But I had no wish for a continued lecture on my shortcomings. "Watch out, Campen. She has two sons, you know, and we could all be booted to the upper stories!"
Patently this had not occurred to my eldest brother. As he struggled with the possibility, I made it safely to my snug little inside room.
That evening's meal was one I do not remember eating, certainly not enjoying. Our dead mother had made courtesy in us such an instinctive reaction that we could not, any of us, be impolite despite that night's provocation. I had delayed my descent to the Main Hall, so I was rather surprised to find so many of our relations from the second story. The great tables were set up, even my father's chair sat in place on the dais. Anella had been busy.
"Were you invited?" I asked Uncle Munchaun when he sauntered over to me.
"No, but she'd not know our ways, would she?"
One could count on Uncle Munchaun, not to mention the others, to sense a situation and make sure to witness it firsthand.
"I fear I've found nothing of value in my reading thus far," Uncle continued smoothly. "I've set others to the task, as well. Any word from the Halls? I understand you were there today."
I ignored the thrust. "Master Tirone has returned from that mediation. By the mountain trail."
"Then he missed the additions to our Hold?"
"He may have. Certainly he missed the guards."
"I almost wish he hadn't," Uncle murmured, a gleam in his eyes. Then he touched my arm warningly and I turned to see Anella, followed by her parents, sweeping into the Great Hall.
Her grand entrance was spoiled by her flaming cheeks and her father's stumbling pace. The man had not been drunk, I was later informed, but had a crippled foot. But I was in no mood to be charitable or compassionate. He, at least, had the grace to look embarrassed throughout the next few minutes.
Anella, dressed in a heavily embroidered gown totally unsuitable for the mourning of the Hold or for a family dinner, mounted the three steps to the dais and walked firmly to my mother's chair. Uncle Munchaun's hand restrained me now.
"Lord Tolocamp wishes me to read this message to you." Her voice was strident in her effort to be heard and to project her new authority. She unrolled the message and held it up in front of her eyes, which bulged unbecomingly as she shouted at us.
"I, Lord Tolocamp, quarantined from active participation in the conduct of Fort Hold in these unsettled days, appoint and deputize Lady Anella as Lady Holder to ensure the management of the
Hold until such time as our desired union can be publicly celebrated. My son, Campen, will actively discharge under my direction any duties required of the Lord Holder until such time as I am no longer immured.
"I solemnly charge all of you, under pain of disgrace and exile, to observe the quarantine of this Hold, and to refrain from contact with any others until such time as Master Capiam, or his delegate Masterhealer, rescinds the quarantine restrictions. I require obedience to all restrictions made by me to ensure the safety and health of Fort, Pern's first and largest Hold, Obey and we prosper. Deny and we fall."
She turned the sheet toward us and pointed to the end. "His signature and ring mark are here to be verified." Then she insulted us again. "He charges me to discover which of you ventured perilously close to the internment camp today." Her bulging eyes swept the lot of us.
Just as I stepped forward, so did Peth, Jess, Nia, and Gabin.
"Do not anger me," Anella cried. "Lord Tolocamp only told me about one of you."
"We all must have had a look at one time or another," said Jess, speaking out before I could gather my wits. "I've never seen an internment camp."
"Do you not understand? There are sick people there!" Anella's face turned pale with fright. "If you catch the plague, you will infect the rest of us before you die."
"Just like our Lord Holder," came a voice from somewhere in her audience.
"Who said that? Who spoke so vilely?"
There was no answer, only a shifting of boots on the flagstones. Even I could not identify the speaker-to congratulate him, or her. My private wager would fall on Theskin.
"I will know who spoke!" Anella ranted on a bit more, but she would never learn the answer, having shattered any chance she might have had of gaining the trust and confidence of those in the Hall that night. "Lord Tolocamp will hear of the snake at his bosom!"
She glared about the Hall one last time, then yanked at the heavily carved chair that my mother had filled so adequately. She was not strong enough to shift it, and a twitter greeted her attempt. Her mother signaled peremptorily to a drudge to assist her daughter. When Anella finally seated herself, her mother sat down beside her, the husband on her left. Those of us who ought to have taken our places on the dais declined to do so, and with a bit of angling, all were accommodated at the trestle tables.
"Where are Lord Tolocamp's children?" she demanded when we were arranged. "Campen!" She pointed at him, for him she knew by sight. "Theskin, Doral, Gallen. Assume your places."
She paused briefly; I could see her eyes blinking and an irritated twitch to her mouth. "Nalka? Is she not the oldest living daughter?"
Uncle Munchaun nudged me. "You'd best go, Rill, even misnamed, for your father will know if you insult her so publicly."
I knew he was right. As I rose, I saw Anella's mother murmur something to her.
"And there is a harper in this Hold, is there not? We honor the harper."
Casmodian rose, bowed, and managed a smile.
"Why did you seat yourselves below?" she demanded as Campen and Theskin mounted the dais steps.
"With all due respect. Lady Anella," Theskin said with a wry smile, "we thought your family would require the seating here."
Though courteously spoken, Theskin's words were nonetheless a gibe, and she was not too dense to know it, even if she had no adequate retort. No one mentioned that she had not named all of Tolocamp's surviving mature children, so Peth, Jess, and Gabin made a merrier meal than we others did.
Bravely, Casmodian sat next to the father. I think they were the only two to converse that evening at the head table. I know I tasted nothing of even the little food I forced myself to eat. Unfortunately, now I had time to think of all I had not done for my mother, of my uncharitable absence from the last moments my sisters had had at Fort Hold. I seethed, too, with fury at the usurper and vowed that I would not lift a hand to assist her in her new role. How convenient that she couldn't even remember my name properly. If I judged the temper of the Hall correctly, she would have no help from anyone, even in such a small matter as the correct nomenclature of Lord Tolocamp's children.
I drank more wine that evening than is my custom-or perhaps it was because I also ate so little. It was enough to finish the meal and slip from the Hall to the kitchens, to be sure that this new Lady Holder had not countermanded my order about the broken meats. Then, by the back stairs, I sought my own room and the solace of sleep.
Chapter V
The drums woke me at dawn, for in my giddiness I had forgotten to plug my ears. Then the message woke me up completely, Twelve Wings had flown Thread at Igen and all was well.
How could twelve Wings have flown out of Igen Weyr when half the dragonriders were ill of the plague and the Weyr had already suffered deaths? They could not have mounted more than nine Wings if their casualties had been accurately reported, and there would be no advantage to prevaricate at this terrible moment.
I rose and dressed, then descended to the kitchens to surprise the drudges brewing the first of the many urns of klah. Its aromatic smell was a restorative all by itself, and the first fragrant cup was the best one of any day, heartening me all the more in my grief and dismay. I was stirring the porridge when Felim appeared, his face first brightening, then falling into a suitably lugubrious expression as he advanced on me.