Renegades of Pern - Chapter One
Dec. 14th, 2023 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatThis review is a bit later than it ought to be. Sorry about that!
Anyway, last time, we had a general introduction that took us all over the final years of the most recent Interval. Now, per the title of the Chapter, we're in the First Turn, Third Month and Fourth Day of the Ninth Pass.
Fun!
Our viewpoint character is someone named Jayge. He seems pretty young. He's currently wishing that his father would stay longer at the Kimmage Hold (which presumably is in Eastern Telgar Hold, per the title) because he was doing really well in local races. His mare, Fairex, apparently is deceptively clumsy.
Jayge is a Lilcamp, apparently. They seem like the descendants of the Travelers, though why they're named after Joel Lilienkamp, who wasn't a Traveler and in fact was the manager of the stores, vs. say Padraig Connell is anyone's guess. A lot can happen in a thousand years or so.
As I recall, aside from being kind of crap at securing his stores, Joel Lilienkamp didn't annoy me THAT much, so I suppose I'm okay with him being immortalized in this way. It does explain why he never got a Hold named for him.
Jayge's view on his dad is probably meant to be positive here:
The Lilcamps had been at Kimmage all through the wet spring. Why did his father want to move out now? No-one argued with Crenden. He was fair but tough, and although he was not a very big man, anyone who had experienced his fist — and Jayge still did at times — knew that he was far stronger than he looked. Just as a holder, major or minor, was the final authority on his property, so Crenden was obeyed by his kin. A shrewd trader, a hard worker, and honest in all his dealings, he was welcome in those smaller, less accessible holds that were unable to get to the main Gathers on a regular basis. To be sure, some Crafts sent travelers on regular routes to take orders for their Halls, but they rarely ventured up the narrow tracks into the mountains or across broad plains too far from water. Not all of Crenden’s goods bore a Crafthall stamp but they were well-made, and cheaper than Crafthall products. Crenden also had a fine memory for what his clients might need and carried a varied stock, limited only by the space of the wagons.
But, um, from a modern perspective, the fact that a child knows what his father's fist feels like is a pretty fucking alarming sign. I know, in the past, corporal punishment was more in favor. And even when I grew up, spanking was pretty commonplace, but there's a fucking difference between an open palm and a closed fist.
And indeed, a paragraph or two later, the narrative confirms that Jayge is fucking ten years old. Jesus. I know kids can be annoying, but you're not actually allowed to punch a ten year old. Apparently his job is to act as courier for his father.
The Lilcamp folks are traders, unsurprisingly, and we get some good description of the Kimmage Hold as they head out. Lots of timber, which they then sell at Keroon Hold. The Lilcamp "clan" has "traded labor" with them for generations.
The kids of the Hold seem like fucking sociopaths though as one tries to lash Jayge as he goes by.
‘You missed,’ Jayge called cheerfully. Gardrow would have bruises today, for Jayge had given him some hard falls, but maybe the boy would not be so eager in the future to bully the little kids into doing his chores for him. Jayge hated a bully, almost as much as he hated someone who abused animals. And it had been a fair fight: the lad was two Turns older than Jayge and two kilos heavier.
‘I’ll match ye again when we come back, Gardrow,’ Jayge cried, and managed to duck out of the saddle as the other boy wheeled his pony, lash swinging above his head for another attempt.
Now this is a far better example of bullying than anything we saw with Jaxom. Maybe I would have found it more plausible that a peasant boy could bully a Lord Holder if we actually saw some of it happening.
Unfortunately, this catches Crenden's attention, and he asks his kid if he was fighting again. Jayge plays innocent (not as well as his sister can), but Crenden just tells him not to race. They're on the move and there's no time for "foolery".
Jayge seems like a pretty good kid though, he doesn't give in even when the Holder boys beg him for another race. He's tempted though.
So we get more description of the travel. I'm really curious to see how these folks handle Thread. They must have a method, if they've been doing this for generations. And actually, we're maybe about to find out, as the oldest Kimmage son rides out frantically with a message: one that says that Thread's Falling Again.
