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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] family wagon thundered in, scattering folk in the roadway. Alessan put him in charge of improvising shelters from Gather stalls and travel wagons. It was one thing to doss down in a corridor for a night or grab a few hours sleep in the Hall, but quite another matter to be so cramped for four nights. Tolocamp was not the only one who failed to see the irony of that as he countered Makfar's suggestions with some of his own. Alessan left the two to solve the housing problem so that he could accompany Norman to the race flats and survey Page 54 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html the sick runners. People were already making small camps in the first of the fields. Despite his errand, it was a relief to Alessan to get away from the turmoil about the forecourt. "Never saw anything bring down so many so fast, Lord Alessan." Norman had almost to run to keep up with Alessan's long-legged stride. "And I can't think what to do for 'em. If there is anything. Healer's message didn't say much about animals, did it?" His voice was bleak. "A runner can't tell you if it ails." "It goes off feed and water." "Not wagon beasts. They go till they drop." Both men looked across the fields where the Hold's sturdy cart and wagon runnerbeasts grazed, the ones Alessan had bred to his sire's specifications. "Set up a buffer area. Keep racers and wagoners well separated." "I will. Lord Alessan, but the racers have been drinking upriver of them!" "It's a wide river, Norman. Hope for the best." The first thing Alessan noticed at the flats was that the manager had utilized the entire spread of picket lines. The healthy beasts were on the outside, well away from the cleared circle surrounding the sick ones. The coughing of the infected beasts was audible on the still, slightly chill air. They coughed, necks extended, mouths gaping, in hard painful-sounding barks. Their legs were swollen, their hides dull and starring. "Add featherfern and thymus to their water. If they'll drink, Norman. Use a syringe to get fluid into them before they dehydrate completely. We might offer nettleweed, too. Some runners are smart enough to know what's good for them. Nettles, at least, are in plentiful supply." Alessan gazed out over the meadows where the annual battle to reduce the perennial had not yet started. "Any coughs among the herdbeasts?" He swung in the other direction. "Truth to tell, I've had little time to think about them." Norman had the dedicated racer's almost contemptuous disdain for the placid herd creatures. "Harper told me the drums only mentioned runners." "Well, we'll have to slaughter herdbeasts to feed our unexpected guests. I don't have enough fresh meat left after the Gather." "Lord Alessan, did Dag ..." Norman began tentatively, with a half-gesture toward the cliff, to the great apertures where the Hold's animals were normally sheltered during Threadfall. Alessan gave Norman a shrewd glance. "So, you were in on that?" "Sir, I was," Norman replied staunchly. "Dag and I got worried when the cough started to spread. Didn't want to interrupt your dancing, but as the bloodstock had no contact with these, Look at that!" "Shards!" They watched as the leader in a team of four hitched to a big wagon collapsed in the traces, pulling its harness mate to its knees. "Right, Norman. Get some men up to take charge of that team. Use them as long as they last to haul carcasses. Burn the dead animals down there." Alessan pointed to a dip in the far fields, out of sight from the forecourt and downwind. "Keep track of the dead beasts. Reparation should be made." "I've no recorder." "I'll send down one of the fosterlings. I'll also want to know how many people stayed the night down here." "Most of the handlers stayed, and some keen ones like old Runel and his two cronies. Some of the breeders were in and out, not caring much for the dancing after you were thoughtful enough to send a few kegs down here." "I wish we knew more about this illness. 'Medicate the symptoms,' the drums said." Alessan looked back at the lines of coughing animals. "Then we give 'em thymus and featherfern, and nettles. Maybe we'll get a message from the Masterherdsman. Could be on its way from the east right now." Page 55 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Norman looked confidently in that direction. Help didn't usually come from the east, Alessan thought, but he clapped Norman reassuringly on the shoulder. "Just do the best you can!" "You can count on me, Lord Alessan." Norman's quietly issued assurance heartened Alessan as he took the shorter way across the stubble field to the hold. Was it only the day before that he and Moreta had paused on the rise to watch the racing? She had touched Vander's dying runner! Alessan's stride faltered. The Weyr would have received the drum message before Ruatha did. She would know by now the consequences of her act. She would also probably know better how to prevent falling ill herself. As did everyone of Ruatha Hold, he knew the Fort Weyrwoman by sight, but Alessan had always been on the fringes of such Hold gatherings as she had attended since achieving her senior position in the Weyr. So he had thought her a distant, self-contained person, totally immersed in Weyr culture. The discovery that her fascination with racing was as keen as his own had been an unexpected delight. Lady Oma had rebuked him firmly at one point in the early evening for taking so much of Moreta's time. Alessan knew perfectly well that she meant that he was not making the most of the chance to meet eligible girls. He knew, too, that he must soon secure his bloodline and so he had tried to be properly receptive until he saw Moreta slip behind the harpers' dais. By then he had had enough of stammering insipidity and timorousness. He had acquitted his duty as Lord Holder but he was also going to enjoy himself at his first Gather. In Moreta's company. And he had. Alessan had been raised to anticipate both just reward and just punishment. Momentarily the thought that today's trials balanced yesterday's pleasures sprang to his mind but was quickly rejected as juvenile. The situation at the racing flats observed, Alessan decided the next priority would be to send messages to those expecting the return of the Gatherers to those holds outside the message-drum system. Otherwise he would have anxious people coming to the Hold. Next he'd have to discover who else had brought in new stock from Keroon as Vander had done, whether the beasts were in holds or fields, and destroy them. He would also have to figure out how to deal with dissidents. The Hold's one small cell might secure a small boy like Fergal but not an aggressive holder. Tolocamp, who had been directing those spreading a tent over the half-walled southern addition, intercepted Alessan. "Lord Alessan," the older man said, stiffly formal, his face expressionless, jaw clenched, "while I realize that the quarantine affects me as well, I must return to Fort Hold. I will keep to myself in my apartment, making contact with no one. If this," Tolocamp gestured toward the confusion in the roadway and Gather fields, "is occurring here, think of the turmoil caused by my absence from Fort Hold." "My Lord Tolocamp, I have always been under the impression that your sons were superbly trained to take over any Hold duties and perform them flawlessly." "So they are." Tolocamp stood even more stiffly erect. "So they are. I put Campen in charge when I left for your Gather, To give him experience in assuming leadership, " "Good. This quarantine should afford him an unparalleled opportunity." "My dear Alessan, this emergency is outside his experience, too." Alessan gritted his teeth, wondering if he had underestimated Tolocamp's perception. "Lord Tolocamp, you are more familiar than I with a doubleurgent code sent by a Mastercraftsman. Would you permit anyone to disobey it?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |