The Master Harper of Pern

The sweet and klah had been served, and Robinton managed to get those down with no trouble.

Then he heard a chair being shoved back and Master Ge

"Ah, I see that I have your attention." His grin swept from the Masters' tables, across the journeymen's and towards the apprentices. "So, Master Washell, send out for the extra chairs."

This task was customarily done by the first-term apprentices, who scurried out and rattled back in, each carrying a chair which they set in the spaces the journeymen made at their tables. Twelve!

Now, who would be seated in them in the next few minutes."? There were nineteen in the final term of their apprenticeship. All of them managed to look calm and indifferent, as befitted trained harpers.

It was also the custom for those who walked to be escorted ritually from their lowly apprentice bench to a chair at the journeymen's tables.

Ge

"Journeyman Kailey."

The former apprentice jumped to his feet, and a gri

"You'll be going to Wide Bay Hold in Keroon," Ge

And so it went for the next ten as well, ending with the popular Evenek who had two journeymen jostling each other good-naturedly to do the honours. Evenek's lyrical tenor voice had often been matched with Merelan in duets, and now she clapped loudly at the a

That left one chair – and eight more possible journeymen.

Ge

"To be a harper requires many talents, as you all know. Some of us are endowed – unfairly -" he put in, gri

Robinton looked over those remaining at the fourth-term tables.

Really, Kailey and Evenek had been the top men: none of the others were "unfairly' talented.

"However, when the fundamentals of our craft have been well and truly learned, I insist that we hold no one back from the rank they are entitled to by knowledge and ability and, in this case, rare talent."

The room was buzzing: everyone trying to decide who the lucky one was. The fourth-termers were just as puzzled.

"Journeyman Shonagar, you claimed this right when you left the Harper Hall two Turns ago. Exercise it."

Every head turned to watch Shonagar rise and, with the wicked half-grin for which he was well known, walk with measured step down the aisle to the third-term table.

When Shonagar stopped by him, Robinton felt paralyzed. His mouth dropped and his eyes nearly bugged out.

"Shut your mouth, pull your eyes in, and get up," Shonagar muttered in an undertone. "That gets you even, the only way you could." Even as he spoke to Robinton, Shonagar's grin widened at the surprise and shock which had hushed the hall.

Robinton was still trying to assimilate what he'd just heard – his name a

"And none too soon," Master Washell shouted, jumping to his feet and smacking his big hands together over his head, urging people to join him. Bosler stood, clapping in rhythm with the reluctant journeyman's stride. Betrice was up, as were the other Masters at the table, Ogolly and Severeid, and the kitchen workers crowded in at the serving doors, adding their noise to the general furore. The only two not on their feet were Robinton's parents: his mother was weeping, and his father seemed to be too stu

"Walk, Robinton, walk."

Unashamed of the tears streaming down his face and swallowing the lump in his throat, Robinton walked the tables, bearing himself as proudly as he could despite the tendency of his knees to wobble.

Still steering him, Shonagar pushed him past the head table.

Through her tears his mother shot him an exultant look and a weak smile before she had to wipe her cheeks again. Neither of them looked at Petiron.

Installed in the final chair, Robinton was still shaking so badly that he could barely accept the congratulations of the other new journeymen. He noticed that they all had rank knots on their shoulders, and then he felt Shonagar slip one up his arm and to his shoulder.

"Journeyman Robinton will go to Master Lobira at High Reaches, where it's hoped this sensible fellow will keep Master Lobira out of more trouble," Ge

CHAPTER NINE

And so Robinton headed off to his first official assignment with five full packs, even though he had stored some childish mementoes in the Hall's vast cellars. His mother insisted that he drum a request to F'lon.

"It won't hurt your reputation at all for you to arrive on drug-onback," she said firmly.

"It's showing off, Mother," he insisted.

"Others have requested conveyance," she went on, helping him pack up everything in his little room.

Whenever he returned to the Hall, he would bunk in the journeymen's quarters. He hadn't so much as laid eyes on Petiron since the night before, but that didn't surprise him. He was now separated from his father, both as parent and teacher. His relief was intense, his concern for his mother immense. She seemed so frail, and her hands trembled slightly as she wrapped his pipes and put them in one of the packs. Well, this parting was hard on them both.

"You'd need three pack animals to carry all this junk," she said, sniffing. But she gave him a big smile when he bent to see if she was crying. "Oh, I shall miss you, my dear son." She put both hands on his arms and looked up at him with misted eyes. "I shall miss you most frightfully, but I am also so very glad that you've been promoted out of your father's way." "What – I mean, did he say ... anything?"

"No." She gave a little laugh, turning back to stuff the last few things away. "He hasn't even spoken to me. And that's a sign of his total rejection of your making journeyman." She shrugged. "He'll get over it, though I don't think he'll ever forgive Ge

"Shards! I hadn't thought of that!" Robinton cringed at the thought of Master Ge

"Now, now, Robie, Ge

Robinton clutched his mother's arm and made her look up at him. "You will be careful, won't you, Mother? And not give too much to his music?"

She patted his cheek lovingly. I'll be good, and rest. How can I not? With Ginia, Betrice and Lorra all at me – and your father. I didn't mean to scare him, but I think I have. He'll be much more careful of me now. He does love me, you know, most possessively.

That's what all this has been about."

Robinton nodded and then embraced his mother, feeling her thin bones and trying not to use his young strength to bruise her. But he wanted to hold her as tightly as possible, for he was fearful he might never see her again.