Crenden is skeptical until he sees the Harper's Seal. Kimmage, by the way, tithes toward Lemos. Which seems weird when they're in Telgar (unless the title is not correct), but then the Oldtimers haven't come back yet. Maybe that's why.
Anyway, the boy's pretty freaked out and babbling. Understandably. Thread's already fallen a few places. Crenden doesn't believe it though, he thinks that the boy's just trying to trick him back to help finish the work in the Hold.
Damn, I mean, I suppose I understand. After 400 years, it probably seems really unlikely. But this is a bad fucking idea. I'll give some credit for nuance, for now, I don't get the sense that we're supposed to see Crenden as a bad guy (implied child abuse aside - this is Pern after all), but he's definitely capital-W Wrong here.
Jayge sees the look on the kid's face and wonders if maybe his father's wrong. The Lord (Childon) isn't the sort to make jokes. He reminisces about a time he'd gotten into a "fearful brawl" after being insulted as holdless. Crenden has some good words of wisdom about not rising to provocation. I'm not really sure what this has to do with Threadfall, but Jayge does reminisce that he appreciates his family's wandering life.
Oh, this doesn't look good though:
The trail turned abruptly south, skirting a granite outcropping and affording a wide view of the other shore and the low foothills that would culminate in the immense Red Butte. Suddenly Jayge was conscious of the odd sky to the east, a lowering, threatening gray. He had seen plenty of bad weather in his ten Turns, ‘but never something like that. Glancing toward his father, he saw that Crenden had also noted the strange sky, slowing his mount’s walk to study the grayness.
Hoo, boy. I can appreciate the building dread here as a reader. Jayge's uncle Readis notes that it looks like no weather they've seen before. Crenden thinks it looks like a local storm, until he realizes that it isn't lightning he's looking at.
To Crenden's credit, he can admit when he's wrong. But yeah, they have to figure shit out fast. He has Jayge look for ledges to shelter under. Readis suggests sending the lighter wagons back with the children in, but they're too far down. They think outloud, frantically. They remember stone, metal and water protect against Thread. There's a big pool not too far out.
They unhitch the animals from the wagons. I guess runner beasts aren't really horses, or the joke about not being able to make one bathe is incorrect, as they do get the animals into the water. Above, Jayge glimpses spots of flame, then realizes that he's watching the dragons fight Thread. They still need to hide though, and sadly a lot of stuff gets discarded/lost along the way.
They make it into the pool. I'm really unclear about the logistics of it, as the menfolk try to keep the animals from drowning themselves. I think someone who knows more about horses would have to weigh in on whether this all sounds as implausible as I think it is.
By the time the Lilcamps were all in the pool, the gray mass of Thread was nearly upon them. The pool was full of floating debris from the wagons that had been driven into the deepest part. Crenden and the uncles were trying to make certain that the animals would not drown themselves, for the burden beasts were bawling and the runners were neighing in panic. Some of the yoked beasts were trying to climb up on to the far bank.
Anyway, Jayge eventually gets his first glimpse of Thread.
Then, not wanting to believe his eyes, Jayge had his first glimpse of Thread. Three long spears of the stuff slapped into the tall standing trees on the bank. Their trunks flared briefly and then began to vanish. So did the brush and trees on either side. Jayge blinked, and there was a bald patch and something disgustingly pulsing, rolling — and with every turn more of the thick mulch disappeared and more trees fell. Suddenly a fountain of flame washed across the spot. He saw the long twisting thing in the center of the flame turn black and burn quickly, adding an oily yellow smoke to the clean fire. Jayge almost missed seeing the dragon at all, he was so caught by the terror of the Thread burrow. But the dragon hovered briefly, to be sure of the destruction, so Jayge caught the sight of the huge golden body as the dragon — gold was for queens, wasn’t it? — beat strongly upward and flamed again, farther up the hill. There was another dragon farther down the river valley, another gold. But someone had told him that gold dragons did not fly. And there was only the one queen in Benden Weyr.
Explanation, kid: Lessa is awesome.
Some of the thread gets into the water. They swim lower. Jayge ends up hit in the back of head with a stray pot, but he gets himself under control. There's noise and screaming around them. It sounds pretty fucking horrible. At least the pot makes a pretty good shield for his and his mare's head.
