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all." She smiled at the audience. "You children will be learning it next
week, so listen closely." With that she put the mouthpiece to her lips and
nodded to her son.
Gone away, gone ahead, Echoes roll unanswered.
Empty, open, dusty, dead.
Why have all the weyrfolk fled?
Where have dragons gone together?
Leaving Weyrs to wind and weather?
Setting herd-beasts free of tether?
Gone, our safeguards, gone but whither?
Have they flown to some new Weyr
When cruel Threads some others fear?
Are they worlds away from here?
Why, oh, why, the empty Weyr ?
There was a stunned silence when Robinton let the last note die away and his
mother lowered the flute. Almost an embarrassing silence, and yet he knew he
had sung it well. Everyone looked at the pair of them as if they couldn't
believe their ears.
Then there was the noise of a chair scraping and S'loner rose to his feet, his
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expression almost severe.
"I thank you, MasterSinger, for the beautiful rendition of the classic
Question Song." And he inclined his body to them both with the greatest
respect. "It has haunted every Benden Weydeader for generations. I learned
it as a weyrling, but I haven't heard it in ...
oh, decades now. I think it needs to be heard more often. Maybe someone will
find its answer."
"Then, S'loner, do you believe that Thread will return?" asked a man, rising
from the far end of the head table. Robinton hadn't seen him before, but he
must be a Benden holder of some prosperity to judge by his clothing and where
he was seated.
Robinton was close enough to see Carola tug at S'loner's sleeve, her brows
drawn together in a scowl. Rob glanced over to where
Falloner still sat, and saw an eager expression on his friend's face.
The entire audience seemed to hold their breaths.
"We've another fifty turns to go before the Star Stones will tell us yea or
nay, my friend. But the dragons are here and Benden keeps up its strength.
That is the pledge we made to Hold and Hall when the first dragon cracked its
shell. It is one that I, and every
Weyrleader after me, will keep!" Then he bowed again to Merelan, caught
Robinton's eyes briefly and sat down.
Quickly then, Merelan gestured for the instrumentalists to strike up a merry
tune. That was also the signal for the drudges to come and clear the tables,
to make space for dancing in the centre of the
Hall. There was a lot more talking while the tables were cleared, dismantled
and stored to one side, chairs rearranged and the younger children taken off
to their beds.
Robinton was playing hand-drum for the early sessions of the dancing, so he
didn't get a chance to speak to Falloner that evening.
But the next morning in music class, the moment he and his mother entered the
room Falloner leaped on him, hauling him by his shirt to one side.
"Who told you to sing that?" he demanded in a harsh whisper, his expression
intense, almost accusing.
"Mother," Robinton said, having hoped to hear something else from his best
friend: like, "You sang that well."
"Shards, but it had Carola going!" Falloner grinned. "S'loner must've been
over the moons with delight. Our old harper - the one before C'gan - didn't
know it and couldn't find it even when
S'loner made him hunt through the Records for it. He only knew that he'd
learned it. It's possible G'ranad, the Weyrleader before him, struck it out
of our Teaching."
"It's back in Harper Hall Records," Robinton said. "I had to copy it out
several times for harpers going off on assignment."
"Well, one thing sure, you made my father very happy."
"Why?"
"Because he knows -' Falloner paused significantly, his expression oddly
intense, "- that Thread will come again. And he's fighting to get others to
believe it. That song is a warning, as well as a question." He clapped
Robinton on the back. "And I'll be following him, on a fighting bronze. Just
you see if I'm not."
"But, even if Thread comes, it's not due for another fifty turns or more, and
you and I will be old."
"Fifty isn't old when most dragonriders live to their tenth decade and better.
Old M'odon's nearly one hundred and ten, and there's nothing decrepit about
his brown Nigarth."
"Does he remember Threadfall?"
"Naw, he's too young for that, but his great-grandfather flew it."
Just then Merelan called the class to order. "We're going to learn the new
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song today, the Question Song. Weyrleader S'loner particularly asked me to
teach it. Robinton, if you'll sing it again for us so we can start learning
the melody, we will honour that request, as we should honour all dragons and
their riders."
Five days later a green rider came with an invitation for the
MasterSinger and her son to dine at the Weyr and, if she would be so kind, to
bring some of the new music that had been heard in
Benden Hold.
Robinton was never sure if it was because he had sung the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]