“We should be grateful that Tiliek breeds its own and supplies the High Reaches, Crom, and Nabol. That the Keroon-bred runners destined for Bcnden, Lemos, Bitra, and Nerat cither died of the plague or were not herded overland.”
“The Weyrieaders have issued an interdiction against any travel to the Southern Continent!” Tirone said. “The Ancients had excellent reason for abandoning that place. Too many threats to life.”
166
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
167
“Get your facts straight, Tirone,” Capiam said, irritated. “Most life here was created and nurtured there!” “Now, I have never seen that proved to” “Life and its maintenance are my province, Masterharper.” Capiam held up the ancient ledger and waggled it at Tirone. “As the creation and development of life was once the province of our ancestors. The Ancients brought with them from the Southern Continent all the animals we have here with us today, including the dragons which they genetically engineered for their unique purpose.” Tirone’s lower jaw jutted slightly, about to dispute. “We have lost the skills that the Ancients possessed even though we can refine runners and the herdbeasts for specific qualities. And …” Capiam paused, struck by an awful consideration. “And I’m suddenly aware that we are in a double peril right now.” He thought of Talpan and all his bright promise lost, of Master Herdsman Trume, of the captain of the Windtoss, his own dead craftsmen, each with his or her special qualities lost to a swift, mortal illness. “We may have lost a lot more than a coherent account of the progress of a plague, Tirone. And that should worry you far more. It is knowledge as well as life that is being lost all over Pem. What you should be jotting down as fast as you can push your fist is the knowledge, the techniques that are dying in men’s minds and cannot be recovered,” Capiam waved the Record about, Tirone eyeing it with alarm. “As we can’t recover from all the ledgers and Records of the Ancients exactly how they performed the miracles they did. And it’s not the miracles so much as the working, the day-to-day routine which the Ancients didn’t bother to record because it was common knowledge. A common knowledge that is no longer common. That’s what we’re missing. And we may have lost a lot more of that common knowledge over the past seven days! More than we can ever replace!”
Capiam lay back, exhausted by his outburst, the Records a heavy weight on his guts. That sense of loss, the pressure of that anxiety, had been growing inside him. That morning, when the lethargy had passed, he had been disquietingly aware of the many facts, practices, and intuitions he had never written down, had never thought to elaborate in his private notes. Ordinarily he would have passed them on to his journeymen as they grasped the complexities of their craft. Some matters he had been told by his masters, which they had gleaned from their tutors or from their working experiences, but the
transfer of information and its interpretation had been verbal in all too many instances, passed on to those who would need to know.
Capiam became aware that Tirone was staring at him. He had not meant to harangue; that was generally Tirone’s function.
“I could not agree with you more, Capiam,” Tirone began tentatively, pausing to clear his throat. “But people of all ranks and Crafts tend to keep some secrets which”
“Shells! Not the drum again!” Capiam buried his head in his hands, pressing his thumbs tightly into his earholes, trying to block the sound.
Tirone’s expression brightened and he half-rose from the chair, gesturing for Capiam to unplug his ears. “It’s good news. From Igen. Threadfall has been met and all is clear. Twelve wings flew!”
“Twelve?” Capiam pulled himself up, calculating Igen’s crushing losses and the numbers of its sick riders. “Igen couldn’t have put twelve wings in the air today.”
” ‘Dragonmen must fly, when Thread is in the sky!’” Tirone’s resonant voice rang with pride and exultation.
Capiam stared at him, aware only of profound dismay. How had he failed to catch the significance of Tirone’s mention of the Weyrieaders’ joint interdiction of the Southern Continent? They’d had to consolidate Weyrs to meet Fall.