He manages, though his clothing ends up threadscored. I'm not sure how THAT works, without him being touched, but maybe Thread doesn't like leather?
The aftermath sounds pretty awful:
That terrible noon, when Jayge finally led an exhausted Fairex out of the water, the pool was filled with lifeless bobbing bodies, animal and human, and the pitiful remnants of the prosperous trader train.
‘Jayge, we’ll need a fire,’ his father said in a dull voice as he followed his son out of the water, dragging the sodden gear he had removed from the body of his rangy runner.
Jayge looked up the bank to the forested slope, amazed to see that fine stand of trees reduced to smoldering trunks and charred circles, black and oily smoke rising ominously. The rich, dense woods had been changed to barren smoking poles, branchless and charred.
This does remind me that I still don't get how grubs work. They protect the GROUND sure, but wouldn't the trees/plants still...well, look like this?
More horror:
Muted sobbing and louder cries of grief followed Jayge up the slope. It took him a long time to find enough unconsumed wood to start any sort of a fire. He walked very cautiously, terrified that a tendril of Thread might have survived the dragonfire. When he got back to the river, he kept his eyes on the fire he .was starting, unwilling to look at the still forms lying on the stony verge. He was immensely relieved to see that his mother was there, bandaging someone’s head. He saw Aunt Temma, too, but he had to turn away from the sight of the hideous raw marks, like something cut by the claws of the biggest wherry ever, on Readis’s back, Aunt Bedda was rocking back and forth, and Jayge could not bear to find out if his baby cousin was injured or dead. Not just yet.
Oh, but hey, they've got company!
A huge brown dragon was settling to the top of the track above the pool.
‘You there, boy! Who’s in charge of this ground crew? How many burrows have you found? These woods are disastrous!’
The description of this dude is very strange:
At first Jayge could not understand the words rattled at him. There was an odd inflection in the man’s voice that startled him. The harpers kept the language from altering too much, his mother had once told him when he had first encountered the slower speech of the southerners. But the voice of the dragonrider, so small up there perched between the neck ridges of the big beast, sounded strange to Jayge’s ears. And the man did not really look like any man Jayge had ever seen. He seemed to have huge eyes, and no hair, and leather all over. Were dragonmen different from the rest of Pern’s people? Realizing that his mouth had dropped open, Jayge clamped his jaws shut.
As it turns out, the dude is wearing a helmet. He's also a dick, scolding them for being a badly constructed ground crew. Um, dude. You're talking to sopping wet, devastated people surrounded by equally wet beasts of burden, half their shit is still in the water, and at least some of the people and animals are dead. Read the fucking room.
Jayge stared, aware of many details that he would recall later and with cynical accuracy: except that the rider wore his hair cropped close to his scalp, he was really like any other man. Under other circumstances and with later knowledge, Jayge might have forgiven him his irascibility, and even some of his scathing disapproval. But not that day.
However, it was the dragon that fascinated Jayge. He noted the dark streaks of soot on the dragon’s brown hide; the two damaged ridges; the rough scars on its fore-quarters — long thin scars, darker brown, many of them along its barrel and back — and the thickening of tissue along several wing vanes. But it was the ineffable weariness in the dragon’s eyes, whirling slightly and coloring from a purple to a blue-green, that Jayge noted particularly. Those eyes whirled in Jayge’s dreams for many nights thereafter — but his strongest impression was of the weariness, a fatigue that he himself certainly felt down to his very bones.
Dragons are pretty cool.
So anyway, this is clearly an Oldtimer. He's contemptuous, mean, and reacts with contempt when he's told that they're a train.
‘Well, we can’t protect every stupid trader and isolated spot, you know. And I’m beginning to wonder why we bothered to come here at all, if this is all the gratitude we receive! Which lord are you beholden to? Take it up with him. It was up to him to be sure you were warned. And if there’re no ground crews from Kimmage, this entire area could be at risk. C’mon, Rimbeth. Now we’ve got to check the whole bloody area!’ He glared at Crenden. ‘It’ll be your fault if there’re burrows here. You hear me?’
