The next morning she changed to appropriate holder clothing, with Keronian colors and a beasthold journeyman’s shoulder knot. With a knitted hat over her plaits, she strolled confidently to Dowell’s alcove, giving a greeting at the entrance as she swiftly surveyed the occupants.

“Dowell, I’ve heard of your carving expertise and have a commission for you.”

Dowell rose and gestured for her to enter, nudging the boy off one of the chests and telling him to get a clean mug for the holder. Aramina, in skirt and loose blouse, reached for the klah jug and poured a generous cup, which the woman, Barla, passed courteously to Thella.

“Be seated, holder,” Barla said with the air of someone embarrassed to offer only a chest and struggling to hide it.

Thella took what was offered, thinking that the woman might well have been coveted by Fax: Barla was still a handsome woman, despite deep worry lines about mouth and eyes. The boy was goggle-eyed about an early visit; the youngest child was still asleep along the far wall.

“I don’t come by much good wood, holder,” Dowell said.

“Ah,” Thella said, airily dismissing that consideration. “That can be remedied. I’m in need of two armchairs, in a fellis leaf pattern, as a bride present. They must be finished before snow blocks the pass to High Ground Hold. Can you oblige me?”

She could see Dowell hesitate and could not understand why. Surely he took commissions. He wore no color or journeyman knot. He shot an anxious glance at his wife.

“It’d be worth a quartermark to me to see design sketches by evening.” Thella took a handful of marks from her pouch, selected a quarter, and held it up. “A quarter for sketches. We can discuss price when I’ve chosen what I like, but you’ll find me generous.” She saw the anxious glint in the wife’s eye, saw her unobtrusively nudge her husband’s arm.

“Yes, I can have design sketches for you, Lady Holder. By this evening?”

“Very good. By evening.”

Thella stood, dropping the quarter in his hand. Then she turned as if struck by a sudden thought and smiled at Aramina. “Didn’t I see you yesterday? With a net full of shellfish? “Why did the girl stiffen and eye her so warily?

“Yes, Lady Holder,” Aramina managed to reply.

“Do you dig every day to fill the family pot?” What did one talk about to timid girls who heard dragons?

“We share what we dig,” Aramina said, lifting her chin proudly.

“Laudable, most laudable,” Thella said, though she thought it rather odd that a girl who had lived holdless would be so touchy. “I’ll see you this evening, Master Dowell.”

“Journeyman, Lady Holder. Journeyman.”

“Humph. With the carvings I’ve seen?” She left the compliment like that. Dowell’s family would need careful handling. She could hear the woman whispering excitedly to her husband. A quartermark was a lot to a holdless family.

Now where, Thella wondered, was she going to come by seasoned wood, the sort a prosperous holder woman would gift a bride?

She was back that evening and expressed lavish praise for the five designs he showed her. He was a good draftsman and showed a fine range of chair types. She was tempted to do more than just string him along with promise of work in an attempt to gain the daughter’s confidence. Such armchairs would be far more comfortable than the canvas affairs and the stiff benches which were all she currently had. The harp-back design could be easily transported in sections to her hold and then glued together. One design, with a high, straight back, wide, gracefully curved arms, and carved legs and crosspieces, was particularly splendid.

All of a sudden, Giron came striding down in the passageway, flashing her an urgent hand signal.

“Let me have a day or two to choose, Dowell,” she said, rising to her feet and folding the sketches carefully. “I’ll bring these back and we’ll discuss this further.”

She heard the wife murmur anxiously to the joiner. But Giron jerked his head for her to be quick, so she followed him down the next narrow alley.

“Searchers!” he whispered. Then she led him through dim corridors until they were safely out of reach.

Two days later, after she had Giron check to make sure there had already been a search that morning, she returned to Dowell’s place. To her disgust the girl was not there. She discussed wood with Dowell and haggled over price. She finally gave him more than she thought she ought, but as she would probably never have to give over but half, and might even get that back, she could afford to seem generous.

Aramina, she discovered from Brare, had been sent out with the hunters. No one actually said that she had been taken along because she could hear dragons, but it did not take much wit to figure that out.

“How many people know about her?” Thella asked Brare, worrying that if the Weyrs found out about Aramina’s talent, they would snap the girl up, thus ending all of Thella’s grand plans. Her ambitions were great, and she was becoming increasingly convinced that they could not be realized without a guaranteed way of evading the dragonriders.

“Them?” Brare jerked his thumb in a western direction and snorted disbelief. “No one’ll tell ‘them.’ It’d be worth their life here if they did. She’s too useful to the hunters. Have to go much farther out in the hills to find wherry these days. Don’t want to be caught out. I do like a bit o’ wherry meat once in a while.” He sucked in air past gaps in his teeth. Thella rose at once and left.

Over the next few days, Thella tried both to gain the girl’s confidence and to lure Dowell into bringing his whole family to her hold. She and Giron had “found” the required lengths of wood handily enough, cautiously replacing what they stole with inferior planks.

“We’re quiet in the mountains, I grant you,” she told Dowell as she watched him meticulously carving the design on the chair back, the controlled motions of his short-bladed knife almost imperceptible. “But you can’t want your children to remain in this warren. You could finish these chairs in my hold, comfortably. I’ve got a good harper-teacher as well.” She managed not to smile at the thought of her so-called harper’s morals.

“We’re going back to our rightful hold in Ruatha, lady,” Barla replied with dignity.

Thella was surprised. “Across Telgar Plains during Threadfall?”

“The route has been well planned, lady,” Dowell said, intent on his work. “We shall have shelter when it’s needed.”

Thella caught Barla’s slight, almost smug smile and read it as an indication that they were counting on their daughter’s talent.

“Surely not at this time of the year, with winter approaching?”

“Your commission will not take me long, lady, now that I have the wood,” Dowell said. “I shall have it ready for you and still make the journey. Winter comes later to Telgar coasts.”

“Dowell is a journeyman; he practices his craft,” Barla added, defensively. “The stewards sent by Mastersmith Fandarel and Telgar Lord Holder cannot draft him to the mines.”

“Of course not,” Thella agreed fervently, though she felt a jolt of apprehension at the thought of her brother Larad anywhere near. “I’m amazed that Lord Laudey is permitting any interference by outsiders in these caverns.”

“Lord Laudey suggested it,” Dowell said with a mirthless smile.

“I do not blame him,” Barla said gently. “There are many here who could work who don’t. Lady Doris is too kind.”

“A fine generous woman,” Thella agreed, beginning to think that perhaps Barla was the one she should concentrate on.

Giron had informed her that the searching was two-pronged: to sift any information that might lead to the capture of marauding bands and to collect ablebodied people to work at Smithcrafthall and Telgar’s mines. The population of the cavern had noticeably decreased the first night. Sufficient folk, those with families particularly, had volunteered for the Smithcrafthall’s various projects: not just the making of more agenothree flame-throwers and the maintenance of existing apparatus, but some scheme—and Giron was skeptical—of the Mastersmith’s to provide better communications between all Holds, Halls, and Weyrs. Thella did not like the idea of mountain mines being reopened. The unused shafts made ideal refuges. Still, she could always give her scouts miner’s knots to wear on their shoulders. They would then have an explanation for their presence in the shafts.