s actions were somewhat hampered by the distressed squeals of the little bronze fire lizard clinging tightly to his left arm, but there was little doubt of the Master’s fury. A silence broken by the gulping sobs of Pona and Briala held attacker, attacked and witnesses alike.
“Now,” said the Harper, his voice controlled although his eyes were flashing with anger, “just what has been going on here?”
“It was her!” Pona staggered a step toward Master Robinton, jabbing her finger at Menolly and struggling to control her sobs. Long scratches marred her cheeks, her head scarf was torn and her hair pulled from its plaits. “She’s always causing trouble—”
“Sir, we were minding our own business,” said Piemur indignantly, “which was buying a belt that you said Menolly ought to have, when Pona here—”
“That little sneak tripped me as we were passing, and then her hideous beasts attacked all of us. They’ve done it before. I have witnesses!”
She stopped mid-gulp, arrested by the look on the Harper’s face.
“Lady Pona,” he said in an all too gentle voice, “you are overwrought. Briala, take the child back to Dunca. The excitement of a gather appears to be too much for such a fragile spirit. Amania, I think you ought to help Briala.” Though his voice expressed concern for their well-being, it was obvious that the Harper was disciplining the three girls who bore evidence of the unfriendly attentions of the fire lizards.
Now he turned to the Hold fosterlings. Benis, his left eye already bruising, his lip cut, his hair tousled and forehead bearing fire lizard marks, was straightening his tunic and brushing dust from his sleeve and trousers. The other youths who had been escorting the now banished girls maintained the rigid stance they had adopted as soon as they recognized the Masterharper.
“Lord Benis?”
“Masterharper?” Benis continued to adjust his garments, awarding the briefest of glances to the Harper.
“I’m glad you know my rank,” said Robinton, smiling slightly.
Menolly had been soothing Beauty and Rocky who had refused to leave when she sent the others away. At his tone, she looked at the Harper, amazed that he could express so profound a reprimand with a brief phrase and a smile.
One of the other fosterlings jabbed Benis in the ribs, and the young man looked angrily about.
“I expect you have business elsewhere…now!” said the Masterharper.
“Business? This is a gather day…sir.”
“For others, indeed, it is, but not, I think, for you,” and the Masterharper indicated with his hand that Benis had better retire. “Or you, and you, and you,” he added, indicating the other fosterlings who displayed claw marks. “Will you occupy yourselves quietly in your quarters or will I have to mention this to Lord Groghe?” He accepted the frantic shakings of their heads.
Then he turned his back on them and pleasantly indicated to those who were avidly observing his summary justice that they should now continue their interrupted pursuits. He walked to where Camo was still being restrained by three large journeymen, blubbering noisily about his pretties being hurt and struggling to free himself.
“The pretties are not hurt, Camo. Not hurt. See? Menolly has the pretties.”
The Harper’s voice soothed the wretched man as he gestured for Menolly to come forward into Camo’s line of sight.
“Pretties not hurt?”
“No, Camo. Brudegan, who else is about?” the Harper asked his journeyman. Several other harpers obediently moved against the tide of the dispersing crowd. “Camo had better go back to the hall. Here,” and the Harper reached into his pouch and passed Brudegan a mark piece. “Buy him a lot of those bubbly pies on your way back. That’ll help settle him.”
The crowd had melted away. The Masterharper, stroking his gradually quieting fire lizard, turned back to the small group still clustered together. He gestured them to the unoccupied space between the nearest stalls.
“Now, let me hear the sequence of events, please,” said, but his voice no longer held that chilling note of displeasure.
“It wasn’t Menolly’s fault!” said Piemur, batting at Audiva’s hands as she tried to staunch the flow from his nose with the berry-stained cloth used earlier on Camo. “We were looking at belts…” He turned to the tanner for confirmation.
“I don’t know about belts, Master Robinton, but they weren’t causing any trouble when the blonde girl, Lady Pona, started pulling rank on your apprentice. Made a nasty accusation about the girl having money she oughtn’t to have.”
A look of dismay crossed the Harper’s face. “You didn’t lose the mark in the fuss, did you, Menolly?” He scuffed around the trampled area with his boot toe. “I don’t have many two-mark pieces, you know.”
The tanner stiffed a bark of laughter, and the Harper sighed with almost comic relief as Menolly solemnly displayed the cause of the trouble.
“That’s a mercy,” Master Robinton said with a smile of approval for Menolly. “Go on,” he added to the tanner.
“Then this lass,” and the tanner gestured toward Audiva, “took Menolly’s part. So did the young seaholder. I think all would have come to nothing if Camo hadn’t got upset, and the next thing I know the air’s full of fire lizards. Are they all hers?” He jerked his thumb at Menolly.
“Yes,” said the Harper, “a fact that ought to be borne in mind since they do seem able to recognize Menolly’s…ammm…”
“Sir, I didn’t call them…” Menolly said, finding her voice.
“I’m sure you didn’t need to.” He closed his hand reassuringly on her shoulder.
“Master Robinton, Pona bears a grudge against Menolly,” said Audiva in a rush as if she had to make the admission before she could change her mind. “And she’s got no real cause at all.”
“Thank you, Audiva, I’ve been aware of the prejudice.” The Harper made a slight bow, acknowledging the tall girl’s loyalty. “The Lady Pona will not trouble you further, Menolly, nor you, Audiva,” he continued, that hint of implacability tingeing an otherwise pleasant tone. “Good of you, Lord Viderian, to support another holder, though it is a loyalty I would prefer to render unnecessary.”