I'm taking back my props that I gave McCaffrey for letting Crenden be both a good dude and wrong, because as usual, the Old Timers are fucking cartoons. As a reminder, McCaffrey, these are people who thought their immensely dangerous tour of duty was going to be done, only to willingly go to the future to help. They were, in Dragonflight, capable of empathy and warmth. It wouldn't be that hard to write one here. There are DEAD PEOPLE HERE.
Crenden is angry enough to shout a vague threat: he'll remember Rimbeth's rider and seek him out if it's the last thing he does.
--
The next morning, they've gotten four of the wagons out of the pool and their usable baggage. They've got twelve beasts alive, three of whom lost eyes to the Thread. All have thread scoring on their backs. Four loose runners have found their way back. And Jayge's two younger siblings are apparently dead. His mother doesn't seem to realize they're gone and has started to cough.
There's a set of orphans whose mother was eaten alive to protect them. Another person died trying to protect his prize team of beasts. Tragic.
Jayge hears his uncle ask his father why the Lord of Kimmage didn't send someone to help. I mean, they did give the warning? What kind of help could they have given? But I shouldn't be so mean to traumatized survivors. It's not their fault they didn't believe.
Ah, apparently they lost a full seven people. Eek.
And things are worse when they get back:
‘I’ve my own folk, beholden to me, to provide for now, for the fifty long Turns this Pass will last. I can’t take in any holdless and improvident family who apply to me,’ Childon said, never once looking Crenden straight in the eye. ‘You’ve wounded and sick, and kids too young to be useful. Your stock’s all injured. Take time and medicine to heal ‘em. I’ve got to provide ground crews for every Fall, to support not only Igen Weyr but Benden when they call on us. I’m going to be hard-pressed to look after my own. You must understand my position.’
They went from being begged to stay a day or two ago, to being refugees. They get to sleep in the beasthold. It IS understandable that Thread's made everything much worse, but it's still pretty harsh. Crenden, subdued, chooses to stay. Readis, unwilling to accept the humiliation, leaves.
As a final sad note, we're told that in the spring, Jayge managed to save up credits to pay for a healer for his mom. But she dies before full summer, when Jayge is out as ground crew.
The chapter ends here.
Anyway, last time, we had a general introduction that took us all over the final years of the most recent Interval. Now, per the title of the Chapter, we're in the First Turn, Third Month and Fourth Day of the Ninth Pass.
Fun!
Our viewpoint character is someone named Jayge. He seems pretty young. He's currently wishing that his father would stay longer at the Kimmage Hold (which presumably is in Eastern Telgar Hold, per the title) because he was doing really well in local races. His mare, Fairex, apparently is deceptively clumsy.
Jayge is a Lilcamp, apparently. They seem like the descendants of the Travelers, though why they're named after Joel Lilienkamp, who wasn't a Traveler and in fact was the manager of the stores, vs. say Padraig Connell is anyone's guess. A lot can happen in a thousand years or so.
As I recall, aside from being kind of crap at securing his stores, Joel Lilienkamp didn't annoy me THAT much, so I suppose I'm okay with him being immortalized in this way. It does explain why he never got a Hold named for him.
Jayge's view on his dad is probably meant to be positive here:
The Lilcamps had been at Kimmage all through the wet spring. Why did his father want to move out now? No-one argued with Crenden. He was fair but tough, and although he was not a very big man, anyone who had experienced his fist — and Jayge still did at times — knew that he was far stronger than he looked. Just as a holder, major or minor, was the final authority on his property, so Crenden was obeyed by his kin. A shrewd trader, a hard worker, and honest in all his dealings, he was welcome in those smaller, less accessible holds that were unable to get to the main Gathers on a regular basis. To be sure, some Crafts sent travelers on regular routes to take orders for their Halls, but they rarely ventured up the narrow tracks into the mountains or across broad plains too far from water. Not all of Crenden’s goods bore a Crafthall stamp but they were well-made, and cheaper than Crafthall products. Crenden also had a fine memory for what his clients might need and carried a varied stock, limited only by the space of the wagons.
But, um, from a modern perspective, the fact that a child knows what his father's fist feels like is a pretty fucking alarming sign. I know, in the past, corporal punishment was more in favor. And even when I grew up, spanking was pretty commonplace, but there's a fucking difference between an open palm and a closed fist.
