“My hand wffl be all rigm\ won’t it?”
“WeTl hope so.”
Mavi never lied, and the small hard ball of sick fear began to unknot in Menofly’s stomach.
“You should have some use of it Enough for all practical purposes.”
“What do you mean? Practical purposes? Won’t I be able to play again?”
“Play?” Mavi gave her daughter a long, hard stare, as if she’d mentioned something forbidden. “Your playing days are over, Menolly. You’re way past the teaching …”
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“But the new Harper has new songs … the ballad he sang the first night… I never heard all of it. I don’t know the chording. I want to learn …” She broke off, horribly frightened by the closed look on her mother’s face, and the shine of pity in her eyes.
“Even if your fingers will work after that slice, you won’t be playing again. Content yourself that Yanus was so indulgent while old Petiron was dying…”
“ButPetiron…”
“Thaf s enough buts. Here, drink this. I want you in your bed before it puts you to sleep. You’ve lost a lot of blood, and I can’t have you fainting away on me.”
Stunned by her mother’s words, Menolly barely tasted the bitter wine and weed. She stumbled, even with her mother’s help, up the stone steps to her cubicle. She was cold despite the furs, cold in spirit But the wine and weed had been liberally mixed, and she couldn’t fight the effect Her last conscious thought was of misery, of being cheated of the one thing that had made her life bearable. She knew now what a dragonless rider must feel
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Chapter 4
BZdcfc, blacker, blackest And cold beyond frozen things. Where is between when there it naught To life but fragile dragons’ wings?
Despite her mother’s care in cleaning the wound, Me-noll/s hand was swollen by evening and she was feverish with pain. One of the old aunts sat with her, placing cool cloths on her head and face, and gently crooning what she thought would be a comforting song. The notion was misplaced since, even in her delirium, Menolly was aware that music had now been forbidden her. She became more irritated and restless. Finally Mavi dosed her liberally with fellis juice and wine, and she fell into a deep slumber.
This proved to be a blessing because the hand had so swollen that it was obvious some of the packtail slime had gotten in the bloodstream. Mavi called in one of the other Hold women deft in such matters. Luckily for Menolly, they decided to release the coarse stitches, to allow belter drainage of the infection. They kept Menolly heavily dosed and hourly changed the hot poulticing of her hand and arm.
Packtail infection was pernicious, and Mavi was dreadfully afraid that they might have to remove Menolly*s arm to prevent a further spread. She was constantly by her daughter’s side, an attention that Menolly
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would have been surprised, and gratified, to receive, but she remained unconscious. Fortunately the angry red lines faded on the girl’s swollen arm on the evening of the fourth day. The swelling receded, and the edges of the terrible gash assumed the healthier color of healing flesh.
Throughout her delirium, Menolly kept begging “them” to let her play just once more, just once again, pleading in such a pitiful tone that it all but broke Mavi’s heart to realize that unkind fortune had made that impossible. The hand would always be crippled. Which was as well since some of the new Harper’s questions were provoking Yanus. Elgion very much wanted to know who had drilled the youngsters in their Teaching Songs and Ballads. At first, thinking that Menolly had been nowhere near as skilled as everyone had assumed, Yanus had told Elgion that a fosterling had undertaken the task and he’d returned to his own Hold just prior to the Harper’s arrival
“Whoever did has the makings of a good Harper then,” Elgion told his new Holder. “Old Petiron was a better teacher than most.”
The praise unexpectedly disturbed Yanus. He couldn’t retract his words, and he didn’t want to admit to Elgion that the person was a girl. So Yanus decided to let matters stand. No girl could be a Harper, any way the road turned. Menolly was too old now to be in any of the classes, and he’d see that she was busy with other things until she came to think of her playing as some childish fancy. At least she hadn’t disgraced the Hold.