The Red Orb of Pern
M.C. Gordon
Disclaimer is attached to the beginning of this series. This is fan fiction written for a friend who enjoys Anne McCaffrey's Pern as much as I do. Comments welcome to quasito_cat@hotmail.com or quasito_cat@yahoo.com
Chapter 9
"What is that!?" Andren asked looking across the room at something that stood alone and apart from everything else.
Julani crossed the room and reverently approached the object. "It's a harp," he whispered in awe. "A full-sized harp, not the kind that we use today." His voice was a whisper of awe and admiration. It must have been put here by the Ancients," he added.
Andren moved to touch the ancient harp and Lydel stopped him. "No," he said. "Look, it's already falling apart. If you touch it, it might crumble to nothing."
Andren backed up at those words and looked around the rest of the room. "There's other things here," he said.
And indeed there were. Julani picked up a pipe made of some kind of metal. "It's beautiful," he said, for he had only seen ones made of water reeds or carved wood. An ancient box, also made of crumbling wood, stood against one wall. It was inlaid with ancient and yellow pieces of a material never seen by any of the boys
"This was a Harper's Hall," Mitchell said picking up a strange object. "This looks like..." He didn't finish his thought for just then a fair of fire lizards burst into the room.
"I sent them to see if you are alright," Sonath whispered into Mitchell's mind. "You've been gone a long time."
"Thank you, Sonath," Mitchell replied. "We're fine. We'll be leaving soon. Sonath sent them," he told the others. "What do you think of this, Julani?" he asked his friend. "It looks like Harper music, but this isn't a leather scroll."
"I don't know what this material is," Julani responded, taking the pieces of oddly encased white material from his friend, "but this is written music."
He glanced at the notes that were written and began to hum them as best he could.
Suddenly, the boys were barraged with sounds from the fire lizards as they picked up the melody and echoed Julani's humming. The diminutive golden queen lifted her voice in a high trill, plunging up and down in an unbelievable range of note and expression. Their minds were filled with pictures of men holding some sort of musical instrument in their arms, perched beneath their chins, and they could hear the music as it was meant to be heard. Notes of pure majesty echoed through their minds for several moments before the fire lizards finally stopped, leaving them with a sense of longing.
Julani shook his head to clear his wits. "The notation here says Scharazade, symphonic suite, Opus 35 for violin, by Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov."
"What the shards is a violin?" Mitchell asked. "And what's an opus?"
"I don't know," Julani replied, "but Master Tokan should see this."
Chapter 10
"Nothing leaves here," Lydel insisted. "These things were left here for a reason. And until someone knows why, then I think they should stay right where they are."
Julani glared at his younger friend for a span of seconds before saying, "I'll only leave this music here if you agree that Master Tokan can come up here and see it. I don't think any of us should be making these kinds of decisions. What to you think, Mitchell?"
Mitchell barely heard the question for his eyes had spotted an object lying on the floor away from the music and instruments in contention. He crossed to where it lay and saw that, whatever it was, it was encased in an old cloth. He leaned down to touch it and the cloth turned to dust.
"Look at this!" he shouted toward the others. When his friends joined him he was holding a large stone, deep red and elongated with notches on the end.
"What is that?" Andren asked.
"I don't know," he said, "but I think we should get the Weyrleaders up here." He closed his eyes and concentrated very hard, reaching for Sonath's mind. This would be the first time that he had ever consciously tried to initiate contact with the gentle brown dragon.
"I am here,".
"Sonath, can you bespeak Gemara and ask that the Weyrleaders and Masterharper join us?"
There was no response, but within minutes there was a great "Hello!" echoing down the twisted corridors.
"Stay here," Mitchell said, laying the amazing jewel back where he had found it. "I'll go back to the entrance."
Rushing, staying to the right through the twisted and convoluted turns of the passage, he finally reached the entrance to find Adelmisa, L'Noth, and Master Tokan waiting.
"And just what are you band of ruffians up to that needed Sonath to call us to your rescue?" L'Noth asked, his right hand ruffling Mitchell's light brown hair.
"We don't need rescuing, Weyrleader," Mitchell said. "We've found something that we thought you should see."
L'Noth considered the child. Mitchell was one of his favorites among the Weyr's many children. Headstrong, prone to adventure and trouble, deeply desiring to Impress, the lad often reminded L'Noth of himself as a boy.
Chapter 11
"Do you know where you're going, boy?" the Masterharper asked as Mitchell led them to his friends and their discovery. "This passage branches off in several places."
"Yes, Master Tokan," Mitchell replied. "We were very careful to always stay to the left."
"Very good thinking," the Weyrwoman said. "Your idea?"
"Yes, Ma'am," he responded for all in the weyr had the greatest respect for the Weyrleaders and his foster parents deemed common courtesy a virtue.
"It looks like we're almost there," L'Noth said for he could see the soft light cast by the glow basket at the end of the corridor. "Let's go see what discovery our young lads have made."
"Oh my," Tokan said when he spotted the ancient instruments. "These are old, very old. I'm a bit surprised that they exist at all. There are vague references in the archives to some of these pieces, but none of us at Harper Hall thought they still existed."
He touched each piece reverently before putting them back where they had been found. "How wonderful," he said, "to have seen and touched these ancient creations. But I fear Lydel is correct. They must all remain here, where our ancient ancestors placed them. And that includes that jewel you discovered, Mitchell," he added, for the young lad seemed entranced by the bright glowing beauty of the object.
Mitchell reluctantly returned the jewel to its resting place.
Within hours the entrance to the hidden room, indeed the entrance to the cave itself, had been sealed. The dragons of Benden Weyr lifted their riders, laden with heavy boulders, to forever close off the mysteries discovered with -- until not even an errant sunbeam would find its way into the now forbidden place.
. . .
If you like this little sci-fantasy tale you might be interested in my other series: `Dark Wishes' in the sci-fi/fantasy section of Nifty