And indeed, a paragraph or two later, the narrative confirms that Jayge is fucking ten years old. Jesus. I know kids can be annoying, but you're not actually allowed to punch a ten year old. Apparently his job is to act as courier for his father.
The Lilcamp folks are traders, unsurprisingly, and we get some good description of the Kimmage Hold as they head out. Lots of timber, which they then sell at Keroon Hold. The Lilcamp "clan" has "traded labor" with them for generations.
The kids of the Hold seem like fucking sociopaths though as one tries to lash Jayge as he goes by.
‘You missed,’ Jayge called cheerfully. Gardrow would have bruises today, for Jayge had given him some hard falls, but maybe the boy would not be so eager in the future to bully the little kids into doing his chores for him. Jayge hated a bully, almost as much as he hated someone who abused animals. And it had been a fair fight: the lad was two Turns older than Jayge and two kilos heavier.
‘I’ll match ye again when we come back, Gardrow,’ Jayge cried, and managed to duck out of the saddle as the other boy wheeled his pony, lash swinging above his head for another attempt.
Now this is a far better example of bullying than anything we saw with Jaxom. Maybe I would have found it more plausible that a peasant boy could bully a Lord Holder if we actually saw some of it happening.
Unfortunately, this catches Crenden's attention, and he asks his kid if he was fighting again. Jayge plays innocent (not as well as his sister can), but Crenden just tells him not to race. They're on the move and there's no time for "foolery".
Jayge seems like a pretty good kid though, he doesn't give in even when the Holder boys beg him for another race. He's tempted though.
So we get more description of the travel. I'm really curious to see how these folks handle Thread. They must have a method, if they've been doing this for generations. And actually, we're maybe about to find out, as the oldest Kimmage son rides out frantically with a message: one that says that Thread's Falling Again.
Crenden is skeptical until he sees the Harper's Seal. Kimmage, by the way, tithes toward Lemos. Which seems weird when they're in Telgar (unless the title is not correct), but then the Oldtimers haven't come back yet. Maybe that's why.
Anyway, the boy's pretty freaked out and babbling. Understandably. Thread's already fallen a few places. Crenden doesn't believe it though, he thinks that the boy's just trying to trick him back to help finish the work in the Hold.
Damn, I mean, I suppose I understand. After 400 years, it probably seems really unlikely. But this is a bad fucking idea. I'll give some credit for nuance, for now, I don't get the sense that we're supposed to see Crenden as a bad guy (implied child abuse aside - this is Pern after all), but he's definitely capital-W Wrong here.
Jayge sees the look on the kid's face and wonders if maybe his father's wrong. The Lord (Childon) isn't the sort to make jokes. He reminisces about a time he'd gotten into a "fearful brawl" after being insulted as holdless. Crenden has some good words of wisdom about not rising to provocation. I'm not really sure what this has to do with Threadfall, but Jayge does reminisce that he appreciates his family's wandering life.
Oh, this doesn't look good though:
The trail turned abruptly south, skirting a granite outcropping and affording a wide view of the other shore and the low foothills that would culminate in the immense Red Butte. Suddenly Jayge was conscious of the odd sky to the east, a lowering, threatening gray. He had seen plenty of bad weather in his ten Turns, ‘but never something like that. Glancing toward his father, he saw that Crenden had also noted the strange sky, slowing his mount’s walk to study the grayness.
Hoo, boy. I can appreciate the building dread here as a reader. Jayge's uncle Readis notes that it looks like no weather they've seen before. Crenden thinks it looks like a local storm, until he realizes that it isn't lightning he's looking at.
To Crenden's credit, he can admit when he's wrong. But yeah, they have to figure shit out fast. He has Jayge look for ledges to shelter under. Readis suggests sending the lighter wagons back with the children in, but they're too far down. They think outloud, frantically. They remember stone, metal and water protect against Thread. There's a big pool not too far out.
They unhitch the animals from the wagons. I guess runner beasts aren't really horses, or the joke about not being able to make one bathe is incorrect, as they do get the animals into the water. Above, Jayge glimpses spots of flame, then realizes that he's watching the dragons fight Thread. They still need to hide though, and sadly a lot of stuff gets discarded/lost along the way.
They make it into the pool. I'm really unclear about the logistics of it, as the menfolk try to keep the animals from drowning themselves. I think someone who knows more about horses would have to weigh in on whether this all sounds as implausible as I think it is.
By the time the Lilcamps were all in the pool, the gray mass of Thread was nearly upon them. The pool was full of floating debris from the wagons that had been driven into the deepest part. Crenden and the uncles were trying to make certain that the animals would not drown themselves, for the burden beasts were bawling and the runners were neighing in panic. Some of the yoked beasts were trying to climb up on to the far bank.
Anyway, Jayge eventually gets his first glimpse of Thread.
Then, not wanting to believe his eyes, Jayge had his first glimpse of Thread. Three long spears of the stuff slapped into the tall standing trees on the bank. Their trunks flared briefly and then began to vanish. So did the brush and trees on either side. Jayge blinked, and there was a bald patch and something disgustingly pulsing, rolling — and with every turn more of the thick mulch disappeared and more trees fell. Suddenly a fountain of flame washed across the spot. He saw the long twisting thing in the center of the flame turn black and burn quickly, adding an oily yellow smoke to the clean fire. Jayge almost missed seeing the dragon at all, he was so caught by the terror of the Thread burrow. But the dragon hovered briefly, to be sure of the destruction, so Jayge caught the sight of the huge golden body as the dragon — gold was for queens, wasn’t it? — beat strongly upward and flamed again, farther up the hill. There was another dragon farther down the river valley, another gold. But someone had told him that gold dragons did not fly. And there was only the one queen in Benden Weyr.
Explanation, kid: Lessa is awesome.
Some of the thread gets into the water. They swim lower. Jayge ends up hit in the back of head with a stray pot, but he gets himself under control. There's noise and screaming around them. It sounds pretty fucking horrible. At least the pot makes a pretty good shield for his and his mare's head.
He manages, though his clothing ends up threadscored. I'm not sure how THAT works, without him being touched, but maybe Thread doesn't like leather?
The aftermath sounds pretty awful:
That terrible noon, when Jayge finally led an exhausted Fairex out of the water, the pool was filled with lifeless bobbing bodies, animal and human, and the pitiful remnants of the prosperous trader train.
‘Jayge, we’ll need a fire,’ his father said in a dull voice as he followed his son out of the water, dragging the sodden gear he had removed from the body of his rangy runner.
Jayge looked up the bank to the forested slope, amazed to see that fine stand of trees reduced to smoldering trunks and charred circles, black and oily smoke rising ominously. The rich, dense woods had been changed to barren smoking poles, branchless and charred.
This does remind me that I still don't get how grubs work. They protect the GROUND sure, but wouldn't the trees/plants still...well, look like this?
More horror:
Muted sobbing and louder cries of grief followed Jayge up the slope. It took him a long time to find enough unconsumed wood to start any sort of a fire. He walked very cautiously, terrified that a tendril of Thread might have survived the dragonfire. When he got back to the river, he kept his eyes on the fire he .was starting, unwilling to look at the still forms lying on the stony verge. He was immensely relieved to see that his mother was there, bandaging someone’s head. He saw Aunt Temma, too, but he had to turn away from the sight of the hideous raw marks, like something cut by the claws of the biggest wherry ever, on Readis’s back, Aunt Bedda was rocking back and forth, and Jayge could not bear to find out if his baby cousin was injured or dead. Not just yet.
Oh, but hey, they've got company!
A huge brown dragon was settling to the top of the track above the pool.
‘You there, boy! Who’s in charge of this ground crew? How many burrows have you found? These woods are disastrous!’
The description of this dude is very strange:
At first Jayge could not understand the words rattled at him. There was an odd inflection in the man’s voice that startled him. The harpers kept the language from altering too much, his mother had once told him when he had first encountered the slower speech of the southerners. But the voice of the dragonrider, so small up there perched between the neck ridges of the big beast, sounded strange to Jayge’s ears. And the man did not really look like any man Jayge had ever seen. He seemed to have huge eyes, and no hair, and leather all over. Were dragonmen different from the rest of Pern’s people? Realizing that his mouth had dropped open, Jayge clamped his jaws shut.
