Washell could not resist singing the bass line as Merelan faultlessly sang hers.
'You did help, Wash, thank you so much,' she said. 'And thank you for bringing along the cakes and klah.'
'My pleasure, MasterSinger.'
Harper and Healer Halls, allowed young Robie into her classes before his fourth Turn began.
'He's well advanced as far as wanting to learn, Merelan,' the woman said. 'I could wish half my class were at the same level, but I'll give him little extra musical-type things to do while the others are catching up.'
Then there was a morning when Kubisa brought a bloody-nosed, sobbing Robinton back to his mother for aid and comfort.
'Oh, Robie,' Merelan said, folding her weeping child in her arms while Kubisa busied herself getting a wet cloth to clean his face.
'They wuz hurting' him,' Robie sobbed.
'Hurting who?' Merelan asked, more of Kubisa than her son.
'I'll say this for Robie, he may be young and small, but he knows who needs his protection.'
'Who needs it?' his mother asked, carefully mopping away the blood.
'The watch wher,' Kubisa said.
Merelan paused, surprised and beginning to feel more pride than concern. The apprentices were not above sticking bright glows into the Harper Hall watchwher's lair to make the light-sensitive creature cry. Or throwing him noxious things, knowing the creature would eat just about anything that came within the range of its
chair. Rob would always run and tell an adult if he saw such antics.
'Were they being mean to the poor beast again?'
Sniffing, he nodded his head up and down. 'I made 'em stop, but one of 'em busted me one.'
'So I see,' his mother murmured.
'Some of the beastholder children who really ought to know better,' Kubisa said. 'I'll have a word with their parents, now that I've delivered Rob to you.' She patted his head. 'I'd pick on someone my size, next time. Or better still, have your father teach you how to duck.'
Grinning, she left the apartment.
'I can teach you how to duck, my brave lad,' Merelan said, hugging him again, knowing that such training did not fall in Petiron's scope of paternal duties. 'I used to be able to beat some of my big brothers and cousins when I got going.'
'You?' Robie's eyes widened at the very notion of his mother beating anything, much less big brothers and cousins.
So she gave him his first lesson in hand-to-hand combat, and showed him how best to head-butt an assailant. 'It keeps you from having bloody noses, too, if you use your head in a right.'
That daily respite of his hours with Kubisa gave Merelan a rest from constantly being alert to intervene between her son and his father. The subterfuge she had to practise was wearing on her nerves. However, she – and Kubisa – could at least honestly report Robie's excellent conduct and progress in school.
'And you're learning all the Teaching Ballads?' Petiron asked absently.
'Yes, and I can prove it.' Robinton wanted so desperately to please his father, but he never seemed able to – however hard he tried to be good, obedient, courteous and, most of all, quiet.
Somewhat surprised at his son's tone of voice, Petiron leaned back in his chair. With an indolent and supercilious wave of his hand, he indicated that Robie should perform.
Merelan held her breath, unable to think of a single thing to say to postpone Petiron's discovery of his son's talent.
Robie took a breath – properly, not gasping air into his lungs as so many novices did – and then launched into a note-perfect rendition of the Duty Song. Petiron did look a trifle surprised at the firmness of tone the boy projected in his treble voice. Petiron did beat the time with one finger on the arm-rest, but he listened with a much less disdainful expression on his face.
'That was well done, Robinton,' he said. 'Now don't think that learning one song is all you have to do. There's a significant number, even for children, to be learned, word and note perfect. Continue as you have begun.'
Robinton beamed with pleasure, turning to his mother to see if she also agreed.
Merelan could barely keep from sobbing with relief as she came forward and tousled his hair. 'You have done very well indeed, my love. I'm proud of you, too. Just as your father is.' She turned to Petiron for his reassurance, but he had already turned back to the apprentice scores he was correcting, oblivious to son and spouse.
Merelan had to clench her hands to her sides to keep from roaring at him for such a curt dismissal. There was so much more Petiron could have said. He could have mentioned that the boy was on pitch throughout, with good breath support, and that his voice was actually very good. But she controlled her anger and took Robie – who couldn't quite understand why he hadn't pleased his father more – by the hand.
'We'll just see,' she said in a firm, loud voice, 'what Lorra might have as a reward for knowing all the verses and the tempo perfectly !'
When she slammed the door behind her, Petiron glanced over his shoulder, then went back to marking a very poorly executed apprentice lesson.
'Really, I wanted to ...' Merelan's fists were clenched as she paced about the small floor space in Lorra's little office-sitting room off the main Hall kitchens. 'I wanted to kick him.'
'Really?' Lorra recoiled slightly from her friend's vehemence.
She had taken one look at Merelan's expression when she stalked into the kitchen and immediately assigned the two scullery girls to feed Robinton some of the freshly baked bubbly pies while she took the MasterSinger into her office. Lorra knew that Betrice was away from the Hall on a confinement, and she was rather complimented that Merelan would turn to her at all.
'I mean, I've heard third-year apprentices who couldn't sing the Duty Song as well,' Merelan said, venting both anger and frustration as she pounded around the room. 'Not a note wrong, not even a poorly timed breath. Why, the performance was excellent.'
'Petiron said that much, didn't he?' Lorra asked, hoping to soothe the singer.
'Yes, but there was so much more he could have said. Robie sang splendidly, better than a lad of fourteen, and he's barely four Turns! And Petiron acted as if it was no more than he expected of his son.'
'Ah!' Lorra pointed a finger at her distraught visitor. 'You've said it. He expected such excellence from his own son! If Robie hadn't been as accurate and correct as Petiron expected, then you'd've heard all about it, now wouldn't you?'
Merelan paused in her pacing and stared at the headwoman. Then, with a rueful laugh, her anger dissipating, she sat herself down in the other comfortable chair, chuckling.
'You're right, of course. If Robie hadn't been note-perfect, he would have had to repeat the Duty Song until he was. Oh, by the first Egg, what am I to do? The boy so much needs, and wants, his father's approval. He's never, never going to get it.'
'Shouldn't wonder, since Petiron's shyer about giving credit where it's due than any other harper in the Hall. But,' Lorra pointed out, 'now you don't have to fret so much about when Petiron finds
out his own son is lengths ahead of him musically.'
Merelan shot Lorra a stunned look.
'Oh, c'mon, Merelan,' Lorra returned, 'you know it yourself. The boy's already more of a musician than apprentices three times his age. I shouldn't wonder but that he makes journeyman by the time he's sixteen.'
'A journeyman has to be eighteen ...' Merelan began in a feeble denial.
'Well, by the time he's sixteen, we'll see. Meanwhile, I'd say that after today, you won't have to watch Robie around his father so carefully. It'll be easier for Rob, too. It's obvious to me that Petiron won't notice much until Robie's voice breaks and he realizes his 'infant' son is nearly a man.'
'Really?' Merelan asked pensively, considering Lorra's facetious words seriously.
'Wouldn't surprise me in the least,' Lorra replied with a flick of her fingers. 'Now you stop fretting so much. The strain's coming out in your voice – I'm sorry to mention that to you, but I don't think anyone else would. Except Petiron, and it's as well he hasn't noticed. Or am I overstepping the line?'
'No, you're not, Lorra. Never.' Merelan hastily laid her hand on Lorra's plump forearm. 'I just didn't think anyone would notice. I've just been vocalizing and tried to go easy on my voice ...'
'Not easy when you're in between a rock and a hard place with those two men in your life.' Lorra leaned
