The Renegades of Pern Read Online Free PDF Page B

though Father’s always tithed because he’s beholden to Lemos and we’ve more than enough to do it out of charity since the dragonriders
did
protect us when we needed it—”
    Crenden cut the boy’s babbling off with another gesture. “Quiet, while I read.”
    All Jayge could see was the black-inked words bold on the white surface, and the distinctive yellow, white, and green shield of Keroon Hold.
    “You can see it’s real, Crenden,” the boy rattled on. “It’s got Lord Corman’s seal and all. Message has been on the way for days because the runner popped a tendon and the messenger got lost trying for a shortcut. He said Thread’s fallen over Nerat, and Benden Weyr saved the forests, and there were thousands of dragonriders over Telgar for the next Fall. And we’re next.” The boy gulped again. “We’re going to have Thread right down on us and you’ve got to be inside stone walls ’cause only stone, metal, and water protect from Thread.”
    Again Crenden laughed, not at all dismayed, although Jayge felt a spasm of cold uncertainty shiver down his spine. Crenden rolled the message up again and thrust it back at the boy. “Thank your father, lad. The warning is well meant, but I’m not falling for it.” He winked at the boy good-naturedly. “I know your father’d like us to help finish that new level in the hold. Thread, indeed! There hasn’t been Thread in these skies for generations. Hundreds of Turns. Like the legends told us, it’s gone now. And we’d best be going now, too.” With a cheerful salute to the astonished boy, Crenden stood in his stirrups and roared out, “Roll ’em!”
    There was such a look of total dismay and fear on the lad’s face that Jayge wondered if his father could possibly have misread the message. Thread! The very word caused Jayge to squirm in his saddle, and Fairex danced under him in response. He soothed her and argued with himself. His father would never let anything happen to the Lilcamp train. He was a good leader, and they had wintered profitably. Jayge’s pouch was not the only one that was reassuringly plump. Still, it was hard not to be scared. His father’s response had surprised him. Holder Childon was not the sort to play jokes; a straight man, he said what he meant and meant what he said. Crenden had often described him so. Childon was a good deal straighter than some holders who looked down on trains as feckless folk little better than thieves, too lazy to carve out a hold for themselves and too arrogant to be beholden to a lord.
    Once, when Jayge had been in a fearful brawl and his father had given him a thorough hiding, he had justified the fight by saying that he had been defending his Blood honor.
    “That’s still not a reason to fight,” his father had said. “Your Blood is as good as the next man’s.”
    “But we’re holdless!”
    “And what’s that to mean?” Crenden had demanded. “There’s no law on Pern that has ever said a man and his family
had
to have a hold and live in one place. We can’t invade another man’s property, but there’s land no one’s even set foot on all around us. Let those who are weak or scared shiver in four walls . . . not that we’ve to worry about Thread anymore. But, lad, we’ve been holders in our time, in Southern Boll, and there’re Bloodkin living in it still who’re glad to claim us as relatives, if that’s all you need to keep from brawling, take no taunt on that score.”
    “But—but Irtine said we were only one step above thieves and pandlers.”
    His father had given him a little shake. “We’re honest traders, bringing good wares and news to isolated holds that can’t always get to a Gather. We travel from inclination and choice. This is a broad and beautiful world we live in, Jayge, and we’ll see as much of it as we can. We spend long enough in one place to make friends and understand different ways of doing things. That’s far better, to my mind, than never moving out