As it turns out, the dude is wearing a helmet. He's also a dick, scolding them for being a badly constructed ground crew. Um, dude. You're talking to sopping wet, devastated people surrounded by equally wet beasts of burden, half their shit is still in the water, and at least some of the people and animals are dead. Read the fucking room.
Jayge stared, aware of many details that he would recall later and with cynical accuracy: except that the rider wore his hair cropped close to his scalp, he was really like any other man. Under other circumstances and with later knowledge, Jayge might have forgiven him his irascibility, and even some of his scathing disapproval. But not that day.
However, it was the dragon that fascinated Jayge. He noted the dark streaks of soot on the dragon’s brown hide; the two damaged ridges; the rough scars on its fore-quarters — long thin scars, darker brown, many of them along its barrel and back — and the thickening of tissue along several wing vanes. But it was the ineffable weariness in the dragon’s eyes, whirling slightly and coloring from a purple to a blue-green, that Jayge noted particularly. Those eyes whirled in Jayge’s dreams for many nights thereafter — but his strongest impression was of the weariness, a fatigue that he himself certainly felt down to his very bones.
Dragons are pretty cool.
So anyway, this is clearly an Oldtimer. He's contemptuous, mean, and reacts with contempt when he's told that they're a train.
‘Well, we can’t protect every stupid trader and isolated spot, you know. And I’m beginning to wonder why we bothered to come here at all, if this is all the gratitude we receive! Which lord are you beholden to? Take it up with him. It was up to him to be sure you were warned. And if there’re no ground crews from Kimmage, this entire area could be at risk. C’mon, Rimbeth. Now we’ve got to check the whole bloody area!’ He glared at Crenden. ‘It’ll be your fault if there’re burrows here. You hear me?’
I'm taking back my props that I gave McCaffrey for letting Crenden be both a good dude and wrong, because as usual, the Old Timers are fucking cartoons. As a reminder, McCaffrey, these are people who thought their immensely dangerous tour of duty was going to be done, only to willingly go to the future to help. They were, in Dragonflight, capable of empathy and warmth. It wouldn't be that hard to write one here. There are DEAD PEOPLE HERE.
Crenden is angry enough to shout a vague threat: he'll remember Rimbeth's rider and seek him out if it's the last thing he does.
--
The next morning, they've gotten four of the wagons out of the pool and their usable baggage. They've got twelve beasts alive, three of whom lost eyes to the Thread. All have thread scoring on their backs. Four loose runners have found their way back. And Jayge's two younger siblings are apparently dead. His mother doesn't seem to realize they're gone and has started to cough.
There's a set of orphans whose mother was eaten alive to protect them. Another person died trying to protect his prize team of beasts. Tragic.
Jayge hears his uncle ask his father why the Lord of Kimmage didn't send someone to help. I mean, they did give the warning? What kind of help could they have given? But I shouldn't be so mean to traumatized survivors. It's not their fault they didn't believe.
Ah, apparently they lost a full seven people. Eek.
And things are worse when they get back:
‘I’ve my own folk, beholden to me, to provide for now, for the fifty long Turns this Pass will last. I can’t take in any holdless and improvident family who apply to me,’ Childon said, never once looking Crenden straight in the eye. ‘You’ve wounded and sick, and kids too young to be useful. Your stock’s all injured. Take time and medicine to heal ‘em. I’ve got to provide ground crews for every Fall, to support not only Igen Weyr but Benden when they call on us. I’m going to be hard-pressed to look after my own. You must understand my position.’
They went from being begged to stay a day or two ago, to being refugees. They get to sleep in the beasthold. It IS understandable that Thread's made everything much worse, but it's still pretty harsh. Crenden, subdued, chooses to stay. Readis, unwilling to accept the humiliation, leaves.
As a final sad note, we're told that in the spring, Jayge managed to save up credits to pay for a healer for his mom. But she dies before full summer, when Jayge is out as ground crew.
The chapter ends here.
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Date: 2023-12-15 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-15 06:51 pm (UTC)