her usual self. Except she didn't smile as much as she usually did at the head table in the Harper Hall, and he didn't hear her laugh once. The stew was good, and so was the bread, and he was hungry. And the 'afters' served at their table were small cakes and fruit which disappeared with amazing rapidity, though Robinton didn't see them all eaten at the table. Maybe his mother was getting special treatment what with her being MasterSinger, which he felt was only right and proper. Especially as he was getting specials, too.
His mother sang, too, after the head table finished eating. And there were good voices joining in the choruses, so he wondered why Benden Hold would need a MasterSinger of his mother's standing. A good journeyman would have done as well. No, she was also here to teach Maizella and help C'gan. Robinton wrinkled his nose: it was obvious from the loud way the girl was singing that she thought her voice was good. It wasn't bad, he had to admit, but she didn't need to shriek and she hadn't much breath control.
His mother sang only four songs, though, and smiled and nodded encouragingly when instruments appeared and she gestured for the musicians to come forward into a unit closer to the head table.
There were two gitarists, a tall, pale older man and a younger one who looked sufficiently like the older to be son or nephew; one violinist who played with his instrument held on his knee instead of under his chin, but his fingering was very good; a woman playing flute; two pipers, both young; and a drummer who had the sense to keep to a mute beat. Of course, when Merelan gestured encouragingly, the rest of the Hold sang the choruses to her first song. The harmonies weren't bad either, Robinton decided, though he didn't sing out as he would have done back in the Hall. Falloner sang lustily in a good strong alto treble, however, as did all the other younglings at the table – showing off to him, probably, but Robinton was used to how new-come apprentices to the Harper Hall acted, so he pretended not to notice.
'It doesn't cost any marks to be gracious, no matter where you are or what you're doing,' his mother was always saying. 'No singer of a professional calibre would think of drowning out other singers,' was another point she often made – especially when she had been having all that trouble with Halanna. He hoped Maizella wouldn't be as difficult.
Although he knew all the words, Robinton didn't sing along with Merelan in the new song she presented as her final one of this evening. Then she sweetly begged to be excused for such a short programme, but promised she would be more forthcoming when she'd caught up with Benden time.
She sat down to very enthusiastic applause and shouting.
Falloner then nudged Robinton and rose. 'Can you find your way back to your room, Rob?' he asked. 'That was the signal for us to get out of the Hall and let the adults have it to themselves.'
Lady Hayara had risen too, and gestured towards the younglings so that they all obediently rose and started to leave the Hall. His mother caught his eye and motioned him to wait for her.
'I'll go up with Mother,' Rob said, though he would have liked more time to ask Falloner questions.
'You're lucky,' Falloner said under his breath. 'A room of your own. I have to sleep with a half a dozen. Oh, well, I did at the Weyr too,' he added in a philosophical tone. 'I'll see you tomorrow, I 'spect.'
'Thanks, Falloner,' Robinton said, a little shy but earnest in his thanks. Falloner grinned a response as he started herding some of the younger ones ahead of him towards the inner staircase.
Robinton never did find out from his mother the real reason for their precipitous departure from the Harper Hall, but he did learn that no one at Benden Hold had ever expected the famous MasterSinger to come there. And because she curbed the loudness of Maizella's rather good basic voice, she was very welcome indeed – not just by the girl's disenchanted half-brothers and sisters, but by many of the adults who resided in the Hold. Lord Maidir was a good man, and generally fair, but he adored his daughter Maizella, who at sixteen hadn't the wisdom or common sense that characterized her brother Raid. Robie found Raid a bit stuffy and prim, but he had inherited his father's sense of fair play and would take criticism from any of the more senior members of the large group of people who managed the big Holding. Unlike his sister, he was popular. And there was a discreet understanding that Hayon, Rasa and Naprila, the older of Lady Hayara's children, were to be protected from Maizella, who either teased them outrageously or ignored them as the fancy took her.
Inured to such tactics as Robinton was, having survived Halanna's antics, he learned to smile and keep his tongue in his mouth. He had some sort of revenge a little later when his mother required Maizella to sing duets with him. He knew he had a good treble voice and had been more than adequately trained by Washell as well as his mother. In fact, he would have stepped into Londik's place as senior boy soprano when Londik's voice changed, but he'd also observed what happened to apprentices who flaunted their prowess. Besides which, his mother wouldn't have stood for such behaviour from him for one moment longer than it took to twist his ear to remind him to keep his place.
Dealing with Halanna had also taught Merelan a trick or two about overdeveloped conceits.
'Sing with a child?' The girl's tone was insulting.
'Singing with a well-trained treble voice, which my son -' Merelan paused briefly '– has, will prove how much more he already knows about singing than you do. Shall we begin at 'Now is the time' ...?'
Merelan lowered her left eyelid just slightly at Robinton as she raised her arms to beat out the measure, and he was ready. He knew she meant that he should sing out now, something he had not done before since he knew better than to dominate in group singing.
Maizella almost missed her entrance, she was gawking so hard at him. Robinton enjoyed this moment of ascendancy and, from the susurrus of whispering from the rest of the class, so did the others.
Maizella naturally tried to drown him out, and his mother cancelled the beat and called her to order.
'In duet singing, the voices must balance for the best effect. We know you can sing the crawlers out of their webs, Maizella, but there are none in this room.' Merelan regarded those who were tittering with a stern eye. 'From 'Now is the time' – and sing with the treble, not against him.'
This time Maizella modulated the volume, and even she could sense the effective difference – though she did not, from the scowl on her face, appreciate it.
'That was much better, Maizella, much better. Let's see if we can blend in the third voice.' And when the soprano line began, it was Merelan who sang it and showed, by her example, exactly what she had meant by balancing voices.
The rest of the children in the class clapped as the song ended.
'You didn't tell me you could sing like that,' Falloner accused Robinton as they trotted out to the courtyard where they had a half-hour's respite from lessons.
'You didn't ask,' Robinton said, grinning.
'You been waiting to show Maizella up?'
'Not waiting,' Robinton said, bouncing the large goal ball. There was a hoop set on a pole, and the aim was to see how often one could get the ball through the hoop each go. Rob was pretty good at goal ball but, just as he was aiming, he saw the dragons flying in a distant formation and missed the hoop entirely.
Falloner intercepted the ball from Hayon's hopeful hand and lobbed it neatly through the hoop, catching it deftly and returning to the white line to toss again.
Robinton ignored all that, keeping his eyes on the rapidly disappearing V of dragons.
'Better get used to seeing 'em in the sky, or you'll never get a turn at goal ball,' Falloner said on their way back to the classroom after their recess.
'I suppose, you're used to it,' Robinton said, 'but to see them like that, the way the music says – well, that was special to me.'
Falloner gave his friend an odd look. 'Yes, I guess it would be. Just like you singing as good as any harper I've ever heard is a surprise for me. Say, let's scare the watchwher!' He grinned from ear to ear.
Robinton stared at him. 'But you're weyrbred.'
'So what? They're not dragons, and it's good fun to see how loud you can make it so' Falloner never finished that sentence, because Robinton head-butted him to the dirt and then flopped down on his chest, holding a fist in readiness.
'I don't let watchwhers get teased, not at Fort, or the Hall, or here!' he said in a loud and forceful voice. 'Say you won't?' And he cocked his arm further, ready to strike.
'But it's not hurting them ...'
'If they scream, they hurt. Promise?'
'Sure, whatever you say, Rob.'
'You mean it?'
