Someone cleared his throat deliberately. F’lar looked up to see Robinton standing in the archway that led to the Council Room.
“Before I can copy and instruct others about those maps, Weyrleader, I must myself understand them completely. I took the liberty of remaining behind.”
“You make a good champion, Masterharper.”
“You have a noble cause, Weyrleader,” and then Robinton’s eyes glinted maliciously. “I’ve been begging the Egg for an opportunity to speak out to so noble an audience.”
“A cup of wine first?”
“Benden grapes are the envy of Pern.”
“If one has the palate for such a delicate bouquet.”
“It is carefully cultivated by the knowledgeable.”
F’lar wondered when the man would stop playing with words. He had more on his mind than studying the time-charts.
“I have in mind a ballad which, for lack of explanation, I had set aside when I became the Master of my crafthall,” he said judiciously after an appreciative savoring of his wine.
“It is an uneasy song, both the tune and the words. One develops, as a harper must, a certain sensitivity for what will be received and what will be rejected … forcefully,” and he winced in retrospect. “I found that this ballad unsettled singer as well as audience and retired it from use. Now, like that tapestry, it bears rediscovery.”
After his death C’gan’s instrument had been hung on the Council Room wall till a new Weyrsinger could be chosen.
The guitar was very old, its wood thin. Old C’gan had kept it well-tuned and covered. The Masterharper handled it now with reverence, lightly stroking the strings to hear the tone, raising his eyebrows at. the fine voice of the instrument. He plucked a chord, a dissonance. F’lar wondered if the instrument was out of tune or if the harper had, by some chance, struck the wrong string. But Robinton repeated the odd discord, then modulating into a weird minor that was somehow more disturbing than the first notes.
“I told you it was an uneasy song. And I wonder if you know the answers to the questions it asks. For I’ve turned the puzzle over in my mind many times of late.”
Then abruptly he shifted from the spoken to the sung tone.
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 herdbeasts free of tether?
Gone, our safeguards, gone, but whither?
Have they flown to some new Weyr Where cruel Threads some others fear?
Are they worlds away from here?
Why, oh, why, the empty Weyr? .
The last plaintive chord reverberated.
“Of course, you realize that the song was first recorded in the craft annals some four hundred Turns ago,” Robinton said lightly, cradling the guitar in both arms. “The Red Star had just passed beyond attack-proximity. The people had ample reason to be stunned and worried over the sudden loss of the populations of five Weyrs. Oh, I imagine at the time they had any one of a number of explanations, but none … not one explanation … is recorded.” Robinton paused significantly.
“I have found none recorded, either,” F’lar replied. “As a matter of fact, I had all the Records brought here from the other Weyrs … in order to compile accurate attack timetables. And those other Weyr Records simply end” F’lar made a chopping gesture with one hand. “In Benden’s Records there is no mention of sickness, death, fire, disaster not one word of explanation for the sudden lapse of the usual intercourse between the Weyrs. Benden’s Records continue Mithely, but only for Benden. There is one entry that pertains to the mass disappearance … the initiation of a Pernwide patrol routing, not just Benden’s immediate responsibility. And that is all.”
“Strange,” Robinton mused. “Once the danger from the Red Star was past, the dragons and riders may have gone between to ease the drain on the Holds. But I simply cannot believe that. Our craft Records do mention that harvests were bad and that there had been several natural catastrophes … other than the Threads. Men may be gallant and your breed the most gallant of all, but mass suicide? I simply do not accept that explanation … not for dragonmen.”